RESTAURANT ADDISON

The service and presentation were impeccable. The atmosphere was elegant and classy. The music was more modern than the traditional setting. The food was inventive but not anywhere near a five star, five diamond and especially, a three Michelin star rating. My squab was fatty and had gristle in it. It was also rather tasteless. The wines were perfectly paired with the dishes. The prices were so much higher than the quality of the food. Our meal for two, with the wine pairing, came to just under $2000.00. In the end, we did make a comment about the taste and quality of the squab that was served. Our waiter said he’ll let the chef know. Based on what other people have said about the squab, I don’t believe that anything will be changing in the quality of that dish. We did have coffee in the library afterward. That was a pleasant experience, as they brewed it in front of us, and poured a fresh cup. All in all, good but not great food, which is why it earned the four stars in my opinion, instead of the five that it should have.

If I had to summarize Addison in a single word, it would be “disappointing.” If adding another, it would be “confusing.”

We have been to several Michelin restaurants (both 1 star and gourmand in the United States and France), but never a 3-star, so we were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, Addison was a complete disappointment.

It started with the confusing parking, which was dark and unlit, without valet service of any kind. Upon walking in, there was a lady seated behind a counter, but the welcome wasn’t really that warm, and despite not seeming that busy, our table was delayed for around 25 minutes.

We shook it off in hopes that this would be an amazing experience once we got settled. True to Michelin fashion, the service was impeccable. The sommelier and staff were delightful and engaging. This is where the positive notes end unfortunately.

Similar to some of the other reviews that I have since read, we found the flavors didn’t blend well together. It seems the tartness in many of the dishes was overbearing, the temperatures between ingredients was not aligned, the meat textures were not as expected, and the dishes were not well balanced on the palate. As a positive, the presentation did at least look nice.

This was the first Michelin experience for our dinner companions, so I found myself continually reassuring them things would get better, but unfortunately they never did. I found 3 of the 10 courses to be pretty good, but found nothing excellent, and most dishes to be marginal.

In fairness, I understand each chef to have his or her own style and artistic flair, so it’s entirely possible that perhaps my palate just doesn’t agree with this particular culinary style. I would feel better, had the 3 others with me have seen things differently, but unfortunately all of us shared the same feeling and most of the dishes were returned without having been fully consumed.

We expected the price to be what it was, just shy of $3000 for 4, but found the menu disappointing if even it had been for a much lower price offering. We also felt the menu to be confusing in presentation. In my experience with Michelin restaurants, they all seem to lead you on a journey and tell a story, but in this instance the journey wasn’t linear and the story had no plot or route to follow.

Honestly, we all discussed on the ride home how disappointing the experience was and our friends commented that it would be unlikely they would return, even if the meal had been without cost. I think this speaks for itself.

Objectively, I am unsure how this one snuck in “under the Michelin radar” and would never expect a Michelin 3-star rating for Addison. There are many 1-star Michelin and gourmand restaurants, whom are far outperforming Addison, and for whom this rating would be more deserved. At best, maybe they just had a bad day in the kitchen. At worst, maybe Michelin needs to take another look at this one.

We found the experience worthwhile, only in the respect that we tried it. It certainly adds to our comparison of the others we have enjoyed, but we would not recommend Addison and would not return.

Again, we understand how hard the chef and staff work to attain such a rating, so the purpose of this review is more in hopes that it will be taken to heart, with some corrections made, in order to make it a worthwhile experience (as 1 of only 143 Michelin 3-star restaurants in the world) in the future.

The food was honestly pretty bad, been to many Michelin star restaurants this was by far the worst one, and the most expensive.

Food is 4.5. pretty good but a bit too standard for a three, it felt like deja vu almost every dish. It's like I've had a variation of this before, for example the oyster and pearls from French laundry kind of shows up a little in their caviar dish. What makes Addison stand on it's own other than being just another run of the mill three star ? Wine selection ? The 700 dollar pairing certainly didn't demonstrate that for me, so why would I gamble on the 1500 dollar pairing ? I get it, these places make their margins on wine. Then where is the Addison show case ? What makes Addison unique enough for someone to revisit ?

Very yummy ???? the only thing I'd say they should do get better tables we had one of those square table that flips out to be a large round table but the crack ruins the experience. Other than that everything was great.