The joy of the LTH fraternity - Truth, Joliet

This is a good time of year for me. Basketball is frenzied, and I like to wander around watching high school playoff games, exploring new towns and gyms. That is followed by high school soccer, which also causes me to wander and explore as I referee games (hmm, seems to be a certain obsession with high school sports, doesn't there?)

Combine this with the power of the LTH fraternity, which can direct me to places I really should try wherever I go, and the results are delectable.

I was planning to attend a game in Joliet a little while back, so I touched base with southwest suburban chowist, Mugs (still a Chowhound holdout, sad to say, but an intrepid chowist), to see what was worth trying. The bride and the accompanying friends expressed, inexplicably, fatigue with Amanacer, so something new was in order.

Mugs recommended Joliet's newest fine dining spot, Truth. No snickering, please. After a very enjoyable game at Joliet Central (HF beat Hillcrest convincingly), we meandered quickly over to Truth to get our food before the kitchen closed at 10pm.

What we found was a simple and nicely done room - very open, re-used old building (I think Mugs said it was some sort of a tavern or roadhouse) white tablecloth, french posters. The waitress was a friendly, bubbly sort.

We started with a bruschetta. Lots of good tomato chunks, garlicky bread, with touches of herb and cheese to accent it. Nothing fancy, but done properly. The house salad was big, fresh and good. My main course was grilled lamb chops. A tad overdone, and I would ask for medium rare next time, but good. The bride had a filet with blue cheese that was quite good. Our companions were happy with their repast as well.

We finished with one of these monster cake slices, carrot cake in this instance in keeping with my ABC (anything but chocolate - I do like chocolate, but it is only one note in a galaxy of wonderful sweets) dessert approach, which was enough for four.

Good martinis. An unexciting wine list, and we ordered a Penfolds Cab'Shiraz blend that tasted sort of soapy - not good.

For the two of us, this meal ran about $70, which seemed a good deal.

What I liked most, though, was the warmth, friendliness and lack of pretension. There are places in N'ville that do the same style of food, which I would call upscale comfort food. But they cost at least 30% more, and put on airs of being haute cuisine, or at least have pretensions. Truth had pretty good food, served by nice people at a good price.

Here's a link, if interested: http://www.cityofjoliet.com/business/truth.htm

If you want a sit down dinner in a nice atmosphere in the Joliet area, you could do a lot worse.

Truth Restaurant
808 W. Jefferson St.
Joliet, IL 60435
815.744.5901