Alinea | Chicago Fine Dining

Back in June of last year, a group of twelve of us had an incredible experience dining at The French Laundry in Napa Valley. Immediately afterwards, we started plotting our next group dining experience and set our sights on Alinea in Chicago. I really liked the idea of dining with a group, but after my inquiry returned a quote of $36,500 minimum for private dining (that’s over $700/pp even if we filled the whole restaurant), we went for a regular table instead. Planning ahead, I spent a few minutes on their website the day tickets were released, and I secured a table of six the day after Jessica and Alex’s wedding in Chicago.

  

The entire restaurant is very dark, with interesting nightclub-lounge-like lighting. It’s not really my style, but it goes with the modern style of food. Below, our napkins embroidered with the alinea symbol– it’s another name for the paragraph break, which chef Grant Achatz liked because it signals a new line of thought, much as he planned his food to do.

Our dining crew: Jenny, Kevin, Ming, Eric, Jesse, and me.

The first course was reminiscent of The French Laundry’s classic “oysters and pearls.”

This was the “hide and seek” course. Find the hidden jerky in this giant nest of twigs!

An awesome ceramic plate made to look like a cocktail napkin, and spraying some licorice graffiti on this slab of Halsted street. Mmm, I’ve always wanted to eat sludge off the street.

This was probably my favorite course, featuring good ole midwestern corn alongside truffle, manchego, and sherry, except it was a bit too salty, as were many of these courses.

The base of a nice dish featuring rhubarb…

Including some freshly grated rhubarb from the stalks that were hanging above our table. Funny.

Ok actually, this one was probably one of my favorites. Lobster, curry, grapefruit pearls, and a whole variety of flavors that we were free to mix and match as we wished. Choose your own adventure!

More amusement and humor: “Chinese take-out,” kind of. The Alinea version of orange chicken is instead fried sweetbreads. And two long cinnamon sticks, lit on one end, serve as the chopsticks for some added flavor and aromas.

A refreshing little palate cleanser, as they put a pile of logs on the table…?

The pile of logs is lit into mini campfires.

And in the next course, surprise! There’s berkshire pork hiding in that pile of logs. This would have been really delicious, were it not like eating salt on salt on salt. Fun and great in theory though.

Hot potato, cold potato. They tell you it’s time sensitive, and you pull out the silver pin holding the hot little baubles, dropping them into the cold liquid below. A fun little play on temperatures.

Next, getting smokey! A duck-themed dish, again Asian-influenced. The vase gave a cool effect as stir-fry-flavored steam came out the top, flavoring the whole experience.

This dish was quite trippy, owing to the strings made from bubble yum. Seriously, it tasted like bubble yum, which makes you think you shouldn’t be eating it, but it just turns clear and melts in your mouth.

Signature taffy balloon! Green apple flavored, and filled with helium so you can give it a kiss, take a breath, and speak like a chipmunk.

The server told them to remove their glasses so they wouldn’t get stuck, but that totally did not work out for Jenny, hahaha.

Awkward.

A little happy birthday to Kevin! “Allow me to unwrap your present,” says the server, as he pours warm cream over the dark chocolate bonbon, revealing a little nubbin of ice cream inside.

And another signature dish, the grand finale dessert presentation. They roll out a big rubber tablecloth, bring out all these little dishes, and then two chefs draw their art all over the table.

They look like they’re having fun. =)

Smash!

A quick group photo while we’re all on one side of the table.

And finally, a little glimpse into the kitchen. It was surprisingly still bustling, even at 11:30pm. We usually end up seeing kitchens in a lull at the end of service, but people still looked pretty frantic in here. Sadly no Grant Achatz sighting– they said he’s working on the new menu for his other restaurant Next– but still cool to peek inside where all the magic happens.

The verdict? It was a great meal, filled with entertainment and humor. However, I think all those little surprises would have packed a lot more punch if I hadn’t already known so much about the restaurant and its concept. Jesse first visited Alinea in 2012, and that meal remains his favorite dining experience ever, because it completely blew his mind. I just don’t think this visit could have lived up to that. Plus, with at least four dishes that were way oversalted, the flavors just didn’t quite live up to the impeccable standards I’d expect from Alinea. But still, I’m glad we went. It was delightful indeed. So… where to next?

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco but often jetsetting and eating her way around the world. Read more on her blog or follow her on facebook for more photography and travel adventures.