Arun's

We went to dinner at Arun's Thai in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. We had heard about it from it having been nominated for James Beard Awards in the past. Arun's serves a 12 course prix fix menu.  Before we started the meal the waiter asked if we had any allergies and how much spiciness we wanted.

Course 1 - salad wrap

The 12 courses consisted of 6 appetizers, 4 entrees served all at the same time (sort of family style) and 2 desserts.  We don't know the Thai names for all of this because there were no printed menus.  So we will do our best with the descriptions.  Since there are so many courses we won't elaborate too much on any one course - just our brief thoughts.

Appetizers - we each got one of our own served in front of us

close up on the neat butterfly carrot

1. Salad wrap of sorts - filled inside with ginger, toasted coconut, peanut and tamarind sauce.  It was refreshing and crunchy.  We've never had anything like this at a Thai restaurant before.  It was more refined and elegant than a traditional lettuce wrap.

Course 2 - crab filled ravioli with salad

2. Dungeness crab filled golden fried ravioli with salad.  The presentation was beautiful - the carrot in the salad was cut into the wonderful shape of a butterfly.  The crust on the ravioli was warm and flaky.  The dressing on the salad was good and had a little bit of a kick to it.

Course 3 - rice dumpling with chicken and shrimp

3. Rice dumpling filled with chicken, shrimp, sweet turnip and jicama, served over a tomato sauce.  The sauce was sort of like a sweet chili sauce but tomato based.  The dumpling was very pillowy, but Nick thought the dumpling was a little too gooey.

Course 4 - prawn, noodles and veggies

Course 5 - beef sirloin over salad

4. Lots going on in this dish - there was a Prawn wrapped in noodles (instead of a heavy breading), coconut vermicelli noodles, tofu on top of an omelet, chives, lemon, red pepers and cucumbers.  The entire dish very colorful.  We were told to mix everything together to eat it.  It all tasted good on its own and together.

5. Beef sirloin over salad. Beautiful knife work with the carrot and cucumber.  The dressing had a kick to it.  Only minor point was that we had salad in the 2nd course, did we need it again?


Course 6 - Green curry with chicken and egg

6. Green curry with bamboo shoots, chicken, boiled egg, Thai eggplant, mint leaves and hot peppers, served over thai rice noodles.  The curry was spicy and even hotter overall if you ate it with the hot peppers.  Natalie didn't eat any of the hot peppers and Nick ate one. It was a good curry combination.

#1 and #3 were smaller, but overall these dishes were bigger portions than we would have figured for a 12 course meal.

Entrees 7-10, served family style all together, (although #8 was served separately for us because we had indicated different spice tolerances at the beginning of the meal.  Nick had a spicier dish presented to him.)

Course 7 (Entree) - Massaman Curry with beef tenderloin

7.  Massaman curry with beef tenderloin, squash, carrots and thai basil.  The meat was super tender it fell apart easily.  We learned that it is cooked for a full day.

8. Basil chicken stirfry with veggies and chiles.  Reminded us of a filling used for traditional lettuce wraps. Natalie was happy to get the less spicy version.

Course 8 (Entree) - Basil chicken stir fry 

9. Pan seared scallops with asparagus, brussel sprouts and stir fry vegetables in a lobster sauce. The  scallops were peppered and the asparagus was presented as a lattice structure to the whole dish.  Once again a beautiful presentaion and the scallops were delicious.

Course 9 (Entree) - Scallops and vegetables

10. Red Snapper with sweet, sour and spicy 3 flavor sauce over eggplant with a celery heart stalk.  We didn't enjoy this as much as the beef and the scallops.  But to be fair, by this point in the meal, even Nick was getting really full.  We took the rest of the snapper home and he was able to enjoy the snapper better the next day.

Desserts 11-12

11. Sticky rice in a crepe with mango slices, mango sauce, whip cream and mint leaves. The sauce made it slippery to cut into the mango slices themselves.  Very light and tasty, especially since we really like mangoes.

Course 10 (Entree) - Red Snapper

12. Lychee sorbet in a sesame seed shell and ginger baked pear.  The sauce on the pear was really good.

The desserts weren't overly complicated but that is not necessary for such a large meal.  It was a good clean way to finish off the 12 course meal.

We don't think we've ever had a 12 course meal before so that was fun.  We were definitely full by the end and had to take some of the entree portion home.

     

Course 11 - sticky rice filed crepe, mango and mango sauce

Course 12 - lychee sorbet and ginger baked pear

Final thoughts on Aruns: Food - Superb, like nothing we've ever had before, but beware it is pricey.  We're not sure how often the menu is changed around, so you could end up having a very different experience based on the courses.
Service - very personalized and amazing service.  We were presented with new utensils and plates for every course.  They were very attentive to details.  A couple seated next to us didn't really enjoy the green curry dish so they really didn't eat much of it.  The waiter felt bad and had another appetizer made for them.

Atmosphere - small, there were only 4 tables being served while we were there; because it was a weekday probably. Because of all of the courses we were there for 2 hours. For being such a fancy restaurant it is in a bit of a strange neighborhood.  It's not a bad neighborhood, just an unexpected place to find this level of fine dining.







Course 11 (Entree) - Scallops and vegetables