Bongo Room

Posted by Edmund in Breakfast/Brunch, Chicago, Featured Articles, Restaurants | 4 comments

Cuisine: Breakfast, Brunch.
Location: 1470 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622.
Price: $10-$20 for Breakfast.

I love to wake up in the morning with a nice, big breakfast to get the day started. And when I eat breakfast, there’s nothing I like more than a good pair of flapjacks or some French Toast—i.e. something really starchy, heavy, and a bit sweet to really give me a carb load for the rest of the day.

And that’s where Bongo Room comes in. This little breakfast joint is known to serve up a killer chocolate tower French toast. As soon as I heard of such a magnificent marriage of chocolate with one of my favorite breakfast foods, I was convinced that I just had to check it out. I can’t resist either of the two separately, so I figured I’d love the combo.

Everything, however, seemed to be working against me. With my luck, I happened to go to Bongo Room on a Thursday, and I soon found out that the famous chocolate tower French toast is only available on the weekends. I was thus forced to choose from a rather small menu of different types of omelettes, pancakes, etc. from which nothing really stood out.

Nor did I really enjoy the restaurant, as it aims for a modern/abstract look, but not to the greatest effect. It’s filled with normal rectangular wooden tables, chairs, and brick walls but has tons of color everywhere, ranging from oranges to grays to greens. The walls are decorated with large geometric shapes broken up into smaller shapes (i.e. rectangles of different colors coming together to form a larger rectangle). Overall, though, it feels bland and a bit overly simple. I would consider it the equivalent of a nicer version of Starbucks.

The service didn’t engage me in any way, either. My waitress wasn’t bad, but she was a bit reserved and removed. This is a very hands-off eatery, as they just bring out the food and let the customer be, so it’s good if you’re the type who likes to be left alone.

As for the food, I only tried two things on the menu, so I can’t say I tried a truly representative sample, but what I did try wasn’t the greatest. After going through the limited selection a couple times, I finally settled on the red velvet pancakes, thinking I’d get a nice sugary fix at least. Plus, I’m both a lover of red velvet and of pancakes, so I figured I’d at least get a kick out of the combination, even if it weren’t perfect. These pancakes, though, were dull, to say the least, as they lacked all the delicious flavor and sweetness of traditional red velvet, instead more akin to normal pancakes. The frosting/syrup, moreover, was so light that it was almost lost in the mountain of under-flavored fluff.

More positively, my side of Thai chicken sausage helped a little. It had a zesty, light garlic flavor, a slight ginger spice, and a nicely crunchy, semi-burnt exterior that distinguished it from the typical oily sausage. It, however, just wasn’t enough.

Bongo Room, then, was about as average as it gets in nearly every regard. From the ambience to the service to the food and selection, nothing stood out. It’s a shame, too, because Chicago is a city full of breakfast eateries, and this one just isn’t up to snuff to compete with its countless rivals. Save some time and take a pass on Bongo Room.

What I Tasted

1. Red Velvet Hotcakes: You can just smell the aroma on these hotcakes as soon as they hit the table, whetting your appetite. Unfortunately, they don’t really deliver on the red velvet taste, contrary to how nice they might look, drizzled as they are in that fantastic-looking cream cheese syrup. This is one of those red velvets with an emphasis on a cocoa flavor, rather than that sweeter vanilla-esque, pound cake-like flavor that many red velvets have. The main problem is that the cocoa flavor is just too intense, and it’s not exactly a flavorful cocoa—just somewhat neutral and bland. It tends to be taken up and suppressed by the batter, so you don’t really taste any bold flavor other than that of the starchy batter, like with a normal pancake. That doesn’t mean the pancake itself is bad—actually, I enjoy the texture and the fluffiness. But it doesn’t taste like red velvet. Adding to that, the best part of the dish, the cream cheese frosting/syrup, is far too weak, and not enough is provided to compensate for the overly strong neutral flavor of the pancake. Moreover, though that syrup has a nice lightness and actually does taste like a flavorful cream cheese frosting, the sweetness is very downplayed. While I don’t think this should be a sugar fest, if it’s going to be a real red velvet, it at least needs a little bit of a sweet taste to it, no matter how you cut it. 1.5/5.0.
2. Thai Chicken Sausage with Ginger: This really just sounded so interesting that I had to try it, especially since Chicago has so much fresh, delicious sausage (just look at all the pizzerias in town!). This sausage, though, is too oily for my taste, to the point that it drips oil onto the plate. But it is, unsurprisingly, very nicely done, cut in half and I think griddled on the open side so that you get a fabulous crisped top. The top has an almost breadcrumb-like crunch, while the bottom has a really nice chewy softness, giving you a great contrast in texture. The flavor is great, too. The sausage itself is succulent, with tons of fat, and you can just taste the juice running out (again, though, it can get a bit too oily). The ginger is not too strong, so it doesn’t overpower at all. Instead, it adds a light herby spice that balances out the oiliness. 3.2/5.0.

Scores

Ambience: 2.0/5.0.
Service: 2.0/5.0.
Taste: 2.0/5.0.
Value:2.0/5.0.
Overall Score: 2.0/5.0.