As a surprise, I flew my wife to Chicago for her birthday to see her Dad, and hit Next’s menu for Alinea Year 1 this past weekend. We have been to Alinea several times, but never prior to 2011, so we were really excited about trying dishes from year 1. Stopped in at The Aviary for a pregame drink – and of the several times we’ve done that, they were far and away the best cocktails I’ve had there.
**Summary** Lovely time, the “savory” courses ranged from great to outstanding; the dessert dishes were meh to fine, which is disappointing at an Alinea restaurant. First time at Next at all – great ambiance and wonderful service. Did the Ultra Wine Pairing, which similarly matched the meal in that the wines paired with the savory courses were outstanding, and the dessert pairings were a bit disappointing.
**Broccoli Stem** – Of course, the opener had caviar of some kind. Really great way to open the meal. Loved the interplay of broccoli and orange. Champagne paired with this was clearly the best glass of Champagne I’ve had.
**Hearts of Palm** – In pic – bottom was a garlic “filling”, middle was coffee, top was key lime. Interesting plating. 1st and 3rd (garlic and key lime) were the clear standouts for both of us. I enjoyed the coffee 2nd one. Wife was indifferent to it.
**Shrimp** – This was fantastic. Great plating, fun with the vanilla bean skewer, and out of this world flavor.
**Lobster** – Good god this was amazing. Rich, flavorful curry, different textures of lobster, including “lobster cheetos”. Just wonderful.
**Tomato** – This was the “don’t touch it and just eat off the wire” thing. Tasted very good. Not sure that would have been one of my first choices to bring over from the first menu. You can see the spring roll wrappers in the background.
**Pork Belly (2 pix)** – Very unique plating, as you put together the vessel to hold the spring roll wrapper. Recency bias and all, but my god, that was the best bite of food I’ve had in a long long time.
**Hot Potato** – How do I say this? You could put 50 courses of Hot Potato on my table, I’d eat them all, and have a smile on my face after eating each one of the fifty. Still? Part of me wishes we could have gotten something not on current Alinea menus and something from Year 1 instead.
**Frog Legs** – My wife and I adored this. My first time with frog legs, and loved it. First of two dishes playing with aromas. Pine branches covered in boiling water created an amazing pine aroma while eating.
**Black Truffle Grilled Cheese (No pic)** – Didn’t get a pic. This was an add on to the normal menu, wife’s birthday. Wife loves truffles. I get the add on. Tasted great as I’m sure you can imagine. But was HEAVY. OMG this was a gut bomb. Didn’t really “fit” with rest of menu TBH and while I wouldn’t say we regretted it, I’d definitely recommend to pass.
**Lamb Neck** – Next aroma course and this was the pillow one. Glad we got to try this, loved every aspect of it.
**Explosion** – Exact same commentary as Hot Potato. I can get this at Aviary for goodness sake. Gimme something rare from year one instead.
**Matsusake** – And here’s where (relatively) we drove off a cliff. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. Honestly, flavor wise I’ve not had anything from any Alinea Group restaurant that was less flavorful and “boring”. Sorry.
**Spiral** – Again. Fine. Great plating, looked fantastic. Flavor was good, but this was the first dish I’ve ever had at any Alinea restaurant where I thought the easy “style over substance” criticism was valid.
**Ultra Wine Pairing** – Followed the meals in terms of enjoyment. First six wines paired with savory courses (1st four are white, 5 and 6 were reds) were out of this world. The Keller Riesling is in the team picture for favorite white wine I’ve had. The last two with desserts were mixed bag. The Nori liqueur was just weird. Love trying weird, so that was fine, but yeah, it was a weird taste/smell… Weird. Again, not saying I don’t want to be challenged, but I expected a lot higher quality vs a $35 liqueur for the Ultra wine pairing. The ending Sherry was great and to be clear I loved it, but wife is just not a sherry fan at all. I just… I dunno a bit shocked not getting some crazy rare European dessert wine in this pairing.
**Overall** – The savory parts were outstanding. Desserts were disappointing. Service was wonderful. Happy I got to go. Wished we could have gotten more rarities vs bringing back two of the hits with Explosion/Potato.
DrNerdlinger
Thank you so much for the write up! Even with the disappointment of the desserts it still sounds like an amazing experience.
Possible an irrelevant detail but I loved the slightly off-centre photography for Hot Potato. I don’t know why but it somehow makes it seem even more appealing!
I hope you have a great time!
transglutaminase
I’d have been disappointed if I went for a year one Alinea meal and DIDN’T get hot potato, it’s the signature course from year one imo. Maybe the bacon and butterscotch also but not sure that was year one or shortly after.
Either way looks like a great fun meal. I’ve always wanted to go to Next.
Infamous-Manner-1674
Bruh i dont know shit about this field but ngl the first dish looks shit. I have seen really good things ont his sub but thats a bad apple, i hope it tasted good.
