A girl, a goat, an amazing meal.

Cuisine: Goat (for lack of a better descriptor)

Location: 809 W Randolph St., Chicago, IL

Price: $$$

Food: 4.5*

Service: ****

Overall: 4.5*

Website: http://www.girlandthegoat.com/

Three months. That’s how long the wait is for a reservation at Girl & The Goat. And that’s only if you’re dining at off hours (Sunday night, first and last seating, etc.). Otherwise the very instant seats are released on OpenTable, there’s a long list of people waiting to try the food at Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard’s restaurant who will snatch them up in a heartbeat.

In June, on an impulse, I decided the time was right to make a reservation at Girl & The Goat, for some far off date that might never come about, at least not before the Mayans predicted the end of the world or the rapture befell us yet again. For the duration of summer the thought of dining there was constantly in the back of my mind, a subtle reminder that the days were ticking off before I would be seated at one of the most talked-about, well-hyped, and adoringly-reviewed restaurants in all of Chicago.

Thai Food in Chicago's Meatpacking District: Next Restaurant

Cuisine: Thai (Until the end of September)

Location: 953 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL

Price: $$$$

Food: ****

Service: *****

Overall: **** (These ratings reflect the Tour of Thailand menu only)

At the James Beard Award ceremony in May 2010, Grant Achatz announced that he would be opening his second restaurant, after the critically acclaimed Alinea – Next, a restaurant that would change cuisines, time periods, and menu every three months, so drastically that he would essentially run four completely different restaurants a year with no common thread between each, except perhaps for the staff and the brick and mortar that housed this radical concept. Over the next few months, the hype built up to unimaginable proportions – before it had even officially opened its doors to the public, Next was preemptively named one of the best dining locales in Chicago by some publications. As soon as the ticketing system was revealed and the tickets released in April for Paris 1906, Next’s inaugural menu, Next immediately shot to the top of the list for places where reservations (or tickets, here) were both coveted and considered unattainable for the mere mortal¹.

If doubters wondered whether Next could meet these wholly unrealistic expectations, they were silenced when Paris 1906 opened. Chicago Tribune food critic Phil Vettel gave it four stars (the highest accolade possible), heaping layers of praise on the restaurant. My taste buds would soon verify the truckloads of positive reviews from diners – each dish left me with a lasting impression, from the simple but elegant Salade Irma to the fatty, buttery, cheesy Gratin de Pommes de Terre a la Dauphinoise paired with the Caneton Rouennais a la Presse². Starting with the hors d’ oeuvres and closing with the mignardises, there wasn’t a single dish or wine pairing that disappointed. Each dish I had opened my eyes to a new level of refinement when it came to French classical cooking, and it instantaneously became one of the best meals I have ever had in my life.

The success of Paris 1906, of course, only caused foodies to clamor for more and expect even greater things for the next menu. When Tour of Thailand was announced, people began to speculate how Achatz would put his own unique spin on Thai food, a culture steeped in the ways of street food and cheap eats now being transformed into $150 haute cuisine.

I have always considered myself to be well versed in Thai food – for a more detailed discussion of Thai food as I saw it growing up, you can read my review of Sukhothai here. So for this menu to impress me, it would have to be far and beyond the best Thai food I had ever set eyes upon in order to match the standard that Paris 1906 had set.

And so it was, armed with an empty stomach and high expectations, I found myself dining at Next once again a few weeks ago.