Another day, another Restaurant Week meal. This time, my $22, pre-fixe lunch came courtesy of GT Fish & Oyster. This was my third visit to this nationally recognized, East Coast style seafood restaurant and once again, I was reminded why I love it.

GT Fish & Oyster is one of the restaurants that does not condescend to its Restaurant Week patrons. As is often the case during Restaurant Week, I noticed several tables of young diners, as in college-age young. For a student, Restaurant Week may well be the only time of year that restaurants like Blackbird or GT Fish & Oyster are within the budget. So I want these kids to have a special meal. It is in the restaurant’s interest, too, to please the new customers lured in by the promise of a bargain. These are the expense-account restaurant patrons of the future, people.

I began my lunch with GT Fish & Oyster’s famous clam chowder — a staple of its regular menu — served in a cunning little swing-top jar. I love this dish. The chowder is creamy with a hint of smokiness from Nueske’s bacon and a whisper of heat from the house-made hot sauce. I scraped the bottom of the jar to get every last drop. The crunchy, house-made oyster crackers were the perfect garnish and so much more charming than the packaged variety in their uneven rusticity.

My friend and lunch companion opted for the seared tuna salad, which looked substantial and very attractive. The tuna, I could see, was seared perfectly.

For a main course, we both opted for the grilled whitefish — the  other choice, an oyster po’boy was a no go for me because of my shellfish allergy. (I can eat oysters, but the accompanying kimchi had a shrimp paste and fried foods in general tend to make me ill.)

The whitefish, which may well have been local to the Great Lakes, was served over a puree of kabocha squash and topped with charred Brussels sprout leaves. An apple ginger sauce added a note of sweetness and the sprinkle of pepitas provided additional texture and interest. It was an extremely well-balanced dish and everything was cooked to perfection. A light entree such as this one left us with plenty of room for dessert.

Dessert was where things got intense. My friend Tammy ordered the Key lime pie with crumbled raspberry meringue, vanilla whip, and gin and tonic flavored sorbet. The presentation was stunning — small aside to note the beautiful pottery plates at GT Fish & Oyster — and Tammy could barely speak between mouthfuls of pie.

Chocoholic that I am, I could not pass up the layered chocolate and praline ganache — imagine the world’s best KitKat bar — with cranberry sorbet, sugared cranberries and toasted hazelnuts. So, so delicious and indulgent. The tartness of the cranberries cut through the rich chocolate perfectly and made it feel very seasonal.

In short, GT Fish and Oyster has never let me down and Restaurant Week was no exception. Although you might not think of Chicago as being home to a world-class seafood restaurant, it is. If there are still any tables left for Restaurant Week, snap one up!