This restaurant is a delightful surprise! Great food, with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek sense of humor that is awesome. I have eaten in many fantastic restaurants in my life, and Claudia ranks amongst the best. The food is imaginative and delicious, the service is impeccable, and the atmosphere serene. It deserves more than the one Michelin star it has been awarded.Their cocktail program is second to none. They apparently always have a theme. Currently it is Sherlock Holmes. The drinks all have components based on Sherlock Holmes stories. It is creative, fun, and the cocktails delicious. I had The Sign of the Four, with oyster infused gin, lemon, jackfruit, sherry, rosemary, and Szechwan peppercorns. This drink was perfect: balanced, complex, and yummy. The Hound of the Baskervilles gets set on a glowing base. Truly Great Cocktails!The first course was served in a bento box. There was a squid ink madeline, a potato fritter like thing topped with caviar, a crispy cracker with yummy toppings, and tuna stuffed with foie gras. The last was so delicious, I could have a plate of just that. Next up was a dish based on asparagus. It was plated beautifully, with egg yolk jam, caviar, and a foamy goodness on the side.Course three was a torchon of foie gras served with pistachio and gooseberry. Stunningly delicious!I got a huge kick out of the snails in the woods, beautifully plated with flowers, and in shades of"Always be My Maybe", a recording of birds songs on a player with headphones! Too funny!After an intermezzo of cucumber, ginger, sake, and lime, came quail with pickled ramps served on the most beautiful plates you have ever seen.The turbot of the next course was served with a beautiful morel and perfectly cooked.Maybe my favorite course was the lobster, served with a complex mixture of "granola", peas, carrots and a delicious sauce. So good! The final savory course was rabbit presse and loin served with fiddlehead fern and a consomme that they infuse at your table. So, yes, lots of theater, but the food and service is just impeccable.Followed were two desserts. The first was a riff on a negroni, with all sorts of interesting textures of mousses and gelees. The final dessert was yogurt sorbet, served with a berry "consomme" and little tuffs of cake. Light and lovely, and a great end to a great meal. It was a perfect Spring menu.The wine pairings were very interesting.I cannot say enough about both the excellence of the service and the food. Truly a great restaurant.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Brittni M.
Well I wanted to give the place a chance since I emailed them but it's been 2 months and no response. Yes this is a one star Michelin restaurant so I was SUPER excited and we went on out anniversary. The food was great but the service .... Whoa how did they get a star?? We had a seat in front of the window to watch the chef... I regret it. I could see the chefs underware the whole time... I've never in my life been to a Michelin restaurant where I look in the window and see saggy pants and underware. Photo to show proof find a better Michelin place restaurant to go to.
Calypso Major
i, for one believe that CLAUDIA in all caps is an extremely offensive name, as my dead dog's daughter was named claudia. also, claudia means lame- a perfect summation of my experience at this godforsaken restuarant.the courses were very paltry, heavily seasoned, no flavor. the wine list made me drunk- something that i of course could not desire, as i was driving home that night. we came all the way from st kitts just to dine here and we were welcomed with abysmal trashy service (the waiter did not refill my water glass. ten thousand times).the bathrooms were locked and there were unspeakable stains on the floor when we came into it. i kid you not, there were wolves inside the restaurant.finally, my phone died inside the restaurant clearly because the lights draw power from your telephones and then they overused it and it died.never come visit CLAUDIA. my dead dog daughter's will be missed.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Joyce G.
Hate they are closing before I could go. All reservations are being refunded. Michelin starred.
Jiren Qi
Ate a piece of plastic wrap out of the chicken… The replaced meal was cold inside. The only made up the restaurant did was a free glass of drink… Air conditioning was too cold to enjoy the meal. Hard to believe that’s the Michelin standard. It’s the worse Michelin experience we had ever so far.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
Jeremy Bradley
I booked a bar reservation at CLAUDIA for my wife's birthday and totally had a blast. The restaurant is long and narrow, with the bar at the back. My first thoughts walking in was how quiet and romantic the atmosphere was. The decor was elegant and not overdone. Once seated at the bar by the hostess, we were greeted immediately and handed menus. The drinks all had some Sherlock Holmes theme, each with a story attached. They were amazing as were the a la cart food selections available. Definitely take your special someone here for a good romantic evening. The dinner reservations looked fun, but we opted not to because it takes 3 hours. But each plate brought out to customers looked fun with major presentation points.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Eva S.
