Girl & The Goat

When Stephanie Izard debuted her first restaurant, Girl & the Goat, in 2010 it was the most anticipated opening in Chicago.  Reservations were next to impossible to snag at the time.  In 2011 I was lucky enough to dine at this Randolph Row gem for my birthday but only after making our reservation three months in advance.  Since then Izard has also opened her more casual spot across the street, Little Goat Diner, and is currently working on her latest venture Duck Duck Goat.

The menu at Girl & the Goat is complete with shared plates.  We started our meal with the highly recommended homemade bread and butter plate which I remember being very good but can’t remember what was in the two spreads.

We also tried four of the raw oysters.  The oysters come your choice of raw, fried, or wood fired.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat oysters at this point so Kevin probably slurped down all of these.

Next we ordered what was my favorite dish of the night.  The Chickpea Fritters are served with Garam Masala Yogurt, Heriloom Tomato, Stonefruit, and Sheep’s Feta.  These fritters were light and fried to perfection.  I loved these!

We also tried the Fried Soft Shell Crab with Sweet Corn which was very tasty.  Even though the crab was fried the batter was very light.

Our next dish we ordered was the Wood Grilled Broccoli with Rogue Smokey Bleu and Spiced Crispies.  I would have never thought to pair blue cheese with broccoli but they definitely worked together.  My only complaint is this dish was super salty!

Our final dish we ordered was the Confit Goat Belly.  As an ode to her last name, Izard has an entire section of the menu dedicated to different goat dishes.  You can even call ahead and pre-order an entire goat leg.  The goat belly is made with a bourbon butter, lobster and crab, and fennel.  This was my first experience eating goat and it was very good.  It tasted very similar to a pot roast.

Overall everything we tried was very good.  My one issue with the food here is that everything is WAY too salty.  I like salt, but it was too overdone for me.  Girl & the Goat is still extremely popular and reservations can still be hard to come by.  I can hopefully make another trip soon.

Girl & the Goat is located at 809 W. Randolph in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood