Charlie Trotter's Review

For the first time ever, Charlie Trotter's in Chicago was offering a $75 prix fixe menu for lunch. So this year, I chose to forgo the Valentine's Day dinner for the Valentine's Day lunch. First of all, I wouldn't recommend this; this was only possible because Valentine's Day was on a Saturday this year, but it's difficult to go to a fancy meal early in the day. It sorta worked out for us because we ended up turning the entire thing into a shopping date, but I think in general you appreciate the food less.

For some background, Charlie Trotter's is regarded as one of the finest restaurants on the world and possibly the finest in Chicago. All their various accolades can be found on their website:

http://www.charlietrotters.com/restaurant/

They offer only unique prix fixe menus that vary based on what the diner desires and how much they're willing to spend. Standard dinners probably consist of a tasting menu of close to ten courses. The Valentine's Day "Love Menu" was only four courses. I didn't really know this, but a tasting menu is precisely that. The portions per course are relatively meager, and offer little more than enough to satisfy your tastebuds rather than your stomach. As an example, my wife's scallop course consisted of two decently sized diver scallops.

I can't attest to how much the standard dinners cost, but it's been noted that you can easily spend hundreds per person and a grand per with wine pairings. Speaking of wine, their wine list is ridiculous. I don't know who the sommelier is, but I only had a moment to gloss over it before I was overwhelmed. This leads us to lunch date tip 2: Don't order alcohol. I'm sure some people can stomach it fine, but wine especially leaves you exhausted an hour later. I don't really have this problem with beer, but shortly after the lunch the two of us started crashing badly.

This was the most I had spent on a meal let alone a lunch. I won't get into how much that was, but the prix fixe was reasonably priced. It wouldn't have hit the wallet so bad if I had avoided the demi-botte of champagne. But I love champagne.

Enough of the semantics though, the real question is how was the food? Our four courses started with an oyster topped with guava. Followed by lobster with watermelon relish. The third course was a choice of sturgeon or squash custard. And the final course was a choice of diver scallops or ribeye. I've simplified these a bit since I can't remember the crazy descriptions the real menu had, and because I'll be describing the courses in more detail shortly. I went with the squash custard and ribeye while my wife had the sturgeon and diver scallops. I can't quite remember what our dessert was called, but whatever if was called was basically a fancy name for a mushy brownie and came with sherry ice cream on the side.

Our champagne was a very crisp Philipponnat. It has a subtle fruity aftertone, but was very dry and a good representation of a lighter brut. My wife would have preferred something a little lighter, and I would have preferred my Veuve Cliquot. But really, it was pretty good.

The first course was actually pretty amazing. Neither of us are particularly fond of raw oysters. It remains an acquired taste we haven't quite acquired, but the pairing with the gauva was perfect. We easily got past of the oysteryness of this course because of the chilled and fresh guava. I didn't know guava was that good. It was really sweet and almost icy in texture.

The lobster in the second course was perfectly cooked. Quantity wise, it was a claw with a few slices of the tail. The watermelon relish was more relish than watermelon although it had a bright pink color. The relish also had what I think was pickled radish on the side. The combination of the bold relish and radish with the light but rich lobster worked pretty well. It was creative, but probably not as good in practice as in theory. All things considered, I think we would've preferred our lobster pure.

The sturgeon my wife had was probably poached because I've never had whitefish so tender. It was light and very very delicious. Paired with it was a healthy does of creme fraiche and a couple bits of diced sea clams. I didn't get a chance to try the sea clams, but the creme fraiche went very well with the fish. However, the sturgeon was fine on it's own, and the creme fraiche did little to add to the experience.

My squash custard was by far the most interesting course. The custard itself was fairly light and came with a n extremely rich squash puree on the side. Bold flavors all around this dish, and although it was pretty good, it was easily my least favorite course and too flavorful to follow the watermelon relish.

My wife had diver scallops in some sort of nori sauce and abalone mushrooms. I'd never had abalone mushrooms before, but basically they're similar to oyster mushrooms except more delicious. The scallops were perfect and went extremely well with the nori. I had never had anything like this, and they were definitively the best scallops I've ever had.

The ribeye I had came with a sort of pomegranate reduction foam and another sauce with bits of pomegranate. The meat itself was once again perfectly cooked. Pink in the center with little flavoring. This course probably had the most disappointing serving size. The four slices couldn't have been more than three or four ounces. As far as the beef itself goes, it's not the best I've had, butI did enjoy the combination of pomegranate sauces.

The dessert was extremely rich. I loved the sherry ice cream, and enjoyed the brownie as well. The texture was interesting as it basically oozed chocolate. I probably would've liked this a lot more if I hadn't had half of a chocolate macaroon that morning. As for my wife, too much chocolate and alcohol in the ice cream aren't really her thing.

In conclusion, our experience at Charlie Trotter's was fun and delicious. Service was top tier yet a little slow. The the food was all very good, but hardly life-altering. The most enjoyable part of the meal was the creativity the various courses had to offer. Everything was perfectly cooked, yet other than the scallops, there wasn't anything to die for.

It was easily worth the prix fixe, and the experience was certainly memorable. I'm sure we'll be back again when it's within our budget; however, I'm also sure there are a handful of other chicago restaurants we'll visit a dozen times before we make it back to Charlie Trotter's.