These guys are crushing it! The food and drinks were unique, beautiful and delicious. The wine pairings were delightful and the service was excellent. This has easily become one of my favorite restaurants of all time. Looking forward to returning next time we’re in town.
Elia L.
Restuarant is located inside a super cute home. It gives off a high class vibe, but instead very welcoming! Service was prompt, plenty of staff providing exceptional service. Dinner was delicious. Very creative display in every course! Amazing flavors and combination of texture and taste. Each course with a specific theme. My personal favorites were the Snails in the Woods and the Carabineros. The ambience isn't very romantic, but a beautiful place for a date night. Place and table settings is not ideal for large groups. Also doesn't have many tables, well down stairs. We had the wine pairings and the selection was pleasant for me, but only because we only got one red with the pairings which is what like more. We enjoyed the experience. We had a wonderful time.
David Young
I had an excellent night at Claudia, but what really made the night was the staff. We absolutely loved interacting with Kylie, Mason, and Kevin. They added a lot to the evening, and made the whole night much more light hearted yet also more intimate.I learned a lot about wine from Kevin in particular, and I have to say, as a frequent patron of many of Chicago's Michelin stars, it's rare to have a somm take extra time to talk wine with customers in an understandable and unpretentious manner. He really and truly seems to love wine and did an excellent job making it accessible to commonfolk like myself, while still sharing lots of interesting tidbits and facts to take home.Kylie and Mason both were excellent, and seeing their interplay and clear professional chemistry on display made the night that much more entertaining and good spirited. They were both top tier servers and hosts, yet even on a night that was short staffed took the extra time to converse with us about a myriad of topics that made us feel extra cared for. I can't remember a better wait staff than these two, and especially not one that made us feel more welcomed. It almost felt more like two friends sharing a culinary experience of theirs with us rather than an interaction in consumerism, and we appreciated it greatly.Now to talk more about the food and restaurant itself, we did the tasting menu and wine pairing. For this, be prepared to drop about a grand. This is on the expensive side for a 1 michelin star restaurant but not unheard of. Discussing favorites on the menu might be somewhat fruitless, as it sounds like the menu changes quite often, offering a different experience each go-around. But in the interest of reviewing, favorites included:The potato beignet with caviar, mushroom herbal soup/tea, roasted eel, pork belly, and the ever creative "snails in the woods". I thought the latter was particularly excellent, offering an on-theme French dish in a much more accessible way for those that might not typically like escargot.So why four stars? Well after a 4 hour experience and nearly $1k, I got some great food and great wine pairing, but after 8 relatively small to medium sized dishes I still left hungry, which wasn't my experience at any of the other starred restaurants I've been to. I didn't feel like dropping even more money to fill up and just ate extra at home. The only thing even remotely "substantial" was probably the lobster dish, but nothing else had any sort of filling heft to it. This was the only little disappointment given the time and money put into the experience and the delicious quality of the food.But overall, an amazing restaurant with top notch staff and top notch food quality. If they could beef up just one of the courses to be a little more filling or substantial, it would get an easy 5 stars from me.
Debra F.
There is one word to describe this place - Divine. Small but beautifully decorated, we were seated upstairs. Their cocktail menu is very interesting, taking its inspiration from Brother Grimm. The tasting menu was outstanding from start to finish. Interesting without being too flashy or clever but more importantly delicious. The mushroom consommé was very interestingly prepared served table side. Bento box was so beautifully plated it was almost a shame to eat. Almost. By far the piece de résistance was the lobster course. Sweet lobster accompanied but the most amazing hollandaise sauce. If there was one dish that could have been improved it would have been the surf and turf. Feel like the soft eel would have been paired better with a crispy pork belly rather than the soft version we had but overall and amazing experience and wine pairings were very thoughtfully made with very interesting wines used. Would definitely recommend and will for sure be going again
Aside from the main dining area and chefs table, there is an Elegant bar that allows walk-ins. Limited ala cart menu. Good experience.
Marie Gilberte Cineus
I was not impressed at all with their flavors, the snail course (third course) was flavorless, the main course with the pork was very salty, the desert course itself was just blend. After eating at Sepia and Alinea, I was expecting their food to be above that of Sepia and in the same level as Alinea, unfortunately I walked out of there feeling so disappointed. I wish I had returned to Sepia instead of going to Claudia. The experience was just awful to say the least. Each time I finally got one thing that was enjoyable I was worried about what is coming next because the consistency was lacking. If you want to enjoy a great fine dining experience, I wouldn’t recommend Claudia.
