Is Alinea the Best Restaurant in the US?

So, dear hearts, Mr. Fashionista and I had the good fortune to go to Grant Achatz' restaurant Alinea, which was recently awarded three, count 'em three, Michelin stars. Oh and it was also named the best restaurant in North America. The question is, of course, does Alinea deserve all of these accolades?  

In a word: YES! At least for us it was our first adventure into 3 star restaurant land. We had been to a handful of the two star restaurants around town, but not the couple of 3 star joints yet. And let's just say this: one little star is the difference between memorable and unforgettable.

And what was so unforgettable? Well, we had 20 tasty and completely fun and unique courses. Let's break it down for you (spoiler alert--if you are going any time soon, do not read this as we'd hate to spoil the surprise!):

Courses 1-3: Crazy cocktails in one-inch square gelatin form. Specifically, they were LEMON (luxardo bitter, luxardo amaro, grapefruit); APPLE (laird's apple brandy, grenadine, thyme); and SQUASH (cynar, carpano antica, flor de cana 7 year).

In other words, super fancy jello shots. Fun, but not necessary, and the only courses I could have done without to be honest. Still I really enjoyed the sentiment and think it added to the fun of the meal.
Course 4: GOLDEN TROUT ROE (dijon, rutabaga, grapefruit). I loved this course. To be honest, the dijon was the star of this dish for me. We were basically served mustard, semi-solid bubbles on our plate. Kinda weird. Right? But what was even more strange was the fact that mustard tastes fantastic with grapefruit. Who knew? This was a stand out course for me.



YUBA and CHAO TOM



Courses 5-6: YUBA (shrimp, miso, togarashi) and CHAO TOM (sugar cane, shrimp, mint). The Yuba course was incredibly tasty, but there was something vaguely bar food-y about it. Blasphemy, I know. But comparing it to bar food is not necessarily an insult. It just means I was eating something (the yuba course) fried on a stick and dipped in flavored mayo. Good stuff. The Chao Tom was more interesting than necessary and basically consisted of sucking on some sugar cane that had shrimp and mint infused somehow and then spitting it out onto a napkin. Again, more fun than vital to the meal, but all part of the experience and it tasted good.

Course 7: BASS (black pepper, vanilla, lemon). This was one of our fave courses. Mr. Fashionista was particularly fond of it. A bunch of white food was presented to us on a white plate and the server explained it was light and dark and that there was bass, but otherwise, she wouldn't tell us what was in the dish, and we were informed that we should try to guess what was in it and get back to her after we ate it! A game! Fun!!! I was able to identify lemon and coffee and I could swear there was white chocolate in it, too. All I really knew was that it was sweet and salty and yummy. Our server soon cleared it up and apparently that white chocolate I thought I was tasting was vanilla. There were also several other flavors, but I can't recall what they are now. Guess I'll have to go back...



APPLE



Course 8: APPLE (horseradish, celery). Again, these crazy flavors shouldn't go together, but they did and this was also one of my fave courses. Celery juice was served in a shot glass, with a little ball of horseradish goodness and I can't remember how the apple was incorporated , but it was there and it was good. The whole thing was supposed to be drunk/ eaten like a shot. We were warned not to bite into the horseradish "ball" with our mouths open. We were told we would understand once we finished the course, which was true. Basically, as soon as you bite into the horseradish "ball", it explodes in your mouth. Still, this sensation was somewhat unexpected and I think I giggled a bit after this course. Plus, deliciousness.

RABBIT. This is the parfait. The rillette and consomme are inside.

Course 9: RABBIT (parfait, rillette, consomme). Basically, this course was described as rabbit three ways. It came in a big porcelain sphere. On top, was the rabbit parfait, which was basically a rabbit mousse. Tasty. Once we were finished, the server took the top half of the sphere off, revealing a middle flat plat, where our rabbit rillette, described as a pate, was revealed. This layer was my fave as the rabbit basically melted in your mouth. Finally, the middle "plate" was taken off and a bowl of rabbit broth was revealed with a stick and stone inside of it. Basically, we were told that the stone was hot and had been keeping our last layer of rabbit warm, whereas the stick was actually a cinnamon stick which had been providing us with aromas throughout the meal and which had helped add flavor to the consomme. This rabbit broth was almost as good as the middle layer and my only regret is that I wasn't able to get every last bit by drinking directly from the bowl.

HOT POTATO.

