Bad Hunter

One of the questions I get asked most on Instagram is “Biz, I am coming to Chicago – where should I eat?!”

It’s such a broad question – where are you staying, what is your budget, are you thinking Chicago deep dish pizza, sit down restaurant – I had a woman ask me where she should go because she only had SIX hours in the city before her next flight took off, and she was at O’Hare airport – a good 60 minute cab ride to downtown. 

So I decided I would write about restaurants that I go to and like, and start a Chicago Dining Category.  Truth be told, I don’t eat downtown all that often (well more lately) because I live 50 miles away.   So if I do stay downtown it has to be worth me getting home so late – last night was totally worth it. 😀

Bad Hunter had a fire and was closed the last seven months, so they just reopened.  They said they revamped the menu and Morgan and I basically decided we wanted one of everything.

We started out with two cocktails to share – this was called a carrot margarita I think.  The server said it was “veg forward” and she was correct.  I had a few sips of it, and I think Morgan had the rest.

This was a Rose Spritzer and this was amazeballs – light and boozy at the same time.

I cannot wait to recreate this dish – shrimp meatballs with soba noodles in this super flavorful broth. 

This was delicious too – tempura fried slices of lemon and olives.  OMG – so good!  You would think it would just be a sucker punch of acidity, but this totally worked.  I may need to make this as an appetizer when I have friends over for a BBQ on Saturday.

So good!

What I thought was going to be the star of the night, ended up being just okay.  We got:

The beans had no flavor, and I thought it interesting that the beef was sliced before it got to our table – almost like “let’s cut into it and see if it’s done.”  The ends were overdone, and the beef also didn’t have much flavor.  Had our server come back we may have complained, but in the end we just kind of picked at that dish – and at $32, that was a bummer.

I love getting espresso at a restaurant.  $3 – nice!

We were going back and forth about dessert, and we finally gave in – holy balls you guys.  If you go to this restaurant for no other reason than this sunflower seed brittle chocolate ice cream sandwich, it will be worth it.  Both vegan and gluten free, it was spectacular. 

It was sitting in this light slightly tart apricot sauce – swoon.  We both were perfect after our dinner, but we couldn’t help ourselves and we were officially stuffed after eating that – but I couldn’t stop eating it – so good.

We also tried the rhubarb sorbet – a perfect palate cleanser after a great meal (sans the beef!).

The company?  Priceless!  Morgan has become a great friend, and to think without Instagram we never would have met in real life.  She’s always up for dinner out and said “Biz, why can’t you just live downtown?!”  

There are no express trains after rush hour, so my 8:30 train . . . 

Got me home at 9:50 😀

The service was good – although our dishes were brought out by runners, so it took our server a bit to come over and see if everything was okay.

She also brought our check when she brought our espresso, before our desserts had even been served.  I’ve been a server, so I get that desire to turn a table to make more money, but I would never drop a check before it was asked . . .even if I come to your table a dozen times to fill your water hoping that you would ask for it.

So we give Bad Hunter 7 out of 10 stars.  I would definitely go back for the cocktails, and would lean towards the smaller vegetable plates, since it’s known as a vegetable forward restaurant.

I did have FOMO when I saw the table next to us get the focaccia with rosemary butter and crispy carrots – swoon!

It was a fun night – always fun hanging out with Morgan.

Happy Wednesday – make it a great day!