Smyth - Chicago
Casual interior and open kitchen
Rating: 17/20
Where: Chicago, Illinois
When: Dinner for 2 on 9 November 2023
Cost: Tasting menu $285, Wine pairing $145-$355
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Creative small bites with many unusual combinations of ingredients
“Smyth” is a restaurant in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood, just west of downtown. Its name does not refer to a person (as one might think), but to Smyth County in rural Virginia. This, the middle of nowhere, is where Smyth's two married chefs spent five years running a fine-dining restaurant after previous stints in Chicago. Following this life-changing experience, they opened their non-eponymous restaurant in 2016 and in November 2023 received their crowning third Michelin star. Two days after the awards ceremony, I found myself in fall-colored Chicago, ready to experience the world's newest three-starred restaurant (a designation that would last for merely a week).
The restaurant can be found a few steps up from street level, and its dining room is decorated in warm wooden tones. There are simple tables and chairs, no table cloths, and an open kitchen facing the dining room - the vibe is intentionally casual. Tellingly, the Michelin three-star plaque is attached to a pillar in the kitchen, but in a location that cannot be seen from the dining room. Proud of the achievement? Definitely. Bragging about it? No way. At first glance, one could easily mistake this space for a friendly neighborhood restaurant serving $30 entrees. (And in fact, its sister restaurant downstairs is just that kind of place.) Smyth, however, is tasting menu only. The menu’s advertised price of $285 is a bit misleading since a mandatory 20% service charge will be added to the bill and it is (surprisingly) not considered a tip. Why not just increase the menu price by 20%? Well, apparently plenty of other fine-dining restaurants in Chicago follow this dubious practice, so even if a restaurant doesn’t think this a good idea, it has to go along to keep its prices “comparable”. Somewhat reminiscent of the resort fees and other hidden costs that hotels like to surprise their guests with. I hope this doesn't catch on elsewhere.
Three wine pairings were on offer, called “Traditional”, “Reserve” and “Super Mega”, at price points of $145, $215 and $355, respectively. By Michelin-star restaurant standards (if not necessarily by the real world's), that's actually a relatively modest increase from lowest to highest-priced pairing. By comparison, Addison and SingleThread in California charge well over $1000 for their high-end pairings. At the recommendation of our sommelier, I went for the middle-of-the-road option. The wines were fine, not spectacular, and I suspect that the cheapest pairing would have been equally satisfactory.
It's not easy to summarize a meal at Smyth. It consists of many small courses that are novel creations having little resemblance to dishes that one might have seen before. If there was a unifying theme for our meal, then it would have to be the season - fall. The usual suspects of American cooking at this time of year made an appearance: butternut squash, beets, yams, nuts, duck, and so on. But that's where the similarity to traditional cuisine ended - this was definitely not what to expect at the proverbial Thanksgiving table (unless you're related to the kitchen staff of Smyth, maybe).
While this creative take on American cuisine was exciting (and delicious), I suspect that everyone's reaction will be slightly different. At our table for example, both of us liked all the dishes, but we wildly disagreed on which were the “best” ones. I'd never claim that my ratings are objective by any means, but they might be even less so here - take them as the likes and dislikes of one particular diner.
Our dinner started with a “truffle taco”. The photo unfortunately doesn't show it, but the base of the dish was a round corn tostada that was shaped like a waffle (think: stroopwafel minus the caramel). This tostada was topped with poached golden beets, masa, miso butter and shaved truffles. We were instructed to fold the dish in half and eat it like a taco. Clearly, the tostada and masa suggested a Mexican dish, while the beets were more of an American ingredient, and the truffles, well... Maybe best not to overthink this and just enjoy. Interestingly, the similarity to the stroopwafel didn't stop with its shape - this was a surprisingly sweet dish, especially for a first course. The waffle was not very crunchy, the beets actually contributed more texture. Sadly, the truffle taste was very light 17.
Brined Maine sea urchin (uni) was served in its shell, accompanied by passion fruit, habanada peppers and a wasabi cream. The menu listed this dish as “Maine uni & wasabi”, which sounds Japanese, but was nothing of the sort. The uni flavor was light, and I couldn't taste the wasabi at all; these two contributed mostly creaminess to the presentation. Rather than being spicy, this course was also slightly sweet, though less so that the previous one. The passion fruit lightened up the dish, and the lingering impression was one of “freshness” 17.
