Adelles - Wheaton

In our continued search for fine dining in the Western burbs the Bride and I visited Adelles last week. Adelles lives in the former Cochon Sauvage space, now that the western Lachowicz empire has been dismantled. On that theme, I still need to get to Les Deux Autres, and would appreciate any report on that place, but the Bride and I were in jeans and I think Les Deux Autres is a tad more formal.

The space has been opened up a bit, lighter paint, simpler decor - a pleasant room now. The wine list is interesting and fairly priced. I checked out their web site before going - making a pretty much unnecessary reservation for early on a Friday, they referred me to it, and the Chef's bio gave me a little pause: http://www.adelles.com/, so my expectations were not so high.

The bride started with balsamic marinated cherry tomatos in a salad. Nicely done, though she deemed there to be too much dressing (she does like her salads lightly dressed). I went with the Crispy Oysters with remoulade and a side salad - a slightly bitter green with what seemed a coating of an emulsified garlic vinaigrette on the side. The oysters were a tad heavy on the Buttermilk breading, but really quite good. This dish really comes close to being excellent, in fact - just go a little lighter on the breading and add some kick to the remoulade and it would be great. As it was, I was happy.

Next the bride went with the Grilled Salmon in lemon caper butter (the girl loves her salmon). There ensued a negotiation as she tried to substitute mashed poatatos for the crispy spinach potato salad (hold the potato salad, leave the spinach, substitute mashed potatos - no can do, the spinach potato salad is a single prep) so armed with a side dish of mashed potatos (girl loves them, too) she soldiered on. Liked it, tho she did note that her serving of Crispy spinach potato salad was pretty much devoid of the crispy potatos we had haggled over. Not a biggie, just ironic.

I went with the special pecan-crusted tilapia with black-eyed peas and collard greens per the advice of the waitress. And a piece of corn bread. Pretty good fish, nice prep, again a touch heavy on the crust, but that is more a matter of my taste after all, since the southern style dishes I ordered are traditionally heavily breaded. On the other hand, I had a similar dish some 10 years ago at Commander's Palace and the breading was much lighter, so I suppose at a place with some pretensions to finer food one could expect a lighter touch. Collard greens were pretty darned good, smoky and astringent. Black eyed peas were under-seasoned - where was the smoky hamminess from the greens??

Looking at the tables around me, it did seem the meaty courses were much more in demand, FWIW, and portions were fairly large. Not sure what that means.

Finished by sharing "Tahitian Vanilla Gelato with raspberries." Nice, creamy, simple.

There are things to like about this place, but there are also issues. Mostly the price is a little too high - running about $45 each, and that is bringing our own wine with a $15 corkage, and sharing a dessert. I think I might have done something to alienate or otherwise put off the staff - the waitress, maitre d (wife of the chef, from what I overheard) and chef were fawning a bit over the tables around us, but mostly avoided us which made me sad though the Bride's attention and dazzling wit were a great consolation.

So I want to go back, support his food, see him progress and do better, but I rather doubt I will at that price (the snub I can ignore, but the price I cannot). Tis a shame. Anyway, I will sign up for their email specials and see what happens.

Adelles
1060 College Ave.
Wheaton

Thanks for the post. We've been there twice, and, while I definitely will go back, I was not blown away by the food on either visit. I tend to agree -- it's a little expensive for what you get. I had the beef tenderloin on my last visit, and it was very good, but pricey (especially with wine -- their list is relatively high-priced for the area).

The owners, a husband and wife (both formerly of Bistro Banlieue -- she was the GM), both have been on hand when we were there. They aren't overly talkative, but are nice and professional. I suspect that the folks who were being fawned over are regulars...On our last visit, I noticed several tables of well-off looking older couples (likely from Glen Ellyn) who were quite chummy with the owners and staff.

