Robert et Fils - Chicago
French food can be fancy and finessed, or it can be comforting and casual; Robert et Fils goes for the latter, food that is very approachable yet prepared with a fine dining chef’s eye for quality and detail.
Chef Robert Shaner opened North Center’s Robert et Fils with a family-style menu of dishes that combine classic French gastronomy (specifically Parisian) with a more American sense of modernity and playfulness. Shaner spent his youthful years in Paris, and as explained on the restaurant’s website, he “dreamed…about opening a restaurant that captures the unique experience of a bygone era of dining in France. While Shaner’s cooking is deeply grounded in nostalgia, he also thrives on the freedom of reinterpreting food using modern techniques and, at times, utilizing non-traditional ingredient pairings.”
Robert et Fils offers a rotating prix fix menu that is changed sometimes as often as daily. Dishes that have won approval include roasted chicken (with preserved lemon stuffing and picholin olives), chicken liver mousse (with fennel salad, and seasonal mostarda). Currently, each menu includes bread and, usually, cultured butter, with a side of mixed farm vegetables and a shared dessert from Pastry Chef Cati Molnar, who for the opening prepared a galette aux fruits, a tarragon puff pastry with seasonal fruits, drizzled with crème Anglaise.
What Chefs Shaner and Molnar serve is the kind of food you’d expect to find in a French home: simple and delicious, thoughtfully prepared without pretension, the kind of food you can enjoy in your own home
Wine and cocktails – including some zero-proof options – are available for carry out.
Note that orders for takeout must be placed 48 hours in advance.
