Restaurant Review – Rittergut

This week took me to a new neighborhood and a new restaurant! I had plans to see a show at Lyric Opera in the Loop and knew I’d want to have a bite to eat before. Luckily, I found Rittergut Wine Bar & Restaurant, conveniently located about a block from the theatre. The space is utterly charming, with exposed brick, warm lighting, and gorgeous displays of wine bottles. We came in around 5 pm on a Thursday evening and were seated right away. The dinner menu is small, but packed with tasty items. We just made it for the end of happy hour (until 5:30 pm on weekdays), so we decided to order a few small plates to share. We started with the Margherita Flat Bread, topped with tomatoes, sunflower pesto, and mozzarella. This was delightful! I was pleasantly surprised by how large the portion was- there were 6 good sized pieces of flat bread. I loved the simplicity of the dish and the sunflower pesto was very tasty. We also chose the Artichoke Crab Dip: back fin crab, peppadews, onions, and grilled bread. This was easily my favorite dish we ordered. The dip was hot, wonderfully gooey, and full of flavor. The grilled bread was light and fluffy, the perfect complement to the substantial dip. We also ordered the Tacos Al Pastor: slow-grilled pork, adobo sauce, grilled pineapple, tomatillo salsa, and chile de arbol. To be honest, these were very disappointing. After the flatbread and dip were so tasty, I really expected more. The pork had very little flavor, which really killed the dish for me. We thought we would order entrees as well, but these small plates weren’t nearly as small as we expected. They ended up being our whole dinner! We also ordered wine by the glass, which was wonderful. I would love to come back and try more menu items here! I had my eye on The Lobster Roll and the Wild Mushroom Risotto- yum!

Rittergut is located at 10 South Wacker. They are open Mondays through Fridays for lunch from 11 am to 2:30 pm, dinner from 5 pm to 8 pm, and the bar is open from 11 am to 9 pm. They are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. They do take reservations, which can be made here.

RACHEL HOOVLER & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO