I really love Next! I think the consistent menu changes make this an place where there can be something for everyone! It is a perfect special occasion spot and like all Alinea Group restaurants, the vibe is chic and service is always something else! So professional and polite. I return here often because I love seeing what Chef Achatz and team comes up with next!

Service is excellent. There were one or two tiny misses, but by and large very attentive and thorough. The entry area is a bit of a mess as it's the coat closet, tiny and wait staff comes out right as you enter so we saw a a lot of traffic jams and near collisions. We had never been to Charlie Trotters so were looking forward to tasting his food. The first two courses were outstanding. We loved the osetra and I could eat a giant bucket of the soup. The rest was just so so to fine. Everything was prepared well and plated beautifully. It was perhaps too faithful to the recipes though and many of the courses felt dated for us. The 90s were calling our names. We struggle with whether to come back to Next as the food is important to us and it seems to be very hit or miss for our tastes. As always, we will look for a future menu that speaks to us and maybe try again.

My date took me here. Definitely made a good first impression lol. The food was great. My favorite dish of all was probably the venison. I have never had deer or elk before my life, but it was great. Staff was super friendly. The Sauvignon Blanc was very nice. I loved every single course.

I've been to this restaurant a couple times, but my favorite meal was the Dali inspired menu. - Each time I attended, I found the ambience to be welcoming, pleasant and intimate. I enjoyed the meals with family as well as friends. - I feel that overall the menu was creative and unique. Some of the dishes were a bit "too cute" and trying too hard to match the theme but overall, I appreciated the cuisine quality. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure to dine with you.

My first Achatz restaurant: usually way way above my price range but I wanted a special experience for my birthday. Since this was a recreated Charlie Trotter menu, it was a "two for one": experiencing two famous Chicago restaurants simultaneously! Expectations were surpassed in every way: if there ever was a place to spend more money and feel like it was worth it, this is it. There were a large number and variety of items, each an individual work of art and sensations. Service was highly personalized and attentive. The pre-payment system leaves the sticker shock to the time of purchase and doesn't diminish the high after having such an amazing meal, walking away amazed and full.

Our visit to Next was such an amazing experience. For this season they are doing a tribute to Charlie Trotter and they absolutely got it perfect. The 8 course meal captured everything that I remember from our visit to Charlie Trotter's more than 14 years ago. The standouts were the Chilled Tomato Soup, Venison and the Panna Cotta. Everything was super fresh and bold with flavor. The service was also outstanding. Excellent servers and the wine sommelier did a fantastic job with the pairing of red, white and dessert. Charlie would have been proud of this work.

Next has a wonderful concept of purposely designing and rotating their menus and restaurant themes throughout the year. This means that they will present various interpretations of different cuisines, eras, chefs, and other concepts throughout the year. This includes not only the food itself, but also to an extent the decor, take home favors, and menu design. This entails novel experiences for diners each time they elect to dine at Next under a different theme. First things first: When you enter, you'll first check in with the host(s) who will welcome you and confirm your reservation, and possibly offer to check any bulky outerwear you might be adorning. The dark curtain will be pulled aside and you'll be led to your table. The main dining area consists of an elongated room; tables line the perimeter, allowing the central area to be utilized for movement of the staff. If you are seeking the bathrooms, they are down the stairs. Service will highly likely be impeccable: a team of staff service each table. Synchrony and symmetry are featured in the physical presentation of the dishes to your table, as well as a story and explanation of the visual, olfactory, gustatory, and possibly auditory and tactile nature of what has been placed in front of you. Have you stepped out to use the bathroom after they brought out a course to you, but you hadn't eaten it yet? Yes, they'll proactively remake the dish for you to ensure that the optimal time for consumption has not passed. These small, yet significant gestures really communicate the emphasis that this restaurant places on the guest experience. (Yes, they had remade a prawn dish and reset the table while I was in the loo.) When you've completed your experience and are ready to leave, they'll provide a goodie bag with some treats for you to take home, thank you for your visit, and also provide you with any items that you had checked upon arrival. My first experience was when they were doing their World's 50 Best menu. My second experience was when they presented their Alinea: 2005-2010 menu. Both experiences were enjoyable where I opted for the nonalcoholic beverage pairing. I will say though, that for the World's 50 Best menu left me craving for bland food for a long while. This was simply because on that menu, each and every dish were flagship dishes from top restaurants around the world, meaning each and every one would be jam-packed with flavor, and in no way bland. However, during this meal was the one and only time that I experienced gustatory overstimulation: since the meal was paired with flavorful beverages on the side, I had no way to realistically cleanse my palate besides drink water. After that 15-course tasting, I left quite content, except that I yearned something bland for a while after. When I went to their Alinea experience, I did not suffer from overstimulation. Would I eat here in the future? Absolutely.

I made a long-awaited return to Chicago a couple of months ago and had the pleasure of dining at Next to try their Julia Child menu. I've been a big fan of Grant Achatz ever since I visited Alinea over a decade ago and he did not disappoint. I won't bother going into too much detail regarding each menu item since the menu changes relatively frequently, but everything was delicious. We also added the Ossetra Caviar and Canard a l'Orange as supplemental courses. Service was excellent as expected, and the ambiance is intimate - great for a special occasion or date.

NEXT was a spot my boyfriend reserved to take me to go to. It was a wonderful surprise tasting the dishes they created with Bobby Flay as their inspiration. The service is great like other Michelin Star Restaurants. Michelin star spots tend to have flavors that are different and interesting. I really enjoyed the experience and their avocado dessert. The ambiance is wonderful. We had a table for 6 seated in front of the kitchen so we had a wonderful view of the chefs cooking and also cleaning (since we had booked for 8:30pm).

My husband and I came here to celebrate my birthday. The theme was Julia Child and Next did her proud. The service from beginning to end was exceptional. That's a big statement considering how much staff you interact with here. Everyone who we interacted with was smart, friendly, and coordinated with one another. As they bring out each course, they explain to you what it is you're eating which is great but sometimes they were rushed and spoke too quickly which forced us to make them repeat themselves. Each course and wine paring harkened back to a different point in Julia's life and career and they (mostly) did a great job of celebrating that. I won't describe each dish, but we were blown away by each of them. Truly each one was fantastic including, no surprise here, the multi-sensory experience that was the Boeuf Bourguignon dish. A showstopper for sure, and it had better be. We opted for the truly upsell which make the dish that much more special (though we'd skip it next time). The only misses, and I know I am being super picky, is the decor of the space itself once you're inside, was underwhelming. I know the restaurant has revolving themes but still, it was nowhere near as magical as the food and staff. I would say the other miss was the music; there was nothing Julia Child or French about any of it. TBH it seemed like a random Spotify play list. I only mention these things because it brought us out of the fantasy, just slightly though. Overall, phenomenal. Don't miss this place. We can't wait to come back for the next theme!