L2O is an expensive, fancy place. I don't see why it is outrageous to expect the cocktails they serve to be on par with the rest of the restaurant. It is part of the experience they offer.

All of this based on a picture of a drink...

If only we had the opinion of someone who actually consumed these abominations! Oh wait.

jesteinf wrote:All of this based on a picture of a drink...

If only we had the opinion of someone who actually consumed these abominations! Oh wait.

That's certainly obnoxious.

It is completely fair not to care as much about what you drink as what you eat at a restaurant. Just as it is completely fair not to care as much about service. But for someone who does, and for someone who is spending a bucketload of money on an experience, it isn't unreasonable to expect the beverage aspect to match the food, the room, and the service.

My point is that we only have one opinion on the drinks from someone who actually consumed them. That person liked them.

jesteinf wrote:My point is that we only have one opinion on the drinks from someone who actually consumed them. That person liked them.

The person who showed concern about the drinks made 2 claims, one involving the ingredients of a cocktail and one regarding the appearance of another. He then pointed out how each seems out of place for a restaurant the quality of L2O in the context of Chicago restaurants and development in craft cocktails.

He didn't say they would not taste "good". That was not his point. His point was that they could be and should be better.

I'm just going to leave it there. The pictures of the food posted earlier look amazing and I hope people find them useful in deciding whether or not to go to L2O. I also hope that PopcornMegaphone will be offering his/her opinion on places that he/she enjoys.

Jazzfood wrote:Interesting to see the avocado bombe/orb preparation. I learned that working in Zurich about 10 yrs ago and demo'd it on WGN last summer. Haven't ever seen it anywhere else.

I've only been to L2O once, back in November of 2011, and this was one of the dishes we had. Don't know if it's been on the menu since then, or just made a reappearance.

-Dan

DutchMuse wrote:I'd just comment, as somewhat of a regular at L20 and of similar fine dining establishments in NYC and Chicago, I don't frequent restaurants like L20 for their cocktail programs. If I want gastronomic cuisine, I generally pair it with champagne and Burgundy (or Bordeaux, etc., depending what I'm having for dinner). All this talk about shaken mules, etc., is a bit lost on me because I wouldn't go to L20 for a cocktail. I'd go, instead, to Sable, and ask Mike to make me a cocktail before having dinner elsewhere.

OK, when I'm at NoMad, in NYC, I ask Leo to make me my martini as he knows I like it (yes...stirred, of course, not shaken) but that's NoMad. At Eleven Madison Park, I'll have champagne off the champagne cart.

Not trying to say the cocktails don't matter-they should and do, but I don't think L20 should be viewed as the kind of place where mixology is at the cutting edge. The wine program, yes. Just one person's opinion.

Try getting a cocktail at most Michelin *** in France--they will fail, by your standards, I'm sure. That's just not what they're about.

Luckily, I always carry my business card, the back of which contains the recipe for my favorite cocktail.

BR wrote:

DutchMuse wrote:I'd just comment, as somewhat of a regular at L20 and of similar fine dining establishments in NYC and Chicago, I don't frequent restaurants like L20 for their cocktail programs. If I want gastronomic cuisine, I generally pair it with champagne and Burgundy (or Bordeaux, etc., depending what I'm having for dinner). All this talk about shaken mules, etc., is a bit lost on me because I wouldn't go to L20 for a cocktail. I'd go, instead, to Sable, and ask Mike to make me a cocktail before having dinner elsewhere.

OK, when I'm at NoMad, in NYC, I ask Leo to make me my martini as he knows I like it (yes...stirred, of course, not shaken) but that's NoMad. At Eleven Madison Park, I'll have champagne off the champagne cart.

Not trying to say the cocktails don't matter-they should and do, but I don't think L20 should be viewed as the kind of place where mixology is at the cutting edge. The wine program, yes. Just one person's opinion.

Try getting a cocktail at most Michelin *** in France--they will fail, by your standards, I'm sure. That's just not what they're about.

Luckily, I always carry my business card, the back of which contains the recipe for my favorite cocktail.

In Paris, you'd be lucky if a place even had the ingredients on hand. Cocktails and hard spirits are just not the coin of the realm there. I remember ordering a Manhattan once at a hotel bar in Paris. They made it with Scotch. Happily, there are lots of great wines available.

As for L20, if you're going to serve cocktails and you're striving for Michelin stars, it probably makes sense to set the bar (nyuk, nyuk) a little higher than industrially-flavored vodkas.

=R=

Delighted for Chef Matt Kirkley and the entire L20 team on a very well deserved review.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... ?dssReturn

Yes, congratulations to Chef Kirkley. He deserves the review, but I still miss Chef Gras' savory cotton candy.

Reposting my review from Yelp. I made an account here after a year lurking just to critique my meal at L20. It was that bad.

This easily goes down as the most disappointing meal of my life and the biggest flop. I suspect part of it is the current menu, but to have even one menu this bad is really unacceptable at this price point and with two Michelin stars to defend.

First, let me say that the service was impeccable and the decor elegant. They even have comfortable seats which you will need for the four hour tasting menu. Also, while the actual courses were for the most part underwhelming, the bread service is fantastic. The rosemary croissants deserve to be singled out for excellence, but pretty much everything was great. Sadly, I don't go to restaurants to eat bread.

