Alinea x Olmsted / Oriole x Corima

Got a chance to try the Alinea x Olmsted collab and was really blown away. Whole experience was whimsical, exciting, and delicious. I haven’t been to the Chicago location yet, and this re-affirmed how much I definitely want to visit one day.

The experience starts in a small antique library area. They welcome and guide you to some bookshelves where they encourage you to select a book to browse through. When you open one, there are these tiny bite-size takes on pizza. These were thin-as-paper triangles that were somehow infused with all the flavors of a classic NY slice. The tomato sauce flavor especially came through. They also had small bites of their take on a NYC bagel with lox, capers, onions, and cream cheese that was spot-on in flavor as well. The last of the three opening bites was rendition of a Chicago dog, but these somehow never made it around to us, and we upsettingly didn’t realize until chatting to a waiter later in the meal. There was also this large glass contraption containing a welcome cocktail with various fruits soaking in it. It reminded me of a lighter version of the sangria my mom makes for holidays.

The staff then guides you with flashlights through this hallway that is meant to look forestral with branches that contain a chip with porcini mushroom and thyme. Tasted like a standard tortilla chip with some intense earthy notes, nothing crazy but the novelty made it a cool experience.

Next room they guide you to is an enclosed area looking out into a garden. Here’s where the real courses start.

First dish was golden osetra caviar over a pineapple gelee with mezcal creme fraiche and finger lime served in this warped bowl that had a bumpy texture from what looked like an assortment of colorful pearls. The plating was just super cool and the gelee comes through to add a fresh sweetness that the mezcal cuts really well. 18.5/20

Next dish was a cantaloupe, lemon, and white asparagus gazpacho with milk bread croutons, peeled grapes, and marcona almond. First few bites highlighted the white asparagus well but tasted a bit bland before mixing all the ingredients more. For some reason, the sweetness of the grapes / cantaloupe and the almonds blended together to create this weirdly yummy cereal milk like taste in the last few bites. 17/20

Next up was Alinea’s famous black truffle explosion with parmesan curl and romaine. It’s a richness explosion, what’s not to like. 18/20

Then came the fried frog leg with sherry vinaigrette, spring lettuces, wild mushrooms, and mushroom foam, and on the side, they poured hot water on pine crest to get the smell of the forest while you ate. Unnecessary on the pine crest but admittedly did smell really good… The flavors though, wow. Captured the butteriness of a perfect French style escargot and the fry is the fry I always dream for fried clams to have. One of my favorite dishes I’ve ever had, wouldn’t change a thing. 20/20

Next was their “beef and broccoli.” It’s 48-hour slow-cooked wagyu short rib with broccoli three ways, peanuts, pink peppercorn, and then they spray brooklyn beer based “graffiti” on the slab that serves as a plate. The inclusion of peanuts with this dish really transforms the dish and takes it to the next level. Combines so well with the broccoli puree and the way the wagyu still melts. Yum. 19.5/20

Then they guide you to a new room that is covered in some metallicy looking paper for the next stage of dinner. Kinda looks like a spaceship with bad special effects in an old movie but I’m bought in.

In front of each seat is a big cylinder container you’re supposed to punch through the top and reach down for a “surprise.” At the bottom is a fried prawn shrimp ball on a vanilla bean with meyer lemon. It’s basically a dim sum shrimp ball but didn’t have the crispiness and (unashamedly) the slight greasiness that comes through in my favorite dim sum shrimp balls. Vanilla bean and meyer lemon muted the shrimpy flavor I wanted to come through. 14/20

Next came the charred artic char that had maple syrup to add some sweetness. Went perfectly with the fish and carrots. The char was epic here, like the char I’ve gotten from my favorite yakitori. Cool plating too that led right into the next course. 19/20

The staff then comes over to explain that for the next course, all you have to so is flip the artic char dish over which reveals the roe from the artic char with a whiskey gelee. This looks super cool – like roe floating in glass with bright orange, yellow, and red colors permeating through the clear jelly. Unfortunately, I don’t love smoky flavors usually, and this was far too smoky for me with the whiskey flavor overpowering the roe too. 12/20

Next was a cauliflower in garam masala curry with cashews and goat milk curd. This had a deep complex flavor that weirdly reminded me of a mole. The dish evolved nicely with each bite and while hesitant about the dish at first, I grew to love it by the last bite. 16.5/20

This was followed by the famous hot potato cold potato dish with black truffle, butter, and parmesan. I need to eat this again. The soft and hard textures and richness of the truffle and parmesan, I couldn’t stop smiling after this. 19/20

Next was squab with Thai long pepper, sorrels, strawberry reduction, and white peppercorn. This was served with this wax strawberry on the side with white chocolate. I’m a sucker for squab, and this was cooked perfectly. The wax strawberry gave a nice little sweetness in between the gamey, savory bites of squab. 19/20

