The menus are printed on plain brown paper; the brick walls sport little more than a chalkboard; and most of the dishes are made with three or fewer ingredients. Yet to say that Mado is a simple restaurant is to misunderstand it. That would imply a lack of effort, or a scarcity of thought. But Rob and Allison Levitt, the couple behind Mado, are nothing if not hardworking and thoughtful. The restaurant, in fact, isn’t simple at all.
But it is minimalist. On any given night, the menu includes roughly 5 entrée-sized dishes and 10 very stripped-down small plates. Slivers of scallop crudo are seasoned with only a few segments of grapefruit and a pinch of pepper; woodsy sunchokes are adorned with just lemon and parsley. Agrodolce onions—a small, soft, caramel-colored pile of them—come with nothing, allowing you to experience their singularly wonderful sweet-tart flavor. A housemade beef shank terrine arrives similarly naked, with a few crostini on the side.
Not that this is a problem. Most of the time the food is so delicious that I’d eat it with my hands if I had to. In fact, if there’s a drawback to this style of cooking at all, it’s that it’s fleeting. The menu is based on the best raw ingredients the Levitts can find and, as a result, it’s always changing. This can be painful. The first time I ate at Mado I was fortunate enough to try the shortbread for dessert. True to the restaurant’s minimalist credo, it was plain-looking, but also sublime—so full of rich, sweet butter that it hardly held together. I told everybody I knew that it was the best shortbread I had ever eaten. But when one of my coworkers went to Mado and tried it, she brought back disheartening news: “The shortbread’s getting a following,” one of the servers told her. “So we’re taking it off the menu.”
So anybody planning on eating at Mado should heed this advice: Order a lot of food. And if you like something, order another round—maybe even a third.
But whatever you do, don’t get too attached.
Mado 1647 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL (773-342-2340; madorestaurantchicago.com)
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