I had the pleasure of attending a fall menu preview dinner at Ria last week. It was a five course meal paired with wines from cooler climates (Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier).

The menu consisted of an
-amuse (foie and truffle dumpling in ice wine consomme)
-1st Big Eye Tuna/Heirloom Tomato/Caviar/Avocado
-2nd Squab/Foie/Date/Celeriac
-3rd Black Cod/Pain de Mie/Cauliflower/Sprouts
-4th Guinea Hen/Parsnip/Madeira/Potato Gnocchi
-dessert Grapes/Yogurt/Almond/Olive Oil

Chef Grant's style is light and delicate (North Pond alum), so the guinea hen dish was the final savory course and the most hearty dish I had that evening. The guinea hen breast was stuffed with guinea hen farce, foie gras and black truffles. The stuffed breast shows off the technique the kitchen is capable of – basically top-notch charcuterie integrated into a cooked dish and re-formed to seem as if it was meant to be that way. Accompanying the breast were a few gnocchis, some fall root vegetables (carrot, rutabaga, celery root, parsnip), porcini mushrooms, parsnip cream and a strip of crispy hen skin for some texture. Most dishes at Ria are presented to the guest before the server pours the sauce. This sauce was a black truffle and Madeira jus. I wish I could buy that sauce in a jar.

The dessert was also enjoyable. They do have a new pastry chef and she had only been at the restaurant for a couple of days. She has some big shoes to fill as their prior pastry chef Prida was excellent.

Sam Zell is jumping into the luxury hotel market with a deal to buy the two-year-old Elysian Hotel in the Gold Coast and convert it into a Waldorf Astoria.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... gold-coast

Dave148 wrote:Sam Zell is jumping into the luxury hotel market with a deal to buy the two-year-old Elysian Hotel in the Gold Coast and convert it into a Waldorf Astoria.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... gold-coast

This is potentially very bad news for Ria. Now that Hilton will be managing the hotel, there's a good chance that Ria will close or be "reconcepted" in favor of a more corporate type restaurant (worst case), or at least the new corporate management team will attempt to reign in high food costs and creativity the way they always do (the best case?).

My advice, get to Ria soon before it's too late.

I really hope they don't bump Balsan - I had a really great meal there last year that I wanted to repeat for a special occassion.

Habibi wrote:I really hope they don't bump Balsan - I had a really great meal there last year that I wanted to repeat for a special occassion.

Forgive me for being overly skeptical, but I wouldn't trust Hilton to keep either restaurant as it is, let alone allow them to remain open.

One of them will have to remain open; in order to retain their star rating they have to have a restaurant. Balsan, being the more affordable, will be the restaurant with the most chance of staying open.

Ria hasn't been the same for some time, especially with them losing both of their 2 top chefs.

For that matter, Balsan hasn't been the same for some time. I took a friend who is a wine writer for a national publication who wanted to write an article on Chicago. It was embarrassing--the service was poor, the food mediocre.

DutchMuse wrote:Ria hasn't been the same for some time, especially with them losing both of their 2 top chefs.

I can't comment on how Ria was before, but I went there for the first time last Friday night and wasn't overly impressed. The food was well-executed, but nothing was very exciting in concept. Nothing was bad, it was just kind of boring.

Service was well below the standard I'd expect for a 2-star restaurant. While our captain was professional, dishes weren't cleared in a timely fashion, crumbs never cleaned off the table, long waits between courses (or even being checked in on), I had to try to flag someone down just to get coffee with dessert, etc.

-Dan

I'm planning to bring some out of town guests to try Ria this weekend. Does anyone know if they offer a non-alcoholic paring?