Lois F.
As always, the service and ambiance in restaurants like this is always impeccable. Attentive wait staff. Small intimate table seating. Good, albeit expensive, cocktails. The food was beautiful, yet forgettable. I don't recall a single thing I ate or there than the bread and butter and I'm the type of person that still dreams about the best tripleta I had in San Juan and the appetizer course of Next's French Laundry menu. I cannot say that anything about Claudia's menu was worth remembering and the adorable to-go dessert bags were terrible. We ended up throwing them away after trying them.
Christopher Ruiz
Came here pre-star (one of our first “post pandemic” nights out) and it was such a great night. The staff was amazing and we had a great meal. Cocktails were great and the wine pairings were perfect. Only hope is in the future they build out a vegetarian option so that I can come back more frequently with my wife - was not the best option for a vegetarian.
Maya K.
We made reservations to dine here back in October, but they were cancelled due to an outbreak of Covid-19. We called back to reschedule the reservation and the person who answered the call told us that we were all set for our new reservation. We arrived for dinner, prepared to celebrate multiple occasions, and we were told that they did not have our new reservation on file. We knew that this was a very popular and exclusive dinner spot, so thankfully Arnaud, the GM was able to accommodate us to sit at the bar area. We also received a complimentary dish, which we appreciated very much. The bar area is in the back where you can have a drink and order from the al a cart menu, but you cannot order from the standard fixed menu. We were a little disappointed, especially because the al a cart menu offered only a few options for food. That being said, they had an innovative cocktail menu that featured a storybook for each drink which I thought was very cool. The bar staff were very attentive and helpful when it came to cocktail selections. There was also a sommelier that helped us select our wine. We ordered the oysters and pâté to begin which were good pairings with the cocktails that were recommended. I ordered the Snow White and Red Rose cocktail and my dad ordered the Huntsman. The foie gras soup was the best chicken pot pie I've ever had and the lamb was absolutely delicious with a piece of foie gras and creamy potatoes. I would definitely recommend this place if you are celebrating any special occasions. Also, they accept walk-ins at the bar (Thursdays seem to be the best nights to do this). I wish that the reservation confirmation was better communicated, but overall, I would say that it was a very nice experience.
This restaurant is a delightful surprise! Great food, with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek sense of humor that is awesome. I have eaten in many fantastic restaurants in my life, and Claudia ranks amongst the best. The food is imaginative and delicious, the service is impeccable, and the atmosphere serene. It deserves more than the one Michelin star it has been awarded.Their cocktail program is second to none. They apparently always have a theme. Currently it is Sherlock Holmes. The drinks all have components based on Sherlock Holmes stories. It is creative, fun, and the cocktails delicious. I had The Sign of the Four, with oyster infused gin, lemon, jackfruit, sherry, rosemary, and Szechwan peppercorns. This drink was perfect: balanced, complex, and yummy. The Hound of the Baskervilles gets set on a glowing base. Truly Great Cocktails!The first course was served in a bento box. There was a squid ink madeline, a potato fritter like thing topped with caviar, a crispy cracker with yummy toppings, and tuna stuffed with foie gras. The last was so delicious, I could have a plate of just that. Next up was a dish based on asparagus. It was plated beautifully, with egg yolk jam, caviar, and a foamy goodness on the side.Course three was a torchon of foie gras served with pistachio and gooseberry. Stunningly delicious!I got a huge kick out of the snails in the woods, beautifully plated with flowers, and in shades of"Always be My Maybe", a recording of birds songs on a player with headphones! Too funny!After an intermezzo of cucumber, ginger, sake, and lime, came quail with pickled ramps served on the most beautiful plates you have ever seen.The turbot of the next course was served with a beautiful morel and perfectly cooked.Maybe my favorite course was the lobster, served with a complex mixture of "granola", peas, carrots and a delicious sauce. So good! The final savory course was rabbit presse and loin served with fiddlehead fern and a consomme that they infuse at your table. So, yes, lots of theater, but the food and service is just impeccable.Followed were two desserts. The first was a riff on a negroni, with all sorts of interesting textures of mousses and gelees. The final dessert was yogurt sorbet, served with a berry "consomme" and little tuffs of cake. Light and lovely, and a great end to a great meal. It was a perfect Spring menu.The wine pairings were very interesting.I cannot say enough about both the excellence of the service and the food. Truly a great restaurant.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Well I wanted to give the place a chance since I emailed them but it's been 2 months and no response. Yes this is a one star Michelin restaurant so I was SUPER excited and we went on out anniversary. The food was great but the service .... Whoa how did they get a star?? We had a seat in front of the window to watch the chef... I regret it. I could see the chefs underware the whole time... I've never in my life been to a Michelin restaurant where I look in the window and see saggy pants and underware. Photo to show proof find a better Michelin place restaurant to go to.
