Alinea

07/01/2008 Posted by d7600

My wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary at Alinea. We opted for the 24 course tasting with wine pairing. It was awesome! The food was incredible and the service was top notch. Our dinner lasted about 4 1/2 hours - however, it never felt long or drawn out.

12/23/2007 Posted by kodani

excellent food, service and wine. go when you can spend money on a great memorable meal without worrying about the bill which will come out to 800+ for 2. Do not skip the wine pairing...they are all excellent. Service is flawless and far from pretentious. If you are a steak and potatoes type or if you are watching money, this place is not for you. This is a place for the adventorous foody type who loves wine.

Pros: food wine service

Cons: price

08/29/2007 Posted by changeagent

Let's face it, different people have different tastes so Alinea isn't for everyone. Alinea certainly is not a place I would want to eat every day (even if I could afford it) but it does rank in the top five food experiences I have ever had. The dishes are likely to be like none you have ever eaten before and are full of surprises. A simple piece of bacon can be turned into a melt in your mouth savory sensation. Sweet, salty and savory are combined for a unique but wonderful sensory event. The service was friendly and unpretentious. Frankly, I'm baffled by some of the negative reviews. I'd would return to Alinea long before going back to the raved about Charlie Trotters where I felt like I was being taken for granted and that they were doing me a favor by serving me. As a point of reference, I've eaten at many great restaurants around the world including the French Laundry and most of the well know places in the SF area, Paul Bocuse's in Lyon, the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, etc. Anyway, Alinea offers a great food experience. If you want a big steak or other standards, or you don't like innovative food, don't go.

Pros: How do they do that with food?

Cons: Expensive.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

05/20/2007 Posted by sugarywitch

We had originally decided to do the 12 course menu but then we figured, we probably couldn't afford to go back too soon so we splurged for the tour with the wine pairings and I could not be more pleased! The guests were varied from young people on fancy dates, to what looked like quite a few groups of older repeat visitors. The service was really wonderful, I could see the waiters being careful with what looked like more uptight patrons and very comfortable/not stuffy with younger people like ourselves. That made the whole experience more wonderful since we could ask questions and chat with the people bringing us food and wine about what we were getting. They didn't even complain when I asked for a diet coke --which I'm sure is pretty rare there--! The food was fantastic. Very avant garde, but incredibly tasty. Some of the dishes were just good, but at least 3/4 were downright amazing. Standouts were the croquette with the steelhead roe, the duck on lavender pillow, the black truffle, the skate, the asparagus, the foie gras, and the caramel. The hot potato cold potato may be the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life! The wine pairing was just perfect, in selection and size. I was afraid I would get too drunk and not be able to enjoy the last courses, but they were very careful to pour reasonable amounts for me (and a little more for my clearly more able company). The wines were certainly wonderful and interesting, not the same stuff you see everywhere. An additional cool twist was the custom made dishes/delivery devices that added to the originality of the experience. The menu is still up on my fridge a week later and every time I look at it I'm reminded of the wonderful time I had.

Pros: Great food and very cool experience

Cons: Expensive, but still worth it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

04/02/2007 Posted by finner

We went based on the Gourmet recommendation that this is the best restaurant in America for 2006! The reception at the door was warm and inviting, the service was knowledgeable and attentive and not pretentious. The rest of our experience was totally mediocre and we felt ripped off paying $900 per couple after the tip. A few of the 23 dishes were absolutely delicious, balanced, and a joy to eat. Unfortunately our party of four summed up the rest of the food in three words: soft, sweet and ridiculous. If we weren't being served some form of puree, foam, sorbet, gelee, sauce, mash, poached fish or medium rare (read: soft) meat, we were being served the ridiculous stuff like caper, brown butter and lemon "powder" along side the fish. Sure, it was neat, but did it taste good? Um. No. Nor did the thing that exploded with hot ginger on the back of our throats and made everyone at the table cough and wheeze and reach for their water. Gee, we felt so attractive, so refined! Then there was the 1" plastic-wrap-like square that was filled with some sort of smoke flavor. It tasted like I took a swig from a bottle of liquid smoke. This stuff seemed like something a 12-year old boy would think is really cool! At the end, only 2 of us could eat our last course (which was a delicious caramel and cinnamon concoction by the way) not because we were stuffed but because we were so hopped up on sugary sweet food and the sweet wines being served from the midway point of dinner that we felt like a kid who had just OD'd on his Halloween candy and couldn't eat another bite. When I left at 1:00am I wasn't particularly hungry but I stopped by a convenience store to get a bag of Doritos. I needed something crunchy and savory and those chips were just the thing. The guys in the back seem to be having an awful lot of fun playing with food at our expense.

