IPO is named for Initial Public Offering in a nod to its proximity to Chicago’s business district. It is based in the W City Center hotel on West Adams Street.
The dining room is dominated by black wood from the unadorned tables to the ceiling to floor divider that runs down the middle of the room. It gets busy at lunch time so there is a fair hubbub in the room.
The restaurant opened in 2010 and the kitchen is run under the auspices of Trevor Hoyte cooking a menu that is designed to reflect the various cultures in Chicago. The food is referred to as New Urban Cuisine. The lunch menu carries some of the main courses from the evening menu as well as a number of sandwiches and lighter items.
I decided to start with the quinoa salad. The quinoa was served with fresh peas, cauliflower, sunflower seeds, hen of the woods mushrooms and a mustard gastrique. The gentle honeyed flavour of the quinoa was a nice backdrop for the other ingredients with only some things successful. The gently flavoured peas and mushrooms struggled in the context of the dish but the stronger flavoured cauliflower stood out well. The pea purée offered little. The sunflower seeds gave much needed crunch but there were too few of them. The basic salad was nice enough but veered towards the dull without input from the tangy mustard gastrique that was the undoubted star of the show.
The dining room is dominated by black wood from the unadorned tables to the ceiling to floor divider that runs down the middle of the room. It gets busy at lunch time so there is a fair hubbub in the room.
The restaurant opened in 2010 and the kitchen is run under the auspices of Trevor Hoyte cooking a menu that is designed to reflect the various cultures in Chicago. The food is referred to as New Urban Cuisine. The lunch menu carries some of the main courses from the evening menu as well as a number of sandwiches and lighter items.
I decided to start with the quinoa salad. The quinoa was served with fresh peas, cauliflower, sunflower seeds, hen of the woods mushrooms and a mustard gastrique. The gentle honeyed flavour of the quinoa was a nice backdrop for the other ingredients with only some things successful. The gently flavoured peas and mushrooms struggled in the context of the dish but the stronger flavoured cauliflower stood out well. The pea purée offered little. The sunflower seeds gave much needed crunch but there were too few of them. The basic salad was nice enough but veered towards the dull without input from the tangy mustard gastrique that was the undoubted star of the show.
The main course was the squid ink risotto with tiger shrimp, shrimp bisque, fried squid tentacles and radish. I’m still trying to figure out what the thought was behind this dish. The first and biggest problem was the risotto. There was way too much of it so it bludgeoned everything else into submission. Even worse was that it was undercooked so much of the rice was gritty to eat. It also had an unsettling habit of sticking to the roof of your mouth that was not pleasant. The fired squid on top of the dish was cold which added further to the strangeness of the dish. The radish slices were completely pointless and the peas were drowned out too. The peppery shrimp were decent and the small amount of bisque had a good flavour but it was never enough to compensate for the poor execution of the risotto.
Where possible I try to finish whatever I order but it was impossible with this dish.
Where possible I try to finish whatever I order but it was impossible with this dish.
Up to this point the food hadn’t been too impressive. Additionally, the service was very slow so it made no sense to extend the agony further by thinking about dessert.
Overall verdict.
Similar to Blackbird, it was the published menu on the website that prompted me to try IPO out. I had been looking forward to this lunch but the execution of those enticing sounding dishes was poor.
Would I revisit IPO?
Not a chance. There are so many places to try in Chicago and I’d been sufficiently successful finding other good places that it’s difficult to justify wasting another mealtime that carries the risk of being as disappointing as this was.
Overall Rating - 1/5
Overall verdict.
Similar to Blackbird, it was the published menu on the website that prompted me to try IPO out. I had been looking forward to this lunch but the execution of those enticing sounding dishes was poor.
Would I revisit IPO?
Not a chance. There are so many places to try in Chicago and I’d been sufficiently successful finding other good places that it’s difficult to justify wasting another mealtime that carries the risk of being as disappointing as this was.
Overall Rating - 1/5
