Dinner at Alinea

I'm still quite new to this foodie world. That's why I wasn't too disappointed when I couldn't get a reservation at Grant Achatz's Alinea in Chicago. Maybe I wasn't ready for it anyway. Maybe I wouldn't appreciate the whole molecular gastronomy thing. Maybe my palate would be overwhelmed.

When I got the call 4 hours before dinner that they had had a cancellation, I wasn't quite sure how to feel. Excited? Anxious? Nervous? Underdressed? Yes! I had packed thinking there was no chance we'd be eating anywhere nice. P looked nice but they looked me up and down. They couldn't kick me out because I wasn't technically breaking the dress code (this is what I told myself). Corduroys and combat boots may be practical for trudging around a freezing city but not a good idea to wear to one of the best restaurants in the country.

Actually in 2006, Gourmet did call Alinea the best restaurant in the country. And here we were standing outside of the building -- an entirely black building, with covered windows, and no sign whatsoever. It was so discrete we walked past it completely. The only thing that clued us in that we were at the right place was the valet post setup outside. Even a small sign with the chef's name would have been helpful. The place is intimidating, and only added to my anxiety.


Walking in was like entering another dimension. A long hallway with brightly colored lights leads you to an automatic door that opens onto this beautiful restaurant. The kitchen is on the first floor and completely visible upon entering, if I had been better dressed and less nervous I would have asked to take a closer look. Chef Achatz was right there in the thick of it.

I'm not sure how many servers we had but it had to be 5 or more. Some were more friendly than others. We obviously didn't look like a pair that had a ton of money to lay out on wine, so some of them treated us more like kids in a fancy restaurant. The description for each dish was an abridged version compared to what I overheard at adjacent tables. I pulled out my camera (after asking permission of course) and the marathon of a meal began...

An amuse bouche of trout roe, licorice foam, ginger cream, maple syrup ball, parsley. One of my favorite dishes all night. The roe popped perfectly in your mouth. Really nice combination of different flavors.

Cauliflower soup with apple cider, fried squares of cheddar, gels of horseradish and the rest I can't remember. I really liked this but it was a bit too salty.

Fluke with camomile sheet, various mussels or clams, celery... we both really hated this dish. I think I hated it mainly because I hate celery so much but the little bits of orange cereal looking puffs were pretty gross. The fluke underneath was good but this dish was really not interesting at all.

Lobster with butter (and lots of it!), popcorn, curry. This dish was basically anything that goes well with butter. There was corn and a yummy square of mango gel. The ribbon strip running across the plate I think was pure butter. That little yellow ball on the left was a ball of liquid butter that would make Paula Deen blush. It exploded in my mouth. This dish was very, very rich.

Lamb with a lemon ball, fennel foam, coffee aromatics. Grant Achatz is big on using aromas to pair with food. This dish was served with a small bowl of coffee, cinnamon, and maybe some other stuff heated on the plate. I think his famous pillow of scented air would have been more effective. This was a fabulous dish though. The lemon ball was amazing, and the little bits of lamb parts all done different ways were very nice as well.


Black truffle ravioli with romaine and Parmesan served in the famous bottomless bowl that a spoon fits perfectly into. This was one of the more memorable dishes all night. We popped this in our mouths in one bite only to experience an explosion of truffle. How do you liquefy the filling of a ravioli? I may never know.


Chestnut with quince, chocolate, and baked potato ice cream. This looks like a big mess on the plate and that's because it is. It was served in a tall bottomless cylinder that the server removed before I could snag a photo. The baked potato ice cream was really nice and the chocolate gels really fabulous but this dish wasn't one of my favorites.

Sweet potato tempura fried on a smoldering cinnamon stick with brown sugar and bourbon. The aromatics really worked on this one! Bacon on a string with butterscotch, apple, and thyme. Concord grape with yogurt, mint, and long pepper. These desserts were to be eaten in the above order. These dishes were fun and all really tasty. My favorite was the grape that again exploded in the mouth.Persimmon spice cake with rum and carrot. This was my favorite dessert by far -- an incredibly moist and delicious cake drizzled with fresh honey with bits of walnuts and gels of carrot and a liquid spiced rum ball in the top right corner. Really delicious.

Chocolate sheet with fig, olives, pine ice cream and pine soup. This was really nice too. The pine and chocolate went really well together.

Dehydrated caramel with salt shooter to finish the evening. It rehydrates in your mouth to a salty, gooey, chewy mess. I had most of P's too.

The verdict? Dining at Alinea is certainly an experience like I've never had before. The 13-course meal done in about 3.5 hours was a test of endurance. A lot of the dishes were so rich that we felt a little sick towards the end. We were both a little tired of the lack of chewing needed for most of the dishes. All the exploding balls of flavor, gels, and purees were a little too much to the point that everything began to taste similar -- savory. Palate fatigue. I felt a lot of the dishes were too heavily salted and some even served a bit cold. If I end up moving to Chicago I'd try Alinea again. It is a lot of fun that I might appreciate more after a little more experience.