while we were discussing new lettuce entertain you places, i thought i'd throw in a few words about nacional 27 which opened in the space where hat dance used to be. the room is has the same basic look with all of the doo-dads (palm trees, people diving from palm trees, etc.) removed--it has several areas that have drapes that look as though they can be drawn to give a larger group a little more privacy. a little less white, a little more dark gray. it wasn't noisy, but then we were there at 6:00 on a sunday. the menu is much more pricey than hat dance was. not that hat dance is necessarily the place one should compare this restaurant to--but i haven't been to a place that features this type of cuisine before. it's sort of pan latin american, as best i can tell. each month they feature specials from a particular country and you can have a four course prix fixe dinner comprised of those specials. this month is columbia. we didn't opt for the prix fixe, but we did order the featured appetiser. it was a thick corn cake--our waitron described it as almost a polenta--that description seemed about right--stuffed with cheeses and served beneath various field greens. very very good. for our entrees, i had the ropa vieja (sp?)--which reminded me for all the world of my mother's brisket with a few different seasonings--i love my mother's brisket so this worked out fine, but it was sort of a surprise. it was served on mashed sweet potatoes with corn, and topped with spicy onion rings--and they meant spicy. the presentation of both entrees was a sort of tower--a circle of mashed potatoes, a mound of the meat, then a small pile of the onion rings. meanwhile, our other entree was a beef tenderloin served on a bed of various vegetables--we weren't quite sure what all was in there. the tenderloin was a lovely piece of beef served i think in a spicy wine sauce. wonderful. we were too full but had a dessert anyway--we tried the triple leche cake with orange slices. nice but i've had better versions of this cake. service was fine, polite, informed and prompt. the busboys asked if we were done before removing plates--hurray!! a very nice experience--worth the cost, and we could have figured a few ways to make it a more affordable meal (did i *need* a $7 cocktail?). but the previous incarnation in this location was someplace to drop into more often--this is more of a once in a while/special occasion place lisa
Chicago, IL