Tru

Tru was truly a nice fine-dinning restaurant. Guys, remember to bring a jacket you would want to wear through your whole meal--it is required. And ladies, don't worry about what kind of clutches and purses you're going to bring, the bags get a special cushiony seats.

The place was spacious, grand and very clean cut with very nice drapes on the windows. I felt kind of uncomfortable at first because the wait staffs look super serious, but then later, they turned a little jokey but still professional. They tried to served us all at the same time as well as pushing in back the chair for us as we came back from the bathroom. My friends and I sat a few tables down from the kitchen and boy, I did not like the grease smell that came out of it in the middle of the meal...quite overwhelming.

Anyhow, my friends and I went for the full tasting menu. Everything tasted delicious. The menu also played around a lot with special and unique serving dishes, which looked like props. For example, the scallop was served in a shell and the squab was served on a clear vessel that lay on top of a nest. The dishes came out really pretty but at the same time, it seemed like they tried too hard to turn traditional American to new American. All in all, the food was delicious! I enjoyed every single courses.

My husband surprised me for our anniversary one year by taking us to Tru.

Tru is 100% amongst the elite restaurants in Chicago, and it has earned its glowing reputation for a reason. The service is impeccable. The staff printed out a special menu for us that said "Happy Anniversary" with our names across the top, which was very thoughtful At one point, my husband and I noticed that two servers were pouring our water in sync. The entire meal was like a dance, and each entree was to die for. I have a huge sweet tooth, and therefore was pleasantly surprised when our server brought out an amuse bouche dessert and allowed us to select anything we wanted from the dessert cart that passed by our table on more than one occasion. We were stuffed before the dessert courses arrived, but we powered through, because after all, we were dining at Tru.

I have to admit that I felt torn about dining at Tru upon departure. On one hand, I just experienced one of the top five best meals of my life so far. On the other hand, I felt guilty about how much money we just paid for one meal. I got over the guilt pretty quickly because the experience was just that freaking good.

Let me start off by saying how much it hurt me to give Tru a 4-star rating because it is a 5-star restaurant.  I had been to Tru less than 2 years ago and that experience would have been a 6-star review if possible.  The restaurant seemed to be off their game on this evening and unfortunately for us Chef Martin was releasing a brand new menu.  I'll ignore some of the slow starting service issues, but I can't really forgive the wait staff for forgetting one of our diners had a shellfish allergy and serving him scallops.  I will say that we also had two pregnant women at our table that they accommodated perfectly.  The only other thing would be that we were not offered the cheese cart, which I loved on my prior visit.
Amazing dishes:
ancho cured duck on down
truffle royal
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
kobe beef in two forms
vanilla parfait
Major letdowns:
beet (overwhelming horseradish)
peeky toe crab (extremely fresh, but cold to a level we couldn't explain and watery)
squab (the squab with hazelnuts was fine, but the sauce was bland)
golden tile fish (the broth was fantastic, but the fish lacked flavor)

I think this menu has some kinks that can be worked out over time and every restaurant has an off night.  With all of this said Tru is still the best restaurant in Chicago and Chef Anthony Martin has to be one of the top chefs in America.