LM (Chicago, IL)

Kristen and I had a free restaurant.com gift certificate to use, so we decided to try LM. LM calls themselves a French Gastro Bistro, and is located in Lincoln Square. While the meal was a little pricy, we found the food delicious and had a great time.

We decided to get a bottle of wine, and settled on a Bourgogne, a pinot noir. It was fairly mild and smooth, and was an easy drinking wine. For appetizers, Kristen had the spinach salad with Saint Agur blue cheese, beets, pickled onion, and candied pecans. Unfortunately, they forgot the pickled onions on the salad, but it was tasty nonetheless. I started with Oeuf en meurette, with a mushroom ragout, toasted brioche, and a red wine reduction. The poached egg yoke created the sauce for this dish, and it really came together when you got a bite of each component at once.

For the main dishes, Kristen ordered the special vegetable risotto, while I choose the cassoulet. The vegetable risotto tasted as if it had been richened by marscapone cheese, and was topped by roasted artichokes and tomato confit. Similar to the appetizers, they forgot one of the components (shaved summer truffle), but a small bowl of truffle was quickly brought when prompted. The cassoulet had coco beans braised with lamb sausage and was topped with a leg of duck confit. This was a heavy dish, but perfectly hearty. The duck confit was rich and tender with crispy skin. The beans were also perfectly cooked, with the right amount of bite. The breadcrumbs added a more texture on top.

Finally, for dessert Kristen got the creme brulee and I got the chocolate terrine. The creme brulee was a large portion for one. I enjoyed that it came in a shallow dish, maximizing the amount of burnt sugar on top. A madeliene cookie came with it, but it was cold and dry, and didn't get finished. We were too full to waste space in our stomachs. The chocolate terrine was described as a dense, compressed chocolate mousse. It was extremely rich, making the small portion size a good choice. It came with a salted carmel and whipped cream, which complemented the chocolate well.

Overall, we were very happy with the meal. The food was delicious, and the service was terrific, with our server joking and keeping a light mood throughout the meal. We even joked about me getting the meat sweats after the finishing the cassoulet. We will be happy to go back and have another meal at LM.