Ria - Deeply flawed (despite high aspirations)

Ria is the more upscale of the two restaurants in the new Elysian Hotel in the Gold Coast. The Michelin Guide recently awarded Ria two stars, perhaps the most surprising of its five recipients of multiple stars in the Chicago area. Does it deserve them? I decided to see for myself, and had dinner there Tuesday night with three companions. (But if you don't want to bother reading all the way to the end, my answer is an unequivocal NO.)

The Food

I'll start with the food. And the food service started with a small gougère, a small ball of pate a choux (same dough used for cream puffs) with a vague cheese flavor. Meh; I've had better. Through the rest of the meal, bread service consisted of plain, UNheated mini-baguettes. They were served with butter from a Midwest farm which had allegedly been flavored with apricot and sea salt, but neither were detectable in the slightest, and the butter itself was virtually tasteless.

The menu (six appetizer choices, five entrees, four desserts) is one of those that simply names the primary ingredients/flavors without telling how they are prepared. Fortunately, the menu was short enough and the staff knowledgeable enough that it was easy for them to describe any of them for us upon request. We decided to order a la carte, rather than the tasting menu of six courses taken from the a la carte portion ($120, with $85 for wine pairings).

The courses began with an amuse bouche that was just... weird. It consisted of an apple-flavored broth in which sat a few small pieces of radish and other unidentifiable items. Overall it was rather bland and flavorless. We then proceeded with the appetizers. One featured dungeness crab ($20), several smallish pieces wrapped in leek, a couple more small tidbits of crabmeat, and "pain de mie" which were croutons made of white bread. It was delicious. Another was mussels in veloute and pasta ($20). This consisted of three small de-shelled mussels, three pieces of filled pasta about the same size, in a small amount of sauce. This was also quite tasty. However, both appetizers, but particularly the mussels, were very small portion sizes - what is commonly served as an amuse bouche elsewhere.

A while later (see below) we were served our main courses. Three of us had the lobster ($48), and I did not try the fourth. It was a de-shelled 1.5-pound lobster; I think it was poached. The amount of lobster meat was ample, even generous. It was served with a few small pieces of chestnut, pearl onions, and leeks. The claw meat was pretty good, but the tail was woefully undercooked. Also, this dish (as well as the appetizers) arrived at the table not very hot at all, just barely lukewarm. Perhaps Ria should consider covering hot dishes until they are served at the table, and using heated plates.

For our final course, two of us selected cheeses from the four cheeses offered ($12), and I ordered a dessert. On the menu, its description said "huckleberries, brown butter, meyer lemon ice cream" but that wasn't a very accurate way of describing it. The waiter described it as a chiboust, a dessert of pastry cream, but even that description is misleading. It turned out to be a small disc (maybe .5" x 2.5") of what seemed like vanilla panna cotta with a small scoop of meyer lemon ice cream on top, and little tiny amounts of a few other items including "huckleberry pearls" (total size smaller than a raspberry) and some tasteless powder on top which was supposed to be the brown butter. It was good - hey, I LIKE panna cotta - but gee whiz, for twelve bucks, it should have been 2-3 times larger like at any other high-end restaurant.

The meal concluded with mignardises consisting of a tiny bland macaron, a tiny square of lemon caramel, and a tiny chocolate filled with peppermint, none of which were particularly impressive.

All in all, the food items were generally tasty, but had their problems - portion sizes (appetizers and dessert), temperature served (all hot items as well as bread), and cooking doneness (lobster tail). So overall, I would describe the food as no better than fair.

The Service

And then, there was the service. Keep in mind that Ria is trying to be a high-end restaurant, with service to match. In some ways, the service was very good; the staff was extremely enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable, and addressed the host by name. And it seemed that there were quite a few people serving and clearing, as one often finds at the finest restaurants. It seemed like everyone was trying hard to do a good job and to please the customers. But there were a multitude of service gaffes as well, way more than you'd typically find at even a moderately-priced restaurant.

