Following the success of our first big date night, we gladly took Jason’s parents up on their kind offer to come down and watch Hudson for a weekday afternoon and stay through the evening so that we could do another dinner out. Imagine my surprise when J told me that after a quick OpenTable search, he snagged a last minute dinner reservation at Honey’s, a new restaurant in the West Loop with incredible reviews. Perks of dining out on a Tuesday at 6pm!

Little known fact: a few years ago, I helped found an underground dining club with a few other local bloggers. It was a ton of fun and I will never forget the amazing food that the chef turned out in a variety of small apartment kitchens. Fast forward a few years later, and that chef is now the executive chef at Honey’s. Needless to say, this was a restaurant opening I’d followed with interest, and I knew we’d be in for a great meal.

I’m happy to report that the whole experience lived up to my high expectations.

The environment is really unique — I can’t think of anything quite like it in Chicago. The exterior is understated with only the name subtly lettered on the door to indicate that you’ve found the right spot. Since our reservation was at 6PM (We sat down for dinner and were both like, “remember when we wouldn’t even CONSIDER making a reservation before 8:00PM?” New parent life!) we bypassed their beautiful bar on the way to the table, but headed back there for a little late-night dessert at 8PM 🙂 We loved the high ceilings, white walls, tilework, unique artwork on the walls and the interesting mix of music. So basically, we loved pretty much everything about the space.

The dining room is comfortably small, and feels somehow both very timeless and very modern. The waiters wear formal white jackets and the tables are covered in white linens. But if you look closely, the waiters are all wearing sneakers with their formal jackets, and the guys in hoodies that you see running around are actually hosts seating people. It strikes a nice balance of feeling really upscale without being at all pretentious. And even better, it feels like everyone there (both staff and patron!) is having a lot of fun with the whole thing.

We both ordered a glass of champagne to start and since I’m still recovering from the nine-month ban of all of my favorite foods, I proceeded to order every raw starter on the menu.

We got the oysters, the beef tartare, and the hamachi. I think these three menu items are pretty much always awesome in their own right, but Honey’s added a little twist to each that made them all taste new (but still awesome.)

The oysters had tiny macadamia nuts crumbled over them, the hamachi had juicy grapes mixed in, and the beef tartare — my favorite — had tiny, crispy potato straws on top of it. It was a little like taking a bite of the best burger and fry combo meal ever.

For dinner, I ordered the duck and Jason ordered the grilled striploin, and we got a side of the brussels sprouts. I think the champagne went to my head when ordering because while I consider myself a fan of oh, 99% of the food on the planet, rare duck breast is not on that list. (Duck legs are a very different story: yum.) My gallant husband was happy to switch with me and he reported that the duck was excellent.

I was equally happy with my steak — and surprisingly, for fine dining — the portion was huge so I was able to repay J’s good deed and he got half of the steak anyway. I am all about sauces and flavor to complement my food, and the romesco sauce on top of the steak was incredible.

As good as our entrees were, however, we both agreed that the brussels sprouts might have been the sleeper star of the show! They were perfectly crispy and the bagna cauda sauce with anchovies and garlic was perfectly salty and flavorful. We ate every last sprout and I barely restrained myself from swiping up the last bits of sauce with my finger.

Since I’m avoiding cow’s milk dairy these days (Hudson seems to have a mild reaction to it), I sadly passed on dessert. But all was not lost since we headed over to have a post-dinner cocktail in the bar. Probably my favorite kind of dessert, anyway!

I ordered the Violet Beauregardier, made with Pisco, Aperol and blueberries. As you may imagine from the rest of our experience, it was delicious. Aperol spritzes were my drink of choice on our honeymoon so I loved trying the bitter orange aperitif in a totally different format. Jason tried their rye whiskey cocktail, called the Scrumdiddly and really enjoyed that too.

And then for the best part of date night: heading home to our snoozing little dude, knowing that he ended his night just as happy as we did, thanks to a fun night with his grandparents.

So in a nutshell: Honey’s! Highly recommended. Great food, service and atmosphere. Even if you go for the early bird special 😃