Des Plaines, IL · Mediterranean · Family Birthday · Around $200 for Four
The kids picked this one themselves. When Vika and I told Josh and Emily they could choose where they wanted to go for their birthday dinner, the answer came back immediately, no hesitation, no discussion, basically in unison. The Foxtail on the Lake in Des Plaines. We had taken them once before, a few months earlier, and that one visit was enough. They knew.
This article is not sponsored. We paid for everything ourselves, and we did not tell the restaurant we were going to write about them.
Foxtail sits on Lake Opeka in Des Plaines, about five minutes from O’Hare, in what used to be a church. They kept the bones. You walk in and the dining room is a soaring A frame with a floor to ceiling stained glass wall along one side. The lighting is warm, the tables seat anywhere from two to a larger party comfortably (they sat the four of us at a four top), and there is also bar seating up front, which we have not tried yet but plan to. The first time we came as a family it was still warm out and we sat on the patio. From there you can see across the lake to the O’Hare runways, which for Josh, who has been plane obsessed since he was little, was its own kind of dinner show. This time the patio was closed, so they walked us all the way to the back. Quieter back there, fewer parties already seated, and a mural directly above our table by an artist named Jenny Vyas that I ended up looking up on Instagram before the appetizers even hit. Reservations are not easy. They open up online two weeks in advance, and I have literally sat there waiting for the window to open and booked the second a Friday went live. They go fast. Valet is offered, but I parked off to the side so the kids could ride the Tesla over to us at the end of the night with smart summon.
The Drinks
For the drinks I went with the Full of Grace, a smooth cocktail that comes in a coupe with a foamy top and a real orchid floated on the foam. I would not normally call myself the orchid garnish guy, but the drink underneath is well balanced and not too sweet, which is the kind of cocktail I keep coming back to. Vika took the Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned and that is where this place earned a little extra credit from me. I have a thing about cocktail ice. At a place that’s charging real money for a real cocktail, the ice should be one big square or a sphere, slow melt, not the fistful of cubes that waters the whole thing down in five minutes. I will sometimes ask before I order, and at a few places I have not ordered the drink at all because the ice was wrong. Foxtail brought out a perfect square of ice in the Old Fashioned, and pressed into the face of it was a tiny fox, their logo, embossed clean enough that you could see it from across the table. That is the kind of detail you do not need but you remember.
The kids’ side of the table was a Berrymint for Emily, a pink mocktail with cucumber slices and mint that came out looking like one of ours, which she was pretty pleased about, and a ginger ale for Josh, who was committed to having no opinions about cocktails on his birthday.
The Food
We ordered for the whole table family style. Vika and I shared everything between us, the kids stuck to their own plates and reached in for bites of whatever caught their attention. We started with the Wagyu Beef Tartare, the Maki Lobster Roll, and the Shrimp Flatbread. The main was the Seared Branzino. The kids had the cheeseburger and the mac and cheese off the kids’ menu.
Tartare first. The Wagyu Beef Tartare comes plated as a small disc with a quail yolk and a caper berry on top and grilled bread points around the edge. I have eaten a lot of tartare in different places, and this one is in the upper end. The beef is finely chopped, properly seasoned, and you can actually taste the meat instead of just acid and salt. Josh, who is thirteen and selectively adventurous, asked to try it. I expected one cautious bite. He went back for a second. We do not make tartare at home, although we do eat sashimi, and at other restaurants Josh has firmly refused anything billed as raw meat. The interesting wrinkle is that when he orders a steak he likes it medium rare, even rare, so the line for him is somewhere between cooked and uncooked beef. The tartare here cleared it. I was paying attention.
The Maki Lobster Roll is not a sushi roll in the way you are picturing. They wrap pieces of lobster in a thin sheet of salmon, top the whole thing with a togarashi and herb crust, and dress the plate with a spicy aioli and a darker ponzu. It is rich. A few pieces is right, a whole plate would have been too much, and four pieces shared between two adults landed about perfect.
The Shrimp Flatbread is the dish I would tell someone to start with if they had never been. Big oval flatbread, plenty of cheese, shrimp, broccoli, slivers of red pepper, green onion across the top. It is generous, it shares well, and it is the easiest one to hand a kid if they want a bite. The kids liked it.
