The buzz never fades at Grant Achatz’s stunner, which changes its identity and approach three times a year. Nor does the originality. Chef Dave Beran’s sixth menu, a Kyoto kaiseki, featured one of Next’s finest hours, the “Japanese maple forest”: shrimp, bottarga, a parsnip chip with corn custard topped by trout roe, lotus root chips in an uni shell, and pickled turnip wrapped in nori and duck prosciutto, all hidden in leaves illuminated by a candle in a daikon radish “lantern.” Service is as playful and authoritative as ever. After the current menu, a Midwestern game prix fixe called “The Hunt,” finishes in late April, Next goes vegan. To buy tickets, go to Next’s website far in advance. And pray.
Additional Information
Rating: 3 stars
Price: $50-plus
Cuisine: Contemporary
Neighborhood: West Loop/West Town
Noteworthy: wheelchair accessible
Dishes We Liked:
(All dishes are part of a prix fixe menu that changes quarterly. These items were from the Kyoto menu.) Corn husk soup; Japanese maple forest; Barracuda, wasabi leaf, cured yolk; chrysanthemum, eggplant, shiso leaf; soup, rice, pickles with apple, barley, red date, steamed white rice; “First Snowfall”: maple leaf, powdered maple sugar, persimmon
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Dish Flash: "Next and Aviary: Two Chefs, Eight Questions" November 2010
