Elske (⭐️) Chicago

I was walking around Chicago last night and I managed to secure a walk-in seat at the bar at Elske. I ordered their tasting menu ($135) along with the juice pairing ($35) and a cocktail ($16). Elske is a Scandinavian restaurant in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. While I am not a regular by any means, this is my fifth or sixth time here in the past several years. It was my second time trying their tasting menu and my first time trying the juice pairing. I have no complaints about the food, but most of the juices in the pairing were a bit sweet for me, even though they were complex and had great depth of flavor.

• First Course (from left to right): Shrimp toast w/ horseradish and nasturtium, lamb tartare with Gunde's pickles and remoulade on a rosette, and a tea of lightly smoked fruits and vegetables.
  • Pairing: White grape, yeast, anise. This was excellent, similar to a sparkling wine.
• Second Course: Cured tuna with fennel, guajillo, and tonnato. This was one of my favorites. There was fennel giardiniera underneath thin slices of tuna, with guajillo chili oil on top.
  • Pairing: Burnt citrus, grape, radish. This pairing worked well for me, but it was very radish forward which some people may not enjoy.
• Third Course: Confit cod with artichoke, watercress, and fried lemon.
  • Pairing: Earl grey, orange, clove, apricot. This is where the beverage pairing started to be a bit too sweet for me. Could have used more of a tea focus rather than a juice focus.
• Fourth Course: Duck liver tart with salted ramp and toasted buckwheat. This was the only repeat on the tasting menu and was excellent as always.
  • Pairing: Beet, pomegranate, shiitake, lapsang souchong.
• Fifth Course: Grilled stripling and beef sausage with cabbage condiments. The sausage and cabbage were standouts here. The sausage was served with some cabbage ketchup, which was interesting.
  • Pairing: Same as fourth course.
• Palate Cleanser: Frozen anise jelly with mint. This was a bit like eating a frozen, gummy breath mint. It was ok, not my favorite palate cleanser of all time.
• Dessert: Toasted soy panna cotta with rhubarb and hay. This was very tasty, if not particularly interesting. Overall not a bad end to the meal.
  • Pairing: Pear, chamomile, elderflower. While tasty, this was definitely too sweet to have with dessert.

Overall I walked away very satisfied, despite the juice pairing being a little too sweet. I would definitely recommend Elske for anyone looking for a low-key, (relatively) budget-friendly one Michelin star meal.

Side note: The couple sitting at the bar next to me asked for custom cocktails based on flavor notes they described, and the bartender happily obliged. They ended up with some very interesting sounding custom cocktails, one of which had MSG and rhubarb!