Charlie Trotter's (CLOSED)

Long waited experience to dine at Charlie Trotter's great restuaurant in Chicago. I don't know where the other reviews were eating but they must have been in the congo. Our group of 4 were greated with great charm, promptly and friendly, seated timely and served the greatest meal of our life. Yes small servings of higest quality food and the best wine pairing. Yes it takes time to prepare this food but worth every minute. Sorry Charlie's is closing the end of August but he will pop up in another place and when he does I hope I can be the first in line to experience his newest cuisine.

We agree with the majority of reviews, We have talked about this experience as by far the worst Resturant experience we have ever had! sooooo over rated" we sat there for almost 4 hrs and were served tiny portions of fancy strange food, we did not even know what it was, At a cost of $500. Snobby servers! We left starving at 11:00 pm and ate all the nuts at the hotel bar to fill up,, crazy! We just ate a great filling meal at TGIF for $35.00! The money was one thing, but the portions and taste of the food was insane! Major fleesing of America t

Should three people pay over $750 for bland, unrecognizable, over-hyped food? Really pretentious. Fixed menu with often tasteless original grazing courses. Snooty service. Promised to substitute but then refused my request for a change due to an alergy. Bland decor. There are at least a hundred better restaurants in Chicago. Their specialty is marketing to status seekers. Total rip off. Not one dish was worthy of the hype, usually coming out cold and often tasteless. How about cutting prices 70% and serving some real food? Go there and you'll be cheated. A monument to people's stupidity and desire to overspend. Very uptight. Bottom line: The food is supposed to be the star of the show, but it is pretentious, badly thought out, not flavorful, and often downright bad. Biggest restaurant mistake I've made in years.

This restaursant was highly reccommended and touted as one of the best, A MUST. But it truely was the worst and most expensive expereice that I have ever had. The food was down right "bad". A feel that other tourists need to know that there are really good upscale restaurants in Chicago. Just ask and be careful of reputations.

All 8 of us,would have been better off to have just paid the $165.00 a person and leave the premises without subjecting ourselves to the joke they call a gourmets delight. The taste , texture and choices they serve, for example, sea urchin, is a total waste of your time and energy. They drag this out over three hours or more, probably hoping you will forget what you eat by the time you leave. Don't go near this place, you've been warned.

Perhaps the most disappointing dining experience I've ever had. Given the reputation and price (165$ menu) of the restaurant, I was expecting a 3-star dinner like in NYC or Paris. Neither the service nor the food were up to it. No real sommelier. We didn't get to taste the wine or see the bottle. Terrible bread, harder than concrete. Slow service overall, considering there's no choice of menu. Setting not impressive. Average food. Not particularly creative and cheap ingredients (codfish, sardine + 3 dishes were ice-cream). Nothing to justify the sky-high price. Worst of the night: the fish was substitued in the first dish and the maitre d'hotel tried to hide it by lying to us when we asked. Even if we we got 100$ back out of 600$, feels like a rip-off.

Wonderful start to finish. Walk through the door and you are taken away with the aroma of fresh apples in the atrium. I went on my birthday. My wife had purchased a cook book of his and it was autographed with with a personal message. The waiter presented the menu and asked if there were other items we would like not shown on the menu. The food was incredible. Each course was sized and balanced. Trotters is one of the few places where they have dedicated a wine pairing with the menu. Depending on the menu the wine paring will change. Most places will pair a menu for you but the wine comes from a by the glass selection. His pairings can come from bottles that range into the hundred's of dollars which allow you to sample some really great wines. After dinner our server invited us on a tour of the kitchen and the cellar. It is expensive, but the food and wine are top notch and the service is professional without being stuffy. Easily the best in Chicago and maybe the country. Watch out Chef Keller.