It's hard to organize all the bad that went into the meal. The progression of courses was awful. It's a blob of cold dishes, followed by a few warm dishes (not even that warm) and then four desserts. It was fatiguing eating that many cold dishes in a row and they were all pretty much horrible, but more on that later. Somewhere about halfway salvation came in a warm crab soup that was utterly revitalizing and the highlight of the meal. Ironically, it is served with an icy granita, a wonderful contrast pairing in any other circumstance than one where you have already bludgeoned your diners over the head with cold dishes.

Then we get more dishes that were lukewarm and then off to dessert which did nothing to relieve the temperature monotony. On top of that was a similar textural monotony as nearly every dish has some sort of jelly, gelee, or whatever it is called. Have you tried an iceberg jelly? I assure you that you do not want to. I felt like I was in a senior citizen home with all the mushy food being served. I was dying to use my teeth for most of the meal, to eat something crispy or substantial. For a seafood restaurant I didn't once even get a nicely cooked piece of fish.

Did nobody in the kitchen step look at the meal as a whole or even try the entire progression and see it was a mess? I can only conclude no because it was an egregious mistake that anyone should be able to spot.

However, I might forgive that if the individual dishes were good, but as you can probably tell, they were not. The first half of the meal was a dud with a vaguely unpleasant seafood mousse and a bunch of jellies. One dish was a deconstructed PB&J which tasted like separate balls of foie gras, brioche and something that tasted like Jello brand strawberry jelly. It was bewildering and not particularly good despite the foie gras.

As stated before, the highlight was the crab broth, but the warm section was in general superior with fewer jellies and a bit of texture. Still not at all up to expectations but at least somewhat pleasing.

Desserts started and I hoped that perhaps that with a different chef things would turn up, but sadly we were disappointed again. It started with a panna cotta with (another) granita on top and then some coconut creme. Everything was excellent individually, but the granita layer was a huge faux pas. It, ironically for this meal, added texture where there shouldn't be. I want to tasty the silky texture of the panna cotta and I certainly don't want the granita to immediately melt in my mouth and water down every bite.

Even the pastry chef couldn't resist the gelatin, adding it to a cremeux so that he could squeeze it into an unappetizing rectangular prism. Desserts were unimpressive despite often being a highlight at fine dining establishments. I give them points for serving a solid macaron, but they lose points for an ugly tasting chocolate. Strangely, the best sweet was the kouign amann they send home with you.

It was an uncomfortably long meal with courses taking more than ten or fiftenn minutes at times to come out. Obviously a long tasting meal will take awhile, but this is just excessive.

Sorry for the long review, but a 500 dollar meal is worth a lot of words. I cannot insist strongly enough to just spend nearly the equivalent amount on Alinea or even save some and hit Takashi or Mexique (my favorite one stars). The fact that this place retains any stars is a stain on the prestige of the Michelin guide.

How much were the wine pairings?

Too bad you had such a negative experience. I dined at L2O two months ago and had a really positive experience; if the menu on their website is up-to-date the menu has only undergone a couple of changes. While I agree with you that too many dishes make use of gelees/aspics, I did not find this to be so overwhelming as to have a major detrimental impact on my dining experience. I also had requested one dish subbed out (I dislike foie gras) and received a delicious salmon course that was a hot dish with no gelatin textures, so that did mix things up. I also had a wonderful rib eye course; really some exquisite beef and also a change in texture/temperature from the early seafood courses. I too loved the bread; their bacon buns are my favorite bread I have received in a restaurant (I had a bit too many of those and was quite full by the final dessert). Other than a bit too much gelee/aspic and not caring for the final dessert (chocolate based that was just way too rich and one note for me) I thought 90% of the food was excellent and the progression well thought out. Service was extremely attentive and they did an expert job accommodating my friend's (crab) and my (foie gras) aversions. The sommelier also did a fantastic job creating a mini pairing for me within a designated budget. The ambiance is just a bit subdued and formal for what I consider optimal (I feel Grace has the best vibe for fine dining) and while I would not say L2O is quite one of my favorite restaurants, I think it is definitely deserving of it's Michelin stars and a nice option in Chicago's fine dining scene. If you were unhappy with L2O from a value perspective, I urge you to stay away from Alinea; not sure how recently you dined there but IMHO they are on the decline (hopefully temporarily, but at least for know the prices have gone up and the food, service and experience down).

I had a 12 course tasting menu there last week and my experience was nothing like the negative experience you describe. The one thing I agree with is the iceberg gelee, I did not care for it (and told the chef) but otherwise, I thought the meal was stunning. Sorry your experience wasn't good but my recent meal there would probably rank in the top 10% of all time greats for me.

And L2o ceases to exist in eight weeks:

http://www.chicagomag.com/dining-drinki ... -the-Year/

At the end of the day there are only so many super high-end dining dollars to go around.

To me, this place died when Gras left (and effectively took his stars with him).

=R=

I actually think it became alive when Gras left; he was so impressed with himself, to me, it sucked the air out of the room. I notice Gras has never landed another restaurant chef job since.

Matt Kirkley and colleagues, I think, have done a great job but last time I was there (like 2 weeks ago) it did seem a bit 'tired.' I think its time for them to move on....

Glad I opted not to get a reservation on the books and go. A friend of mine was kinda hounding me to do it, but I opted on the side of staying safe. From my experience dining at a closing restaurant has always been far less than a great meal. Had three great meals there and happy to have those in great memory.

Anyone else shocked that the press shy Kirkley was on the Hell's Kitchen finale?

New thread about Intro, which will occupy the former L2O space, here.

=R=