Deca, Gold Coast

Deca
The Ritz Carlton
160 East Pearson Street
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Victims: Christina, Aileen

The Damage: About $50 per person

The Background:  Christina and Aileen appear in a lot of Chicago posts on this blog. (And Bob! Can’t forget Bob. Hi Bob!) Christina was my freshman year roommate at university, and Aileen lived next door. Christina will always be known for her green Doc Martens that year, and Aileen for her older boyfriend who, um, bought us Busch Lite.

It’s somewhat frightening sometimes to think how long I’ve known them both. Am I really that old? Urrggh.

We were dilly-dallying about making plans for dinner so at the very last minute, when I couldn’t get anyone at Hema’s to answer the phone, I booked us into Deca at The Ritz Carlton.

As you do.

Deca, as it turns out, is in the lobby of The Ritz. And while the gurgling of the fountain in the lobby may be pleasing at first, by the end of my meal I WANTED THEM TO TURN THE BLOODY THING OFF.

That being said, hotels always seem to induce this feeling of calm within me, so otherwise, all was right with the world. And the bread was really lovely. Like really lovely.

Aileen and I split the soft shell crab special to start. I liked this. She didn’t. I’m a fan of all things softshell. Great frying. Great flavors. Fresh fresh fresh asparagus.

Regular readers will know that steak isn’t normally my first preference, but there’s something about steak frites that calls to me every time. Sadly, this steak was overcooked. (I ordered medium rare. It arrived more medium well. All this being said, I was so hungry, I didn’t send it back.)

I don’t know what sorts of potatoes they used but the frites were just too short. Is that bad? Me criticizing a dish because the fries are too short? I feel very superficial. But ah well…so be it.

They gave us free cookies before we left. That was sweet.

The Verdict: Eh. I could spend less elsewhere for better, I think.

P.S. So you know I always include the Urbanspoon.com badges at the end of my posts. As of this writing–7 May 2011–the badge is showing a 42% rating for Deca. This is the LOWEST rating I have ever seen. Weird. Scary. Frightening.