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Girl and the Goat – Chicago

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A few weeks ago I visited Chicago for the first time. I had many things on my list to try including a Chicago-style hot dog and deep dish pizza. But one of the things I was most excited about was going to Girl and the Goat

I tried to make reservations, but the earliest one I could get was 10:30pm on a Tuesday, so we decided to try bar seats instead. Great success!! We arrived at 5 and were promptly seated at the bar. Luckily we got there at 5 because by 5:30 all the bar seats were taken and it looked like a long wait for a table.

The menu is made for sharing and is split into Vegetables, Fish, Meat, Goat, Bread and other small items. We ended up ordering 5 dishes, which was plenty!

Our bartender was amazing! She made me an amazing mocktail and totally hooked us up all night!

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We had a hard time deciding between the shishito peppers and the green beans, so our bartender suggested 1/2 portions of each. (Apparently portion sizes are waaay bigger in Chicago than in Boston because each 1/2 portion would have been a normal full size dish)

The dishes come out when they are ready, so we had a steady stream of food for about an hour!

First up, Pan Fried Shishito Peppers with parmesan,​ sesame and miso. I thought the mixture of parmesan and miso would be strange, but it was glorious – the nutty-butteriness of the cheese paired perfectly with the umami miso. And the peppers were charred nicely.

(if you haven’t had shishto peppers, be careful, 1 in 10 peppers are spicy!)

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Up next were the Sautéed Green Beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews – I thought these were good, but nothing super special. Kevin didn’t really like them at all. The beans were just a tad overcooked for me and the sauce overwhelmed them.

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Our fish course was the Grilled Baby Octopus with guanciale, fava beans,  pea tips, pistachios in a lemon vinaigrette – definitely one of our favorite dishes. The slightly wilted radishes added a spicy note that worked beautifully with the charred octopus.

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We had to get something goat, so we went with the Goat Liver Mousse served with blueberry mostarda, pickled rhubarb, bread & butter pickles and fried bread. Wow was this decadent and delicious! If you only order 1 thing here, I highly recommend this dish. It showcases everything Girl and the Goat is about – the mousse was smooth and had just enough goat-ness without too gamey. The accompaniments highlighted different aspects of the goat and the fried bread was a winner!

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Our meat course was the Braised Beef Tongue with masa, beef vinaigrette and salsa verde. I was really excited about this dish, but it fell kind of flat. We had to dig for the beef, which was perfectly cooked (when you could find a piece) and it did pair nicely with the pickled onion and salsa verde, but this wasn’t a great dish.

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We were all done with our wonderful meal when our bartender brings us a surprise dish – Confit Goat Belly with a vanilla-miso butter, lobster, crab and fennel. I thought we were stuffed, but apparently not because we practically licked the plate clean!

The goat melted in your mouth, and the vanilla butter was a perfect partner to the lobster and crab meat. This dish was AMAZING!

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So now I thought we were officially done, but once again, our bartender brought over a small piece of the Miso-Butterscotch Budino (cake) with bacon toffee, glazed pineapple, and candied cashews – a perfect ending to a wonderful meal!

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