Being jetlagged has its advantages. I’ve just had a fantastic dinner at Alinea and am eager to blog about it, but I wasn’t sure when I would get around to that as I will be travelling in areas where wifi is not something to count on. We went to Alinea with friends from Chicago where we are also staying the night. I’ve slept really well after the dinner at Alinea for about 6 hours, but now it’s 5am (i.e. noon in the timezone I left yesterday) and I am wide awake. So what better thing to do then to do the post?!

When you enter the restaurant, the first course of the menu is served in near darkess while you are walking on actual grass. It is a lemonade sorbet, served in glasses floating around as a wind chime.

Alinea仅提供一个19道菜的菜单，当您购买机票时，该菜单已预付（包括税收和小费约300美元）。有两个葡萄酒配对选项以及一个雷竞技raybet.com酒单。我们选择了更独特的储备配对。

Steelhead roe, served in a straw with peach, St. Germain and kinome in a rock of ice and paired with a champagne cocktail (Gimonnet Brut with Lillet Blanc and Pineau des Charentes). 8/10

Serving seafood on rocks and seaweed seems to be in vogue at the best restaurants. This is four courses served at once. The oyster leaf; king crab with passion fruit, heart of palm and allspice; lobster with carrot and chamomile; and razor clam with shiso, soy, and daikon all tasted amazing. Each bite had multiple layers of flavors. Great pairing with Georg Breuer Terra Montosa Riesling, Rheingau 2009. 10/10

Grant Achatz必须有一个吸管和thing for needles, because many courses had to sucked through a straw or were served on a flexible needle. This woolly pig with fennel, orange and squid was served on such a needle and had to be eaten ‘hands free’. 8/10

西红柿与西瓜，辣椒和罗勒与牙龈植物神圣的液滴搭配得很好。非常强烈的新鲜口味。10/10。

A painting of different textures of corn with huitlacoche and sour cherry. Good pairing with a dry Zibbibo (moscato) from Donnafugata (Sicily). Very interesting textures, one of them seemed like ashes. 9/10

Otoro tuna sashimi with thai banana and kaffir lime, paired well with an Oregon pinot gris. Again great flavor and textures, but I thought the otoro was slightly on the cold side to taste it properly, 9/10

Chanterelle和其他蘑菇在烧焦的木头上放在温暖的岩石上。毕竟，新鲜的口味非常朴实。更美味的口味，出色的质感和出色的演讲。我以为Haut Bailly Pessac-Leognan Chateau Chateau 2006太强大了，无法进行搭配，并且更喜欢Burgundy的东西，但这可能部分是由于我偏爱Burgundy而不是Burgundy而不是左岸Bordeaux。8/10

Another dish served on a needle: hot potato, cold potato with black truffle. The potato was indeed hot and cold at the same time, giving a very nice effect. 9/10

Three cuts of lamb cooked sous-vide: neck, rolled up flap meat, and fillet. Served with flavorful lamb jus and 60 different garnishes, to be shared with the table. The lamb was cooked to perfection and very tasty. All the garnishes were great. Good pairing with a Barossa valley shiraz-cabernet from Ben Glaetzer. 10/10

The 60 garnishes in close up. Just think of how much work goes into making this. For instance, the white cilinder is made from rosemary oil and tapioca.

黑松露爆炸。我们被警告立即食用，以便爆炸发生在您的嘴里而不是外面。它的味道很棒，但没有我在警告后的爆炸性。虽然美味。9/10

Tempura of anjou pear, onion and brie, served on a smoking stick of cinnamon. Paired with a 1977 boal madeira. More of the flexible needles, this time as a holder for the tempura. 9/10

Ginger with five different flavors, again served on flexible needles. Very interesting flavors. 8/10

蓝莓配酪乳，栗色和澳洲坚果。我们不得不用一根吸管在中间吸烟的“茶”。很棒的蓝莓风味和精彩的演讲。与来自奥地利Nittnaus的Red Eiswein配对。10/10

An edible balloon made from green apple and filled with helium. You could suck on the balloon and talk funny. This is the only dish where the fun and humour was clearly more important than the taste (which was fine, but nothing special). 8/10

There was no table cloth on the table, except for the final dessert. A rubber table cloth was put on the table, and chef Achatz himself, assisted by three others, made a big mess on the table from white chocolate, strawberry, English peas, lemon and liquid nitrogen. It was fun to watch (and interesting to see how ‘ intense’ chef Achatz is, he didn’t really interact with us) and we had a lot of fun eating it. There is a lot. Even though the pairing with a barolo chinato was only okay, I’m still giving this 10/10 because it was so much fun.

Overall score for food 10/10 without a doubt. Everything technically perfect and great multi-layered flavor combinations.

The wines of the reserve pairing were great with most pairings at least adequate and the riesling pairing outstanding. It does come with a hefty price tag of $250 excluding tax and tip, so I’m scoring 8/10 for the wine.

这项服务是专业且友好的，但我们更喜欢非正式的风格。服务8.5/10。

Eating at Alinea is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I can recommend everyone to try at least once. It is without a doubt one of the best restaurants we’ve ever eaten at, with a great balance between spectacle and taste. It is definitely worth the trouble to get the tickets and the hefty price tag.