4 Comments
As a surprise, I flew my wife to Chicago for her birthday to see her Dad, and hit Next’s menu for Alinea Year 1 this past weekend. We have been to Alinea several times, but never prior to 2011, so we were really excited about trying dishes from year 1. Stopped in at The Aviary for a pregame drink – and of the several times we’ve done that, they were far and away the best cocktails I’ve had there.
**Summary**
Lovely time, the “savory” courses ranged from great to outstanding; the dessert dishes were meh to fine, which is disappointing at an Alinea restaurant. First time at Next at all – great ambiance and wonderful service. Did the Ultra Wine Pairing, which similarly matched the meal in that the wines paired with the savory courses were outstanding, and the dessert pairings were a bit disappointing.
**Broccoli Stem** – Of course, the opener had caviar of some kind. Really great way to open the meal. Loved the interplay of broccoli and orange. Champagne paired with this was clearly the best glass of Champagne I’ve had.
**Hearts of Palm** – In pic – bottom was a garlic “filling”, middle was coffee, top was key lime. Interesting plating. 1st and 3rd (garlic and key lime) were the clear standouts for both of us. I enjoyed the coffee 2nd one. Wife was indifferent to it.
**Shrimp** – This was fantastic. Great plating, fun with the vanilla bean skewer, and out of this world flavor.
**Lobster** – Good god this was amazing. Rich, flavorful curry, different textures of lobster, including “lobster cheetos”. Just wonderful.
**Tomato** – This was the “don’t touch it and just eat off the wire” thing. Tasted very good. Not sure that would have been one of my first choices to bring over from the first menu. You can see the spring roll wrappers in the background.
**Pork Belly (2 pix)** – Very unique plating, as you put together the vessel to hold the spring roll wrapper. Recency bias and all, but my god, that was the best bite of food I’ve had in a long long time.
**Hot Potato** – How do I say this? You could put 50 courses of Hot Potato on my table, I’d eat them all, and have a smile on my face after eating each one of the fifty. Still? Part of me wishes we could have gotten something not on current Alinea menus and something from Year 1 instead.
**Frog Legs** – My wife and I adored this. My first time with frog legs, and loved it. First of two dishes playing with aromas. Pine branches covered in boiling water created an amazing pine aroma while eating.
**Black Truffle Grilled Cheese (No pic)** – Didn’t get a pic. This was an add on to the normal menu, wife’s birthday. Wife loves truffles. I get the add on. Tasted great as I’m sure you can imagine. But was HEAVY. OMG this was a gut bomb. Didn’t really “fit” with rest of menu TBH and while I wouldn’t say we regretted it, I’d definitely recommend to pass.
**Lamb Neck** – Next aroma course and this was the pillow one. Glad we got to try this, loved every aspect of it.
**Explosion** – Exact same commentary as Hot Potato. I can get this at Aviary for goodness sake. Gimme something rare from year one instead.
**Matsusake** – And here’s where (relatively) we drove off a cliff. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. Honestly, flavor wise I’ve not had anything from any Alinea Group restaurant that was less flavorful and “boring”. Sorry.
**Spiral** – Again. Fine. Great plating, looked fantastic. Flavor was good, but this was the first dish I’ve ever had at any Alinea restaurant where I thought the easy “style over substance” criticism was valid.
**Ultra Wine Pairing** – Followed the meals in terms of enjoyment. First six wines paired with savory courses (1st four are white, 5 and 6 were reds) were out of this world. The Keller Riesling is in the team picture for favorite white wine I’ve had. The last two with desserts were mixed bag. The Nori liqueur was just weird. Love trying weird, so that was fine, but yeah, it was a weird taste/smell… Weird. Again, not saying I don’t want to be challenged, but I expected a lot higher quality vs a $35 liqueur for the Ultra wine pairing. The ending Sherry was great and to be clear I loved it, but wife is just not a sherry fan at all. I just… I dunno a bit shocked not getting some crazy rare European dessert wine in this pairing.
**Overall** – The savory parts were outstanding. Desserts were disappointing. Service was wonderful. Happy I got to go. Wished we could have gotten more rarities vs bringing back two of the hits with Explosion/Potato.
Thank you so much for the write up! Even with the disappointment of the desserts it still sounds like an amazing experience.
Possible an irrelevant detail but I loved the slightly off-centre photography for Hot Potato. I don’t know why but it somehow makes it seem even more appealing!
I hope you have a great time!
I’d have been disappointed if I went for a year one Alinea meal and DIDN’T get hot potato, it’s the signature course from year one imo. Maybe the bacon and butterscotch also but not sure that was year one or shortly after.
Either way looks like a great fun meal. I’ve always wanted to go to Next.
Bruh i dont know shit about this field but ngl the first dish looks shit. I have seen really good things ont his sub but thats a bad apple, i hope it tasted good.