MFK

-Grubbing in Chicago  

Spanish Seafood

Hard to believe I've never posted anything over here on MFK. But it's somewhat fitting as this little Spanish spot on Diversey is pretty low key. MFK opened in the summer of 2014 and they've had a nice little run up to now. It's a the type of spot this part of Lakeview needs. Not much in date night stuff otherwise.

Locals Favorite in Lakeview

The menu here is similar to the size of the place. It's small. But it's heavy with seafood options most of which are prepared some sort of Spanish way. Items like croquettes, and sardines on toast are found up and down it. I'm not going to waste your time trying to come up with clever adjectives to describe the food as this place has already been reviewed by most of Chicago's food media. So instead lets just take a peek at a recent dinner we enjoyed here. Everything was great but if ordering the special Portuguese style seafood stew be prepared to wait. Our dinner was longer than norm and that soup would be the reason. Nonetheless we enjoyed our most recent trip in. Here's what we ate.

 Cantabrian Salt Cured Anchovies - butter, lemon zest

 Fideos - toasted vermicelli, piperade, saffron 

Starting with a plate of salt cured anchovies these were pretty damn salty. I know they're supposed to be but without the wonderful Spanish wine we sipped on these would've been too much. Still we agreed this dish was something we'd have enjoyed in Spain. The fideo pasta was perfect in my book.

 Charred Octopus -  quinoa, red pepper sauce

I forget the exact description of an octopus dish on special the day of our visit but I remember it being delicious. It's nice to see most places cooking octopus perfect these days. About that stew I mentioned earlier. It was pretty glorious. Called 'Cataplana' it's named after the type of dish it's cooked in. A deep heavy pan that's usually used to serve the stew from the table. This recipe had shrimp, mussels, clams, smoked pork, saffron rice, tomato with well crusted garlic bread sitting on top. This dish was legit I just wish it had more broth. I get the fact it's a stew and not a soup but the broth on the bottom was wonderful however there was only a few spoonfuls total. But they were great.

Cataplana (Portuguese Style Seafood Stew) 

MFK
432 W Diversey Pkwy
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 857-2540
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