Dinner at Charlie Trotter's, Chicago

We arrived at Charlie Trotter's almost at 6 pm, almost missing it completely. It was an unassuming building (no sign at all), and we were lucky the (nicely dressed) valet waved at us. Not sure how he knew we were going there, but thank God he got our attention.

We were greeted very nicely, escorted up the stairs to the bar area, which doubled as the waiting area. The hostess showed us our table on the second floor. At that time there were only few people in the room, but within 30 minutes it was full. I was a bit confused when people kept coming at intervals since I thought there were only 2 seatings, 5:30 and 9 pm. Maybe the each seating stretches for an hour?

Charlie Trotter's was listed as one of the '1000 Places to See Before You Die', so we had high expectations for the night. Of course, we also realized it wasn't the '1000 Places to Eat Before You Die' list.

There were only two choices in the menu, the Grand Menu and the Vegetable Menu. When we saw that, we thought of ordering 1 of each tasting menu so that we could taste all of them. However after perusing both the menu and considering that we loved meat/seafood more than vegetable (sorry Mom), we decided that both of us would have the Grand Menu. We don't really drink alcohol, so my husband ordered the Beverage Tasting Menu (which was non-alcoholic) while I ordered ginger ale.

The first bread served was mini french baguette and room temperature butter. The baguette was good, but I still loved the one from Del Posto more.

When we were still enjoying the baguette, my husband's first beverage arrived, which was sparkling orange & lucuma. It was very refreshing.

Then the parade of meals started, the first one was razor clam. I didn't like it since the clam had the fishy taste, but it was tender.

Razor clam with lemon and chervil

The second beverage (ruby red grapefruit & ginger) came, it was very good, I liked this drink the most.

The second meal was trout with cured salmon, it was good. I was always a little bit concerned about raw salmon, but the dish had a very nice texture and taste I couldn't believe it.

Tasmanian ocean trout with citrus cured salmon, louisiana crayfish and watercress

Then another bread was offered and it was cinnamon whole grain. It was pretty good and soft, but nothing special.

The next beverage was black tea and kombucha. I was expecting 'hot tea', but it turns out to be chilled black tea with vinegar. It was very interesting, but the vinegar was too strong so it felt like we were drinking straight vinegar.

The third meal served was quail, the meat was tender and very tasty, I loved it a lot and was my favorite. My husband who is not a quail eater liked this too, but he couldn't finish it and gave the rest to me -- good, more for me. We were a little shocked to see that they had served the whole quail feet (claws and all), but it certainly made the dish unique in presentation.

Four story hill farm quail with chorizo, spring onions and clover

Then the next beverage was dried cherry & wild rice, it was very thick and very sweet, both of us didn't like it.

The next meal served was lobster, I liked this too, the lobster meat was sweet and soft. It was perfect with the veal liver that came with it.

Maine day boat lobster with elephant garlic and grilled eagle rock oyster

At this time we noticed that the table next to us had a nice looking bread so we asked one of the waiter if we could get the same bread. Then they obliged, and we had maple bacon bread. It was very good -- soft bread with sweet and savory taste at the same time. Luckily we asked for it, otherwise we'd missed out on this really nice bread. If I was not saving room for dessert, I would have ask for more of this.

Maple bacon bread

The last meal served was venison loin, it was cooked medium rare and was tender. I only ate a little bit of it since I started to feel full, so I asked my husband to finish mine since he liked it.

Millbrook farm venison loin with toasted buckwheat, cumin and sheetp's milk ricotta

Finally the dessert started to arrive -- or as I call them 'my main entree'. When we gave our menu order, we asked our waitress if it was possible to have desserts from both menu, luckily she allowed us to have that. The first dessert from the grand menu was nigorizake sorbet and the other was jasmine granite from the vegetarian menu. On the sorbet, the sake taste was very strong. While the jasmine granite was very mellow -- I like this better.

Left: Nigorizake sorbet with asian pear and jasmine rice.
Right: Jasmine granite with water chestnuts and tahitian vanilla

The the next beverage (sultana & white balsamic) came, it was sweet and sour at the same time. We were a bit confused since the beverage was supposed to be a tea at this point based on the menu. So my husband called our waitress and asked about it. I guessed she forgot to bring the fifth beverage which was darjeeling & lavender. Within couple of minutes the tea came, it was a good one, especially to have it with the dessert.

The second dessert from grand menu was stewed rhubarb and from the vegetarian menu was sweet potato. I loved the stewed rhubarb a lot, it was very refreshing. While the sweet potato, it was good but I could not really taste the sweet potato.

Left: Stewed rhubarb with white chocolate yogurt and coriander shortbread
Right: Okinawan sweet potato with sweet stout and vanilla bean marshmallow

The last dessert from grand menu was chocolate custard and from the vegetarian menu was Indonesian chocolate. The chocolate custard was good, but you have remember to eat a little bit of everything on the plate at the same time -- it was a deconstructed dessert. The Indonesian chocolate was good too and I could smell a little bit of the pandan on the broth.

Left: Venezuelan chocolate custard with kaffir lime, grilled cactus and agavero jelly
Right: Indonesian chocolate with pine nut and pandan broth

When the second and last desserts came out, the waitress also brought the petit fours. Our table was full with lots of dessert plates, what a nice picture! The petit fours were: dulce de leche chocolate, passion fruit chocolate, asahi jelly, and pineapple tart. Both the chocolates were good, the jelly was too sweet for me, while the pineapple tart was refreshing.

Assorted petit fours

The Beverage Tasting Menu

We were very full by this time, so we asked for our check. When the check came, we realized that this was the most expensive dinner we have ever had so far. Overall, we were glad that we came here, but neither the food nor the service blew us away.

After paying, we waited for our car from the valet. Then after the car arrived, the parking attendant gave us a box of chocolate cookies. I was very surprised, what a complete service. We didn't eat the cookies until we arrived home, it was good -- chocolate-y.

Some tips I would like to give:
* They are very accomodating with your request, so if you (dis)like certain things on the menu, let them know.
* Be very specific about what you want or don't want, our waitress somehow decided that we wouldn't like the alcohol on the dessert (nigorizake sorbet) because we didn't drink alcohol. It was resolved after a little explanation, but it would've been so much nicer if she had confirmed with us.
* If you have enough time (and you plan 2 months in advance), ask to be seated at the Kitchen Table. The Kitchen Table Menu is 18 courses (5 of which is dessert) and you get to sit in the kitchen, also the price is only slightly more expensive (about $45 based on the information from our waitress) but you get more courses.
* Enjoy your 'experience', you're paying for it :-)

When we arrived at the hotel, we had another surprise in our room. They had an amazing turn down service that prepared our beds for the night, and they left a couple of nice chocolates on the table. That was a very nice touch and I would definitely consider Park Hyatt again for our next trip.

Caramel chocolates at the hotel

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Charlie Trotter's
816 West Armitage
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 248-6228
http://www.charlietrotters.com