I admit: I was biased against this restaurant even before I had set foot inside. It was during my Alinea phase, when I was reading everything I could about that Chicago restaurant and avant-garde dining. Inevitably, wd-50 would come up and it would always compare unfavorably. So take this disclaimer as the proverbial grain of salt -- fitting seasoning for a food blog.
For an avant-garde dining experience, wd-50 didn't really offer much in the way of shock. For starters, we shared the foie gras with passion fruit scramble and saltine puree and the octopus with celery pesto. The octopus was nicely done, with the celery lending a very distinctive flavor. The passion fruit scramble and the saltine puree, on the other hand, seemed gratuitous. Our main course selections included pork belly, which was glisteningly white laced with the occasional red stripe, cod with smoked mashed potatoes and pickled mushrooms, and scallops with pine needle oil (like inviting a deodorizer tree into your stomach). The smoked mashed potatoes had a wonderfully creamy consistency, but the cod had a very mild flavor that enabled the pickled mushrooms to stand out as an unwelcomed dominant taste. As for the scallop dish, we were informed some time into our appetizers that the kitchen had run out of scallops and would be substituting langoustines. I found it quite strange that a kitchen that prides itself on provocative dishes would so easily switch the main ingredient in a dish rather than trying to come up with something new way to showcase langoustines. Perhaps I've been watching too much "Iron Chef."
To its credit, the menu offers quite a few options sure to elicit raised eyebrows, including mussel-olive oil soup, pickled beef tongue and fried mayonnaise, just to name a couple. With this avant-garde dining experience, however, it was more about the show than the food.
To quote Michael Kors, "I was underwhelmed." wd-50 left me feeling like I was robbed of what could have potentially been a great meal. Unlike comida I did like the saltine puree. And one thing she left out, which I thought was the highlight of the evening, was the very sociable and entertaining "Juice" behind the bar who concocted inventive and tasty cocktails. wd-50's barman is definitely worth a visit--too bad wd's creations don't warrant the same...
ReplyDeleteComplete oversight on my part to leave "Juice" out...chalk it up to my tendency to post too late at night. But I think I prefer the bar at Schiller's Liquor Bar, perhaps because the drinks were more fruity (and less potent for the scrawny among us).
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