Il Mulino Chicago

One great thing about being back in Chicago for work is the chance to see all of my friends that live in the Windy City. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet up with my friend, Jack, who recently graduated from college and is starting his career in banking this July. To celebrate, we headed to Il Mulino Chicago, which is the only Il Mulino to change their name (all of the other Il Mulino’s are known as Il Mulino New York, even though they’re in different locations). Il Mulino is in the Biggs Mansion (most people will probably recognize it from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and is absolutely beautiful inside. When we sat down, the waiters immediately came over and brought us a ton of free goodies:

They also serve bruschetta tableside (my favorite out of all of the freebies). None of the free things were that good (the breads were all too hard) and the zucchini was too oily (although it was Jack’s favorite dish).

Since the portions at Il Mulino are pretty large, the waiter suggested we get a half portion of pasta and a main course. We decided to split an order of porcini ravioli in a black truffle/champagne sauce:

I didn’t know there were only four pieces in a half order (it seemed like so little!) but the sauce is really rich and two pieces really is enough (especially since there is so much cream in the sauce). Jack really liked the porcini filling of the ravioli since there was a lot of flavor in the filling (especially since the taste is usually overpowered with the sauce and pasta):

After the porcini ravioli, we had a serving of osso bucco with risotto:

Jack thought the osso bucco tasted like it was drenched in A-1 sauce/came from a can, which I totally agreed with, and the risotti was a little too mushy. The veal was definitely very tender and cooked well (Jack mentions that it falls right off the bone in the video review), but the sauce basically ruined the veal.

For dessert, we ordered tiramisu:

The best thing of the night – I really didn’t plan on eating the whole thing, but somehow it was gone in about 3 minutes. (oops!) Il Mulino finishes off every meal with grappa (a very strong Italian brandy) – they infuse the grappa and change the flavors on a daily basis (we had a sampling of green apple).

Il Mulino Chicago would be a great meal for a winter night (when you don’t feel bad about having an extremely heavy meal), but I practically had to be rolled out of the restaurant after we finished our meal. I might try Il Mulino in New York, but I’ll wait until the winter time when I don’t have to worry about eating a little extra! 🙂

My video review of Il Mulino Chicago:

Il Mulino Chicago Review from Grace Yang on Vimeo.