When the amuse bouche was served, a bowl containing the solid ingredients was placed in front of each diner, and the broth was poured from a pitcher into each diner's bowl. So it is the responsibility of the server to pour equal amounts of broth into each of the four bowls... at which they failed miserably. There was almost no broth left after the first two diners were served, so only a very small amount remained to be poured for the other two of us. But wait, there's more.

I ordered iced tea. I order iced tea at a lot of restaurants, and it should be very simple to serve; even the corner diner seems to do okay with it. Ria, not so good. They brought the iced tea to the table. When any other restaurant does so, they bring a variety of sweeteners to the table with it, or they ask the diner if they would like sweetener with it. Ria did neither, so I had to get the attention of the waitstaff to ask for sweetener. They then brought a simple syrup, which was fine with me as it happened, but most places will bring a variety of both caloric and non-caloric sweeteners so that anyone's needs would be met without having to ask the staff yet another time because they brought the wrong kind. They brought refills of the iced tea to the table, but again, this was a problem for Ria. 99.9 percent of the restaurants in Chicagoland, including most of the finest (e.g. Alinea), provide free refills on iced tea, just as they do with coffee. Not Ria, which charged separately ($4) for every glass served. And when a restaurant deviates from the normal practice in this way, the absolute least they should do is to alert the diner that their policy is to charge for refills. But again, not Ria. So in all of these many ways, the service for the iced tea - a simple, common item - was a failure. But wait, there's more.

The time we waited for service - for our order to be taken, and for each course to be served - was excessive. I was not timing it - we were having a nice conversation - but the time between the clearing of the appetizers and the serving of the entrees must have been 40-45 minutes, maybe more. The slow service carried through at the end of the meal as well; after we had finished our cheeses/dessert, they asked if they could bring us anything else, and we said (right on cue) no, only the check. Yet we still waited a long, long time (maybe 20 minutes, I'm guessing) before the check was brought with the mignardises. Our three-course a la carte dinner took over three hours, far longer than it should. But wait, there's more.

There are a lot of serving techniques that are standard practices at nice restaurants. One of them is not to clear the dishes for a course until everyone has finished eating, so as not to rush those who are still working on their food. Well, one of us was still eating her entrée (which was easy to tell at even a slight glance), but not only did they clear everyone else's entrée dishes, but they actually asked her if they could take her plate. This was simply inexcusable at any restaurant, especially one aspiring to haute cuisine. But wait, there's more.

Another one of those standard practices at nice restaurants is that after the entrees are cleared, diners are asked if they would like coffee. We were never offered coffee service. This too was inexcusable.

For all of these many reasons, I would have to describe the service as poor. In fact, the phrase "comedy of errors" comes to mind.

The Check

The two restaurants at the Elysian Hotel - Balsan and Ria - have a policy of adding 18 percent gratuity to the check, regardless of the size of the party. Needless to say, with the exceptions of large groups and private parties, this is NOT standard practice in Chicagoland. I'm not sure what to think; are enough people shorting/stiffing the staff that it's a problem for restaurants to let people decide how much to tip? I often tip more than 18 percent and almost never less than 18 percent, even after a gaffe-prone dinner like this one. (I would only do so if the staff were deliberately rude or unhelpful.) But when a restaurant adds 18 percent to the check, I'm not going to bother adding a few dollars to bring it to 20 percent (or more) unless the service was unusually exceptional. So at least in my case, the restaurant staff is receiving less by adding 18 percent to the check than they would if they left it up to me. < shrug >

The Room

The room itself was very pleasant, with contemporary styling including an interesting wall sculpture consisting of plaster pieces in the shape of a wishbone. The room was an odd shape (not rectangular) with a couple of large pillars in the middle (at least one is structural, I'm guessing) which should give the room a nice sense of privacy. Unfortunately, the room was quite noisy for its size; we could clearly hear conversations taking place on the opposite side of the room, and all of us (as well as those at other tables) had to talk quite loud to be heard. I'm not sure exactly why sound travels so well there, as there were long drapes along the windows that should have helped absorb the sound. But loud it was.

