Kie-Gol-Lanee, Oaxacan Restaurant in Uptown

Kie-Gol-Lanee recently opened in the old Rique's space on Sheridan in Uptown. It was first reported in the Openings & Closings thread. Mr. X and I walked over yesterday to try it out. Sorry, no pics as we were hungry and dove into the food.

The complementary bean dip and chips was a nice change from salsa. A smooth dip, the beans had a slight kick. We started with a ceviche camaron tostada split between us. It was tasty. Mr. X had the Kie-Gol-Lanee soup (chicken soup with tortilla chips, cilantro, avocado and chipotle). It had nice flavor without being over the top spicy. I tried one of the Oaxacan specialities: a Tlayudas. Described as a 10-inch homemade corn tortilla topped with black beans, cheese, cabbage, tomato, red onion, avocado and a choice of topping. I selected carne asada. The steak was probably some of the best prepared carne asada I've had in a while. I found the tlayuda difficult to eat but was glad I tried it.

The space was cheerful and cozy. I would definitely go back to explore other menu items.

kie-gol-lanee
5004 N. Sheridan Road
Chicago, Illinois 60640
872.241.9088 phone
http://kiegol.com/#traditional-mexican-cuisine

Great review, the place looks great. I've been wanting to try authentic tamales and this looks like the spot!

Forgot to post that we returned a few days later. Suffice it to say that a Friday night was very different than a Monday night. Reservations recommended. It probably didn't help that there was a party in the back room.

As promised, we tried different menu items on our second visit. After splitting a pupusa, Mr. X had the short ribs special and I had the lamb shank. His entrée was okay, but difficult to eat. The lamb shank is described as a barbequed lamb shank with salad and ambigu - oaxacan mashed potatoes with peas and carrots. The lamb was cooked perfectly and had a lot of flavor. I wasn't as enamored with the potatoes. It was a small amount of potatoes with what appeared to be frozen peas and carrots cooked in. I'd totally go back for the lamb though! For dessert, we split the "pastel de calabaza" (zucchini cake, caramel sauce and powdered sugar.) It was more like a pie than cake, but still quite flavorful.

With great options like La Ciudad, El Maya, Mixteco and Ixcateco, I didn't think I needed another Mexican BYOB in the rotation. I was wrong. We had a terrific dinner at Kie-Gol-Lanee the other night. Highlights for me were the cactus paddle salad, tamales, lamb shank, and rabbit in mole sauce. I'll definitely be back to explore more of the menu.

Cactus salad

Chicken tamale

Rabbit in mole sauce

Lamb shank

Had four folks here Saturday night and thought the food was really good. Starters included two guacamole tostadas, one shrimp tostada and one tamale, which while smallish, were very tasty. I had a goat in consommé special w onion, cilantro and fresh made? tortillas, which was very good. Other entrees were the arrachera, the fish in banana leaf and one of the large tortilla specialties with skirt steak added to it. Finished with the zucchini cake w caramel sauce and while dense, was a nice way to end the meal. Its BYOB and very cozy inside and I'd suggest checking it out.

Small world--Mike and I were making dinner plans with my friend who works at Anteprima and I showed him Frank P's FB post on K-G-L to see if he'd be interested in going. Turns out, the Anteprima cook and his family, from whom I've been buying my holiday tamales the past few years, are the owners! These are by far the best tamales I've ever eaten so I can't wait to try the rest of the menu!

I'll echo the praises here - great food, even better people. Rarely do I find service worth commenting on, but when I'm made to feel as welcome as I was here, it really makes for an even more wonderful experience.

But onto the food. First, boudreaulicious is not kidding about the tamales. We had the red mole with chicken, the green mole with pork and the mushrooms with spicy tomato sauce and cilantro. All three were exceptionally good, better than any I've ever had. And they weren't kidding about the tomato sauce being spicy in the mushroom tamale - fiery! I wish I could rank the three but go with your tastes (or get all 3). They were that good!

