The Raw Bar & Grill

I have been meaning to try Raw Bar for quite sometime and our soon to be expiring groupon finally got the boyfriend and I out to Wrigleyville for a very nice and relatively romantic dinner.  

The groupon was for 1.5lbs of maine lobster and 2 glasses of champagne for 2. I of course drank both the champagne and boyfriend had a couple Green Line Taps.

The staff was exceptionally nice and attentive, our server, who I am assuming was the manager or owner took very good care of us. I don't often feel special at a restaurant but I felt very welcome at Raw Bar. It was probably an unusually slow night for a Friday in Wrigley but it was pretty cold out and we just had about 5 or 6 inches of fresh snow the night before. It meant no waiting for us so that was a plus, I was happy to see the place fill up when we were leaving around 8:30.

We ordered their special, margarita ceviche and their little neck steamers to accompany our lobster, which we ordered cajun & steamed style. I was going to order the lobster just steamed because cajun sounds strange for lobster but the owner/manager man assured us cajun was the best option and just made the lobster garlicy and delicious. He was right and we really enjoyed our lobster.

I thought everything was really good, the ceviche was especially enjoyable with shrimp, scallop, octopus, avocado and red onion, chips to eat it with, yum! The little neck steamers were pretty tasty in a garlic and wine broth. The lobster was a nice treat since I never eat it, it was one tail split in half for you. The boyfriend extracted the tail for me and cracked the claw. I really enjoyed it, doused in butter.

I really cannot say if this is the best seafood around, surely it is not. But for being trapped in the midwest in the middle of winter I really enjoyed what I ate. Everything tasted and seemed fresh but I know if I went to the east coast tomorrow for some lobster I would probably cry for what I could be eating.

That aside, we had a nice cozy and romantic dinner with really friendly service and a good meal. I will say this place is probably ludicrously expensive however. The meal was a $120 something dollars before the groupon was applied. That's kind of absurd. We had 3 beers, 2 glasses of champagne (included in the groupon) 1 glass of wine, ceviche, steamers, lobster (included in the groupon) and 1 dessert. Thankfully our groupon took $60 bucks off the bill, but thats crazy! If I'm going to spend $120 I'm going to Carnivale or Chef's Station in Evanston or some other fabulous steak house in downtown Chicago. Don't get me wrong, the meal was good but this isn't a 5 star restaurant, it's a bar in Wrigley that happens to be charming enough to be romantic. What's my point here? I'm glad I tried it and had a great meal but I'm more glad that I had a groupon to ease the pain of receiving the bill. Probably cannot justify spending that kind of money unless I am in a super fancy restaurant in the future.

After we stumbled into this place to wait for a nearby show to start, my date and I quickly found our favorite dish on the menu...mussels.  While we waited for our orders to arrive, the owner/manager brought us a couple of surprise dishes gratis.  Great service, great food.  Drinks were ok, but that's more a matter of personal taste than objective observation.  And keep in mind that not all foods are in season year around, so if oysters et al aren currently on the menu, google it to see if they are even in season before getting worried about it.  I'll be here again when in the neighborhood.

The food was excellent. I got the crispy salmon and an order of mussels!  My friend ordered scallops and fried rice. The crispy salmon and the size of sautéed potatoes was just the right portion. YUM-me! We sat at the bar and the bartender was very knowledgable about the menu!