Summary

I should mention first that we had an enjoyable dinner. I go out to dinner to have fun and enjoy being with friends and having good food, and I did. We did not leave unhappy or angry. I don't go out for the purpose of writing a review or looking for faults. But the food, service, and experience provided by Ria did not measure up to the standards set by other high-end restaurants in Chicago. Based on the prices, staffing, and atmosphere, Ria aspires to be considered one of the best restaurants in Chicagoland. Unfortunately it still has a long, long way to go to get there, at least based on my dinner there. The food as well as the service both had major flaws. I don't know what Michelin saw there, but I would not deem it worthy of even a single star.

Ria
11 East Walton
Chicago IL 60611
312.880.4400

EDIT: Corrected the spelling of gougère, for the person who thinks an entire review is invalid when a single word is misspelled.

That is the most thorough iced tea post I've ever read.

Thanks, nsxtasy, for the detailed write-up. I'm going there on Wednesday and looking forward to checking it out for myself. I've been very curious, especially since I really enjoyed my one experience at Balsan.

=R=

Kennyz wrote:That is the most thorough iced tea post I've ever read.

I've never before seen a restaurant do so many things wrong when serving iced tea.

How large were the iced teas?

Thanks for the detailed report as Mrs. Davooda and I will be staying at the Elysian in January (got an inexpensive rate that I probably won't ever see again) and I had considered Ria. I did book a dinner for us at Balsan based on Ronnie's review and will avoid Ria as charging per glass for iced tea and other soft drinks is a deal-killer for me. Mrs. Davooda really plows through the iced tea!

Davooda

Davooda wrote:I did book a dinner for us at Balsan based on Ronnie's review and will avoid Ria as charging per glass for iced tea and other soft drinks is a deal-killer for me. Mrs. Davooda really plows through the iced tea!

Before our dinner, we had a glass of wine at the bar at Balsan (because it was significantly cheaper than at Ria) and it seemed very nice, with an interesting small-plates-oriented menu. I can't guarantee whether they would or wouldn't charge per glass for iced tea at Balsan too. Most restaurants charge for refills on soft drinks, though, with the exception of fast food places and value-priced chains (e.g. Chili's). I don't know why but that's what most places I've seen do around here - charge for refills on soft drinks but not for iced tea or cups of coffee. < shrug > And oh yeah Balsan will definitely add the 18 percent service charge to the bill too (which I don't really find objectionable but it's not customary).

JeffB wrote:How large were the iced teas?

Not huge. Served in a tall thin glass holding I'd guess 10 ounces including lots of ice.

Just FWIW - One other thing happened that is not customary. The hostess took our coats and strenuously refused to accept a tip for retrieving them after our meal.

Well that clinches it.

Refill or not....Four bucks for a friggin' glass of tea? SEEYAAAHH REEYAAAHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!

local597 wrote:Refill or not....Four bucks for a friggin' glass of tea? SEEYAAAHH REEYAAAHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!

LMAO!

All this chatter has me really excited for our visit next week. Who knows how it will go but it'll be interesting to compare this with other Michelin-starred restaurants I've experienced, including the ones we visited recently while in Paris.

Bring it on, Ria!

=R=

nsxtasy wrote:The Check

The two restaurants at the Elysian Hotel - Balsan and Ria - have a policy of adding 18 percent gratuity to the check, regardless of the size of the party. Needless to say, with the exceptions of large groups and private parties, this is NOT standard practice in Chicagoland.

I've come to expect the included service charge at establishments in nicer hotels, especially those catering to a large foreign clientele who might not be as clued in to the American gratuity system. I have no doubt that they would not hesitate to remove it from the bill if asked.

i ate at ria a month ago. pre-michelin. did the tasting menu. i generally leave those sort of experiences feeling like I got hosed. unsatisfied. I absolutely loved it. my wife did too. best tasting menu experience i ever had. actually the first time I did omakase at the original morimoto in philly was similar quality (around 2001, when morimoto was actually prepping our food). i had the apple amuse and thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend all get the wine pairings. they change regularly i'm told and feature some rad, esoteric stuff. they sent us away with a card listing the menu and wines paired.

sorry you had a bad experience.