I also shared the appetizer of wild mushrooms in plantain leaf with cilantro, green onions and green sauce. I enjoyed it very much but I thought other items were better (no insult at all). And yes, plenty of complimentary chips and bean dip, though I would have also liked some kind of house salsa - not a big deal.

For my main course, I had the cornish hen which came with what is described as a dark, semi-sweet mole sauce. It seemed to me to be somewhere between the mole rojo that came with the tamales and a mole poblano. In any event, the hen was beautifully cooked, the mole delicious (perhaps a tad sweeter than I typically prefer), and the housemade tortillas perfect for cleaning your plate of mole.

As an interesting side point, the hen was served with a large mound of a mayonnaise-based pasta salad, the likes of which you'd expect to find at Jewel. In his review, Sula thought this seemed odd and suggested this might be the result of the chef's experience at Anteprima. But the minute my food was served, one of my dining companions who is from Mexico (and has spent the better part of his life there, though not Oaxaca) pointed at it, laughing, and joked that it's as if we were at a high end Mexican wedding. He said that the pasta salad is exactly what he's seen at what he described as "many of the fancy weddings" he's been to in Mexico. So there's another perspective, though I suspect we'll all eventually agree that it's not the high point of the dish.

I did have a chance to try the carne asada and agree that it was beautifully prepared - nicely charred, medium rare as ordered, and just tender enough.

They were out of tres leches by the time we ordered dessert, but the zucchini cake was very tasty so no complaints here.

Overall, an excellent dinner, and I liked what they did with the old Rique's space. It was nice to see the place packed - I hope it stays that way. I will definitely be back.

Wild mushrooms? For real?

Jazzfood wrote:Wild mushrooms? For real?

Well, it doesn't say they foraged for them . . . and you can get "wild mushrooms" packaged as such from a number of food service providers. In any event, they were nicely cooked, flavorful.

A pet peeve of mine. That truth in advertising thing is a bitch. So am I on occasion, like when it's not true. There's another thread for that though.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4749

Jazzfood wrote:A pet peeve of mine. That truth in advertising thing is a bitch. So am I on occasion, like when it's not true. There's another thread for that though.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4749

Just hazarding a guess but I'd assume that "wild" is being used as the four letter word for "several different varieties more interesting and flavorful than button". Certainly easier to fit on a menu. I don't find this to be anywhere near the annoyance inducing level of things that appropriate an actual proper name of something that it most definitely isn't. Certain beef, fish names, farm names, etc.

I'll join the chorus of Kie-Gol-Lanee praise. Good value for quality, service, skill in the kitchen including some of the best grilled lamb chops, a nightly special, I've had in a while. Slight negative for noise, there was a happily exuberant party of 12 well into their BYOB wine, and the tamale filling seemed soupy, though that may be a style choice on the part of the chef.

Thanks GP and followup posters the bride is already planning a midweek visit with her girlfriends.



Kie-Gol-Lanee, count me a Fan.

G Wiv wrote:the tamale filling seemed soupy, though that may be a style choice on the part of the chef.

From what I have gathered, this is the style from that area, along with the leaf v. husk wrap. I much prefer this version, though my MIL whose family hails from another part of Mexico, hated them. I usually end up dousing the husk version in salsa so when I discovered these, I was in heaven. Definitely a different style that might not be universally loved.

Jazzfood wrote:A pet peeve of mine. That truth in advertising thing is a bitch. So am I on occasion, like when it's not true. There's another thread for that though.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4749

Alan, you and I agree 100% on this. Almost like serving Caprese in Chicago in January. Please....no one take offense and start WWIII. When I get that "Chef's mushroom mix"of cultivated brown/white Beach, baby oyster clusters and king oyster, all packed in pints and wrapped in plastic, or just plain ole shiitake/ oyster/portabella,
we use the phrase "exotic mushrooms," and/or list them individually, as we did for a recent Club event that we made a risotto starter for.

