Pedersen Room

Irene and I would never have had dinner at the Sarah and Peer Pederson Room had we not been planning to attend a performance of Werther at the Lyric Opera of Chicago Friday night. In fact, we wouldn't have been _allowed_ to dine there if that hadn't been our plan. Only people with tickets can get reservations there, as it exists so that those who want to eat before a performance without having to worry about getting to the theater through Chicago traffic before the curtain goes up can do so with no worries.

But that worry was replaced by a different one. Instead, I worried that there was a Catch-22 -- because of the nature of the clientele, with the restaurant only serving people who _had_ to eat there, I feared the quality of the food wouldn't be all that. However, my wife and I were pleasantly surprised.

We arrived for a 5:00 p.m. seating, and were assured that we'd easily make it to the 6:30 pre-performance lecture. It turns out that In order to speed you on your way,  they serve all courses from the pre-fixe meal -- save the dessert -- at once. So we received four small square plates delivered 2 x 2 on a larger square serving dish. We were unaware of this serving decision, and though it sounded off-putting at first, when the food came, it all somehow didn't seem as odd as it had seemed. It felt proper for the venue, and at the same time, we in no way felt rushed, even though we had a self-imposed deadline for ending the meal.

I ordered Carrot Ginger Soup (garnished with a miso touille), Panzanella Salad (heirloom tomatoes, chopped cucumber, red onions, and basil on toasted croutons), and Bistro Beef Persillade (roasted fingerling potatoes, petite green beans, red wine sauce), plus was given a complimentary house salad. There was only one dessert, which was Donizetti's Sweet Ending (Pot de Crème, Cookie, and Rhubarb Compote).

The courses were all well-prepared, and while nothing  was mind-blowing, there was nothing to complain about either. It was surprisingly good.

The servers were friendly, and attention was paid -- we never had to lift a finger to get our water glasses refilled, for example.

In order to take advantage of the convenience of the location, we'd visited the Pederson Room again ... though hopefully next time it will be before a much-better production than the ill-conceived Werther.

After sitting through what could be the worst written opera ever performed on the Lyric stage the evening was redeemed by dinner at the Sarah and Peer Pederson Room.

It's a small restaurant, accordingly, it fills up awful fast.  It's only open to Lyric patrons with a ticket for that evenings show.  There are a couple seatings, depending on the opera timing (matinee or evening performance).  There are always cancellations, so if you couldn't get a reservation it's worth asking if they are open when you're walking past.  

They serve a prix-fixe dinner with 4 options for you to choose and a side salad with every meal.  Four of the courses are served at the same time, two starters, the side salad, and an entree are each situated on 4 small plates, served together on one large plate.  I was a little put off by this at first, since warm items will go cold before you get to them, but it works well.  They know what they are doing.  The 4th choice you have to make, dessert, is served alone after your meal.  I chose the option to upgrade to the lemon souffle (left over from the intermission dessert menu) for $8.  It was all very good.  

For $30 (not including drinks) it was a very good meal.  I'm looking forward to another dinner at the Pederson Room next season.

My husband and I went for the 6:15pm dinner.  Good thing we arrived early and signed in.  They seat people in the order of sign in, so we got seated at 6:20 and got the full time before the show to eat and relax.  Other people got seated much later.  Note that you get a side salad in addition to the 4 courses listed on the menu so I regret having picked a salad for the second course.  Portions are small but all in all ok for us.  I guess you shouldn't be too full sitting for so many hours afterwards.  The soup was good but it was a size of double-shot espresso.  Green papaya salad had mostly red peppers.  My lambchops came as one normal size piece and one tiny piece.  The non-dessert courses coming out together on one plate did remind me of an airplane meal.  There's also bread and raw cauliflower on the table.  Why cauliflower, I don't know!  Fresh flowers would have been better to look at - hehe.  The best part of the meal was dessert!  Small but sooo good.  It included the best macaroon I've ever had.  Bread pudding was great too but would be better if it was warm.  My cafe latte however was awful but the dessert kept me nice and distracted.  The servers and the atmosphere were nice and not stuffy.  I'm glad we went making our first opera experience lovely.