After reading John Kessler’s explosive Chicago Magazine article about the waning “mojo” of the city’s dining scene, you can’t help but reassess your own views of what it’s like to eat in this rambunctious town. Drawn from his expansive view of local trends across the country, Kessler’s in a unique position to see and taste how Chicago compares to other cities who pride themselves on the multiplicity of their culinary options. It also brought to mind a recent special occasion dinner at Giant, one of a cluster of restaurants enjoying mad love from Chicago’s dining legions. From purely an eating experience, Giant proved a surprising simply because everything we ate was so undeniably delicious. But if we were to measure Giant using Kessler’s yardstick, would we have enjoyed the meal just as much?
Chicagoans haven’t had to go downtown to reach culinary sublimity for decades. Wonderful restaurants continue to wedge themselves into both offbeat and marquee neighborhoods alike. Finding its home in hip Logan Square, Giant looks and feels like its surroundings. Young, confident and welcoming; a regular Tuesday evening visit felt like prime-time Saturday night. A persistent hum of success and satisfaction rode heavy in the air and you could almost smell contentment rising from the restaurant’s diners.
One of Kessler’s more pointed observations about the city is that the dining public is not terribly demanding nor very hard to please. He has point. There is a lot of band wagon hopping and not a lot of reasoned well considered criticism about either the restaurant scene or the restaurant industry here.
With its proletarian leanings and fondness for posting recipes on its web site, there’s cause to belief the transplanted Atlanta food critic would approve of Giant. The recipe that currently up tells you how make their wonderful sweet and sour eggplant with cashews and pancetta. And it’s one of the restaurant’s staple crowd pleasers. epitomizing the restaurant’s approach to making people feel good, two wonderful naan like patties join the eggplant adding rich textural contrast to the dish’s silkiness. Deep complementary flavors run rampant revealing the keen attention taken to that commitment to excellence comes through in even the humblest dishes; like the onion rings. Light as angel wings with a coating that shatters gently and deliciously with each bite, they are self-effacing little knockouts.
When a server asks the allergy or food sensitivity question, count it as an opportunity to make your meal even more enjoyable and pleasing. If your body finds too much salt sketchy, say so. You might be surprised how much better you’ll respond to a dish with that extra shake taken out. The king crab tagliatelle with chili butter didn’t seem to miss those few shakes in the least. The dish’s flavors flowed together as harmoniously as the Manhattan Transfer and couldn’t have been gratifying.
Not exactly a small plates kind of place, there’s still a lot of actively encouraged sharing going on. Because their approach to food is so fresh, accessible and interesting Giant makes plate passing exciting and fun.
People go out to eat for many reasons but they all want to say the next day that the food was wonderful. At Giant, you are all but guaranteed to sing the restaurant’s praises because the restaurant has been consistently making people happy with their food since they threw open their doors last year. Chicagoans aren’t the only ones who like value for their dollar and on this point, Giant resoundingly delivers.
Like so many well-regarded restaurants in town, the emphasis here seems to be on making sure every dish nails palette pleasure. Keefer’s point that nearly all of our restaurants can get a lot more serious about seasonal availability is well taken and something to take more notice of when spring and summer roll around. Tapping more aggressively into the region’s seasonal bounty would add even more shimmer and exclusivity to their already impressive menus; even Giant’s.
Giant
3209 W. Armitage Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
773-252-0097
Dinner only
closed Sunday & Monday