Evil Ronnie wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:A pet peeve of mine. That truth in advertising thing is a bitch. So am I on occasion, like when it's not true. There's another thread for that though.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4749

Alan, you and I agree 100% on this. Almost like serving Caprese in Chicago in January. Please....no one take offense and start WWIII. When I get that "Chef's mushroom mix"of cultivated brown/white Beach, baby oyster clusters and king oyster, all packed in pints and wrapped in plastic, or just plain ole shiitake/ oyster/portabella,
we use the phrase "exotic mushrooms," and/or list them individually, as we did for a recent Club event that we made a risotto starter for.

Your price point is a tad higher at the Club than at this little BYO chef. Perhaps we can agree that this is much ado...

boudreaulicious wrote:

Evil Ronnie wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:A pet peeve of mine. That truth in advertising thing is a bitch. So am I on occasion, like when it's not true. There's another thread for that though.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4749

Alan, you and I agree 100% on this. Almost like serving Caprese in Chicago in January. Please....no one take offense and start WWIII. When I get that "Chef's mushroom mix"of cultivated brown/white Beach, baby oyster clusters and king oyster, all packed in pints and wrapped in plastic, or just plain ole shiitake/ oyster/portabella,
we use the phrase "exotic mushrooms," and/or list them individually, as we did for a recent Club event that we made a risotto starter for.

Your price point is a tad higher at the Club than at this little BYO chef. Perhaps we can agree that this is much ado...

I think you misinterpreted my statement Jen, and price point is irrelevant in this comparison contrary to what you suggest. I am simply in agreement with Alan...nothing more and nothing less. Mushrooms are either wild or cultivated. Period. For the banquet dish I described, the mushrooms purchased were not wild due to budgetary constraints, so I simply chose to use the word exotic for the menu card on this particular evening, in order to best describe the mushroom risotto appetizer that was served.

boudreaulicious wrote:From what I have gathered, this is the style from that area, along with the leaf v. husk wrap. I much prefer this version, though my MIL whose family hails from another part of Mexico, hated them. I usually end up dousing the husk version in salsa so when I discovered these, I was in heaven. Definitely a different style that might not be universally loved.

The "leaf" for the tamale is indeed typical of Quiegolani, and Maria Mendoza (who usually works the front of the house, but seems to be a cook/chef in her own right) told us that this leaf, the "rama de la milpa," as she called it, confers a sweetness that the husk does not.

Just found out about this place a month ago, can't believe it took us this long. We used to buy the tamales from the owners from their house in Bowmanville during the garage sale days. They gave us their card this year. The tamales are so good!!! I wish they delivered. Harder for us to get up there with the kid at dinner time.

For what it's worth, the Tilapia Tlayuda I had from KGL was one of my favorite Mexican dishes of the year so far. Unique incorporation of grilled fish within a larger dish (as opposed to a fillet w/ sides). Incredible finesse in keeping a dish with beans, cheese, protein and avocado so light and clean. Excellent salsa verde, and the mushroom tamale (banana leaf) was good too.

Another stellar meal at my favorite Mexican BYOB. We explored a number of specials, including grasshopper tacos, a dish I've never tried, but am so glad I did.


Single vineyard Syrah from Torbreck


Carne Asada


Grasshopper taco


Corn smut quesadilla


Watermelon salad

We went here last night with some friends and tried a large swathe of the menu. I was relatively unimpressed.

We started by hitting up the specialties of the restaurant. A huitlacoche quesadilla didn't bring the umami richness of the divine version at the now defunct Authentaco. The vegetarian Tlayuda just didn't come together at all. It was just a bunch of fresh ingredients piled onto a crispy tortilla and predictably underseasoned. I somehow doubt the carnivorous versions would be much better. We tried all but the rajas tamale. I don't typically like tamales, finding the proportion of exterior to filling way off, so I had high hoped for these saucy looking ones. The fillings were decent, but I can't get behind the soggy crumbly exterior that resulted in a one-note mushy texture. Maybe tamales just aren't my thing. Finally we had the panela app, which was quite plain, which I blame mostly on Mexican cheese, of which this restaurant uses a copious amount.

