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This is a new spot opening sometime in May on Chicago Avenue a few blocks east of Ashland. Has anyone heard any buzz about this place?

Mexique
1529 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622

Sounds intriguing. I see Metromix already has a listing which mentions a few of their dishes and refers to their opening as "mid to late May".

Whew! I thought it was a Mexican BBQ place! That's all LTHForum needs is another BBQ thread!

I understand from a friend that Mexique is opening tonight. Chef/Owner Carlos Gaytan is quite talented. He's done a number of demonstrations at Chicagoland Personal Chefs Association meetings.

Friends I dined with tonight say it's been open the past few nights; I may give Mexique a shot next week. Although, admittedly, most of the time I tend towards simpler tamales than "a seafood mousse tamale cooked in banana leaves stuffed with crab meat fricassee with lemon confit and clam-tomato sauce"

Website is up at www.mexiquechicago.com. Mains $16.95-$25.95

Can anyone compare/contrast Mexique, with Dorado, the only other French-influenced Mexican place I can think of in the city?

I REALLY want to like this place and I think they have great potential, but they have a few things to work out and I am confident they will based on the enthusiasm of the owners husband(chef)/wife(front of the house). They JUST opened, so I am going to give them a few chances to work on it. Some hits and some misses but DH and I agreed that we will definitely be back again soon.

We were seated rather quickly as it was Sunday night. There were only 3 other occupied tables when we got there. Let's just say the service was lacking. The waitress (who was the only waitress there, however there was a busser helping) didn't pay very much attention to us. I was dismayed at how long it took her to come over to take our drink order (Currently they only serve wine, very reasonably priced wine at that). I was also unhappy that they didn't bring bread until we had been there for about 20 minutes. All the tables were at different points in their meals so I feel she could have stopped by more often as it is a small place.

We ended up ordering a nice bottle of Tempernillo. We ordered the Pescamel, which is described as a seafood mousse tamal. I thought it was just OK, but my hubby really liked it. I wouldn't get it again. It had almost a Campbell's tomato soup-like sauce, color and all. Bleh, but the tamal itself was ok, not great. The highlight was the trio of sopes (which they will serve with a trio of tiny wine pairings for $3 more) Very cute and very good. The shrimp was our favorite, followed by the plaintains and then the escargot...though all were really quite nice. I could have ordered a second round for my dinner!

We then ordered entrees. My husband ordered the duck and I ordered the tilapia.
Our food arrived and my husband GOT the LAMB and I got the tilapia.
We noticed right away of course and luckily for the waitress DH had been torn between the duck and the lamb (as per usual) and was happy to keep the very delicious looking dish.

The lamb was in two parts. The first were pieces of rack of lamb. DH absolutely loved it! The second part was a larger lamb-filled sope, picture ropa vieja but lamb. DELICIOUS. I helped myself to quite a bit of that. The chef stopped by and said that would be the lamb used in the lamb tacos. YUM. Oh and the lamb was served with some very tasty sauteed eggplant.

I had the tilapia. It was MEH. I need to stop ordering fish unless I am at at steakhouse, fish place or sushi place. There was nothing wrong with it, but I could have cooked it in a pan myself. Oh and I believe they again used that Campbells Tomato soup sauce on the tilapia. The sides however were quite good. The slaw it was served with was great and the moniato (kind of a sweeter mashed potato) was delicious. We wanted to order desserts because they looked absolutely delicious but we were completely stuffed. Next time!

Both owners stopped by to check in with each table. They are quite nice and concerned with their guests having a nice meal. Based on the sopes and that lamb filling, I think the chef will excel with his tacos. The fillings sound very delicious on the website. I have yet to have one, but based on those sope fillings, I think they will be outstanding. I am disappointed that he only plans to offer them for weekday lunch.

Mexique
1529 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60622
312-850-0288
http://www.mexiquechicago.com/

I tend to go simpler too, but this tamale was excellent. The chef shows a keen sense of balancing rich with bitter, sweet with sour, and this dish exemplifies how he harmonizes French and Mexican culinary traditions. I like Mexique.

I just went to Mexique for my birthday this past weekend and I really thought that the restaurant had so much potential (translation: really good and then not so good).

The sopes are everything that the previous poster mentioned, the escargot an intense explosion of garlic flavor on corn. The shrimp was excellent, but I found the mole to be just average. We also had the pescamale, which had a really nice delicate tomato flavor (not at all Campbell Soup like!) but the fish was barely discernible--I couldn't tell if it was crab or any other ocean creature.

Now the entrees, these were like the villain Harvey Dent in Batman--half delicious, half malformed. My duck breast was cooked perfectly and the tamarind sauce was sweet and powerful. But I'm not sure the two should have gone together. The confit leg absolute sank to the bottom of my stomach, it was cold, greasy, and not good. But the boyfriend's lamb was perfect even if he didn't enjoy the eggplant. I'll definitely go back once the menu changes again because I think the chef's great potential and ideas.

Following up on favorable reviews in the Reader (by LTH's own David Hammond) and Time Out, I had a very pleasant dinner here recently with some friends.

