L2O

Michelin came to Chicago last November, and two restaurants, Alinea and L2O, received three stars.  Alinea’s three stars were widely expected, but L2O’s honors came with some drama when the chef, Laurent Gras, followed Michelin’s announcement the very next day with a surprise announcement of his own: that he was leaving L2O and moving to Manhattan to start a new project.

D and I had eaten a couple of times at L2O under Gras, and appreciated his elegant, Asian and French-inspired seafood – not to mention the meticulous service and the calm, modern dining room.  So I was quite curious to see, upon our return, whether the experience would still be as good post-Gras.

The answer is yes.  L2O looks and feels like the same restaurant; the food is still outstanding, the wine pairings are still unexpected and delicious, and the service is still graceful.

We started with two different amuses, first a tiny cup of salmon mousse topped with bright green cucumber gelee, then a charmingly cute miniature lobster roll – one bite of crouton-sized bun, lobster, and a few shreds of lettuce.

The first course was a dramatic black and white presentation, a disc of hirame topped with Italian-farmed caviar. The slivers of raw fluke and caviar worked nicely together, with clean flavors and complementary textures, and were accented with tiny bits of preserved lemon.

King prawn arrived next, served with matchsticks of jicama and two sauces, one a delicate coconut and the other made from green tomato.  Both were incredibly good, especially when swirled together.  The next course was turbot, seared to a crisp exterior, in another excellent sauce – this time, butter and yuzu with the faintest shavings of lime zest.

The sauces are delicious enough to warrant mopping up with bread, and L2O has a superb selection.  Actually, I tend to ignore the sauces in favor of focusing on the bread and delicious butter; I always like the cushiony squares of pain au lait, but my surprise favorite was a sesame-crusted honey wheat roll, slightly sweet and crunchy with toasted sesame seeds.

The next course was the only one I didn’t love, though the reason surprised me – it was simply too rich.  That’s not something I say too often, but in this case, the combination of lobster and foie gras was a bit overwhelming, especially when topped with a velvety porcini sauce.

Our final course before dessert was Wagyu beef (from Australia), impeccably seared and tender within, served with two cylindrical pieces of potato and king oyster mushrooms.

When we ordered, I had asked if I could add a dessert course, since the strawberry sorbet sounded so good.  This proved to be one of the most fabulous (and beautiful) desserts I’ve had in recent memory – the sorbet was so deeply strawberry that it almost seemed unreal, and the rhubarb soup was as vivid in flavor as color.  There were basil tapioca “pearls” that added a subtle herbal note, and then, to literally gild the lily, a gold leaf-covered piece of braised rhubarb.

Things went a bit over the top at this point.  Apparently there were some technical difficulties with our soufflés, so the kitchen sent out a pair of additional desserts to tide us over – passionfruit mousse with coconut panna cotta, and a caramel-filled chocolate sphere served over espresso foam and malted shaved ice.

Before we could get too far on these, though, the soufflés arrived and demanded our attention.  Mine was Grand Marnier with a marmalade sauce, while D had praline with hazelnut creme anglaise.  I always love a good soufflé, and L2O makes lovely ones.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we were in no shape to deal with the mignardises, so our server packed them into an impressively well-designed box.  The next day, I savored the liquid-filled truffle (banana, perhaps?) and custardy canelé, and enjoyed one final taste of L2O.