This was Ever. At the Helm of Chef Duffy, formerly of (***) Grace, you step into an awe inspiring space worthy of the finest restaurant; complete with $1,000 chairs, and hanging food from the ceiling. You grab your first drink from anywhere in the opening hallway.
You are served 10 courses throughout the evening. Everything ranged from Good, to very good, but nothing blew me away in the sense that I’ll be thinking about it in a month. Duffy’s signature, the liquid nitrogen frozen hamachi curls, was definitely the stand out dish of the evening. Props also go to the rabbit, A5, and final dessert course. The caviar was underwhelming and a very small portion compared to other Michelin restaurants, whilst the asparagus and scallop were fine. Evening could have used two more courses as well.
Service left something to be desired compared to other (**), which is where I felt the experience felt flat. Ever seemed like 1.5 star cooking, in a 3 star building, with .75 star service. Everything was very rugged. Waiters didn’t transition smoothly, they didn’t sync with each other properly, dishes came not in sync, or at the wrong moment while the somollier was still talking. Chairs wouldn’t be pulled open, and there wasn’t the attention to detail I’ve seen at many other places. There was no continuity of service, and general flow of the evening just felt very very VERY rough. It’s like they knew everything they had to do but the execution was off. The service captain, however, was wonderful.
Overall, the potential in this space is massive. Add 1 or 2 standout dishes + cleanup the service and I can see a third star. Until then, would probably reccomend a skip (for now).
by peterson2111
8 Comments
The menu looks very similar to what i had earlier in May, although with a different dessert (we didn’t have the banana). We didn’t get any mignardises at the end of our meal (or any snacks at the beginning) which I found a bit strange. We found the service to be really great, i wonder if you went on an off night. Our main server was super friendly and there was a lot of attention to detail. I casually mentioned to my dining partner that i really enjoyed the pretzel bread served towards the beginning of the meal, and they sent us home with a few for the next day! Not a huge thing, but it stood out during a week where i ate at a few other tasting menu places in Chicago.
Agree that the hamachi curls were the highlight, as well as the chocolate dessert.
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Ugh. More foam?! Otherwise, looks great. I’m in Chicago and will put this on my list.
My last meal at Ever about 8 months ago, it was fairly the same. There was also way, WAY too much focus on technique for technique sake in the cooking to the point where I might not have even said it was worth a single Michelin star. I still mentally recoil from a dish intricately constructed out of concatenating rings of what turned out to be frozen fish. It looked absolutely marvelous, but if one wanted to eat raw frozen fish, it seems one needed be spending this kind of money or bother sitting in $1,000 chairs, you can go to the frozen foods section of just about any supermarket chain to get your fix.
As I ate there in a back-to-back tour of Chicago’s multi-Michelin starred spots, Ever stood out like a sore thumb for me because of this. It would take a comped meal and active outreach for me to return, especially in a city with Smyth, Oriole, and Alinea.
i’m looking to book ever in the coming months. genuine question – were you full by the end of this meal?
Strange, even from people who say they weren’t impressed by the food they often comment on the great service here. It seems to be the one universal point everyone can agree on .I have been twice and thought service was almost perfect both times. I hope it was just a bad night
This place is gorgeous, but we weren’t overly impressed by the food or service, especially not after experiencing Duffy’s first place, Grace, which was just flawless.
I thought we were done with molecular cooking, I guess Chicago and Spain didn’t get the memo