Senza

I’ll be brief since unfortunately Senza has closed.
In short, Senza was one of the best restaurants in Chicago. The food was incredible. Aesthetic plating with unique and innovative combinations of high-​end ingredients that complimented each other to create cohesive, flavorful dishes. I am terribly sad that such a special place had to come to an end. I can only hope Senza reincarnates in the near future.

It’s unfortunate that Senza is now closed. My tasting menu was very enjoyable. The quality of the food was well chosen. (wagyu beef, crab, sturgeon, Alaskan salmon). Each entrée was nicely presented and decorated with floral display. Each bite was exceptional and reflect the natural taste of the item. The server was professional — each entrée was well explained about origin and production. Our plates/​utensils were changed after each and every entrée. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my soup which literally taste like soy sauce.

Great meal, in my opinion worthy of the Michelin star they received. Outstanding service as well.
I won’t get into the specifics of every one of our 12 courses, because sadly, Senza will be closing permanently at the end of this week. I’m not sure exactly why all these Michelin-​starred places have been closing lately, but I hope the trend does not continue.
Either way, I am glad that my wife and I were able to dine in this fine-​dining restaurant at least once before they closed down. If you are really intent on getting your gluten-​free fix one last time, you’d better hurry, you only have a few days left.

I can only describe this as a symphony to the tongue and a feast for the eyes.
Wow, I’m in awe of how poetic that last line sounded. ;-)
In all seriousness, this is fine dining at its best. You can tell just looking at the plate and even before tasting it, how much the chef wants to make the dining experience as pleasing to the sense as possible. Each dish is impeccably garnished with beautifully edible flowers. Apparently, they’re imported from Ohio! The whole experience is orchestrated like music — a beautiful starter oyster to warm up your palate before crescendo-​ing slowly to the main courses and then slowly mellowing down to the desserts.
A few dishes that stood out in my mind was the squid ink pasta and the foie gras that melted like butter on my tongue. The waygu beef was also top notch quality. My friend was very much impressed by the corn crème brûlée.
Only two things detracted from the experience — I didn’t really appreciate that the bread was charred because it was too burnt for me to appreciate how gluten-​free bread could taste so good! There was another dish that had «ash» but I just didn’t get it. I don’t want to taste powdered ash!
The service is really impeccable. The servers are top-​notch. I accidentally dropped my napkin and before I even noticed what happened, a server picked it up and replaced it with a new one! I was thoroughly wowed by how much attention to detail they had. And they’re not the pretentious kind. They were really gracious and inviting.
All in all, every dish was very well presented and the flavors are so light and unique. They are very pleasing to the tongue, and I’d recommend going if you have the money to shell!

This place is wonderful. And if you had no clue it was a gluten free menu, you’d never consider it might be.
The place is modestly decorated and modern with a relaxing atmosphere and a great view of Broadway facing south. The staff was friendly and welcoming.
The dishes are beautifully executed, delicious, and works of art! The portions were quite substantial. I’ve included photos. We did the larger course menu, but one could easily do the smaller one without wine pairings and come back more frequently than just on a special occasion.
This place is on par with any of Chicago’s fine dining establishments without the stuffiness. What a lovely place.

We went here for my birthday, and Happy Birthday to me!!!
We ordered the whole she-​bang, including wine pairings. I like nothing more than turning in a menu and having a chef tell me what to eat. They’re the professionals, after all.
I must mention, before I rant, that our whole menu was GLUTEN FREE. I myself in no way have a gluten allergy, and I’m sometimes frustrated by those who have gravitated toward the fad of a gluten free diet when they themselves don’t have celiac disease. However, I certainly sympathize with the plight of those who do. It was extremely refreshing that, AFTER the meal, our waiter said «by the way, that whole meal was gluten free!». We were pleasantly surprised with the fact that it was gluten free and that the restaurant’s attitude wasn’t in-​your-​face, rather, matter-​of-​fact.
On to the food. Wow, wow, wow. I don’t think there was a single thing that wasn’t outstanding. The plating was beautiful. If you visit their website, the pictures of the food on the homepage is literally how the food looks on your plate. Two dishes stood out to me in particular. They were the chilled vidalia onion soup and the Snake River Sturgeon. There was a mind-​bending amount of flavor packed in to the onion soup. The sturgeon was extremely interesting. I can’t say I’ve eaten sturgeon before, and the experience was impressive.
It’s really tough to write reviews of places like this — places where simply everything about the experience rocked. Just go here yourself!

