Think of this experience not as dinner but as interactive edible performance art, and you’ll be fine. Superstar Grant Achatz is flying higher, faster, and farther than ever when it comes to inventiveness in the kitchen and in the dining room. Printed menus don’t arrive until meal’s end, but they’re so enigmatic (“Woolly pig—fennel, orange, squid”), getting them earlier wouldn’t really prepare you, anyway. Expect one astonishing presentation after another, with revelatory bites served on all sorts of things, including boughs, pillows, driftwood, and—dishless—on the table itself. Multicourse tasting menu, $210-$265 per person; wine pairing menu offered.
Additional Information
Rating: 4 stars
Price: $50-plus
Cuisine: Progressive American
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Noteworthy: wheelchair accessible
Dishes We Liked:
(All dishes are part of a prix fixe menu.) Trout roe—carrot, coconut, curry; scallop—an agedashi tofu send-up; swordfish—caponata, mint, panella; wild mushrooms—pine, sumac, shallot; venison—red cabbage, mustard, paprika; lemongrass—mango, Thai basil, finger lime