Personally, I like Adelle's, and would much rather spend my money there than at someplace like Timpano or Catch 35 (where you easily would spend as much, or more). IMO, our area needs more places like this, and fewer of the Timpanos and Sullivans. On a related note, we walked by 10 West in Naperville on Saturday and it appears as though it's closed, further evidencing the theory that downtown Naperville cannot support a locally-owned fine dining restaurant.

Ron A. wrote:On a related note, we walked by 10 West in Naperville on Saturday and it appears as though it's closed, further evidencing the theory that downtown Naperville cannot support a locally-owned fine dining restaurant.

Ron,

I was in downtown Naperville a few weeks ago and was flabbergasted at the sheer number of Chicago based restaurant outposts, not to mention national chain restaurants.

Really pretty amazing, and not in a good way.

Enjoy,
Gary

Can't agree about the wines since there seemed to be a number of interesting bottles in the $20-$30 range.

As for Timpanos and Catch 35, can't comment. Have not been to either and do not plan to go. Still happy that Catch 35 has made it easy to get into Pier 34, though, so there is a silver lining.

As for downtown N'ville, and actually not just downtown either - Ogden is pretty packed and route 59 is also too well-served - my advice is to not even consider opening a place there. Way too much competition.

Really love the Korean tofu place (Cho Dang Tofu Village), tho. They get no business, but the food is excellent. Go early and often, please! Thought I posted on it, but I cannot find the link. Will search again later and put something up.

Cho Dang Tofu Village
1271 E Ogden Ave # 119
Naperville, 60563

Dicksond, thanks for the tip -- I will check out the Korean place. As for Adelle's wine list, they may have expanded it(?) I could be wrong, but I don't recall seeing anything (red) under $30 per bottle. Good to know that there are choices in the $20-30 range.

Gary, downtown N'ville (and N'ville generally) definitely is home to many Chicago-based restaurant outposts and chains. You can get a good meal at Hugo's or La Sorella (Francesca), but there certainly is nothing too original or creative going on out our way. It's sad really, and in a previous post I mentioned Elaine and Ted Cizma as an example of a locally-owned place that failed -- perhaps this was not a good example, and there was more to the story there -- but my point is that the mom & pop (for lack of a better term) fine dining places now are nonexistent.

dicksond wrote:Really love the Korean tofu place (Cho Dang Tofu Village), tho. They get no business, but the food is excellent. Go early and often, please! Thought I posted on it, but I cannot find the link. Will search again later and put something up.

Cho Dang Tofu Village
1271 E Ogden Ave # 119
Naperville, 60563

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=7916

Thanks Leah - not sure what was defective in my search, but I was unable to find it this morning.

We ate at Adelle's last night. It was good but a few points to note:

The calimari was good but nothing special. The scallops with bacon were lovely.

My mom had the BBQ beef shortribs, succotash and roasted cauliflower. A nice homey dish, but it reminded me of a nice pot roast (tender stringy type meat) but nothing I couldn't cook easily at home given some hours.

My son had the peppercorn beef tenderloin which he enjoyed. The blue cheese potatoes (thankfully not too laden with blue cheese) were good but could have been more browned on top for a better appearance.

His dad had the salmon with basmatic rice and asparagas which he enjoyed.

I had the meat loaf. It came in two large slabs but I did not note any bordelaise sauce. There was no garnish or "gravy" on the "naked meatloaf" which for a dinner plate, certainly called for one. The garlic mashed potatoes seemed like regular mashed potatoes. Good, but not as advertised on the menu. The chipotle catsup was regular catsup in a cup. I felt this touch inappropriate for a dinner serving unless requested. A nice brown sauce with mushrooms would have really improved this dish. Again nothing I could not make a home given the time.

The desserts were very good....I had blueberry bread pudding, others had the banana split (brownie chunks incongrouous here...imho), the trio of sorbets were enjoyed. The peach crisp tasted like an oatmeal cookie mixed with fruit.

