Tru, Chicago, ~$150 for food, 2006
I tried the internet reservation system for Tru a couple weeks before I wanted to dine there, and was not incredibly surprised to find that reservations were unavailable for the dates I wanted. I called on the phone to find out how far in advance I should actually be looking, and found out that in fact the kitchen table was available for the evening in question. The kitchen table is a few dollars more expensive than dining in the main room, but you get more plates. You also don't really get a pre-prepared menu. The chefs change things that they bring you based on your responses to previous dishes, at least a little bit. I was pretty excited.
We walked in the door, checked our coats, and then were led in to the bar area (now removed to make room for a "lounge" where there is a seperate menu from the rest of the place. We got a couple glasses of champagne and sat for a bit (we were early, they were not late). In the lounge we were pretty shocked to see art such as
Venus, and
Somebody's Mother (which I'd really like to find a print of, but I don't think they exist), as well as a couple others. When we got a chance to see the main diningroom, we saw the rest of the art
some of which is listed here, but not close to all.
I'd really wanted to eat at a kitchen table ever since I'd heard seen the table at Charlie Trotters. At Trotters, the table for 2 or 4 is in the small, efficient kitchen, just feet from the chefs. Tru is significantly different. When the table was ready and we were done with our champagne, they led us to the table. The kitchen is immense. Huge, spacious, basically like 3 kitchens stuck next to each other, one for sauces, one for meats I think, one for other stuff, then another space entirely for staging and plate prepping. This doesn't even count the large amount of space off to the side for custom dishes, etc. The chef's table is in a seperate room off the back of the kitchen. Next to it is a room a little larger which is the dedicated dessert kitchen. Through the meal what we found was that the books that the restaurant has for sale are kept in this room, as well as certain platters and silverware and decanters and such, so people had to walk through quite a few times to get these things. This kinda sucked. Two other problems I had with being in the kitchen room: 1) To ge to the washroom, you had to be escorted across the kitchen by someone who would then wait outside the room for you to escort you again 2) Because of the seclusion of the room, every time the waiter approached the table it felt like we had to be a good audience. (2) there isn't really as bad as it sounds, it was just a touch awkward, and from what I've heard of dining in the main room, this awkwardness doesn't happen at all.
My memory of the entire meal isn't all that fantastic since it was about a year ago but I will try:
We sat and ordered a nice bottle of Spanish white wine that was suggested as "able to go with the whole menu." Soon after we were brought an amuse bouche, which since my menu doesn't say what it was, I have no idea what it was.
Next up was the signature "Caviar Staircase." I'm a big fan of caviar, and a presentation of I think 4 nice caviars, with all of the traditional accompaniments (except vodka) is a great way to start a meal.
At this point my GF and my menus diverged because she is a Fish only type vegetarian:
I next had a Wagyu tartar with caper berries, white anchoy, quail egg, and a consomme gelee, which is one of the more awesome things I've ever eaten. Meanwhile my girlfriend who likes all of those ingredients except the beef sadly had her Yellow Fin with tapenade, potato confit, beans and radish. This was basically the most plain thing to come out of the kitchen during the evening. It was still good, just a bit bland.
A note: Tru will not only offer women a wrap if they are chilly, they have these little cube furniture pieces for putting next to your chair and putting your purse on so you don't have to leave it on the floor. I think that's pretty awesome.
Next up, for me a fairly traditionalish Foie Gras with brioche "french" toast, banana chutney, and a chocolate sauce. Just a really nice prepatation of foie gras. All great pieces that go well together, and everything was just the right sweetness, texture, and level of cooked. My date had possibly the best plate of the evening at this point though: Poached lobster riotto, gemelli pasta, wild mushrooms, pesto, parmesan. It was at this point we started getting really worried about our ability to actually eat everything brought to us. Everything was really great so far, but a fairly significant sized portion of gooey, fantastic risotto is usually well, dinner, and then you go hibernate. (A variation on this dish was served on the Trumanto/Gand Iron Chef.)
Then we had soups served in designer coffee cups (also as seen on TV):
I can't remember who got served which, but I think we both tried both. Pumpkin soup with an amaretto reduction and toasted seeds, and porcini mushroom cappuccino with a parmesan crisp. Light, small, great smells and presentation, and at this time we were given a touch of digesting time. Very good timing for that.
I then had a roasted sturgeon with braised oxtail an a carrot puree which I don't really remember anything about. GF had Roast halibut with red and green apple salad and arugula. She really really liked this, and told the waiter that she especially liked one of the types of green apples that she had never had before, the waiter told her what kind it was and explained that it isn't readily available at grocery stores.
We continued with "main course:" I had a Venison loin with fennel, walnuts and dried grapes with Elk jus. (I find Elk jus to be like, hilarious for some reason.) I thought this was amazing and just perfect in basically every way. I was however, happy to know that this was the last of the "real food" courses. GF had Roaseted spiced hamachi with camargue rice, toasted macadamias, and an apple-ginger jus, topped with shavings of the apples she liked from the previous dish. She says this was definitely the second best thing after the risotto.
At this point we were left alone for a touch to talk, and did that. All the time btw we can watch everything happening in both kitchens through huge windows in the walls of our room.
When the cheese guy came around, we were ready to eat again. We had a selection of great cheeses, with GF of course picking her standard selection of the stinkiest cheeses she could find.
Next up was a palate cleansing cherry lemonade, which oddly, though only 1.5oz or so, I thought was one of the best things I put in my mouth all night. It was just perfect cherry lemonade, great tartness and sweetness, and all the stinky cheese taste gone.
Dessert at Tru is a multi-course tour. I remember having a rootbear float with like, cardamom icecream (Gand has her own line of rootbeer), there was a tart or crisp, and I think also a small molten center chocolate cake, and I think some version of a Trifle. (These are not listed, and if GF comes home and reminds me of other desserts I will edit.)
Just when we thought we were done with desserts, a guy comes by with a cart. The cart has every available surface covered with different candies, chocolates, lollipops, and truffles. He tells us to take anything we want. We take a sickening amount of chocolates and truffles and brittles and etc, and he makes sure that we take lollipops because he really likes them.
After all this we did the whole leaving thing, which was pretty depressing. Also because we had the longest menu and were seated at the last seating time, we were like the second to last party in the restaurant. As we got our coats and they hailed us a cab they gave us a parting gift! Accompanied by a card explaining that the idea was that the experience didn't have to be over yet, they gave us little packets containing a couple canneles (or cannelles, i can't remmeber) which are these little fantastic pastry things that take days to prepare.
Basically everything all night was just about perfect. Tru was the first of the high-end places I'd been to where they expect you to leave incredibly full. It's a different kind of ethic or whatever than most of the placse. I'm not sure if they expect you to clean every plate, but they definitely expect everyone to enjoy everything that is brought to them. The food is obviously not experimental, but is executed flawlessly, uses great ingredients, and occasionally surprises you with flavor combinations.
I've since been back for their dessert only seating, which is something like $35 for a 3 or 5 course dessert, and that also was great. I suggest Tru to anyone who wants to head out and be blown away by great food, great service, and doesn't mind a bit of expense. I do, however, recommend sitting in the main diningroom instead of the kitchen.
citanul