My husband and I were really excited to go to Graham Elliot and maybe we were too excited, but it wasn’t what we had in mind based on all that we had heard and read. It wasn’t really casual. The staff are dressed casual, but the setting doesn’t give the vibe of hanging out, having some good beers or wine and eating at your leisure.

Of course the food was great, it’s Graham Elliot. We were just hoping the environment would be as casual as he made it sound in his press pieces.

We had the:
1. Ceasar salad and the brioche twinkie croutons were perfect, but the dressing lacked the salty, sardine trademark of a ceasar.
2. Buffalo chicken dish that tasted so much like all the buffalo chicken in Chicago bars that we didn’t feel that the sauce was house made (I’m sure it was, but it tasted just like the sandwich you can get at CANS). The presentation was nice and the slaw underneath the chicken gave the dish a great texture.
3. Beef tenderloin tartare had really great flavor, the smoked ice cream is worth trying this dish. I prefer a chopped tartare and they have the beef in small cubes. It didn’t get in the way of the really good flavor combinations, but it was a weird texture for me.
4. The Beef stroganoff was really perfect. And the portion was nice. A light, clean dish.
5. The deserts were both really good. Neither of them on on the website, but we had the dark chocolate brownie and a very interesting corn custard.

One thing we thought was weird is that the beer menu is part of the desert menu so we had to ask if they had beer.