Entre Suenos - The Experience Dinner

Entre Suenos is a restaurant temporarily located in Soho House (113-125 N Green St, Chicago). The Chef, Stephen Sandoval, is looking for a permanent space. The small restaurant serves a regular menu, described as borderless Baja cuisine, the Baja part a reference to the growing food scene in Ensenada and Tijuana. The regular menu recently received a 3 star all out rave review in the Tribune by Nick Kindelsperger.

We opted to go for the Experience Dinner, which is what I'll describe, and which was a delightful experience:
1. You arrive at 6:30, and for the first hour you can sit anywhere in the small room. They take drink orders and serve 4 small sea food based appetizers. We sat near the open kitchen and watched the chef prepare a paella over an open wood fire. There is just the one seating, and it takes over the whole restaurant.
2. The appetizers were fabulous:
Tostada with sea urchin, equite puree and burnt lime
Tostada with anchovies, duck liver mousse, avocado and fresno chiles
Oyster with morita chiles, melon and jamon iberico fat (which the chef torched)
A fried ball of some kind with duck, avocado and pickled onion.
3. The chef personally served most of all of these giving a detailed description.
4. You are then seated at a table for 6, so you do have to socialize with strangers.
5. The 5 course meal was a mixture of Mexican and Spanish, with 2 courses (the Valencia style paella) and a suckling pig (with 2 sauces) served family style.
6. The chef spoke the the room and told a story before each course of how he created it and why. The stories includes references to his history of cooking in Mendoza Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and as chef at Lena Brava (he has a strong Bayless connection).

All in all, a unique and special evening. The food was good to outstanding. The atmosphere convivial, and the chef spent most of the time going around and talking to individual diners. You got to ask him any and all questions as he never seemed rushed. We'll definitely go back for the regular restaurant.

Had dinner here last week and it was fantastic. I would anticipate they find a permanent space but I believe they're currently scheduled to run til January.

Had a tuna tostada, ceviche, grilled octupus and fish collar and all were great! Its a pain to make it out to this busy strip, but this place is worth the hassle!

They have a website at https://www.suenoschi.com

The website has a menu that appears to be a la carte, while the description above sounds like they serve a multi-course tasting menu. I'm not sure whether both options are usually available...?

nsxtasy wrote:They have a website at https://www.suenoschi.com

The website has a menu that appears to be a la carte, while the description above sounds like they serve a multi-course tasting menu. I'm not sure whether both options are usually available...?

My meal was 100% a la carte and had no tasting menu option. My educated guess would be that as the pop up has extended, it has moved to a non tasting menu like experience.

When we made our reservation, the tasting menu was only offered once a week. The whole restaurant is taken over, with seating at several communal tables, so everyone in the restaurant is eating that menu. Whether they still offer this or not I do not know.

Jonah wrote:Entre Suenos is a restaurant temporarily located in Soho House (113-125 N Green St, Chicago). The Chef, Stephen Sandoval, is looking for a permanent space. The small restaurant serves a regular menu, described as borderless Baja cuisine, the Baja part a reference to the growing food scene in Ensenada and Tijuana.
-snip-
All in all, a unique and special evening. The food was good to outstanding. The atmosphere convivial, and the chef spent most of the time going around and talking to individual diners. You got to ask him any and all questions as he never seemed rushed. We'll definitely go back for the regular restaurant.

Realized I neglected to post about the meal we enjoyed Sept '21 in this space. Really enjoyed Chef Sandoval coming around and providing commentary/info on the items as well as getting everyone's take on the courses. Terrific host/chef.

We enjoyed everything, standouts for us were:
Turbot w/poblano-dill sauce, serrano, charred avocado
Trumpet mushrooms w/charred tomato, corn, epazote, burnt lime
Suckling Pig "Castacan" - Oaxacan salsa, ancho crema served w/Iberico fat enriched tortillas

What price point are we talking here? Thanks!

As you may remember, Sueños started as a pop-up in Soho House last year, where it was only supposed to operate for six months. But the project did so well, and received such high praise, that it kept extending its stay. A month ago, we found out that it would continue until May, meaning it will soon mark its one-year anniversary.
But Sandoval always knew he wanted to find a permanent location, and now he has one at 1235 W. Grand Ave. in West Town. He hopes the new restaurant will open in the fall.
Actually, there will be two concepts in the same building, Entre Sueños and Diego. The former will delve further into Sandoval’s take on the seafood-focused Mexican cuisine from Baja California. “It will be a bit more elevated than what we had at the pop-up,” Sandoval said. “It will be more in line with our Entre Sueños dinners that we held.” Despite the fact that it will feature an a la carte menu, he’s also hoping to offer a tasting menu option.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/c ... story.html