So I came to Chicago for a work conference, and it...

So I came to Chicago for a work conference, and it was my first time coming to a Michelin Star city, so I decided to go whole hog and come right to this three star place that I saw on a Netflix docuseries. It was actually recently named the 37th best restaurant in the entire world, and I know why. Eating at Alinea is like being part of art. The menu plays with all of your senses and gives you an incredible experience that keeps you guessing.

There are 10 courses and a special trip down into the kitchen so you can see the well oiled machine that is all the chefs working on all of the different courses simultaneously. While you're going that, one of the chefs is making a bell pepper flavored cocktail for everyone and talking about the restaurant a little bit.

Back to the main courses. I experienced a food item that looked like a rock but was filled with caviar, noodles that were made out of scallops, liquid nitrogen that was poured into a bowl of coconuts and limes to get a complimentary aroma for our course, the best cooked octopus I've ever had in my life, and a puree that was inside of a fried mushroom that had the exact flavor of toast. It was wild, and it was all delicious.

I also got some top-notch pork that had been cooking in front of me for a while, an bite of food that was made out of the same acorns those pigs would have eaten in the wild, and a piece of wagyu steak. It was so, so good. It was served with a puree that tasted like french fries. I kid you not.

Then came the three dessert courses. A server dug into a bowl of salt that was the cooking medium for my pork dish and pulled out a yam that had also been cooking in front of me the entire time. He cut of that yam and added some mix-ins and served me a delicious yam dessert dish. Also, there was an ice cream dish with sipping cocoa, a chocolate ball that exploded with salted caramel liquid, and the famous balloon. The sugar balloon that was filled with helium and given to me on an edible rope. Too cool.

This was an experience I will never forget. The combination of the flavor and the experience and the disorientation of my senses makes me wish I could give this place six stars. I am thoroughly impressed and I can say that if I ever make it back to Chicago, I will stop by again.