Course 10: HOT POTATO (cold potato, black truffle, butter). Another one of our fave courses. This little concoction came in a tiny white dish filled with either butter or potato (we're not quite sure), with a little pin stuck in it, with one whole truffle and potatoes? We were instructed to slide the contents of the pin into the little white dish and shoot. We did and were rewarded with truffle potato goodness. Pretty straightforward, but also pretty fantastic.  We heart truffles.

Course 11: SHORT RIB (olive, red wine, blackberry). Oh, we almost forgot. At some point during the meal, one of our servers set up what appeared to be chopsticks with orange fruit roll ups hanging off of them as a center piece for the table. Well, this "centerpiece" finally came into play with the short rib course. The "fruit roll up", come to find out, is actually a piece of pasta, which we are to fill ourselves with a variety of items, including but not limited to  olives and blackberries, which we then are to eat basically like a pasta taco. Lots of fun flavors. Great short rib (even if we still think short rib is glorified pot roast).

BLACK TRUFFLE.

Course 12: BLACK TRUFFLE (explosion, romaine, parmesan). This is basically a single ravioli filled with black truffle juice. Grant is famous for this and the dish has been with him since Trio and was developed by him while at the French Laundry. Another fun burst of flavor. We preferred the hot potato truffle course though.

CANARD. Best dish I've ever had!

Course 13: CANARD (a la Cussy): This course was hands down our fave course in terms of flavor and presentation. Which is crazy. Why? Well, prior to being served with this course, we noticed that instead of the ultra modern flatware which we had been previously given throughout our meal, we now had in front of us quite ornate silverware, with a beautiful etched crystal glass and very old fashioned looking porcelain. Huh? Well, it all made sense as we were served what seemed to be a straight up French dish which consisted of three delectable slices of duck breast on top of what we remember being foie gras (but may have been something else very decadent and rich) on top of a puff pastry. This was super rich and I can absolutely not describe to you how amazing tasting it was. May be the best dish I've ever had. And funny, it was also the most "normal". Yet abnormal as the presentation was adorably tongue in cheek. Plus, you get a glass of Chateneauf de pape with this one.

Course 14: VENISON (lingonberry, gruyere, fireplace kindling). For this course,  a piece of burning kindling was, of course, put to good use as a skewer for a breaded venison, lingonberry, gruyere ball. This was fun and yummy, but I wish the venison flavor had been stronger as I personally thought the berries and cheese overwhelmed it. Oh who am I kidding? It was delicious!

QUINCE.

Courses 15-17: Bring on the desserts: BACON (butterscotch, apple, thyme); QUINCE (balsamic, goat milk); PINEAPPLE (ham, freeze dried cherry). The bacon was hung on a wire. It was good. The pineapple, ham treat was really a crispy translucent sheet, which tasted pretty good. The star here, however, was the quince course, which consisted of layers of bubbles and froth inside of a test tube, which had to be sucked out. Loads of fun and I think it may have been the goat milk which was both delicious and a little different than your average bear.

EARL GREY.

Course 18: EARL GREY (lemon, pine nut, caramelized white chocolate). OK. We would have been so disappointed if we didn't get the flavor pillow that we had heard about. That's right a pillow case filled with scent. In this case, the scent was earl grey tea. And on top was a super yum lemon, pine nut, and white chocolate dessert. This was my fave dessert, perhaps because the ingredients used are some of my faves when it comes to dessert.

Course 19: SPRUCE (peppermint tea). BTW, forgot to mention that after our last fruit roll up center piece was taken, a glass with a Christmas tree branch, which appeared to be frosted was sitting in a glass, and the frosting had been melting as we were eating. And, we now had a chance to drink what was left in the glass, which was peppermint tea. Tasty and refreshing and you could really taste the Christmas tree.

CHOCOLATE.

Course 20: CHOCOLATE (blueberry, honey, peanut). And, finally, the chocolate course. Basically things had been manipulated through crazy molecular techniques that we don't understand and on the plate we had nougats and chocolate and some of the sweetest and juiciest blueberries we've ever tasted. This dessert was rich and scrumptious. And, sadly, Mr. Fashionista had to finish mine for me as I finally found that I just could not eat another bite...

Here's what we think: We will never forget this meal and as we were sitting there, both Mr. Fashionista and I were thinking the whole time, we don't want this to end. And we didn't want it to end, but sadly you can't eat forever...

We can not wait to go back. Of course, first, we will need to wait for the funds to be replenished. That being said, is it worth $350/ person (tour + wine pairing w/o tip)? If you've got it, skip buying that pair of boots you really want or that purse you've been eyeing and go eat the meal of a lifetime. We've never had so much fun eating before in our lives.