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Yolk

 1120 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL
 

Avoid YOLK and its nasty owner

With all the great breakfast places in Chicago, why would anyone choose YOLK? After all, the food here is served-to-order, not made-to-order. Perhaps patrons hail from the newly developed South Loop where restaurant and shopping development still lags the many new condos. So convenient choices are slim. If I lived in the neighborhood, I’d make the trek to someplace good.

What do I mean by “served-to-order”? It’s readily apparent that breakfast here is made en masse, like a factory, in anticipation of general demand, not cooked in response to an order taken by a waitress. But unlike a factory, there’s no quality control between the production line and the consumer.

The first clue that this is a food factory is the enormous number of seats in the restaurant. Only a cafeteria/buffet approach could feed the hoard if the restaurant were full.

But the real proof is evident in the food. Scrambled eggs arrived hard, luke-warm and chopped up. They were pre-made and scooped from a warming tray – but even the breakfast buffet at Marriott Courtyard beats these eggs.

Bacon was not cooked to be crispy. The fat was somewhat raw and I’m sure chewy, if we had the stomach to actually eat it.

Pancakes were gummy, chewy, flavorless disks. Again, I’d suspect they came from a warming tray. If not, I’d remove the latex from the recipe.

Even the toast was inedible. It showed signs of toasting around the edges, but would be more accurately described as a cold slice of bread.

In fairness, an order of hash with poached eggs was much better. Nothing special about the hash, but the kitchen did properly poach the eggs, and many breakfast restaurants fail that test. I guess it’s a sign that if the kitchen must cook something to order, they can do it competently.

Believe it or not, the worst part of the meal was not the food. My companion simply couldn’t eat what she was served. Her meal was sent back, and she declined to order something else. Soon the owner – maybe manager but he called it “my restaurant” – came to our table. “I looked at your plate and I couldn’t see what was wrong with it,” he said in a tone of inquisition. The conversation deteriorated from there. I think this is a man who simply should not be in the restaurant business.

And, this is a restaurant that you’d be better off avoiding.

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I Dine In:
Letsalleat reviewed Yolk