Neighborhood: Lincoln Park

Vegetarian Options Rating: ★★★

Pescatarian Options Rating: ★★★★★

Affordability: ★★

Ambience: ★★★★★

Service: ★★★★★

 Food Quality: ★★★★★

Overall Rating: ★★★★★

If you want an intimate dinner with exemplary service and outstanding food, then Boka is a perfect option.  My significant other surprised me by taking me here and it was such an amazing culinary experience.  One of the best of my life.

You walk in and there are multiple rooms giving different vibes like a darker more romantic room, a room with plants, and an outdoor space.  We sat in the darker room especially because it was kind of chilly outside.

The service was exemplary.  They were super fast with the water refills, changing our plates/silverware, and were very polite and professional.  Our server was also very helpful with the menu and gave us a complimentary glass of champagne for our celebration.  What a great way to start this meal.  While this place isn’t ideal for vegetarians, they had enough pescatarian options on the menu to keep us satisfied.  I think they could benefit though from more vegetarian options.

Before we ordered, they served us a cute amuse bouche.  It was delicious and a perfect way to start off the meal.  We started with the cured fluke.  It was unlike anything I have ever had before.  They were really nice about splitting up the dish on separate plates because we shared everything.  The fluke had this jello-ey texture mixed in with pickled watermelon and radish.  It was quite a savory delight.

Our next course was the Fontina Tortelli, which was one of the highlights of the night.  It came with tarragon, corn, and shiitake mushrooms.  It was rich in a buttery sauce and the tortelli had fontina cheese oozing out of it.  I also loved the texture of the shiitake mushrooms.  The tortelli was fresh and I couldn’t get enough of this!

They also served us some freshly baked bread with a savory chive butter.  Wow, I was in love with the Kalamata olive bread and the onion focaccia.  Both were warm and paired seamlessly with the chive butter.  It also went really well with the heirloom tomato dish, which was fresh and flavorful.  The tomatoes were fresh and diverse and they were served with pine nuts, black garlic, and plums.  Perfect balance of sweet with savory.  There was a really unique balsamic drizzle on top.

But the tasting didn’t stop at the tomatoes, our next item was the poached halibut.  Another creative, unique dish that was absolutely mouthwatering.  The poached halibut was light and fresh with artichokes, zucchini, and green coriander.  I thought the artichoke was made to perfection and there was an interesting mixture of flavors.

Our last entree was the seared scallops which came with sungold tomatoes, corn, basil, and a lobster bisque.  Wow, this was also a highlight of the meal.  The lobster bisque was amazing and the scallops were seared to PERFECTION.  The sungold tomatoes were a culinary delight.

We concluded the night with a dark, milk chocolate dessert, which had really distinctive flavors too.  It had earl grey ice cream which was really delightful with sudachi – a sticky, sweet flavor.  I loved the earl grey ice cream because it balanced out with the sweet, decadent chocolate.  The chocolate was delightful and not super heavy.  They also served us complimentary chocolate truffles, which were mouthwatering.

They did an excellent job staging all of the courses out so we didn’t feel overwhelmed.  I cannot wait to come back here for another celebration.  The service was also perfect without being too in your face.  Yes, this place is expensive but it serves high quality, flavorful, unique cuisine and provides exemplary customer service.