After a dinner at Balsan we were informed about the 18% tip added to the bill and I inquired about it. The server informed us that the entire hotel was a "no tip property".

I found it kind of funny that a tip was required at a "no tip property" and I explained to the server that he was losing money because of this.

I posted an update about the tipping policy at the Elysian's restaurants in the topic about tips and tipping in the Other Culinary Chat forum:

About Tips and Tipping

Just keeping things on track, most of the issues with the iced tea were service issues - not bringing or asking about sweetener, etc. If it were the only problem with the meal, I wouldn't even have mentioned it. However, it was symptomatic of service problems that were glaring throughout dinner at Ria - clearing plates before everyone was done eating, failing to provide equal portions when pouring, failing to ask about coffee, etc.

nsxtasy wrote:Just keeping things on track, most of the issues with the iced tea were service issues ...

Which brings up a vital issue: I don't think you commented on the iced tea itself, or did I miss it? Might you be able to say a few words describing the characteristics of the beverage?

It's fun to snark and all that, but nsxtasy's original post has a word count of 1,912, of which only 254 are about the iced tea. Surely we can let up on the iced tea thing.

While I probably won't be going to Ria, the post was newsworthy given the place's Michelin rating, and I'm glad nsxtasy took the time to write it.

riddlemay wrote:It's fun to snark and all that

Fun and very f'n easy. What is not so easy is to pen an detailed interesting food centric post about a Michelin anointed restaurant. Michelin, as I understand it, is all about the details, no lack of detail in NSX's post.

I've not been to Ria and found NSX's comprehensive post interesting. Looking forward to Ronnie_S's compare and contrast with other Michelin star restaurants next week.

Enjoy,
Gary

Can one really trust a post about a "grugere" or one that defers to the descriptor "meh" - which is more troubling and less thoughtful than of the supposed service miscues? As for the ice tea - if you prefer Sweet and Low or Stevia, you probably shouldn't be dining at RIA - though I recognize the poster did not want that - they just wanted the option - which of course is the worst kind of request. That being said, I appreciate the length and depth of the post - but I definitely question the fairness of the post as it seems to almost too weighted on the trivial.

G Wiv wrote:

riddlemay wrote:It's fun to snark and all that

Fun and very f'n easy. What is not so easy is to pen an detailed interesting food centric post about a Michelin anointed restaurant. Michelin, as I understand it, is all about the details, no lack of detail in NSX's post.

I've not been to Ria and found NSX's comprehensive post interesting. Looking forward to Ronnie_S's compare and contrast with other Michelin star restaurants next week.

Enjoy,
Gary

Due to general holiday craziness, we've deferred our Ria experience until next week. I hope the suspense isn't too much to bear.

=R=

MJN wrote: if you prefer Sweet and Low or Stevia, you probably shouldn't be dining at RIA

Are you gonna tell him how to cut his meat too so it's up to your standards?

MJN wrote:Can one really trust a post about a "grugere" or one that defers to the descriptor "meh" - which is more troubling and less thoughtful than of the supposed service miscues? As for the ice tea

Can one really trust a post that refers to "ice tea" rather than "iced tea"?

MJN wrote:I appreciate the length and depth of the post - but I definitely question the fairness of the post as it seems to almost too weighted on the trivial.

I'm sorry I only wrote seven paragraphs about the food and how good it was or wasn't. I'll try to do better next time.

Given this thread, I couldn't believe it today when a colleague at lunch got angrier than I've ever seen her after the server dropped off her iced tea without any sweetener. All kidding aside, she actually said in a very annoyed tone, "All decent places bring the sweetener or at least ask you if you want any!" I had to excuse myself from the table for several minutes to allow the uncontrollable giggling to pass.

I guess it's a thing.

MJN wrote:but I definitely question the fairness of the post as it seems to almost too weighted on the trivial.

On the other hand, not one fashion or indie music reference that I had to look up to understand context.

