Best Date Night Restaurants in River West

The Girl and the Goat always exceeds expectations, even when my expectations are sky high! Thank you! We had the Pig Face, String Beans, Goat Belly, and Steak. The dishes all exploded with flavors. The balance of seasonings, use of citrus, vinegar and other elements of the dishes played well and makes the culinary experience here amazing. The cocktails were yummy as well. The Peach-Te-quilla was light and refreshing. The Spicy Fat Boy had a ton of flavor. To finish the night, we had the Toffee Pumpkin cake and a neat pour of the Pappy Family Reserve. The Pappy was a treat and made a great night even more special! Thanks to Stephanie and all the team at the Goat. You are all AMAZING!

This is a challenging review to write. The food and cocktails were excellent. Truly the best French dip that I have ever had and a wonderful, creative Harvest Salad with Brussels sprouts and squash and bacon in a lovely, creamy lemon vinaigrette. Well-made, tasty cocktails led by an olive-oil infused martini which I will promptly try to replicate at home. Now for the bad part—The service was terrible and colored the entire experience. Our server would simply disappear for long periods of time. Poof—gone. Nowhere to be seen. And I mean long periods…..Like 20 minutes. Our drink order sat on the bar for at least 15 minutes, maybe longer. I could see it from where I was sitting and almost went up to pick it up myself. Our drinks finally were delivered about 30 seconds before our food, which was delivered by a runner, not our server. At this point, our server again disappeared and we had to ask another server for our check. We did notice other tables that were assigned to him asking other servers for help. In retrospect, the problem started at the very beginning of our visit. We waited a long time for a greeting, and then lets just say he set a leisurely pace for both our drink and food orders. And, this was a late lunch on a weekday. The first floor was maybe half full and the top floor was totally closed, so the mystery remains of where our server could possibly have been stealing off to. And I should add that there was not one acknowledgement from our server, or anyone else, that there was a problem. Guess this is the experience that you are going for? Net effect is that my dining mate will not return. I may try again—The food was that good. Overall, a great experience to remind one that the service really does matter.

Exceptional service, high quality food and great Verity, something for everyone. Plus, free valet parking

Such a great place to spend a Saturday brunch! I was celebrating my birthday and it was perfect. The games on the tables made it even more fun with everyone!

We ordered the Jampong Mussels, Chef’s Meat Sampler, Doeng Jang Jjgae, and Banchan.. everything tasted good. I mean it tasted as Korean food should, the meat was buttery soft and while I thought it odd to have to order banchan separately… it is unlimited, so there is that. The Jampong Mussels tasted good, but it wasn’t Jampong soup really, it was more Kimchee Jjgae broth with pork (so if you are pescatarian you might want to ask if they can omit or it may not work for you). The cocktails were lovely though (as many people commented… ) I had a Matcha Sour, I believe it was called, so good if you like sweet cocktails and the expresso martini was fantastic. In terms of the ambiance, it’s a nice moody sort of interior. It is dark at night, but because it is a corner restaurant it was nice to see all the night lights come through the windows. All adds to the vibe. All in all would I recommend? If you want to have a Korean experience, but in an elevated atmosphere then yes. The food is good, but was it phenomenal? No… it wasn’t like a Benu (from SF) experience, but could be a nice date night, special occasion, or somewhere you would bring a special guest… that maybe isn’t Korean? Honestly I think the bad reviews were mostly from fellow Koreans, (or at least those who are in the know about Korean food) but like I said it’s very good food, just not anything new or quantity wise, satisfying for the natives.