x/o Menu, Wrigleyville, Chicago
Artichoke Heart & Sheep’s Milk Ricotta Fritters served garlic aioli
Spicy Rock Shrimp & Rice Noodle Salad tossed with a chili lime vinaigrette; seaweed salad, green onions, carrots & toasted peanuts
East Coast Style Lump Crabmeat Cakes. “X”: Zucchini, roasted red peppers & parsley with roasted red pepper rouile. “O”: Shallot citrus zest & chives with a spicy roasted red & green pepper relish & cilantro
Braised Oxtail with green onion pancake Napoleon with a horseradish jus
Seared Jumbo Sea Scallops with pumpkin dumplings & sage hazelnut brown butter
One of the daily specials, a braised short rib with Vietnamese salad
Sorry to make you look at more food porn today (not really). Last night Erin and I went to x/o for drinks and dinner. Maybe too many drinks, is that possible? It was a great time. I don’t spend nearly as much time with that girl as I should and the food was excellent.
x/o serves small plates for sharing and recommends 3 plates/person. I was surprised by the largish portions for a “small plate.” At one point we were talking about dessert but by the time our 3rd set of plates came out we were totally stuffed. Erin went to x/o when they first opened. See her Chicagoist review . .. she liked it, but there was definitely room for improvement on some dishes. She says that last night was way better than the first time she went. Awesome.
Oh, also, the thought of oxtail kind of repulses me.. like how do they get meat off the tail of an ox? And sometimes I’ve seen it in hardcore Asian restaurants and was very afraid. Same with Erin. We decided to be adventurous, though, and on the recommendation of our waiter we tried a dish with oxtail in it. The flavor was really excellent, but I remember commenting that if I was more sober when we were eating it that I’d probably have a problem with the texture of the meat.. or with it not being as lean as I normally like. Still, I was glad we tried it.