ILIS was on my list to visit and seemed to be very trendy lately. There’s some good thing to like about the restaurant such as the very tall ceiling and large entrance door creating a large space adding to the ambiance. The open kitchen in the middle was nice, great to watch the chefs work between dishes.
The cocktails were finely crafted and delicious. Service was impeccable, nothing pretentious but rather friendly and inviting.
Unfortunately, the food was the low point of our experience. I really wanted to like it, but truthfully, there are plenty of other restaurants that would offer better meals for the same price range. While the presentation of each dish was great, the food was simply not meeting my expectations for a restaurant of this caliber.
We had the Field guide menu, comprising of 13 courses. ILIS gets points for originality on their presentation. However, while the aesthetic was there, we were underwhelmed by the taste of many of the dishes. Two of the dishes that I enjoyed were the dry aged tuna with white truffles and the duck.
Overall, this was a mixed mediocre experience. The service and presentation were great, but the food was nothing noteworthy. We got to try it, but would have most likely enjoyed one of the many other fine dining choices around town significantly more than ILIS.
by Frenchie_PA