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| - Restaurant review
I still can't decide whether this is a 2 or 3 star restaurant. If you put the restaurant together as a whole package including the ambiance, the uniqueness of the food, and culinary innovation you would get a 3 star restaurant, however the flip side is that the culinary flavors do not resemble anything like the gastronomic experience you get when you dine at Next in Chicago or Charlie Trotters when it was still open. You pay quite a premium for the dish that are notably small. Our dinner meeting was held at this location. There is plenty of meter parking, just remember to not go over or you will likely be ticketed. I started my meal with the wagyu beef stew which had smoked potato and a bone marrow crostini. I can honestly say the crostini was amazing with bone marrow that offered an amazing umami flavoring, however the actual stew was salty, the beef was not tender by any means sort of tasting like a dinty moore stew. This cost 13 dollars and the portion size was very small. My main entree for 33 dollars was the grilled lobster tail with kale, crispy black truffle polenta, and additional lobster claw and pieces of lobster on the side with a acidic lemon tasting sauce. Once again the portion size was quite small as you see from my picture. I don't believe you get the whole lobster tail as it looked like 1/2 of a lobster tail. There was a piece of claw meat on the side and the other side was shredded lobster meat. The lobster was cooked well, tender and well flavored with the black truffle polenta balancing the seafood, however the attempt at the different texture from the arugula/kale along with the soft polenta and the lobster did not work. Our meal ended with a flourless chocolate cake with blood orange champagne foam and pomegranate jelly. The grapefruit foam hit the spot, but again the cake was a sliver and for that cost you would think the portion would be bigger. Due to the long wait for the waiter to bring the dessert menu, I ended up getting my first parking ticket in Champaign. So I agree the flavors and small portion size at this price do not make this a place that I will frequent. As another yelper said, if you want to impress your date this maybe an interesting place to try, however I am going to try to find another culinary gem elsewhere.
Pros: local sustained food, changing menu
Cons: VERY expensive, small portion size- I left hungry, taste and texture just does not work for some dishes
Hidden deals:
If you really want to impress your date, try the 7 course tasting menu at 85 dollars. I don' t know if that is a deal but at least you get to try everything for $$$
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