MJN wrote:Can one really trust a post about a "grugere" or one that defers to the descriptor "meh" - which is more troubling and less thoughtful than of the supposed service miscues? As for the ice tea - if you prefer Sweet and Low or Stevia, you probably shouldn't be dining at RIA - though I recognize the poster did not want that - they just wanted the option - which of course is the worst kind of request. That being said, I appreciate the length and depth of the post - but I definitely question the fairness of the post as it seems to almost too weighted on the trivial.

Would you have had the same trust issues if nsxtasy had raved about what an awesome experience he'd had instead?

Heaven knows *I've* never made a spelling error

Thanks nsxtasy for your write up. It will prove useful when I head over there, which I intend to do at some point in the coming year. Ria was/is sorely under-discussed on LTH.

I don't write too much on this forum, but wanted to chime in because this thread bothered me. I want this board to hear others' opinions on Ria too. I've been to Ria 4 times - all prior to the Michelin announcement. I love the place. Ironically, the first time I went there we were headed to CDA based on nsxtasy's recommendation. We stopped into Balsan/Ria to check it out since it was close and decided to eat at Ria because the room was stunning.

The interior design is among my favorites of in the city. I know some people on this board don't care about the atmosphere, but it is important to me and it enhanced the experience. I never noticed the sound level being high, but I don't think I was ever there when the dining room was full.

I also enjoyed the service. The service is a bit more relaxed than the other 2 and 3 star restaurants in Chicago. I personally prefer that, but some may prefer the more formal service one would experience at Tru or Alinea. Although I can't comment on their iced tea program , I can highly recommend their sommelier Dan Pilkey. They do add a 18% service charge to all bills, a practice which I like (although I could understand the frustration if I had the experience that Ken described) and a practice that do at GNR Moto. The restaurant is part of a hotel that has a no-tipping policy for bell men, coat check, etc. The philosophy is that guests should not be worried or stressed about who and what to tip and finding small bills when they are on vacation.

I have always found the food to be stellar. The first time I went was in May and the six course tasting menu was $87. I thought it was a steal - per nsxtasy's post, the tasting menu now is $120.

I do think it is worthy of being one of the 5 two or three star restaurants in Chicago and hope that others try it so that we can get a greater sample of opinions on this board.

-Matt
twitter -> @whatsmatteating

milz50 wrote:They do add a 18% service charge to all bills, a practice which I like (although I could understand the frustration if I had the experience that Ken described)

I'd like to reiterate that I would not have tipped less than 18 percent at the dinner at Ria, even if they had not added the tip to the bill. With the exception of failing to ask about coffee service, all of the service flaws were not the fault of our waiter, who was superb, or the sommelier, whose assistance we didn't need for the half bottle we ordered and who seemed to be very helpful to the table next to us. Rather, the major problems were with the individuals (busboys/busstaff?) who cleared the plates and those (runners?) who served the food and beverage (e.g. the broth for the amuse bouche). (I'm not even sure who is responsible for the pacing - the kitchen?) And in such circumstances, I assume that it could just as easily be due to a lack of adequate training on the part of their management, as it could a matter of individual performance. The service wasn't rude or deliberately malicious. It was just gaffe-prone.

And I really don't think it's a matter of being "relaxed". As I also posted in another topic, I had dinner on Saturday at Boka, which I consider a step down in "fanciness" from Ria (due to the lower prices). While Boka didn't have nearly as many waitstaff as Ria, the service was absolutely flawless; they not only nailed the basics, but there were some more subtle things they did that really impressed me. I don't have a sense of Ria (or Boka) being particularly relaxed or formal - again, our waiter was unusually friendly, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic - but there were just a bunch of "textbook" things done wrong at Ria.

I'd be happy to read any opinions others have about Ria. (There was no dedicated topic before I started this one.) Heck, I think it would be great if they get things right in the future, so that others don't experience the flaws that we did.

milz50 wrote:They do add a 18% service charge to all bills, a practice which I like...

My only problem with that--and let me hasten to add that I nearly always tip 20% or a little above--is that pre-adding the service charge to the bill for a small party says, in the language of arithmetic, "We don't trust that you will tip our staff an adequate amount if left to your own devices." I receive that as a hostile message.