Pros: The service was knowledgeable and attentive and not pretentious

Cons: Most of the food can be summed up in three words: soft, sweet or ridiculous

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

03/21/2007 Posted by la_chi_love

The service was amazing. (Compared to Tru- it's a little less...but WAY up there.) Kudos to Katie, the hostest, and the head sommelier (oops I forgot the name- but oh-so-helpful.) I can't even explain how lovely the food was...every dish is so complex and if I listed the ingredients, it would probably make no sense. Let's just say that Grant Achatz combines seemingly random ingredients that you would never expect together and voila- it all makes sense. (But you'll be asking, "How did he do that?!" in awe as you eat it.) The presentation of each dish is like a work of art- and very modern and avant-garde. Each is beautifully arranged as well as it tastes. If you're deciding for some good cuisine served in an "unconventional" manner in Chicago- you'd probably consider Moto and Alinea, no? Both are good, but between the two...Alinea is one I'd return to over and over again. Not to mention the head chef must be the biggest stud out of all the top chefs in Chicago, hands down. :P

Pros: Food, Service

Cons: It had to end...

03/03/2007 Posted by 12_9atu2

Thats it! I've had it with overpriced dressed up snacks. For a $1230 before tip, dinner for four I want to feel satisfied, not embarrassed because I asked for more bread due to the fact that my head was swimming from too much wine, too much presentation, and not enough food. The wait staff was certainly schooled with knowledge of what was being served, but after 4 hours of being told how great the food was and what wonderful pairings the wines were by a kid whos hair looked liked he slept on his head, it became torture. And don't ask for a second cup of coffee, how barbarian. There can't be enough fools in Chicago to keep this place open for too much longer. I'll stay with Everest or Les Nomades, this place is a fraud. For the same price, next time I'll fly to San Francisco and enjoy a great dining experience at Gary Dankos, puts Alinea to shame.

Pros: none

Cons: overpriced

02/03/2007 Posted by winemaster28

Alright, little background before I start, I make a modest income and room with 3 other dudes college style. I'm not much of a bar hopper so I like spending my money on my good friends. So I treated 3 of my best buddies to Alinea. The closest these wisenheimers ever get to this calliber of restarant is Fuddruckers. They saw the website and said "take us to the starship enterprise! Please!" We went down the willy wonka hallway and into the automatic doors to Alinea. It was awesome. The service was unbelievably sincere, honest, and non-pompous (kicks the bajeezis out of Moto and Trotters. Trotters was pompous and the servers were careless, Moto was pressure city to get you to buy more wine). And if the service and environment wasn't enough, the food was unbelievable. The word "explosion of taste" was used alot that night. To all those that complain about taste and service are just dumb morons that expect a steak for this money and dont sink into the new flavors. I have to say, Moto and Trotters, 1/3 dishes were weird (not bad but not good). EVERY DISH AT ALINEA was unbelievable. PRICE: 4 people (TOUR:24 courses (1 extra, a gift from the chef) 4X$195 we each had (cheapest) wine pairing 4X$125 bottle of $90 sweet wine (top of the list and cheapest but UN-FRICKIN-BELIEVABLY TASTEY, not bad for cheapest wine I must say) plus some tea and coffee at end $? TOTAL: $1542, (the tip was not included in bill which was very classy and respectful, no forced 18% on tab, we said the hell with it and put more then that. $1900 FINAL BILL Was it worth it.....Heck yes, every penny. An experience you will not get at Trotters or Alinea. Well Tru is next on my list, alot of talk, lets see if it's worth it.

Pros: Great service, great atmosphere, unbelievable food

Cons: NONE!!!

11/24/2006 Posted by pvisf

If you go to Alinea, understand one thing - you are there to worship the food and those who were kind enough to make it for you. Your pleasure, comfort and happiness are irrelevant. Seriously, I have never suffered in a restaurant until now. It took 3 1/2 hours for the short 12 course menu. If the food had been delicious, I wouldn't have minded. However, each dish was a complex but awkward mix of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and earthy. After the 3rd course, your palette can't take it anymore. The wine pairings don't help, because no wine can match this type of food. The food is meticulously put together and many of the techniques are revolutionary, but what is the point? Nothing tasted that good. The dessert were the highlight, only because they were simpler in execution and we knew we could finally go. Service is parochial and condescending. I didn't mind wasting $500, but it's the 3 1/2 hours of my life that I'm never going to get back.

Pros: Good for Masochists

Cons: Service, food, price, waste of time

05/25/2006 Posted by pshah12

One of the single most disappointing dining experiences I have ever had. The food was mediocre - a few dishes were interesting. The price is beyond exorbitant. I felt totally and completely ripped off and to boot, hungry when we left after spending $1300. The staff was unprofessional and seated us next to a loud table of people who they wouldn't even bother to ask to quiet down. Per Se in NYC is head and shoulders above this restaurant. Yes - interesting inventive food is fun but after a while, it was not tasty, not filling and offensively priced. Also, they won't tell you the price of anything unless you ask. We constantly felt like we were being upsold.

Pros: Inventive

Cons: Exorbitant, Unprofessional Staff, Left Hungry