On the heels of my recent meal at Millennium, in Oakland, CA, I made arrangements to try another vegan tasting menu, this time a little closer to home at French restaurant Everest, here in Chicago.
Wait. What? A French restaurant that has a vegan tasting menu? I thought French food was all about using cream and butter. How could this be? I read some reviews and sure enough, some folks indicated that the kitchen had been happy to turn their offered vegetarian tasting menu into a vegan one. Well color me happy!
Somewhat incredulously, I called to confirm, and sure enough, the woman on the phone said it wouldn’t be a problem. Then I’ll take your table for 2.
I cam down earlier in the week to make sure I could find the place. I’d read that their address had changed recently and didn’t want to have any last minute surprises. It’s not marked from the street at all, and you will need to go in what looks like an office building, let the lobby know you have a reservation, and they can help you get to their 40th floor perch.
We had a wonderful, lightly dressed salad to start, a composition of garden greens, pickled radishes and a really light Meyer lemon vinaigrette that made it taste as though there was barely anything on the salad, which is one of my favorite things about French salads.
A delightful cauliflower puree soup came next that was light, airy and delicious. It had tiny bits of broccoli and other veggies and was composed table side. I’m not sure it included any of the Perigord truffle that came with the egg-centric vegetarian option, which would have been nice, but it was still rather delicious.
Next came the Fricassée of Wild Forest Mushrooms, with a truffle vinaigrette that I am still thinking about. It was that good. I could have eaten that all night long.
A braise of various root vegetables was the main and it was extraordinary. Artichokes, heirloom squash, a parsnip emulsion and petite celery rounded out the plate. I’d have sworn it was all swimming in butter, but my lactose intolerant companion was none the worse for wear, so they’re doing something right.
Various fruity desserts rounded out the experience. All in all I really enjoyed it, though, considering it was all veggies, I think the price was a little high, though the technique was spot on. Bravo!
VegScore: About 10%. There are only 2 explicitly vegan items on their main menu. They offer a separate vegetarian tasting menu, that does include eggs, butter and cream. A vegan tasting menu can be arranged by request. However, I noted, frustratingly, that the front of the house was aware of this, but the server wasn’t and she acted like she’d have to check with the kitchen which was super-frustrating since, a) I called to confirm they could accommodate me and b) they’d taken a $150 hold on my card, predicated on the belief that they could serve me a vegan tasting menu. The server should never have introduced that doubt.