The Purple Pig Restaurant — Restaurant in Chicago

My experience at the Purple Pig does not seem to align with everyone else's. I hope if you ignore this review and go anyway your experience is better than mine.

I made a reservation about one to two months in advance. I checked in about thirty minutes early hoping to get on, understandably, I had to wait; so, I came back at my reservation and then had to continue to wait. The first table I was given was by the kitchen doors, so I asked for a central location.

Nian, the hostess, was more than nice enough to accommodate and got me located at a high top by the bar more centrally located.

The server in that area was a little abrupt. She was possibly overworked with too many tables. We felt like a bother to her and the whole experience seemed rushed.

The restaurant was incredibly cramped and very busy, but if all you care about is food then let's get to that detail.

The food was all premade. I don't mean it was packaged, but I mean it was cooked earlier in the day and kept on a heat lamp. I ordered the shoulder and it came out so fast I thought it was the wrong order and asked them to come back as it must have been a mistake. It came on mashed potatoes, that were basically sloshed onto the plate.

I realize some items you prepare in advance as you may need to cook them over multiple days, but this was everything. There was not a single item served that was actually hot, although the plates were nice and toasty.

Now let's get into taste, I had the following items: • Foie Gras and Port Tail Tartine • Pork Liver and Bacon Pate • Smoked Pork Tongue • Milk Braised Berkshire Shoulder • Pork Jowl • Grilled Broccoli

The three snacks were delicious and flavorful, the two mains were abysmal, and the sides were not memorable.

Typically pork shoulder is a fatty cut, but this particular piece was basically grease. You can see from my picture the grease and oil covering the plate.

The Jowl was prepared like something you'd get from a Denny's. It was basically just slapped onto some bread.

Overall I do not recommend coming here. Chicago has too many good places to make this a pick. if you're visiting and only have a limited number or days.

This would be one star, but I will give it a two star as the cocktails were good, Nian was accommodating, and the...

Let me begin this review by noting that the service and ambiance at TPP is superb and deserving of high praise. Unfortunately, the complete opposite must be said about the food, both in absolute terms and especially so with respect to value. I had high hopes coming to this restaurant as it had been recommended by several folks; it also holds very high review scores. I couldn't have been more disappointed. The highlight of my lunch were the bacon wrapped dates with Camembert cheese: its hard to make a bad meal of this dish. The rest of my meal was unfortunately impossible to forget, being so badly cooked and low quality that it left a very bad impression. The duck croquettes were a huge disappointment: most glaringly, they had barely any duck flavor, a consequence of the rather miniscule and nearly flavorless thimble of duck meat at the center of what was mostly potato filling. Three such small and forgettable croquettes cost $18: Ive had better store-bought spanish croquettes. The duck confit, one of my all time favorite parisian delicacies was, and I do not exaggerate, the worst duck confit ive had my entire 10 years of eating this dish. It had absolutely zero duck flavor - I might as well have been eating a badly cooked chicken leg - overly salted, really dry, and mirred with a charred and oversalted breading unbefitting of what should already be a decadent dish. The amount of salt on this duck was probably proportional to the insipidity of the meat. I simply could not finish it. This place is way overpriced and overvalued for what it is. While the presentation of the dishes is inviting, the ingredients are of very poor quality (its truly hard to buy a flavorless duck); moreover, the lack of sophistication and culinary experience of the chefs is obvious. I am aghast at the current rating of this restaurant and must therefore chuck its reputation to hype and fanfare. This was the worst $100 I have spent at a lunch and its unfortunate because the location, decor, ambiance, and the general idea of the place is certainly promising. I hope management takes my criticisms seriously and turns this place around. Until they do, I strongly recommend you give your business to one of the other exceptional dining experiences to be...

Overall, I am super disappointed about my experience at The Purple Pig.

I made a reservation for a party of 5 on 8/12/24 for dinner on 10/20/24 (over 2 months in advance). We were traveling from out of town and very eager to try the food here; I personally have dined here multiple times about 5-10 years ago and it has been one my favorite restaurants and I have been super excited to return. It used to be quaint, intimate dinner setting on the river, but I was surprised to see it as a loud (super loud music), dark, and packed restaurant in a hotel.

Our reservation was at 7pm and we arrived right on the dot and checked in. We stood in the lobby waiting and I checked in with the hostess every 15 minutes for a status on our table. She kept saying that the previous table was just getting dessert and wrapping up. It was 8pm when we started to get irritated and hungry from traveling.

At this point, we asked if it was possible to at least order a drink from the bar. They sat us at a 4 person high top and pushed another chair to it. We asked if anything can be done about the delay and they offered us a bottle of champagne to apologize for the inconvenience. They kept informing us that our table would be ready soon, so they gave some menus and we continued to wait.

Our table was not ready for another 30 minutes and we finally got our first dish 1.75 hours after the start of our reservation. The waitress never stopped by our table once and everyone who was helping us previously was never seen again. We asked for the check and was ignored for 20 minutes. We had to go up to the register and ask for the check again.

I was extremely upset at this point from the extreme wait times, despite making a reservation well in advance and all the time taken out of our evening. Luckily, we did not have another reservation afterwards, otherwise it would have been missed.

We expressed our irritation and they said "we already gave you a $100 bottle of champagne". They finally offered a 20% discount or a free dessert as an apology. We left the restaurant at 10:30pm.

I hope next time they can be better for their guests; I will not be returning or recommending to others, even though the food...