Anyway, a good place especially because I live in Wheaton but it was not "crack shot" if you know what I mean. When I go out to eat I like to get food I would not be able to make easily at home or could not duplicate at home with my cooking skills. The service was good, and the room is nice and they have outdoor dining too. I give it two stars.

I guess that if it is only every 4 or 5 years that I get to a restaurant, it says something. Went back to Adelle's tonight and I cannot say the results varied much from the first time. I do not think we will be going back.

On a very cold night, they had dimmed the lights, the rooms were twinkling with Christmas lights, there was a nice little faux fireplace in at least one of the rooms (probably both) - the whole place clean, sparkly and welcoming. It went downhill from there.

Service: I rarely complain about service, but Adelle's has achieved that rare distinction both times. Service was more slow witted than anything else, exemplified by the announcement of the specials, achieved very haltingly and by peaking at the list in front of me and reading it back to us. Half-assed.

For a starter we shared the scallops wrapped in bacon, on a bed of turnip puree, sprinkled with almonds and sweet potato shoe strings piled on top - probably a bad decision to order these, based on the menu description, way too many ingredients for a less than stellar chef. The scallops themselves were decent, but the poor guys were overwhelmed by the supporting cast. I think there was an entire thick slice of bacon wrapped around each scallop, pretty much twice around, so bacon was the dominant flavor and texture, rather than an accent. The same applied for the large mound of turnip puree, and the pile of sweet potato shoe strings - a very generous starter that we were glad to have split, but it did not really respect the lightness and subtlety of the scallops.

On to salad - this was safe. Iceberg wedge with buttermilk, blue cheese dressing, sprinkles of bacon and some cherry tomatoes. Quite good, really and perfect for sharing, again.

The Bride moved on from there to a filet in a red wine sauce, garlic mashed potatoes (graciously) substituted for the standard side. She did not like this because the filet had more texture and character than the standard, buttery, bland filet one gets at a Morton's, say. I found it an improvement, but what they considered medium (yes, the Bride does take her steak overcooked, but on the farm, growing up, really, it was well or medium well so she is making progress), looked and tasted medium rare, at most, to me, so there was an issue with execution. She opted not to send it back.

I went with the short ribs (it was between short ribs and cassoulet, and our waitress said the ribs are much more popular). Bed of garlic mashed potatoes, pretty good roasted brussel sprouts with bacon bits (note: bacon in every dish). Beef was unseasoned (not that easy to achieve in this dish) and a little on the chewy side, probably slightly overcooked. Good enough, no better. Could have benefited from a little more sauce/gravy, maybe some braised vegies.

We did continue to dessert. My PB&J - peanut butter pie with a chocolate ganache topping, and drizzled with a concorde grape jelly was good, but the ganache was a bit cold, and thus too solid and the whole thing lacked a freshness and finesse that I expect in a $7 dessert plate. Clearly, right out of the fridge, dress, plate, serve.

The wife had key lime pie with mango puree - a cliche by now and one she deemed fine. We left well fed, warmed by the room, happy to see the back of our waitress for the last time and resolved to not go back.

One of the reasons I had gone back was that I remembered the theme of haute southern cooking, striving to be something one might find in the better restaurants of Charleston or Savannah, just not quite making it. I admit to being partial to that cuisine (note to self: need to get back for some coastal southern food) and I returned to Adelle's hoping for that, just better than last time. Likely unrealistic of me - after 5 years, I am sure the chef has changed, and the menu has moved toward a French, and old-school "continental" style that would have fit well at Henrici's, for those who appreciate a historical context.

Disappointing on every level, then, tho not bad. <sigh>

I've not been to Adelle's for several years, when we did an International Wine & Food Society dinner there. I remember it being pretty average. Nothing that drew me back. I've always wondered how they stayed open, as they're not exactly on the beaten track in Wheaton.

I agree. We ate there once and even though it is not far from where we live, we never returned. There have been a number of restaurants in that space and inside it is nice. The food was nothing special for the price.