The sea urchin course was decorated with orange “leaves” (flower petals), alluding to the fall theme. Similarly, the following course was topped with red “leaves” - a pickled vegetable in this case. The main ingredient of the dish were two slices of torched fatty tuna belly. They were served on top of cured oysters and with a strawberry/miso dressing. “Good, but not amazing” might describe the tuna, the slightly sweet sauce was more flavorful than the fish itself, and tasted more of strawberry than of miso. The oysters had an oddly chewy texture, presumably a result of the curing, but maintained a hint of oyster flavor - a welcome situation, since oysters can so easily get lost in a dish 17.
Lobster coral (i.e. lobster eggs) were incorporated into a chawanmushi (Japanese egg custard), which was topped with a rose/raspberry oil and a hazelnut oil. This was a very unusual dish, and “chawanmushi” might be a misleading way to describe it, since it shared neither taste nor texture with this staple of Japanese cuisine. First the taste: there was no taste of lobster, but the hazelnut flavor was strong with this one, and there was a hint of sweetness. The texture was a bit gritty, and it reminded me of ground hazelnuts, probably thanks to the accompanying flavor. Altogether, this could almost have passed for a dessert. In reality the texture was probably due to the lobster coral, but oh my - what an interesting dish to play with flavors and textures in such a way. It was my dining companion's favorite course of the night, and her ecstatic expression made the chef come over to check whether everything was alright. In terms of rating, this was a tough one - creating something this novel and unexpected out of ingredients that are generally not used together was highly impressive. But if I rated this on flavor alone, it was more of a high 17.
Next, we received a bowl filled with dulce seaweed. Our server admonished us not to eat the seaweed itself, as previous guests apparently had done. He then proceeded to pour a lobster broth into the bowl. The broth had ingredients besides lobster, but I missed all of them except for “citrus fruit”. The seaweed was used to infuse the broth - kind of like steeping tea - and we were given a large spoon to press out the seaweed's “juices”. And wow, what bold flavors we got! Lovely lobster, strong seaweed, sour and fragrant citrus; moreover all of the flavors were very well balanced and melded together. Very tasty, and close to perfection in my mind 19.
This was followed by another dish that combined ingredients not usually seen together. A slice of Californian avocado was topped with salt crystals and sat on top of a granita seasoned with charred poblano peppers, finger limes, sea lettuce, eucalyptus oil and peanut “milk”. Besides all being green, the ingredients didn't seem to have much in common. But mixing them all together was a revelation. (Given that we only had two spoons as utensils, mixing was definitely the encouraged method of eating this dish.) The ice together with the creaminess of the avocado and the peanut milk made this essentially a savory ice cream. The crunchy salt crystals and popping finger limes added some nice texture. I couldn't really taste any peanuts in the dish, the “peanut milk” felt more like a light yogurt dressing. Another success 18.
Dungeness crab from Portland was served two ways: plain and marinated with slivers of immature green almonds. Next to it was a hazelnut/almond fudge butter and in the center of the bowl were drops of almond milk suspended in walnut oil. The crab was of high quality, a touch of acidity helped to bring out its flavors. The rest of the dish added a nutty taste - an unusual pairing for the crab, but surprisingly, it worked quite well 17.
Disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of butternut squash, and dread its takeover of American cuisine each and every fall. The following dish, whose main component was a caramelized slice of butternut squash, therefore didn’t bode well. But wait - there was more: a foam and sauce incorporating a phonebook's worth of ingredients - miso, sikil pak, pumpkin seeds, a white asparagus nage, white rice, a mushroom vinaigrette and mandarin zest. And the result was lovely, an excellent savory sauce that oddly enough tasted a bit like almonds. And even the butternut squash was not too bad - still a tad too sweet for my taste, but definitely much less than it might have been. The crunchy caramely crust was a nice addition 17. (Someone more into butternut squash would probably rate this dish an 18.)
Unagi (freshwater eel) from Maine was served with a rice porridge, a roasted pepper paste, unagi toffee and a porcini/leek broth. Unagi sushi in the United States has a bit of a bad rep due the cloying sweet sauce that it is usually soaked in. No such thing here. Smyth's sauce was still lightly sweet, but had lots of flavor (saltiness, umami) that complemented the fatty, creamy unagi perfectly. Some kelp seaweed on top added a nice crunchy texture. A successful and rarely trod middle ground between the light Japanese and heavy French preparations of eel 19.
