Le Select

Le Select Review - River North - Chicago - The Infatuation

"Editor's Note: Le Select has a new chef and menu since this was written. We will update this review soon. Le Select in River North is what we like to call a BCR: Big Chicago Restaurant. Not only are these spots physically big, but they also come from a chef or team that both your boss and your dog walker have heard of. Big Chicago Restaurants tend to get a lot of attention, and can be hit or miss.  And Le Select from the Boka Group is a BCR gone wrong.  Having dinner at this football field-sized French restaurant in River North is like eating in a mid-century cruise ship. It’s filled with old-school touches: The staff wear jackets and bowties, an hors d'oeuvres trolley rolls around the dining room, and white tablecloths stretch as far as the eye can see.  Underneath this bespoke veneer lurks a lack of refinement. This place is just too big to be elegant. Le Select is more like a fancy restaurant theme park than the real deal. Piped-in pop music is muffled by chattering diners. The harried staff is playing the parachute game with flapping tablecloths as they turnover 9,874 tables. Expensive dishes, like entrecote bordelaise and duck l’orange, are served with flimsy knives that seem stolen from a college dining hall, and dainty desserts in tiny cups come with big spoons that make them awkward to eat. The trolley might as well be just for show—there’s only one for the entire space, so count on getting those “hors d'oeuvres” in the middle of your meal. And that meal is going to be filled with inconsistencies. The steak au poivre is the platonic ideal of medium rare. But the ribeye covered in a red wine reduction and shallots turns to sawdust in your mouth. Salads are frequently overdressed, and the bottom of the pork and veal-filled tourte Alsacienne’s pastry is burned. But the tuna ravigote has an ideal balance of fat and acid—raw fish is snuggled next to a creamy caper sauce. Even when dishes are great (on a good night the duck l’orange is excellent), they’re still snoozy French classics.  Unless you really like red velvet chairs and brass accents, there are very few reasons to book a table at Le Select. For all its surface grandeur, there are no showstoppers on the menu to impress at a business dinner, and it’s too full of business dinners to come here for a sexy date night. Any special occasion will be overshadowed by a large group that’s three martinis deep into a loud conversation about this week’s office layoffs. If you’re looking for incredible French food downtown, you’re not going to find it at a BCR. Go to instead. It’s a bit loud, always fun, and the food never fails to impress. Oh, and it has tablecloths too. " - Adrian Kane