The Seared Branzino was the dish of the night for me. I am a huge fan of branzino, and nine times out of ten if I see it on a menu I am going to order it. Foxtail’s version was perfectly cooked. Whole fish, skin nicely crisped, served over couscous with grilled tomato, lemon, and a green chimichurri spooned across the top. The fish itself was clean and tender, the couscous picked up the chimichurri, and the grilled lemon was the right move. I would order this again without thinking.
One honest note looking back. Vika and I went back and forth on whether to order all three starters or cut one, and we ordered all three anyway. The food itself was not the mistake. Everything on that table was fantastic and we loved all of it. The amount was the mistake. By the time the branzino hit the table we were already in too-much-food territory. Vika was reading this back the next day and we ended up in the same debate again. For her, we could have been done after the apps, branzino and all. For me, the flatbread was the one to skip and the branzino was too good to miss. I still think one less starter plus the branzino is the right call, but either way the lesson is the same. We over ordered, and it is the easiest mistake to make at Foxtail because everything on the menu reads like you want it.
The Kids’ Plates
Josh had the kids’ cheeseburger with fries. Real piece of beef, real cheese, brioche bun, served with pickles on the side and a generous mound of fries. Emily had the Kids Mac and Cheese, which comes in a little metal pan with brass handles, big enough that she actually asked to take the rest home. We do not normally ask for boxes at restaurants like this, but the portion deserves it. That is also worth flagging on its own: the kids’ menu here has a little range. It is not just burgers and fries. The mac and cheese is not from a box. The portions are not afterthoughts.
The Birthday Moment
We told the server when we sat down that it was the kids’ birthday. He nodded, said happy birthday, and that was the last we heard about it until dessert. Two blondies, vanilla ice cream, caramel drizzle, and a tall sparkler firing off the top of each one. Twins, two sparklers, both blondies were on the house. There was no singing or staff lining up at the table, which honestly is what the kids would have preferred at thirteen, and the whole thing felt like the room celebrating quietly with us. The blondies themselves are very good, dense, properly buttery, and the ice cream balances them.
The Price
This is where I keep my promise to always tell you what the meal cost. Our bill before tip, with tax, came to $198.70.
For four people on a Friday night, with a real cocktail, a mocktail, an Old Fashioned, a soda, three starters, a shared main, a side of fries, and both kids’ menu plates, I think that is a fair number. Foxtail is not cheap, it never pretended to be, but for the quality of the food, the room, and the service, it lands in a reasonable place. The blondies being comped helped, and I would have happily paid for those too.
What we paid: Our total before tip, with tax, was $198.70. That covered two cocktails (Full of Grace and Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned), a Berrymint mocktail, a ginger ale, the Wagyu Beef Tartare, the Maki Lobster Roll, the Shrimp Flatbread, the Seared Branzino, a kids’ cheeseburger, a kids’ mac and cheese, and a side of fries.
Would It Work for the Family?
This whole article basically answers that, but here it is in one place. Yes. If you have kids in roughly the Josh and Emily range, ten to fifteen or so, this place is going to land. The kids’ menu has more than a burger and fries, the staff treats kids like guests, and the room is loud enough that nobody is going to look over if your table gets a little excited. Younger kids would also do fine here, just expect the same volume in the main room. If you are coming as a date night, the back room is the quieter call, the bar area is the louder call, both work. The one honest caveat is the music. It gets a little louder than I personally would set it. We were still able to have a real conversation at the table, but it leans toward the energy side, not the hushed fine dining side. Know that going in. And book early. We have only ever gone on a Friday or Saturday, and we have always had to book weeks ahead. A weekday late afternoon might be easier, but we have not tested that yet.
The Verdict
A former church on a lake, a kitchen that does both a wagyu tartare and a kids’ mac well, cocktails that are balanced instead of showy, an ice cube with their logo pressed into it, a kids’ menu with real food, a quieter back room with a good mural, a fair price for what you get, and a sparkler moment for our twins that we were not expecting and they will remember. I cannot really say anything negative about this experience. The kids have already been asking when we are going back, which is the real review.
Want to see a few more shots from the night? We posted a photo set on Instagram. Head over to our Foxtail post on @travelandfoodguy and take a look.
If you want another suburban special occasion spot in the same vein, LAGO in Lake Zurich is the other one we keep going back to for a big family dinner. Have you been to The Foxtail on the Lake, or do you have a favorite special occasion spot in the Chicago suburbs we should put on our list next? Drop it in the comments. Vika and I are always looking for the next one.
