Avenues Review

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Avenues

  • Address: Peninsula Hotel, 108 E. Superior St., Chicago, IL | Map It
  • Phone: 312/573-6754 | Reserve Online

Fodor's Review:

The least ostentatious of the city's cutting-edge restaurants, Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel lives a double life. The menu's most straightforward luxury items—butter-poached lobster, Kobe beef strip steak—aim to satisfy business travelers and other hotel guests, as does the sedate wood-paneled Prairie decor. But true culinary connoisseurs come here for something else altogether. Graham Elliot Bowles is one of Chicago's most creative young chefs. His lengthy tasting menus are the place to discover the sort of free-form pyrotechnics that landed him a challenger slot on TV's Iron Chef. Despite his experimental impulses, just about everything here looks and tastes like something you know. Caesar salad is deconstructed into its various parts while vichyssoise is expressed as both a soup and solid terrine. A classic steak frites becomes a remarkable dish, featuring hand-cut beef tartare, smoked gelato, and Béarnaise panna cotta.

  • Credit Cards: AE, D, DC, MC, V
  • Closed: Closed Sun. and Mon. No lunch

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