Best restaurants in Chicago for visiting chef?

I have a friend who is a gourmet chef and teaches cooking classes. He and his wife will be coming to Chicago within the next few months, so I would like to ask for your recommendations of the best places to eat while they're there. Where do locals think the food is the best and why? Looking for delicious, fresh & memorable -- fancy or plain, fine dining or down home. Thanks.

My vote for best new place, if you don not care about cost, is Alinea on Halsted. My wife and I were there a couple of weeks ago and had the 12 course menu with the wine pairings. Was the best and most memorable 4 hour meal that we have ever had.

For fine-dining, it would have to be Alinea, No question about that.

Whereabouts in the country/world is your friend coming from, if you don't mind me asking? I always find that knowing this helps a bit.

It's been around for a while, but I would suggest Blackbird.

Arun's.

Nothing else like this Thai haute cuisine, in terms of overall experience and presentation, anwhere else in the U.S. to the best of my knowledge. If I'm wrong, and there is something similar elsewhere, I'd love to know about it.

Runners up would be Moto and then Tru also for their uniqueness.

ChgoMike wrote:Arun's.

Interesting you'd suggest Arun's, given this article in today's Tribune.

I haven't been in several years, so I can't comment on its current state of excellence either way.

I didn't see that article - interesting.

Recent visits were not as amazing as my first visit to Arun's. However, I chalked this up to becoming somewhat used to the experience and more familiar with cuisine at this level in general.

Maybe we're all becoming somewhat numb to incredible dining experiences as the volume level keeps getting turned to eleven with each new hot restaurant trying to out-wow the last with spiffy presentation, loud thumping music in the background or edible menus.

Then again, maybe not.

I'm heading to Arun's in about ten days, taking my out-of-towner father-in-law for the first time. I love taking new folks to see their reaction to the experience. I hope it will still rank four stars in my little book.

Arun's certainly has the buzz, but when eating there, try to compare the actual food itself (seperating it from its hype) to the food you get at Spoon Thai or TAC for a fraction of the cost (granted, the atmosphere isn't as haute at either of those places). Once you do that, you may wonder what all the fuss is about at Arun's.

Chgo Mike:

It will be interesting to get your take on Arun's again. I think for a lot of diners their first visit to Arun's is amazing and inspiring, but then after that it settles into being a fine restaurant, but no longer so life-changing. My first meal was among the best meals I have ever had, but on my returns, the food has only been very good (even though those that I take often felt that it was as good as when I went there first).. I think that Vettel got it just about right (except for his odd complaint about valet parking).

I still love Arun's appetizers - but for the middle of the meal Spoon, Thai Aree, Thai Avenue, TAC, etc. hold surprises that Arun's no longer seems to.

I do not think Arun's comes close to being as good as Spoon, TAC or Thai Avenue, let alone being "better but more expensive." I also thought there was a serious disconect between the words in Vettel's review today and the star designation. He does not describe a three star meal at all (IMHO).

Here's my Arun's report, about a year old at this point:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t= ... ight=aruns

PS

Your Pal Will dug up this thread on chowhound (from chowhound) that shows more of the same (in my opinion) about Arun's:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 21971.html

Let us carry on.

E.M.

freshfoodfan:

your post just screams for a visit to lula cafe.

recent LTH thread
glowing review from an out-of-town chef
lula's site

btw, they are closed tuesdays & do not accept reservations. sat/sun brunch can get very crowded, but many enjoy the relatively inexpensive dinners (compared to other top notch restaurants around town serving local, organic grub).

enjoy!
miss ellen

I second the Lula recommendation. Monday night is an especially good night to go, as that's the only night Lula serves its Farm Dinner. The Farm Dinner is a fixed price, three course meal of something really special that they're excited about that week.

http://www.lulacafe.com/lula/menupages.html

Avec is another place I'd take an out of town food professional. Great food, nice buzz, and a fairly innovative concept.

Kristen

Just to balance the Lulu love - I have to say, I'd be sorely dissapointed if someone took me to Lulu in a different city.

I had such an underwhelming, overpriced meal at Lula - a hilariously disgusting pasta dish, with a few specks of cinnamon, overcooked watery penne pasta with a couple pebbles of goat cheese and a $26 tiny lamb chop dish that arrived nearly medium well. One of the lowest values I've had at dozens of Chicago restaurants in its' price range.

I also had a few average breakfasts at lula... I doubt I'll ever go back.

freshfoodfan wrote::?: I have a friend who is a gourmet chef and teaches cooking classes. He and his wife will be coming to Chicago within the next few months, so I would like to ask for your recommendations of the best places to eat while they're there. Where do locals think the food is the best and why? Looking for delicious, fresh & memorable -- fancy or plain, fine dining or down home. Thanks.

For some of the meals, your friends might do well considering the places nominated recently in the "Great Neighbourhood Restaurant" forum, with the comments offered there bolstered in almost all cases by ample links to further discussions.

Antonius

Some might say that what Moto is doing is more unique, and interesting, tho perhaps not as tasty as Alinea (despite the media and foodie love affair that is ongoing for Alinea). Having not tried either, tho I did go to Achatz' Trio, I am only relying on what I read for this.

Seems to me that off-duty chefs and cooking teachers often are more interested in sampling lovingly prepared and different foods in simpler, possibly ethnic, places than grand blowouts at very fancy places.

Where is your chef-friend coming from? Where does he/she like to dine when you visit?

I think that places like Mandarin Kitchen, LSC, TAC Quick, Amanacer, Spoon Thai and many others are more interesting and will present some new flavors and combinations, depending on where one comes from.

I no doubt would agree places like Alinea for the innovation and Blackbird for the finest example of new american cuisine in chicago, or even Tru/Trotter for the impeccable service examples, would interest any chef. Then again any chef probably knows about these.

I would argue that the value of this forum would be to point to the nuggets that aren't common, but fine and unique examples of transcendant food experience. I'm thinking Bari Subs, LTH crispy chicken and salt and pepper shrimps, Old Fashioned Apple Fritters, jibaritos at Borinquen, cemitas at Taqueria Puebla and on and on, so to echo what is posted above, the great neighborhood or ethnic places.

MJN wrote: I'm thinking Bari Subs, LTH crispy chicken and salt and pepper shrimps, Old Fashioned Apple Fritters, jibaritos at Borinquen, cemitas at Taqueria Puebla and on and on.

Excuse the interruption in the conversation, but this sounds like a fabulous lunch!

i'd do it all. he's probably looking for inspiration. i'd blow him out w/one or two high end meals, trotter's, avenues or alinea come to mind, maybe a mid $ range @ avec or opera and definitely do the ethnic, which chicago has such a great abundance of and excels @. thai @ tac or sticky rice, dim sum @ furama, indian on devon, korean, traditional chicago ala al's, marios, due's... the list is endless.

Where's he from and what don't they have there? What sort of chef is he?

Chicago has a wealth of ethnic cuisines not readily available in some other cities -- Korean has been mentioned; authentic Mexican; Vietnamese; Polish; and so on. He'll likely be interested in cuisines unavailable in his hometown.

If he cooks in a fine dining venue, then he'll be interested in the cutting edge and the national rep places such as Moto, Avenues, Alinea, Tru, Charlie Trotter's, Vermilion, Blackbird, Topolobompo.

If he cooks a particular ethnic cuisine he'll be interested in examples of that here.