Tag Archives: bavette

Bavette’s Bar & Boeuf

Bavette’s Bar & Boeuf overall score: 90*

This steak joint meets speakeasy is easily my favorite place to get a steak in Chicago. The joint is run by the same folks behind 4 Charles Prime Rib, so you know it’s going to be good.

Flavor: 10

We had the rib eye. This is exactly the same as the rib eye from 4 Charles (when they offer the grilled version as a special). Get it. I love it so much, but honestly I wish I had gotten the strip steak just to try something different. Oh well. Next time. The reservation here is much easier than 4 Charles.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 8

There’s a good selection of dry-aged and prime cuts here, but it isn’t the same depth and breadth as a traditional steakhouse. No knock here, just giving you the details to let you know that the menu here is more streamlined than most restaurants within the steakhouse category. The good thing is that every steak they cook here is perfect.

Portion Size & Plating: 8

The rib eye was 20oz on the bone. It felt a little small, but It was the kind of thing where you find yourself gnawing on the bone afterwards. Plating is basic, but elegant.

Price: 7

Not terrible, since we didn’t go too crazy, but a hundo for a steak that’s really meant for one is a little high.

Bar: 10

The bar here is incredible. It’s modeled after a speakeasy type decor, so dim lighting, old timey items, and dark woods are what to expect.

Killer cocktails as well.

Specials and Other Meats: 9

There was a porterhouse offered up as a special. Very tempting. A few other meat items were available, but nothing stand-out.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 10

We started with a steak tartare, which was easily one of the best we’ve had.

We also had a half portion of the crab and avocado salad, which was quite large and very refreshing. Worth getting.

The ice cream they brought out on the house for my birthday was perfection.  It was a deliciously creamy pair of vanilla scoops with some chocolate sauce on the side.

Seafood Selection: 8

There’s standard steakhouse seafood fare here. We only tried the crab in salad form, but that was excellent.

Service: 10

Service was the best here of any place we went to in Chicago so far. Top notch! As I mentioned earlier, they even brought out a free dessert for my birthday, despite us insisting that we were full.

Sourdough table bread! Incredible. Careful not to fill up!

Ambiance: 10

Easiest 10 I’ve ever given for ambiance. This place is decked out in the best of ways. I highly recommend coming here if you’re in the Chicago area, even if it’s just for a drink. This place exudes style.

BAVETTE’S BAR & BOEUF
218 W Kinzie St
Chicago, IL 60654

Bar Boulud

Here’s another restaurant week review for your asses.

For $42, my wife had a three course meal. The first course? A fucking salmon rillette.

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This was pretty good. I apologize in advance, though. My pictures don’t look too good this time around. I had competing light color values from outside along the windows (blue) and inside from the overhead lighting (yellow/orange/red, with dark shadows). As a result, my photos look like dog diarrhea smeared onto a piss and blood-ridden diaper/maxi pad, but only the kind of diaper/maxi pad you see in commercials that use blue colored liquid to simulate blood and piss for some ridiculous reason.

But anyway that salmon rillette had a nice base of hard rye, topped with minced salmon and pickle, and some frisee and sliced beets. It had a good flavor and texture.

The main course was a bavette steak. If you don’t know what the fuck a bavette is, click the link I just provided and read up on it, asshole. It’s a cut of beef.

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This was roasted to a nice medium rare, but I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of char on the outside. It was buttery and garlicky, which was good for flavor. However, the slices that I had were slightly under seasoned. I think it still gets 8/10, so there’s some room for improvement. It was served on a bed of potato puree with a side of green beans.

For dessert, there was this blackberry financier with brown butter ice cream.

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The cake itself was a bit dry, but all the toppings served well to moisten it the hell up. Corn? And popcorn? Interesting! But the brown butter ice cream blob way the fuck on the right was the real star of the dish. I would have preferred a bowl of that instead.

Overall this is a pretty good deal for restaurant week. Lunch is always the better buy ($29), but you aren’t getting raped here for a $42 three-course dinner.

The couple we were with let us try a bit of their dessert as well, a chocolate ganache pie of sorts:

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This was very rich and tasty. If chocolate is your vice, then this dessert is nice. That was a rhyme.

For my meal, I went with the “Frenchie” burger. If you’re in the area for a burger, you can go with PJ Clarke’s for a standard style American burger, or pop in here for something unique and different… and French.

This mother fucker is topped with raclette cheese and a thick goddamn slab of soft, confit pork belly! Bitches know what’s up! I think. I don’t know, actually… Do they know what’s up?

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That’s arugula underneath, incase you were wondering. The patty was perfectly seasoned, and the bun was soft yet pliable and strong. Toppings, as you can imagine, were on point. The confit pork was like having a fast food burger patty made of belly (in terms of size) right on top of your already-delicious burger. Good move. This burger was pretty damn good, but it doesn’t quite make it into my top 10.

For $23, the burger also came with fries, which were some crispy-ass, natural cut, shoestring mother fuckers. I liked them.

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Honorable mention: bread selection. We had three styles of table bread. First were small cheese bread things that reminded me of pop-overs in muffin form. They were warm too, like the pair of underwear that you just peeled off your sweaty, NYC-in-the-summer ass cheeks and tossed into the laundry pile. The other bread basket had slices of a sunflower seed sourdough bread of some kind, and a few slices of standard French baguette. All good quality, just like the writing in this review.

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That’s it. Now go fuck off.

BAR BOULUD
1900 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

Bavette

The Bavette steak (France) is also known as flap steak (USA), vacio (Argentina) and sirloin tip (New England); it seems that different regions of the US and the world at large call it by different names. While the phrasing “flap steak” might sound revolting, I assure you that this cut is delicious when butchered and cooked properly. Anatomically close to the flank and skirt steaks, flap meat is technically found near the intersection of the bottom sirloin, short loin and flank parts of the animal, only it is more tender than both flank and skirt steaks due to being located on the inside portion of the diaphragm.

Here’s a video of it being butchered out:

It’s a slightly thicker cut than skirt or flank, which come from the plate and diaphragm areas nearby in the anatomy of the cow. The Bivette is more tender than both of them. It has less stringy, less chewy fat than skirt, as the striated muscle in Bivette cuts tend to have better quality marbling. It does have a direction or grain to the musculature, though, so cutting on the bias is the best technique.

Photo from First We Feast: http://firstwefeast.com/eat/alternative-beef-cuts-butcher-guide/

Similar in texture and taste to a hanger steak, the Bavette is best prepared with high, dry heat and served medium rare. I’ve tried this great, wallet-friendly cut at Quality Eats in Greenwich Village. Here’s a pic from that meal:

As you can see, it has a great crust on the outside with a nice pink medium rare center.

This was cooked perfectly, and I highly recommend heading down there to give it a try if you haven’t done so already.