Restaurant 5 - D’Candela
Friday, April 19, 2013 - D’Candela (4053 N. Kedzie)
We chose this place for a couple reasons:
1. Shelly went a few weeks ago and said it was great
2. BYO
3. It is across the street from the Bistro (where “TJ” (Tuscany John) works and we wanted to watch the Hawks game
They serve Peruvian food, and the place itself was kind of weird – you walk into what looks like a fast-food takeout joint, and then cross into a more cozy dining room. The menu was way bigger than I expected – 3 full pages with 2 columns each listing chicken, fish, beef, etc. We started with a plate of ceviche – probably the biggest dish of ceviche I’ve ever seen, and a good value for the price. There was tons of calamari, a couple shrimp, and something scary looking that we didn’t know what it was. Wigs ate it. (Maybe a clam??) we also had a beef empanada – that was good too. Really flaky crust stuffed with ground beef and hardboiled egg. Weird. There was bread and two dipping sauces on the table – one sweet, and one superhot.
For dinner, Heather had the chicken & mushroom special. This looked really good. Wigs had the ribeye, which he said was good, although he was expecting a thicker cut steak. It was more like a skirt steak. The yucca (I think that is what it was) in sauce was good, although it wasn’t very warm. But he did like the sauce mixed with my rice. I had the grilled tilapia with vegetables and mashed potatoes. The spices on the fish was really good, but the vegetables were cold and potatoes kind of soupy.
Heather brought a really good bottle of wine left over from her Napa Valley trip, and Wigs brought some beer. Overall, the food was OK. But the service was really sloooooooooow. I got there about 15 minutes after they did, and they had just gotten the wine key to open the wine. Took forever for Wigs to get his 2nd beer out of the frig. Also the check. Everything was slow. Considering there were only 3 tables in the place, it shouldn’t have taken that long for things. Here's what Heather had to say:
D'Candela - I liked my food so I liked this place better (than restaurant #6)....grilled chicken with mushrooms & a red wine sauce....good. Yeah, the service was bad...how long did we sit there between being done & getting the check? That was the longest/worst part. I could have gotten up & asked for a wine key.....so not the biggest deal, just glad we didn't really have any place to be, but generally when I'm done w/dinner I like to be done & get up. I can "lounge, drink more, hang out" somewhere else....like the bar across the street.
After the game, we went to the Bistro, and had some more wine and beers. Kristen also showed up and we had some lively conversation and watched the Hawks beat Nashville and the Cubs lose to Milwaukee.
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