Chicago dinner day 1 at L20

So whenever we go on a trip Jeremy always tries to find a tasty place for dinner one of the nights we’re there, with extra bonus points awarded to restaurants that offer a tasting menu. He found out about L20 via UrbanSpoon (yay social media) and made reservations for us for Saturday evening. We took the complementary car service from our hotel and it was about at 15 minute drive north to the restaurant situated in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The whole decor was very modern, lots of wood (both natural and enameled), with a white branch sculpture/flower arrangement (on various branches were little clear test tubes with white orchid blossoms in them) as the main focal point of the room. There were about 20 tables in the entire restaurant and probably 10 or 12 staff members, so the service was excellent, there was never a time where your water glass was empty or an empty plate sat in front of you (and as in many fine dining restaurants, I always get a kick out of how if you get up from the table at any time during the meal a fresh napkin is awaiting you when you come back, no using “old” napkins! Sometimes it was almost a race to see if you could get back to the table before the server had returned with the replacement napkin). The service there was probably the most efficient and attentive that I’ve experienced and the food was excellent.

L20 brands itself as a seafood restaurant and they definitely follow that in their tasting menu, with only 2 non-seafood savory dishes out of the 12 course fall tasting menu. The first few courses were sushi/sashimi style, which was a new food experience for Jeremy as he isn’t much for sushi in general, but the preparations of these wasn’t your typical “sushi roll” and the quality of the ingredients made each dish delicious. Nearly every course came paired with its own wine and we were also served an amus bouche along with a pre-dessert palate cleanser and post dessert cookies so in total it was more like a 14-course wine-pairing meal, needless to say we were very satisfied by the end of the meal. Here’s the rundown of the dishes with photos (apologies for not the best composition/focus on these, I was trying my best to be subtle when taking the pictures, didn’t have the flash on, but with so many servers milling about I wasn’t able to keep my little photography project very secret).

Amus Bouche
Smoked diver scallop in gelatin

 

Wine 1: Alsace seyval blanc

Course 1: Hamachi and tuna with uzu marinade and micro chives

Course 2: Fluke tartar with olive oil and salt cured lemon (the salt cured lemon really added a lot of dimension to this dish, this was my favorite of the “light” courses)

Wine 2: Sake

Course 3: Himachi-wrapped uni with apricot oil (never had uni before, interesting texture but tasty)

Wine 3: White rioja

Course 4: Diver scallop with a passion fruit, sauvignon blanc and vanilla sauce, with caramelized cauliflower

Wine 4: Kabinett Riesling

Course 5: Fois gras a la planca with a baked citrus marmalade, braised fennel and citrus zest (very rich, but love the texture of the seared fois gras)

Wine 5: Melville Chardonnay

Course 6: Butter poached lobster bisque with chestnuts, Cognac and fresh cream (the broth on this bisque was amazing)

Wine 6: Viognier, Greece

Course 7: Salted cod with fingerling potato emulsion and Italian caviar (a bit salty but the potato emulsion was a cool twist)

Wine 7: Bohan fillan 2008 pinot noir

Course 8: Snapper with cilantro merengue frozen table-side with liquid nitrogen, curry, coconut powder, cumin coriander chip, jasmine rice sauce,  and brussel sprout leaves (this dish was both Jeremy’s and my favorite)

Wine 8: Montsano Chianti

Course 9: Halibut with lemon truffle sauce, shaved truffle and celery (this was one of the first times I had whole fresh truffle, honestly, it didn’t have the crazy amazing flavor i was expecting, just very subtle mushroom/earthy flavor)

Wine 9: Man O’ War Syrah, New Zealand

Course 10: Korean shortrib with green cabbage, sauteed romaine with sesame oil, homemade kimchi and tempura rapini

Dessert palate cleanser: Frozen passionfruit orange marshmallow

Course 11: Caramelized apples with brown butter, toasted milk ice cream, red apple cake, vanilla sphere (remembered a bit late to take a picture for this one)

Wine 10: Moscato, Sicily

Course 12: Orange grand marnier soufflé with orange marmalade (this was so good! sweet and tart and soft and crunchy all at the same time)

Bonus mini-dessert: Lemon merengue and Cantaloon cookies (I had no room to finish these, took bites to taste and that was all, Jeremy really liked them though)

Overall, if you like seafood, you will love L20, the quality of the ingredients was impeccable and the tastes and flavors were some I had not ever encountered before. Yum.