Gather-- A nice neighborhood meal

I was surprised to see no thread dedicated to Gather in Lincoln Square (and if I missed, please feel free to fold this in with it). My wife and I have Gather in our rotation as a place that is slightly nice, while still being walkable from our house. We have gone probably a half a dozen times or so over the past year, opting most times to sit at the six seat kitchen counter, as we enjoy watching the different dishes being made and interacting with the chefs.

This weekend we had another lovely meal. We started with a whipped ricotta with balsamic and clover honey, which is a go to each time we visit as a nice start to the meal. The brussel sprouts (crispy, with pistachios, miso vinaigrette, and parmagiano) are one of my favorite brussel sprout preparations in the city. We also shared the pumpkin soup, which was rich and creamy and had the interesting addition of candied pepitas which provided both a pleasant texture and some nice sweetness.

The biggest thing I wanted to highlight was the two entrees. I am vegetarian and my wife is not. I asked what they could do for me and instead of simply taking the meat out of one of the menu entrees, they asked about some preferences and exactly what my vegetarianism included (I eat dairy and eggs, just no meat or seafood). Using components from a variety of the dishes on the menu, they pulled together a very cohesive, complete and delicious dish. (Apologies for the cell phone quality pictures).



This dish was an oat risotto with a kohlrabi puree, roasted maitake mushrooms, diced kohlrabi, both sauteed and crispy kale and a truffled egg yolk. It was just an earthy delight, perfect for the cool evening on Saturday. The mushrooms were perfect and the flavors and textures really worked together. As a vegetarian, I am really appreciative of any restaurant that goes out of their way to make a dish (whether on the menu or not) that is a complete dish, not just a collection of sides or an entree with the meat removed.

Not to be outdone, my wife ordered the sirloin.



While I did not taste it, she was a big fan. The dish also had the same mushrooms as mine, and she is a sucker for grilled greens and the "tom yum" puree lent an interesting Asian flavor to the dish. At $23, this was quite a good value (we actually took almost half home because of filling up on the previous courses).

The restaurant has always been very inviting to us, remembering us fairly early in our times going there. We are not huge spenders when we go (the bill for this week, was right around $100 with a bottle of wine), but they do a good job of making this feel like both a neighborhood place and something slightly special.

Gather
4539 N Lincoln Ave
773-506-9300
gatherchicago.com

I've been there once on a weekday, and got a seat overlooking the kitchen. A fun time.

The food was indeed good and a great neighborhood spot. I'm not sure if it's super crowded on weekends, but if it were, I probably wouldn't want to fight the crowds to eat here. But as a upscale weekday fancy dinner place, it was great.

We had an enjoyable meal at Gather yesterday for a friend's birthday. Their back patio was lovely as it is covered and has plenty of heaters. Quick highlight was my entrée, the arctic char (grilled‎ cucumber kimchi, cilantro + cashew purée, jasmine rice, black garlic, peanut). It was perfectly prepared. Each bite was an adventure as there was so much going on. Although we passed on ordering dessert, the restaurant nicely comped a round of ice cream (cinnamon topped with maple bourbon caramel sauce) for the birthday celebrant. Service was mostly excellent, although there were a couple of times where we waited longer than expected (ordering the first round of drinks and getting the check.) The only negative was that it was loud back there. That was exacerbated by the group of 12. Overall though, a lovely meal.

Had a very good meal here on Saturday. Between two of us, we shared a main and 4 small plates. Favorite bites were 2 pastas: gnocchi and a large raviolo. But the cod, burrata and roasted broccoli were good too.

And for the quality of food, felt like everything was priced very reasonably.
These farm to table/contemporary American joints are a dime a dozen but I'd happily return here.

Finally made it here for dinner after having had brunch some time ago. Had a 9:45 reservation because we decided to go at the last minute, but showed up around 8:45 and the two of us were seated outside within 25 minutes. The patio is quite lovely - dimly lit, lots of greenery, and much more reasonable, noise-wise, than the inside.

We shared 6 items (way, way too much) and I had a beer for a total cost of $100 after tax and tip. For the quality of the meal, this seemed like an excellent value to me, compared to other similar restaurants.

Highlights: the burrata salad with roasted shitakes, orange slices, sesame crunch, sesame seed mole and truffle honey vin; the cured salmon w/ fried egg and cucumber creme fraiche (at $13, an unbelievable amount of salmon). The raviolo, mentioned above, was also very good, but we were too full to really enjoy it.

I was a tad underwhelmed by the gnocci w/ smoked arctic char. It was a bit heavy and lacked some necessary brightness, though the bites with capers were better. I also would skip the brussels - good, but there are more interesting items on the menu.

I think we could've left totally full for $60-70 after tax and tip, including a drink. Hard to beat that for how thoughtful and yummy the food here is.

Here, by the way, is the Uovo Raviolo, which is eerily reminiscent of Boris Johnson's hair:

Shout out to the Gather/Warbler family style carry out. My wife and I have done it twice; both time splitting it with my in-laws. The restaurant has been gracious in splitting it into two different bags for ease of dropping off with the in-laws.

The meals are a homestyle protein/main dish, a side vegetable and a salad (and a cookie). There is a different menu for each day. We have done the pappardelle bolognese (which has been replaced by a spring pasta that sounds great) and the fried chicken Sunday dinner. Both were great, a significant amount of food for the two of us and a great value at $50. We have thrown in an a la carte item each time because they are things we like, but we would have had enough food without it.

Highly recommended for those looking for a takeout treat.