i, for one believe that CLAUDIA in all caps is an extremely offensive name, as my dead dog's daughter was named claudia. also, claudia means lame- a perfect summation of my experience at this godforsaken restuarant.the courses were very paltry, heavily seasoned, no flavor. the wine list made me drunk- something that i of course could not desire, as i was driving home that night. we came all the way from st kitts just to dine here and we were welcomed with abysmal trashy service (the waiter did not refill my water glass. ten thousand times).the bathrooms were locked and there were unspeakable stains on the floor when we came into it. i kid you not, there were wolves inside the restaurant.finally, my phone died inside the restaurant clearly because the lights draw power from your telephones and then they overused it and it died.never come visit CLAUDIA. my dead dog daughter's will be missed.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Hate they are closing before I could go. All reservations are being refunded. Michelin starred.
Ate a piece of plastic wrap out of the chicken… The replaced meal was cold inside. The only made up the restaurant did was a free glass of drink… Air conditioning was too cold to enjoy the meal. Hard to believe that’s the Michelin standard. It’s the worse Michelin experience we had ever so far.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
I booked a bar reservation at CLAUDIA for my wife's birthday and totally had a blast. The restaurant is long and narrow, with the bar at the back. My first thoughts walking in was how quiet and romantic the atmosphere was. The decor was elegant and not overdone. Once seated at the bar by the hostess, we were greeted immediately and handed menus. The drinks all had some Sherlock Holmes theme, each with a story attached. They were amazing as were the a la cart food selections available. Definitely take your special someone here for a good romantic evening. The dinner reservations looked fun, but we opted not to because it takes 3 hours. But each plate brought out to customers looked fun with major presentation points.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
These guys are crushing it! The food and drinks were unique, beautiful and delicious. The wine pairings were delightful and the service was excellent. This has easily become one of my favorite restaurants of all time. Looking forward to returning next time we’re in town.
Restuarant is located inside a super cute home. It gives off a high class vibe, but instead very welcoming! Service was prompt, plenty of staff providing exceptional service. Dinner was delicious. Very creative display in every course! Amazing flavors and combination of texture and taste. Each course with a specific theme. My personal favorites were the Snails in the Woods and the Carabineros. The ambience isn't very romantic, but a beautiful place for a date night. Place and table settings is not ideal for large groups. Also doesn't have many tables, well down stairs. We had the wine pairings and the selection was pleasant for me, but only because we only got one red with the pairings which is what like more. We enjoyed the experience. We had a wonderful time.
I had an excellent night at Claudia, but what really made the night was the staff. We absolutely loved interacting with Kylie, Mason, and Kevin. They added a lot to the evening, and made the whole night much more light hearted yet also more intimate.I learned a lot about wine from Kevin in particular, and I have to say, as a frequent patron of many of Chicago's Michelin stars, it's rare to have a somm take extra time to talk wine with customers in an understandable and unpretentious manner. He really and truly seems to love wine and did an excellent job making it accessible to commonfolk like myself, while still sharing lots of interesting tidbits and facts to take home.Kylie and Mason both were excellent, and seeing their interplay and clear professional chemistry on display made the night that much more entertaining and good spirited. They were both top tier servers and hosts, yet even on a night that was short staffed took the extra time to converse with us about a myriad of topics that made us feel extra cared for. I can't remember a better wait staff than these two, and especially not one that made us feel more welcomed. It almost felt more like two friends sharing a culinary experience of theirs with us rather than an interaction in consumerism, and we appreciated it greatly.Now to talk more about the food and restaurant itself, we did the tasting menu and wine pairing. For this, be prepared to drop about a grand. This is on the expensive side for a 1 michelin star restaurant but not unheard of. Discussing favorites on the menu might be somewhat fruitless, as it sounds like the menu changes quite often, offering a different experience each go-around. But in the interest of reviewing, favorites included:The potato beignet with caviar, mushroom herbal soup/tea, roasted eel, pork belly, and the ever creative "snails in the woods". I thought the latter was particularly excellent, offering an on-theme French dish in a much more accessible way for those that might not typically like escargot.So why four stars? Well after a 4 hour experience and nearly $1k, I got some great food and great wine pairing, but after 8 relatively small to medium sized dishes I still left hungry, which wasn't my experience at any of the other starred restaurants I've been to. I didn't feel like dropping even more money to fill up and just ate extra at home. The only thing even remotely "substantial" was probably the lobster dish, but nothing else had any sort of filling heft to it. This was the only little disappointment given the time and money put into the experience and the delicious quality of the food.But overall, an amazing restaurant with top notch staff and top notch food quality. If they could beef up just one of the courses to be a little more filling or substantial, it would get an easy 5 stars from me.
