Topolobampo

I made lunch reservations at Topolobampo, a Rick Bayless restaurant in River North, when one of my friends visited me in Chicago earlier last week. As a little bit of background, Bayless is a chef/proprietor specializing in tradition, regional Mexican cuisine with a higher end, slightly more modern twist. What not many people know is that Chicago is surprisingly the best (if not almost the best) city in the US for authentic, traditional, and regional Mexican food. Mexican food is a BIG DEAL here, and people will constantly debate who makes the best taco al pastor, and if the meat isn't char grilled, then forget about it. However, Bayless, who has won numerous awards in the last 20 years, has brought regional Mexican cuisine to a new level. Having read a lot about Bayless and Topolobampo, I was really curious to see what it's all about.

So we went for lunch, which is usually not the best way to experience fine dining, but Topolobampo is not cheap, and I really just wanted to see what this place was all about. Needless to say, my friend Vadicel and I were really impressed. From the moment we stepped in, we were immersed in this very warm atmosphere. Everything about the interior of the restaurant was warm and inviting with the walls decorated in Mexican art, as well as ceramics adorning display shelves. Overall, the service was friendly and relaxed, but perhaps slow at times. There were a couple of times when we needed our waiter but couldn't find him, but I usually let things like that slide if the food was good, and in this case it certainly was.

We were first given tortilla chips with housemade guacamole, compliments of the chef. Not too much to say about that except for the fact that it was probably the best tasting guacamole I've had. The ingredients were noticeably fresh, which is something that's extremely important in Bayless' food.


I had the Pato Con Mole Amargo, which was roasted gunthorp duck breast with mole of pasilla and mulato chiles, coffee, chocolate and sesame. The vegetables it came with were "wilted" spinach, pickled chayote, bayless garden microgreens. chilatas and potato budin (a cheesy potato tortilla type of thing). This was a very interesting dish, and while it sounds complex, everything just came together so well. The duck was very tender with just the right amount of fattiness. Thankfully, the coffee and chocolate in the mole sauce did not overpower the dish. Everything was blended perfectly.


My friend had the Trio, Trio, Trio which was a sampling of their three types of ceviches. You can refer here for the details on the ceviches. According to her, it was all really good. I tried the Ceviche Playero from her, and I really liked it. The seafood was very fresh and well prepared.


Probably the highlight for me was dessert. I don't remember the exact name of this dessert (it's not online), but it was essentially a chocolate tart with bacon a la Vosges' bacon-chocolate. And YOU KNOW how much I love that. This dessert was basically perfect. The chocolate tart wasn't too rich nor too sweet, and the bacon was perfectly accounted for. It also came with what I think was vanilla ice cream and some sort of orange petals. Honestly, not sure what the petals were, but we ate them. Awesome dessert - HIGHLY recommended.

So overall, Topolobampo was really good and worth the experience of trying higher end regional Mexican cuisine. I definitely recommend anyone to go here, particularly those who've never had Mexican food of this type.

Topolobampo
445 N. Clark St
Chicago, IL