I agree very much with the Time Out review and some of the other posters that the concept - fused Mexican and French food - needs some tweaking. I also agree with Time Out that the dishes that are more Mexican in nature and execution are the standouts. However, despite a rather stark and trendy-minimalist decor, this is a friendly, comfortable and reasonably-priced place. The chef appears to be quite young, but also appears to be very serious, spending most of the night actually cooking (!), and coming out to greet customers to get what appeared to be earnest, interested feedback on his food.

The meal started with a very good French baguette and "cheesy" butter:



One of the most successful applications of the French-Mexican fusion was the cochinita pibil rillettes (sorry for the blurry picture):


(Rillettes in foreground; Tinga de Pollo in background)

This finely textured pork was delicately flavorful and melted in my mouth. After a couple of bites, my friend forewent the accompanying toast and started scooping forkfuls into her mouth - it was that good. It is served with a pickled baby onion, which is sitting atop a spicy habanero sauce. All accompaniments are fantastic with this dish.

No Frenchy-ness apparent in the tinga de pollo appetizer, which was pedestrian, but just as good as any I've ever had:



Carne Asada was plated in an appealing basketweave fashion, cooked to the right temperature and well-rested prior to carving. The Frenchy goat cheese fondue, however, was declared to be "unnecessary" by the table:



The pollo en mole was, in theory, a fusion of the ubiquitous French roast chicken with the Mexican mole:



The mole gets extra points for appropriate heat and complexity levels. The 1/2 chicken, while moist and amply-portioned, was missing the crispy roasted skin that a classic French roasted chicken has, due mostly, I think to the mole plated over it, perhaps? Here is another example where the Mexican parts outstrip the French.

I have to admit that when I first heard that a new Mexican-French fusion restaurant was opening in my neighborhood, perhaps too cynically, I groaned, thinking it would just be goofy in execution. In reality, however, both the fusion and the food are taken quite seriously even though both are imperfect.

Don't let the elegant plating and white, minimalist decor trick you into thinking that this is a high-end place. No entree price is above $25, and while my service was professional and friendly, there was no fussiness that accompanies high-end dining service. The noise-level is on the "comfortably-louder" side, which means conversing at a normal voice level is not a problem.

We went to Mexique for lunch a few weeks ago and it was stellar. We shared a salad to start, unfortunately I now remember nothing about it except that it was good. We then had the lamb tacos and the fish tacos and they were both great. I believe the fish tacos were "baja style", battered fish with shredded cabbage and mayo, and the fish was hot, crispy and juicy. The lamb tacos were truly lamb-y, not that "I suppose it's lamb but it's too mild to tell" situation that occurs too often, and really well seasoned and sauced. I would have sworn the tortillas were house-made, but the chef/owner said that they were the only food item at Mexique that were brought in from an outside source. He spent several days doing taste tests at all the local producers, with the end result of very good tortillas.

The three dishes plus two beers and a coffee came to $20 per person including tax and tip, and made for two very happy diners.

I'm quite interested to try their brunch!

Went here with the girlfriend last night. we liked it a lot. the service was perfect -- smooth and not annoyingly overattentive. had the rilettes and tinga de pollo that other people had, and had similar opinions. the vetabel entree was simple but good. we shared the enchilada and guacamole desserts. the gf didn't really like the guacamole, but i did. i've been liking avocado desserts a lot recently. the wine list was also nice and cheap, though the pours were maybe on the shorter side. overall, we liked what we had a lot. looking at the rest of the menu, initially we didn't think the entrees looked terribly interesting, but the vetabel was good enough that we want to try more. i also sort of want to try a torta at lunch.

Despite it being a "local" option for me (and passing it twice a day on my commute) we finally stopped in for dinner last month (March '09) on a weeknight. Executive summary: mmmm! good!

It's been a few weeks, but if I'm remembering correctly, we just had entrees and dessert. The bread was a standard American baguette, but the European-style butter was fantastic. I had the duck: PATO AL TAMARINDO (Duck Leg Confit, Duck Breast, Swiss Chard, Fresh Corn & Cranberry Tamal and Chipotle-Temple Tamarind Glaze) and really liked it. The sauce had a non-hot/non-overpowering distinctly Mexican spice flavor that I thought went well with the breast. I really enjoyed the tamal, and I even enjoyed the chard, which I usually don't.

My veggie fiancee had:VEGETALES (Crepes Filled with Wild Mushroom Ragout, Creamy Corn Soup and Tomato Fondue) and also enjoyed it (and I enjoyed the tastes she would spare me!) I think that the soup/fondue was essentially a sauce over the crepes.

We finished with the "ENCHILADAS" (Crepes Filled with Chocolate Ganache, Toasted Walnuts, Ancho Chile-Chocolate Fondue, Crème Anglaise Vanilla Bean Ice Cream) Just as you would guess - very yummy!

So what if it isn't very French? I lived in and love France and it's food. But it seems like Mexique is doing fine using not much more than French "sensibilities" preparing elegant Mexican based dishes.