I ve been so excited about Alinea for years - I wa...

I ve been so excited about Alinea for years - I was in awe of Grant Achatz and couldn t wait to taste some of his incredible creations. After planning a trip to Chicago (work and pleasure!), we opted for the Salon experience (including the wine pairing). It simply can t compete with Le Bernardin and Gaggan, both of which I ve been to in the past year. Both of those were, in my opinion, truly worthy of their places on the top 50 list. Alinea...not so much. The food was delicious, but the ambiance was lacking. The energy was my biggest complaint. Uptight, slightly snobby and arrogant. Not relaxing. Overall if it s your first Michelin experience, you ll probably like it but if you ve been to other interesting restaurants around the world, I d doubt if this ends up being in your top 10. Also the wine pairing pours were just really weak. Every other Michelin restaurant, including those that do a wine pairing, were more generous than Alinea. Overall, good food but not worth the hype and cost - skip it!