Next Vegan - Restaurant Review

Dining date:    July 7, 2013

Grant Achatz's brain child Next's 8th menu focuses on a purely vegan cuisine.  This was my first visit to Next as my predilection towards vegetarianism precludes me from enjoying their other Prix Fixe menus.

The ambiance and atmosphere of Next is equivalent to the classiest restaurants in the world, toned down just enough to not make it pretentious.  I found the service to be attentive, however, the ever revolving door of waiters makes it difficult to single anyone out for exceptional service.  At times, I also found the servers to be robotic, a bit too scripted in their presentation and explanation of the culinary delights being presented.  Overall, the service was supportive of the culinary star, it neither detracted or added much to the experience.

Now on to the food.  The dishes keep coming out at a consistent pace, with just enough of a break between courses for your palate to refresh.  I do not re-call all of dishes, but that is part of the point.  You are not expected to recall all the notes played in a symphony, but the experience stays with you none the less.  Certain melodies stay with you, and in Next's case, a few dishes stayed with me, lingering in my memory as I write this.  There were some highs and lows, but overall Next excelled and truly showed the possible range and extent of culinary delights possible with a purely vegan tool set.  

I also requested the non-alcoholic beverage pairing for my culinary tour, a pairing I would recommend over wine to anyone partaking in this tour.  The beverage pairing was excellent and inspired as well.  Each drink paired perfectly with the dish, and elevated the flavors perfectly.  In certain instances I found the beverage pairing to be the star of the dish.

After much thought, I decided to keep this review spoiler free.  I believe previewing pictures of the tour before hand would detract from the experience, akin to knowing the ending of a movie before the opening credits.    I think it will suffice to say that the experience is well worth the price of admission and I would highly recommend this menu, and this restaurant, to anyone who likes to experience food crafted at the highest level.