For entree we tried the cornish game hen, the enchiladas, the quail and the pork chop and I would rank them in that order. They do a pretty good mole hear, though not nearly among the best I have eaten. The quail has a sweet sauce I might associate more with Asian flavors, but quite good. I think their meat cookery could use some work as the hen could have been juicier and the pork chop was overcooked. Speaking of the pork chop, the tamarind glaze had character, but was not enough for the thick, dry pork chop stuffed with some of that kind of flavorless cheese. Also the "sides" that come with the protein entrees underwhelmed, in particular the frijoles were way short of al dente IMO, being underdone and with no seasoning.

I just can't get excited about the entrees here since you can get equally good moles (the highlight of the meal) at numerous other Mexican joints at considerably less cost and Kie-Gol-Lanee isn't putting any extra effort into the accompaniments (still rice and beans and not particular good versions) either.

botd wrote:We went here last night with some friends and tried a large swathe of the menu. I was relatively unimpressed.

LOL, of course you were. I'd have been stunned if you'd posted anything to the contrary.

In all seriousness, I'm sure your stringent standards are appreciated by many who read these forums.

=R=

Finally we had the panela app, which was quite plain, which I blame mostly on Mexican cheese, of which this restaurant uses a copious amount.

Just had my 3rd meal at KGL. I have to defend the queso panela frito. My boyfriend ordered it and I agreed only to avoid not being a total control freak on our dining choices. Sounded bland to me too and I did not expect to eat much of it. Maybe it has changed a bit since you're review but I found I surprising brightness to this dish. I would think it came from the sauce on top but it seemed to permeate the cheese. I loved it and it was a great reminder to let other people suggest menu items to me once in a while!
[img]Kie%20Gol%20Lanee%20Queso%20Panela.jpg[/img]

Also, if you haven't this place yet, or haven't visited in a while, please do! I never witnessed the crowds as described in earlier posts and I want them to stay in the neighborhood!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the beet salad, Ensalada de Betebales. This is a must on every visit!

The hubs and I eat at K-G-L weekly before each weekday Loyola basketball game--so we're there early (5:00ish) and, as you'd expect, it's quiet. But by the time we leave, the room is usually at least 3/4 full and these are weeknights.

As for the food--it's fantastic. Highlights over the past month or so have been the Huitlacoche' quesadilla (blue corn, FULL of corn smut and so delicious), the K-G-L soup (basically chicken tortilla but one of the best versions I've ever had); guacamole; green mole pork tamales; and the nopales (to be fair, it's always good, sometimes amazing--I think different people may make it--the acidity and salt levels vary from a very light hand for both to perfect--it's not that hard to get it to where I like it with a squeeze of lime and the salt shaker, but just wanted to note it in case someone tries it and wonders why it might need a little something). And I love the spicy black bean puree that they serve with chips to start. And the limonata agua fresca. Still BYO. Service is warm, friendly and efficient. Don't miss this place!

We hit up Kie-Gol-Lanee for dinner last night. It was a perfect night for patio dining. I had the chorizo/oaxacan cheese stuffed pork chop. Mr. X had the pork ribs special with a peanut sauce. Delicious food. Glad we made the decision to go.

I really enjoy that pork rib w peanut sauce dish, shame we're about to lose al fresco weather

We love this spot. Great people and great food. I could make a meal of the tamales alone.

K-G-L is still a must stop for us, either before Loyola games (we kept our tix, even though it’s a bit of a hike from Valpo) or in my fill-the-takeout-freezer trips. I wish I was there right now…

As of February 23, 2022, Kie-Gol-Lanee will no longer be BYO. They now have a liquor license. This news comes from their Facebook page, which I can't link to from work.