BOKA

Manhattan aged in rye whiskey barrel--Chris' first!

All of the awards

All of the accolades

Well deserved!!!

BOKA has been on my list of places to eat for a while now but we simply haven’t made our way to it yet.  Each year we get together with our good friends --the Kalnitz's-- during Chicago's Restaurant Week to sample new experiences. This year we picked BOKA and boy is my stomach pleased with the selection. We were not disappointed!! As soon as I set foot in the restaurant, I had a comforting feeling. The atmosphere was sophisticated yet warm and inviting—not stuffy in the least. I loved the nautical sail look and it was quite a clever design element since I think it helped with noise (there wasn’t any) and covered some exposed pipes (which works in certain restaurants but not the look they were obviously going for). If you are tall you may not be too comfortable sitting under the sails but no worries there are plenty of other seating options. Luckily, none of us had this problem.

The food was beautiful yet totally approachable and most importantly….delicious! The service was outstanding and what you would expect! This place is unassuming. We ordered off of the special prefix menu and enjoyed every dish….I kid you not. The Stars of the night for me were the scallops with foie gras (as an add-on), sautéed mushrooms (go figure) and chocolate flourless cake with ginger ice cream, meringue and candied fruit.

We’ve also tried Girl & the Goat which is part of the Boka Group, 2 for 2 with extremely high marks for this group!!

Highly recommended!