Allium: good splurge if you have a small appetite

Ever since reading Vettel's review of the new Allium, it has been added to my Yelp bookmark list, but I didn't expect to make it there so soon. However, no complaints since I'm always excited to try out new restaurants. 

Allium is the reinvented, more casual and "approachable" restaurant at the Four Seasons, which opened in February 2012. "Approachable" was not quite the word I'd use to describe my first attempt, as I was unable to find the restaurant. Upon walking through the revolving doors of the Four Seasons, I couldn't find a sign anywhere that might provide a clue where the restaurant is located. A kind valet attendant pointed me to the 7th floor. Even then, I had to walk right up to the host stand in order to see the understated sign (or maybe I just need to update my contact lenses prescription). 

Our Meetup group of 5 occupied a round table in the center of small dining room. I liked the plush carpeting, pale yellow damask silk chairs and floor to ceiling windows. Noise level in the dining room was comfortably low, so conversations were easy. At one point reflections of the setting sun on the windows of the building next door hit me right in the eyes. Would be nice if waiters could lower the blinds slightly during those times of the day. 

Only one of us ordered a cocktail. This was the Purple Haze, and the color was so unusual for a cocktail I had to take a picture of it. I admit I was slightly embarrassed to pull out my giant dSLR out of my bag in front of new friends and colleague, but documenting the food was more important. 

We started out with a few snacks: cheese lavosh, a thin, crispy flatbread sprinkled with cheese and herbs; chorizo cheese chips and California almonds flavored with maple flakes, sea salt and spices. The Lavosh arrived as described by Vettel, hung on a hook, with a plate below to catch whatever crumbs that are sure to sprinkle every which way as you break off pieces. This was good. So good I was tempted to lick the crumbs off the table. but I think I've embarrassed myself enough for the day. 

The chorizo chips were not my favorite. The chips glistened with grease and it was a bit too rich and salty as an appetizer. Maybe if I had a beer to wash it down...?

The almonds...OH MY GOD. I'd gladly store cans of this in my pantry. They had that smoky sweetness from the maple, and just a hint of spice hits the back of your throat. Absolutely addictive.

Having read that chef Kevin Hickey was the people's choice winner at 2011's Hamburger Hop, I was tempted to try the burger here, unfortunately I gave into temptations at lunch and ended up overeating. So I had to settle for a light entree, the scallops with green risotto. It was certainly beautiful to look at, with lovely caramelization on either side of two big scallops, and the lovely green risotto really stood out from the white plate. The scallops were cooked to perfection, but a tad oversalted for my taste. The risotto had a beautiful fresh flavor I couldn't quite place my finger on. The waitress told me it was just green garlic. Guess I'll have to get some of that when I go to the farmer's market next time. My only quibble with the risotto was that it was a bit undercooked. While I know risotto should still have some bite to it, this was a bit too much bite. The consistency, however, was excellent.



The other two entrees at the table were the wagyu sliders and the "kitchen sink" salad. I was told the sliders were excellent, the patties tasted like they were marinated in gravy, I guess that means richly flavorful. The "kitchen sink" salad was not an entree, and for $12 I thought it was a bit overpriced. And that was one of my biggest critiques. For a restaurant named after a vegetable family, and a chef that's big in the farm-to-table movement, the menu had NO vegetarian entree options? (There were only 3 appetizer options, 2 of which were salads.) That seemed like a gross oversight. While the waitress did mention they could upsize the salad to entree portions, I still think it was a big misstep.     



While doing my usual background research on Allium prior to the dinner, I read about their miso butterscotch milkshake. Intriguing, but I wasn't feeling that adventurous today. While we were studying the dessert menu, our waitress surprised us with a complimentary tower of sweets. No idea why this was comped, but hey, anything free, especially dessert, is a good thing. The tower was composed of: lemon bars with candied pomegranate seeds, tomato jam macarons, pretzel caramels, oreos, peanut butter sandwiches and something that looked like an espresso-flavored cookie sandwich. I really liked the lemon bars, which was surprising as I usually found them to be cloyingly sweet with lemon extract flavoring. This tasted like the real thing and had the perfect balance of sweet and tartness. The macarons had beautiful texture, but I didn't taste any tomato flavor. The color also looked more strawberry than tomatoes. The peanut butter sandwich was quite good as well. But what everyone at the table raved about were the pretzel caramels. Sweet, salty, crispy, wow! This is one place I'm adding to my dessert list.



So, what did I think about the whole experience? Well, like any other food adventures, there were hits and misses. I have to admit, chef Hickey's dishes are very refined and have excellent balance between different flavors. However, I did find the food to be overpriced. Perhaps we were paying for the expenses incurred when they shipped those fancy fountains from somewhere in Europe? I might still come back to try the famous everything-homemade Chicago hotdog ($14) or the $19 burger. I'm certainly open to the idea of coming back to try some of their actual dessert items, but this is definitely an occasional splurge rather than regular place.

Allium

120 East Delaware Place  

Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 799-4900