Frontera Grill

One of my favorite cookbook authors is Rick Bayless. He has a restaurant in Chicago called Frontera Grill. It's a great place to eat with fun and vibrant atmosphere. We had not planned on eating there this trip, but plane delays forced us to eat closer to the hotel. Without reservations, they were running an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minute wait, Yikes!! They will take reservations the day of, if your party is is under 5 people and in advance if your party is 5 or more. We hung out in the bar hoping to get a table there. After about 1 hour we were able to sit in the bar and eat. While we waited, we ordered the Taquitos de Pollo($8). These were so good and went perfectly with the nice Mojito I ordered to drink($10). They were crispy taquitos filled with chicken and sour cream. We noticed everyone was ordering the Guacomole($8.50), so we ordered it too. His recipe is the one I use when I make it at home. It was incredible, creamy and chunky at the same time. It was served with nice crisp chips and 2 salsas. The best was my entree. I had the Pollo al Ajillo Cremosa($21). This was a wood grilled chicken breast served in a creamy, garlicky, smoky morita chili sauce that was laced with mezcal. It was served with a beautiful pyramid of red chili rice and wilted spinach. Personally, I can't stand spinach, but my plate was clean when it was removed. Dan ordered the Tacos al Carbon with chicken($16). This dish had wood grilled chicken, roasted peppers, 2 salsas and homemade tortillas. And of coarse . it was just as good as everything else there. The service was very good, especially for eating in the bar. I highly recommend this place as well as any of his cookbooks. The restaurant is located at 445 N. Clark St. Chicago IL 312-661-1434. There is another restaurant of his on the premises called Topolobampo. We have never eaten there, it is a little more on the fine dining side, but would like to try it sometime. You can go to Rick Bayless's website for recipes and other things at http://www.rickbayless.com/.