They then gather the group to exit the restaurant and cross the street to another restaurant they took over for the pop-up. This room looks like a banquet hall, and there are massive communal tables with a meringue in front of each seat. There’s classical music playing in the background as they serve you a Macallan milk punch. Then the room goes dark and they start playing much higher energy music (including blasting Hypnotize by Biggie) as the chefs (including Grant Achatz) start coming out of the back to torch the meringues and decorate the tables with an assortment of different jellies, candies, and creams/puddings/custards. Some candies are like glow-in-the-dark rock candy and the banana flavors in the blotches of various creams were awesome. Then, the balloons started coming out and these were just so fun and more banana flavor which I love. The meringue and combo of everything made for an unforgettable dessert experience. I will say the sweetness was too much at the end (but that could’ve stemmed from my lack of self-restraint). 18.5/20

As delicious as the food was, I will say I think the service held it back a bit. The dishes weren’t always explained super well and some staff members weren’t able to answer many questions or weren’t very engaging. Some staff was incredible but recognize it’s staff from two restaurants coming together with a new menu so can be tough. The experience went on for about 3 hours. I think I was smiling throughout the entire meal is always a good sign. In terms of just food, this ranks among my top meals I’ve had.

——

Separately, I also went to the Oriole x Corima collab a few days after the Alinea meal. Oriole is one of my dream restaurants, and Corima is one of my favorite meals in NYC that I visited when they first opened. Excited as I was, this meal didn’t nearly live up to my expectations. It took them 10 minutes before anyone even approached us and then another 5 before they seated us. Normally willing to overlook but the rest of the night missed in a lot of ways too.

Started with serrano ham cracker with quince, almond, and black walnut. Felt a bit simple but still very tasty with the serrano ham melting with each bite. Figured this was an opener to a great meal. 15.5/20

Next was a nori bunuelo with beef heart cured in masa, egg yolk “fudge,” grasshoppers, and English peas. No ingredient really shone and the overall flavor left me wanting more. Bunuelo was nice and crispy though. 12/20

Then came a seed tostada with fried cod milt and succulents. Umegoshi chili glaze helped elevate it a bit, but again, not a ton of flavor shining through and felt like an incomplete dish. 11/20

Next was the first dish of the night I found to be truly special, which they prefaced with how this was an Oriole signature. Beautiful presentation of sunchokes three ways with marigold and sunflower. This had a dried brown rice porridge with the different sunchokes and was just a masterclass in nutty flavors. 18.5/20

Then was the queso fresco with iberico dashi and these “sprouting brassicas” (like mustard greens). The dish had a heavy smokiness and a fresh oil that added some complexity but this one-note earthiness was starting to bother me in how much it came across several dishes. 12/20

Toasted brown rice with sablefish and sweet sake was delicious. My favorite dish other than the sunchoke one. They excluded crab for me due to allergies (despite staff saying they couldn’t accomodate my allergy before a chef came out and told me he’d make me one without crab right then when he saw me watching my friends eat), but the dish was still fantastic. Floral flavors came through nicely while the brown rice and sablefish created a nice balance between earthiness and butteriness of sablefish. 17.5/20

Ramp & corn tortilla with wagyu, celery leaf, and lime aioli was tasty but wasn’t a particularly special take on a steak taco. Again, just left me underwhelmed. 14.5/20

Braised and slightly grilled beef tongue, grilled and soy glazed sweetbreads, and tomatillo was very solid. Sweetbreads captured a nice Japanese BBQ like flavor and all was cooked well. The different components all individually tasted great but nothing more together. While the best dishes are often greater than the sum of their parts together, this wasn’t the case with this dish. 16.5/20

Desserts consisted of a goat semifreddo with green almonds, honey, and lavender, lychee with brown butter and sea buckthorn, an annatto seed chocolate bon bon, and a foie gras alegria with amaranth and cranberry. Overall, cool ingredients that despite never being bad, never materialized into anything memorable. 13/20

The service struggled throughout the night, forgetting key components of dishes in their descriptions (and running back to kitchen to then finish explaining a dish), taking a while between some courses and too little time between others, lacking engagement and moreso just seeming stressed during the night. We were the last seating, so the kitchen was closing the kitchen down on our final courses. They all grabbed a beer from a case they brought out to “celebrate” the night, and I could be over-reading it based on the food experience, but even this didn’t feel like a celebration. In presenting courses, the best dishes were prefaced as being Oriole dishes and there didn’t seem to be much collaboration aside from the Oriole team doing a couple of their dishes and the Corima team doing their own dishes. It felt stressed in the kitchen throughout the night (we were seated right next to the open kitchen) where even the staff’s celebratory beers post-meal seemed to feel more like a thank you for the night being over. Still would love to visit Oriole in the future, and should mention I still love Corima, but this collaboration simply did not live up to expectations. Excited to try each of Oriole and Alinea in their Chicago restaurants to compare one day.