Smyth (*); A Guarded, Yet Happy Meal

So, it’s no secret in r/finedining that Smyth has been a polarizing meal across many reviews. I was worried about coming here after what I had read, but didn’t tell my wife. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what her fresh thoughts were, having read nothing, versus mine.

We have a background of eating at many 3 star Michelins across the globe, so we were interested in how Smyth would stack up. We didn’t do alcohol pairing because we were here for the marathon and trying to stay hydrated before (I know, so anal).

Seeing as how we weren’t partaking in wine parings, we had a couple of mocktails that were suggested to us; they had a nice list of about 8 different ones.

The atmosphere was great, in our opinion. Very cozy. A lot of relaxed than other 3-starred places we had been to where I feel out of place without a suit on. The staff was very engaging from the beginning to the end, making a fuss for my wife’s birthday, all signing a card for her saying thank you for coming. Every time someone came to present a meal, they were very engaging and lovely. This was a welcome surprise, as I had heard the opposite from some posts. Even at the end of the meal, the moment that I had dreaded where they explained the service charge was not a tip, was done very professionally, I thought. The gentlemen who brought us the check explained, “I just wanted to discuss the service charge at the restaurant here with you. It is for the staff here so we can pay everyone a wage that we deem fair for their efforts. There is a line for a tip as well. We encourage you to leave whatever you feel comfortable leaving for the service, and we don’t want you to feel any pressure to leave anything additional.” I left more than I was going to in my mind before he said that. It was handled so nicely.

These are some pictures of the meal. A few overall thoughts:

I get why it’s a polarizing meal for those that visit. My wife and I disagreed about the success of some courses, but we agreed that it really depended on HOW you were eating each dish. I almost feel like the meal is prismatic in this way.

The caviar dish was one of the best examples. I see how a recent poster didn’t care for it. I think, oddly enough, if you really enjoy caviar alone, you wouldn’t care for this dish. The drizzle on top of the caviar, done table-side, was described as a “syrup-like” taste. It had almond and hazelnut butter dabs inside the bowl. Under it was a cream with sunflower oil presentation. I did not care for this, as I found that having oil/cream/butter/syrup/caviar in one spoonful was a bunch of flavors that were neither working in concert with each other, nor were they highlighting the caviar. I found that my enjoyment changed depending on what was in the bite I had collected with my spoon. So, intra-dish, I was finding certain bites pleasing, and certain bites not. My wife, on the other hand, loved the dish because she was eating the elements alone. It wasn’t really described HOW you should eat this dish, as they had done with other dishes, like the finger foods. Maybe that’s the idea? That it is prismatic and depends on you and your decisions/palate. I’d like the think that this is the idea.

My favorite dish was the lobster. I was confused, as I had heard mixed things about this dish as well. The lobster was well-cooked, and the reduction was soo good I could have drank a whole cup of it and asked for me. The last time I felt like that was Paul Bocuse’s truffle reduction with Bresse chicken. It was really beautiful.

My wife said she thought the meal was “a lot of fun.” Definitely our favorite restaurant that we’ve been to in Chicago, and I would recommend it to anyone.