Girl & the Goat

Last weekend my dear friend Tsoni was in town from Boston (he's a medicine intern at MGH) so Adam and I took him to Girl & the Goat for dinner. This is a new restaurant near Randolph and Halsted, it just opened a few weeks ago. The chef is Stephanie Izard, an up and coming chef who won seasoson 4 of Top Chef. The restaurant is located in an old manufacturing building that has been renovated into a cute, modern-yet-rustic style restaurant that is, I think correctly, described as a "shared plates gastropub".


I thought the place was very cute, lots of exposed brick, exposed wood, nice flatware and attractive glasses. Wine by the glass selection was very good. Service was excellent. Our server made some great recommendations and was cheerfully present but non-obtrusive. As mentioned above the style is small plates to be shard so ordering is a fun free for all of picking what looks tasty off the menu. For this reason, I would recommend going here with a group of friends rather than on a date with just 1 other person. The menu was divided into 3 columns: veggies, fish, and meat. The food selections change on a daily to weekly basis, thus I'm not able to provide a link to a sample menu but here are some of the items we tried:

• Carrot bread, almond butter- They had a selection of 3 freshly baked breads. The carrot bread was warm and tasty- I'll bet all 3 are very good.
  
• Some spring veggie soup- can't for the life of me remember what it was but it was fresh and delicious
• Oysters
  
• Roasted cauliflower, pickled peppers, pine nuts, mint- This was a suggestion by our server. She told us that previous diners said it was "the best cauliflower they had ever had". It was very good and I'd recommend it but the best ever is a bit of a stretch.
  
• Rabbit rilette, crisp rice crepe, ginger giardinare, sweet garlic
• Seared scallops, braised veal, caponata, marcona almond butter
• Escargot and goatballs- The goatballs were, well, balls of goat. So good. So much better than last time I had goat which was in Mauritania, West Africa at my cousin's host family's house in the middle of the desert. That goat was not bad, to be fair, but I remember being mighty hungry at the time which may have given the goat there more credit that it deserved;)
  
• Goat cheese bavaroise w/ blueberries- Sort of a creme brulee meets cheesecake creation.

I can honestly recommend all of the above items. Each and every one was interesting and tasty. Looking at the list now, I see how eclectic it was- oysters, rabbit, scallops, and goat all in the same meal. But it worked! The kitchen chooses the order the food comes out in based on flavor profiles, which creates a cohesive meal. Above are 3 happy customers: Adam, me and Tsoni;)

It's not often that every single dish ordered at a place is a winner-

I think this speaks to the quality of ingredients and the skill of the chef. You probably can't go wrong with anything on the menu. I definitely recommend this place!