Vermillion (10 West Hubbard Street, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-527-4060) is Chef Maneet Chauhan's restaurant. The Chicago restaurant is the flagship; there is another Vermillion in Manhattan, NYC, NY. Chef Chauhan competed in the Next Iron Chef Season 3 and lost in the middle of the season. With the many accolades both the Manhattan and Chicago restaurants have received and Chef Chuhan's Iron Chef fame, accented by the bright red background of the restaurant's website, I was expecting to be bowled over by its vivaciousness.
We made an early evening reservation and arrived to find a quiet restaurant (probably because it was early in the evening). Everthing was impeccably decorated, but quiet and subdued, quite different from what I had imagined. The website boasts of a bold red antique bar that dominates the lounge but I hardly noticed the bar coming in. The rest of the restaurant was as advertised, airy with translucent silver and raw silk drapes. Rather than bold and vivacious, the atmosphere is actually calm and soft atmosphere with light touches of rich accent.
The menu was on the small side, about 12 appetizer items, a separate 10-course degustation menu, about 4 or 5 Latin-Indian fusion courses, 3 "Heat" items (traditional Indian), and another 4 or 5 "Truckstop" items (again traditionally Indian, but more casual fare). My husband picked the Tandoori Skirt Steak and I picked the Shrimp Paella, which actually comes with both shrimp and mussels. Exquisitely plated, the portions were smaller than expected. Neither entree, however, managed to bowl us over. The skirt steak comes with a delightful little jicama citrus salad and a mint-cucumber dressing, which were the highlights. The two fried plantain chips were nice touches as well. The steak itself was unremarkably seasoned, neither Latin-tasting, nor Indian-tasting, and frankly didn't seem to have much salt or spice at all. The paella, though attractive in presentatio,n was strangely imbalanced in taste. The Indian rice poha was attractively yellowed by Turmeric, and nicely moistened by the pearl onions cooked with the rice. But the ancho tequilla marinade did not work for me at all. The ancho chiles were overpowering in heat, and then a strange sour taste that I could not quite place followed. It wasn't until I read the menu again that I discovered that the rice was marinated in ancho tequillia, and it dawned on me that the sour taste was lime from the tequilla!
The highlight of the evening was dessert. We chose to share the three-piece immoderation plate, which came with a nice smooth mango cardamon flan interestingly flavored with pink peppercorn accompanied by an exquisite coconut foam. Here the Indian flavor of cardamon worked very nicely with the Latin flavor of coconut and of course mango is a key ingredient in both cuisines. The middle of the plate was a rice dark chocolate molten cake, with an orange-blueberry sorbet lightly flavored by masala and chili. Another surprisingly nice combination. The chili highlighted rather than overpowered the rich but bittersweet taste, yielding a sophisticatedly textured dessert. Having two nice desserts under our belts (literally), we were surprised to find the third dessert to be even more excellent. The warm plantain cake was very nicely flavored with anise, moalsses, brown sugar, and turmeric. And what we thought was a pudding was actually banana ice cream and traditional Indian shirkhand (strained yogurt). All these different warm flavors were nicely balanced, yielding a warm and comfortable taste but very complex at the same time.
Overall, I rate the restaurant good but not excellent. The atmosphere was calm and sophisticated. The dinner dishes did not win us over, but maybe we'll try some other dishes another time. The desserts, though, were success stories of Latin-Indian fusion, blending rarely seen spices and ingredients in the most harmonious ways.
Beyond the food, as I was reviewing the restaurant's website, I discovered the underlying story of a remarkable woman entrepreneur. Owner Rohini Dey is a PhD economist, who has worked at both the World Bank and McKinsey, and is young and beautiful as well. Read her profile at Financial Times:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/75ff3456-6ce0-11de-af56-00144feabdc0.htmlGourmet#axzz1Bs5vHuSe
With such a talented and driver leader at the helm, I would watch for more success stories from Vermillion in the future.
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