Friday, September 12, 2008

Café Matou

This past Friday, my wife decided to celebrate some gambling wins by treating us to a wonderful meal at one of my favorite local restaurants. Café Matou is located in Bucktown (just south of Western on Milwaukee) and has consistently delivered meals that exceed my expectations. Chef Socher changes his menu almost daily, based on what the seasons provide, updating French classics at a price quite below what one would expect at this quality level. On this evening I decided I wasn’t in the mood for wine so I selected a beer from the selection of Belgians available.



Poperings Hommel Ale is a Belgian IPA, it has hints of hops flavor, but is nowhere near as hoppy as American IPA’s. The flavor is slightly earthy, with a floral quality & bread-like flavors. There is a slight bitterness, but mostly this ale is more akin to a Belgian Blonde or a Triple. Hommel Ale is very crisp and easy to drink; it also has a complex character which worked quite well with both courses from this evening.
It was a slightly warm evening, so to start I selected the Chilled Celery Soup. This soup was served in a chilled bowl with a healthy dollop of crème fraiche. As one might expect the dominant flavor here was celery, but the soup had a rich creaminess and hinted at notes of onion and garlic – the crème fraiche gave a wonderful tanginess that complimented the crisp celery flavor quite well.


For the main course I chose the Roasted Halibut. This delicious fish was cooked to perfection – moist and flaky with a wonderful golden-brown crust, which lay atop a slightly acidic, light Sherry sauce. The earthy sweetness of the Roasted Halibut worked perfectly with the acidity of the sauce. Roasted Chanterelle mushrooms and white rice completed this plate - the Chanterelles were the highlight of the dish for me, they have a delicate yet spicy flavor that really brought out the delicate flavor of the halibut. Even the rice is worth mentioning in this meal. Now generally I am not a fan of white rice, the flavor tends to be close to nonexistent & it just seems boring to me, but this evening the rice was slightly nutty and delicate; I am not sure what Socher does, but I cleaned my plate.


This meal further cements Café Matou as one of the best places to dine in Chicago. They consistently deliver great meals at an affordable price point and maintain a great wine list as well as an interesting beer menu – with a focus on the Belgian persuasion. Try one of the monthly five course “flights to France” which pairs five different wines with dishes inspired by a specific region in France. They also prepare a beer pairing menu quarterly. I cannot recommend this place enough.

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