The downside of H’s new schedule is that now he is on call every other weekend instead of one out of three. That means we have to stay in the vicinity of the three hospitals (about Schaumberg to Woodstock). We are getting bored of the two half-way decent restaurants in Woodstock, so we decided to make an effort to explore the surrounding burbs. In particular, Barrington, because that’s supposed to be fancy. Last night we went to pl8, which despite its ridiculous name, is not that bad. It is in a place called the Foundry. Doesn’t that sound fancy? Well, it’s still a strip mall on a highway, even if the buildings have brick facades. Pl8 is pan-Asian. You wouldn’t come here for authentic Asian food, but it’s good for western-style Asian, the kind that goes well with a cocktail ending in “-tini.”
Such as the lucky pl8-tini: grey goose lapoire vodka, pear puree and asian pear sake (randomly served with a skewered olive, which I think must have been for another customer’s drink). This was delicious.
pl8 marks vegetarian items with a green circle. Spicy items have a red circle. I order the wok tossed gailan, which you can’t see from the screenshot of the menu, has a green and red circle.
I also got some edamame and a veggie lover’s roll (cucumber, pickled radish, avocado and mushrooms). The edamame wasn’t that great, but the sushi roll was nice. Pickled radishes and mushrooms are not available in Woodstock.
The wok tossed gailan (Chinese broccoli) was tasty. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, spicy. Not even mildly so. It makes me wonder if items without a red circle would have any flavor at all.
I’m getting the mapo tofu the next time. That will be the true test of the red circle.
