Alinea Restaurant Chicago

I've always wanted to go to Alinea ever since I was 14. I was doing an independent study research project at my high school, and managed to convince a professor to do crazy molecular gastronomy projects with me, I bought the Fat Duck cookbook and with the state-of-the-art science lab, I made tea that was hot and cold, I condensed a bowl of mushroom soup into a single droplet, quantified and weighed caffeine, and investigated the effect of enzymes for ballotines. Naturally, Chef Grant Achatz was someone that I got inspiration from, and I wanted to go there during spring break, but I was busy with other work then, although I did manage to visit the Fat Duck. So anyway, 6 years on, I managed to visit Alinea. 

Alinea challenges every concept of the word dining. Why must you make restaurant reservations? Alinea went around this convention by having diners purchase tickets to eat at the table, kind of like going for an event or watching a theater. I was working in California over the summer and my friend was working in Boston, and we both wanted to try out this restaurant so I was so happy that it worked out

The dish that I looked forward to the most was the green apple balloon. I sucked it in and wow, my voice became two pitches higher and the green apple balloon was both sour and sweet

When we first arrived, we were greeted with this special dish of caviar and emulsified and alginated jelly, I liked the caviar not so much the rest

Loved this dish, I had to find the food among this nest, and I just loved how Alinea continually adds a lot of play and innovation to the meal, it was fun, it was quirky, and it was far from serious. 

Subsequently, they gave a napkin-shaped porcelain plate, and asked us to take the food with our hands. Eating with your hands in a 3-michelin star restaurant? Never! 

So I gleefully took the chance to, and boy, the dish was good.

Crab

What do you see there hanging?

Rhubarb! They later took it off and shaved it on our dishes. I actually really dislike rhubarb so I didn't like the dish, but come on, you have to give them points for dangling your dinner above your head for a quarter of the meal.

Chinese takeout!

Probably my favorite dish of the night, I studied in boarding school for a good part of my life, so having chinese takeout with my friends was actually part of my lifestyle lol 

I loved this dish, it was so surreal to have all the elegantly coiffed ladies trying to balance the takeout boxes in their hands, and guys in powersuits awkwardly trying to eat out of the box. They also burned some incense sticks for added flavor, it was so amazing.

Me happily eating out of my takeout box

with the chopstick incense noodles

What's this?

Guess!

It's charcoal beef! Cut it open to reveal omg wagyu beef!

I didn't like this dish because I prepared it a lot of times in the lab lol, personal preference, but I think caviar should be caviar, not made up of other fruity flavors

This dish was very very sour to cleans your palate, a little too sour for me, but my friend loved it

rhubarb

macerated and foam and bubblegum - back to our 90s childhood

dumpling - alright

very sour and thick sauce - alright

heh! if you have been reading my blog, you will know that I am intolerant to chocolate! Thankfully, Alinea remembered this and they prepared this dish with VANILLA instead. But rest assured, everyone normally gets it prepared in chocolate.

This time, he wanted to challenge the concept of eating on plates, so he served the food straight off the table, and encouraged to be as messy as possible. The waiter started throwing a composition of different ingredients on our table, and I happily snatched them up and started mixing the different ingredients together

One of my favorite and most memorable desserts

Thanks Alinea for the amazing dinner!

Alinea Restaurant

1723 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
+1 312-867-0110