There is one word to describe this place - Divine. Small but beautifully decorated, we were seated upstairs. Their cocktail menu is very interesting, taking its inspiration from Brother Grimm. The tasting menu was outstanding from start to finish. Interesting without being too flashy or clever but more importantly delicious. The mushroom consommé was very interestingly prepared served table side. Bento box was so beautifully plated it was almost a shame to eat. Almost. By far the piece de résistance was the lobster course. Sweet lobster accompanied but the most amazing hollandaise sauce. If there was one dish that could have been improved it would have been the surf and turf. Feel like the soft eel would have been paired better with a crispy pork belly rather than the soft version we had but overall and amazing experience and wine pairings were very thoughtfully made with very interesting wines used. Would definitely recommend and will for sure be going again
Restaurantji Recommends
Aside from the main dining area and chefs table, there is an Elegant bar that allows walk-ins. Limited ala cart menu. Good experience.
I was not impressed at all with their flavors, the snail course (third course) was flavorless, the main course with the pork was very salty, the desert course itself was just blend. After eating at Sepia and Alinea, I was expecting their food to be above that of Sepia and in the same level as Alinea, unfortunately I walked out of there feeling so disappointed. I wish I had returned to Sepia instead of going to Claudia. The experience was just awful to say the least. Each time I finally got one thing that was enjoyable I was worried about what is coming next because the consistency was lacking. If you want to enjoy a great fine dining experience, I wouldn’t recommend Claudia.
As always, the service and ambiance in restaurants like this is always impeccable. Attentive wait staff. Small intimate table seating. Good, albeit expensive, cocktails. The food was beautiful, yet forgettable. I don't recall a single thing I ate or there than the bread and butter and I'm the type of person that still dreams about the best tripleta I had in San Juan and the appetizer course of Next's French Laundry menu. I cannot say that anything about Claudia's menu was worth remembering and the adorable to-go dessert bags were terrible. We ended up throwing them away after trying them.
Came here pre-star (one of our first “post pandemic” nights out) and it was such a great night. The staff was amazing and we had a great meal. Cocktails were great and the wine pairings were perfect. Only hope is in the future they build out a vegetarian option so that I can come back more frequently with my wife - was not the best option for a vegetarian.
We made reservations to dine here back in October, but they were cancelled due to an outbreak of Covid-19. We called back to reschedule the reservation and the person who answered the call told us that we were all set for our new reservation. We arrived for dinner, prepared to celebrate multiple occasions, and we were told that they did not have our new reservation on file. We knew that this was a very popular and exclusive dinner spot, so thankfully Arnaud, the GM was able to accommodate us to sit at the bar area. We also received a complimentary dish, which we appreciated very much. The bar area is in the back where you can have a drink and order from the al a cart menu, but you cannot order from the standard fixed menu. We were a little disappointed, especially because the al a cart menu offered only a few options for food. That being said, they had an innovative cocktail menu that featured a storybook for each drink which I thought was very cool. The bar staff were very attentive and helpful when it came to cocktail selections. There was also a sommelier that helped us select our wine. We ordered the oysters and pâté to begin which were good pairings with the cocktails that were recommended. I ordered the Snow White and Red Rose cocktail and my dad ordered the Huntsman. The foie gras soup was the best chicken pot pie I've ever had and the lamb was absolutely delicious with a piece of foie gras and creamy potatoes. I would definitely recommend this place if you are celebrating any special occasions. Also, they accept walk-ins at the bar (Thursdays seem to be the best nights to do this). I wish that the reservation confirmation was better communicated, but overall, I would say that it was a very nice experience.