Recommendations on restaurants for haute cuisine?

Question

Preferably dishes ‘local’ to Chicago for lunch and dinner.
Will also look into places that do haute cuisine without comparable prices.
What kind of ballpark prices and foods should one expect?
How far ahead should one make reservations or are some of these restaurants by invitation or association only ? Is ordering in advance recommended ?

(FC8.21.10.06)

ABRIDGED
andso: Ceila’s on Cicero indubitably a very nice place. Unfortunately, Asker’s mal-providence and net savvy is unparalleled to the youngest of techno-minded infants.
~NEO~:
-Topolobampo’s trait burritos with authentic Yucatecan spices and sauces best accompanied with sommelier vintages, set in authentic Mexican finery.
-Orange, commoner garden foods given a refreshing twist to breaking fast and mid day meals, whose invigorating drinks similarly chime in consonance.
-Moto’s ‘minimalism’ belies its seafood and suitably eclectic wine list.
-Avenues’s artful Seussian platings spins dervish delights to palate and mind.
-NoMI’s unparalleled nouvelle cuisine where creations has only begun.
-Aria’s Thai-Japanese fusion, careful in preparation, resplendent in taste and aroma.
-Custom House’s magnificent vegetables,"braised rabbit with quenelles of mascarpone on nuggets of golden purple beets" and elusive veneer of saccharine.
-312 Chicago’s home cooked food par excellence.

Answer 1

Topolobampo
445 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60610
[phone]


It has been said that Julia Child never met a burrito she liked. But in fact, the menu at Chicago's hottest Mexican restaurant, Topolobampo, made her mouth water: seared ostrich in a tangy Yucatecan tomato-habanero sauce; garlicky sablefish roasted in banana leaves with guero chile rajas, sweet plantains, and hoja santa leaves; roasted pork loin in a sauce of toasted almonds and ancho chile. Served with sommelier-suggested vintages on white tablecloths in a swank, darkly lit dining room decorated with fine Mexican artwork, the cuisine marks the pinnacle of a culinary wave that is redefining how Americans think about Mexican food. "The tastes are so delicate, so unusual, they're every bit as refined as what the French do." Indeed, the late Julia Child adored Mexican haute cuisine.


Orange
3231 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60657-1601View Map
[phone]
Directions: El: Red or Brown Line to Belmont

Editorial Review

Ham and eggs meet haute cuisine at this sunny, citrus-colored breakfast and lunch hangout. crowd lines up out the door for creative breakfast fare, including fun dishes like green eggs and ham (scrambled eggs with basil pesto and pancetta) and French toast kebabs (moist chunks of challah bread speared with strawberries and pineapple). One unusual treat is frushi (fruit sushi), with tidbits of fruit like mango and fig wrapped in sticky sweet rice, served complete with chopsticks. Fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juices are nice accompaniments: Go for simple juice, or choose your own blend from the listed varieties, including kiwi, cantaloupe, raspberry and more. Lunch fare includes several sandwiches (sauteed veggie, chicken basil pesto) and salads.

Moto

945 W Fulton Market St, Chicago, IL 60607 · 312-491-0058

Reservations: Recommended
Dress: Business Casual
MARKET DISTRICT. Spare, sleek moto is as much about concept as it is cuisine. The pale interior directs all attention to the food, which explodes tradition and features dishes like bass cooked to tableside perfection in a polymer box. In the heart of the revitalized meatpacking district, this quirky, inventive restaurant features offbeat haute cuisine and a well-trained staff, all under thirty, all skilled in every aspect of operations. The menu allows for 5- , 10- , and 18-course tasting menus; an eclectic, global wine list promises accompaniments for everything.

Avenues (Peninsula Chicago)
Chef Graham Elliot Bowles is less mad scientist and more of a thoughtful artist prone to whimsy, with Seussian platings of red wafers of kangaroo carpaccio with shavings of melon, eucalyptus, micro mint and swaths of caramel served in a boomerang-shaped dish (pictured). Eschewing lasers and liquid nitrogen, Bowles is more concerned with redefining sense. Whereas most chefs contentedly balance sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (savoury), Bowles, who's fond of eclectically flavored sodas (chamomile, port wine), strawberry pop rocks and Altoid jus, has introduced effervescence as a sixth element. His dishes literally pop on the palate. For those craving steak, you can't go wrong with ring-mold-cut medallions of Waygu beef with a garnet merlot reduction that tastes like mom's cherry pie.

NoMI (Park Hyatt Chicago)
Watermelon has transcended the picnic table. Chef Christophe David serves it up as a frothy cold soup perfumed with the star anise, micro basil, dots of vanilla and a swirl of Banyuls vinegar that mimics the amber and gold tendrils of original Dale Chihuly glass sculptures hanging overhead. Sipping the soup, topped with a crusty crouton plank dotted with chopped lobster, is like crunching on melon in the middle of a spice plantation. The dish is a nod to mentor Paul Bocuse, the father of nouvelle cuisine, but just to prove he's his own man, David complements light flavors with a porcini risotto dripping in mascarpone, cream, butter and truffle oil. Meals are finished off with dainty migniardise of chartreuse petit fours and chocolate fudge flecked with gold leaf.

Aria (Fairmont Chicago)
Chef Noah Bekofsky and sushi chef Chef Byung Kyu Park demonstrate that comfort food isn't always mom's chicken noodle soup. Shrimp and chicken pad thai with zingy citrus notes, tender shoots of cilantro and wafers of red chili is soul satisfying. Creamy tuna tartare with crisp chives, crunchy batons of Japanese mountain potato (yamaimo) and caviar is a textural merry-go-round of contrasts, while slices of anago (salt water eel) marinated in mirin (Japanese rice wine) tastes like a puffed sushi dessert. Pair these eats with a glass of floral crisp Ginga "divine droplets," which is brewed in a Hokkaido ice dome where the fermenting rice mash is put into canvas bags, and the sake is coaxed only by gravity, dripping out overnight.

Enjoy haute meat and veggies at Custom House (Hotel Blake)
Even though James Beard Award-winning chef Shawn McClain's newest restaurant is meat inspired, the chops he honed while coaxing the best out of vegetables at Green Zebra is what makes Custom House shine. Braised rabbit is brightened by sweet bursts of English peas and the delicate whiff of green garlic. Sides of seasonal vegetable like salsify with orange and vanilla or funky Trumpet Royale mushrooms roasted in olive oil and rosemary are worthy amusements of the tongue. Nuggets of golden and purple beets with melting quenelles of mascarpone topped with mixed greens are glazed with a candy sheen. Paired up with crispy sweetbreads with glazed bacon or a bone-in-ribeye, your stomach will shout Yabba Dabba Do.

312 Chicago (Hotel Allegro Chicago)
I once asked Shawn McClain what his last meal would be if he were on death row, and he said that it just might be chef Dean Zanella's grandmother's meatballs. If you want to dine like McClain, all you have to do is order up a plate of the veal orbs with salted ricotta and tomato sauce at 312. Grandma has quite the influence in this classic prairie-style space, as her airy gnocchi paired with goat cheese also make an appearance. Zanella is one of those chefs you'll see talking shop with farmers at Chicago Green City Market on a weekly basis, and he focuses on seasonally inspired American-Italian cuisine, dotting his menu with the wares of local purveyors like Nichols Farm. If your mom ruined brussels sprouts by serving them as watery mushballs, Zanella's version with salty pancetta and drizzles of sweet tangy balsamic will restore your faith in the cabbage-like bud.

Answer 2

Ceila's on Cicero