The next three courses answered the age old question of what came first, the poultry or the egg. First, we were served a quail egg. The smoked egg sat on top of a croustade filled with 'nduja, and was seasoned with walnut oil, kombu and shaved white truffles. It was a salty dish that tasted mostly of the 'nduja sausage - I could only smell but not taste the truffles, and the egg contributed mostly texture. Very nice overall; this was probably the most intensely flavored dish of our meal 18.
Duck liver was served underneath a chestnut custard and a gelee of guinea hen, apples and yeast (sic!). All of this was topped with black walnuts and dulce seaweed. The walnuts had a nice light crunch, but the duck liver pate was merely “ok”. A pleasant, slightly sweet intermezzo 16.
The final savory - and possibly most substantial - course followed. A two-week-aged duck breast was glazed with a combination of honey and quince. Next to it were enoki mushrooms and a “secret special sauce” (as described by our server) containing marmite, egg yolk, and truffles. On the side was a savory donut that was filled with koji cheese, glazed with duck fat toffee and topped with sea salt. Apart from creating sticky fingers the donut was decent - the koji cheese inside was quite liquid, and overall it was a bit on the sweet side. I would have preferred if the donut had been more fried/crunchy/firm on the outside. The duck was much better: essentially all of its fat had been rendered, the skin was nicely crunchy and the meat was firm in texture. Together with the umami-rich sauce, this was a dish full of earthy flavors 18.
Next, a palate cleanser of sorts. Hojicha ice cream came with sudachi, grape juice, apple kombucha ice, frozen ice sheets, grape jelly and pickled grapes. Sadly, this dish didn't really taste of hojicha, it was dominated by the other flavors. Definitely a good palate cleanser - kind of like a simple, fruity, refreshing ice cream. But given the long list of ingredients I had expected something a bit more complex 16.
On to the desserts - in a fashion. New potatoes and pecan ice cream were placed on top of a potato skin caramel and raspberry butter. A dollop of osetra caviar completed the dish. There was a lot to unpack here - potatoes and caviar in a dessert?! Well, it was definitely a dessert: sweet, with a hint of fruitiness, but mostly dominated by earthy flavors. The caviar added a bit of saltiness, the pecans were soft, and the potato skins quite crunchy. Yummy? For sure! But also intellectually impressive - first, in pulling off such an interesting dish with such diverse ingredients. And second, by creating a dish that meant something different to everyone. Three opinions on what this dish was supposed to resemble:
I was reminded of the savory appetizer of putting caviar and sour cream on a potato chip. This dish remixed the same ingredients into a dessert, which I thought was quite clever.
My dining companion thought that this was a dead ringer for white chocolate covered potato chips. (Something I’ll definitely will have to try in the near future.)
Last, but not least, the kitchen. According to them, this dish was inspired by the practice of dipping french fries into the Frosty frozen dessert served at Wendy's.
There's probably a lesson here as to whether it's worth pondering the “meaning” of a dish. Maybe it’s pointless, maybe it’s half the fun. In any case, an enjoyable and tasty dessert 18.
Two small bites concluded our dinner. A corn macaroon was flavored with raspberries and pawpaw. Similar in consistency to a cheese cake, it was quite sweet, but tasty 17. A chocolate chip/kombu tarte was seasoned with jasmine oil. The seaweed/chocolate combination actually worked - this was a crunchy treat with a filling that was vaguely reminiscent of liquid caramel 17.
Some sea lettuce caramels were offered to sweeten dealing with the check. Interesting, but not something I'd order again (the caramels, not the check) 15.
Overall: American fine-dining in the form of a creative, tasty series of small bites. We had a wonderful dinner with great service, and the inventiveness of the unusual ingredient combinations was fun to experience. When one gets disillusioned by three-star restaurants that play it too safe and don't experiment anymore, a visit to Smyth is a great cure, and I hope that it stays that way. The downside of the experimentation was that the successes were mixed: only a couple dishes felt like true three-star standouts. But on the positive side, there weren't any duds either - everything was quite tasty. A high 17.
Tasting menu and “Reserve” wine pairing