Came here for dinner and had the nine course menu. It’s not often I go to a place like this, so I went all out and went for the wine pairings as well. Have to admit, I never quite understood what it meant for x food to go with y wine… fish with white, steak with red… okay, I got that, but it wasn’t apparent to me how the correct pairing could make such a huge difference in the taste of the meal. But oh man, were the pairings phenomenal at Senza. Each one brought out a particular accent of the dish it complemented. It was like the difference between seeing a black and white photo versus one in color. I cannot recommend the pairings enough. I used to skip these whenever I could to cut the cost, but I would rather eat out less often and save up for a meal with the pairings.
For a few of the dishes, some of the elements were a bit too salty when taken alone. (I saw this point made in a few negative reviews.) You gotta mix and match and resist the temptation to try each ingredient individually (cuz let’s get honest — the portions aren’t big enough for that, haha).
Beautifully plated. Elegant is the world. Not at all gimmicky or overdone, like some other top end Chicago restaurants. Lots of dishes garnished with edible flowers. A place working under the gluten-​free restriction really has to have a lot of creativity… I wouldn’t even call gluten-​free a restriction in this case.
The service here cannot be beat. If you tell them that you have a special occasion for your dinner, they will print you a customized menu for you to take home. If you have no special occasion, fret not, for you still get the menu without the message. Staff was incredibly nice, took the time to introduce and explain every course and pairing. Very personal service.
Favorite course of the night? Hard to say… But looking at pictures of the fois gras has me drooling all over my keyboard. I would give this place 6 stars if I could. My mind was blown so many times by all the incredible flavor combinations I tried and my eyes cried whenever I ate anything because they didn’t want the beautiful presentations to disappear. I can’t wait to return to this place. It won’t be soon, but it will be someday.
On a side note, I ate here on the night of the World Naked Bike Ride. Halfway through my dinner, an endless train of naked people on bikes started parading past the window to Senza! Needless to say, we were one group of amused diners!

Wow, I was completely unimpressed with this place.
1. Location-​its in the heart of East Lakeview, my old hood. I love it, but not really ideal for a nice restaurant. Oh and good luck on street parking… hehehe! There is a lot kind of close. No valet at this upscale restaurant
2. Space-​SMALL and looked more kitchy to me. The chairs were uncomfortable and low to the ground so I was unable to hang my purse on the back without it hitting the floor.
3. Service-​although they were nice, I felt overall the staff was mediocre on the caliber that this place is trying to be.
4. Food-​this was really where it was lacking for me.
$ 85 for 5 «courses.» Ridiculously priced for what you get. It was $ 65 for the additional wine pairings.
Let me say, the courses were extremely small to me. They were so small that after dinner we walked up to Flub a Chubs and gorged on burgers, fries, mozz sticks, and onion rings… no lie.
I was expecting more things that were made differently without gluten (pasta, bread, etc). They barely had any of that… they stuck to meat, veggies, etc. Its not that difficult to be gluten free when you just use things that dont have gluten anyway. I totally expected something different… like amazing gluten free pasta, a baked good for dessert, etc. This was definitely not the case, unfortunately.
It seemed the flavor profile was off. The would have a soup that was creamy, onion, etc and then have a citrus, bitter addition… not good.
The lamb was extremely small and super salty/​garlic-​y. The jelly and mustard did not go well with it. Nothing was that great… however my favorite things were the bread (we each got one small 2 inch square piece) and the cheese course.
Everything else was severely lacking.
This place is a definite pass for me. It is way below par with other restaurants that charge a similar price for more food, better atmosphere, better space, service… basically all the aspects of a restaurant.
I took a friend that has Celiac and I actually felt bad that I brought her here.

4.5 stars.
Other restaurants I have visited that do extended tasting menus are Alinea and Tru. Compared to those two, Senza is right at the border of being readily accessible by the general populace in terms of flavor profile and ingredients, and also high-​end and modern at the same (whereas the other two are not as approachable). My cousin took me here for my graduation dinner on a Tuesday night and we each opted for the 9-​course tasting menu at $ 135.
Favorites:
— Snake River Sturgeon: a small filet of sturgeon with a piece of lardo draped over it (which is charred at your table). The sturgeon is so succulent and flavorful, and the lardo provides enough richness and fat to make the dish really delicious. Yum.
— Chilled Spring Onion soup: I wasn’t particularly excited about this one when I saw it on the menu, but it was a pleasant surprise. The soup tasted very spring-​y — fresh, lots of bright notes, and delicate flavors. The sweet king crab meat also added to the light flavors.
— Berkshire pork rib: Meat was fall off the bone tender, and the slight asian flavor profile was really great.
The other dishes were also great for the most part: oyster starter (beautiful presentation, sweet), poached loup de mer (I was really excited about this reading it on the menu, and although it was good, it wasn’t particularly special), hokkaido scallop (scallop was beautifully seared, as was the foie gras), roasted rack of lamb (I hate lamb, but thought the meat was cooked well — minimized the distinct stench of lamb that makes it hate this meat to begin with. I will say, however, that the flavor and the texture of the powdered lamb fat really threw me off and I could not finish it), klug farm strawberries (again, very spring-​y; light and fruity flavors), oatmeal streusel (more of a filling dessert than the previous strawberry course, not particularly memorable but I do remember it being good).
Unlike other restaurants of this caliber, the servers were definitely more approachable and warm. They even joked around with us a couple times, which was nice. Despite this more casual atmosphere, they are still thorough with their service (i.e. clear out silverware after every course, explain your dish, etc.)
Interior is VERY unassuming. If this had been the location of a rather casual restaurant, I would not have been surprised. Again, added to the «casual/​high-​end» juxtaposition that the restaurant possesses.
Presentation was absolutely beautiful. They like using edible flowers for decoration, which allows them to add a lot of interesting colors that are otherwise difficult to find in food (purples, for example).
The minus 0.5 stars comes from the slight lack of creativity that I look for in restaurants of this caliber. Yes, sometimes creativity can mean that ingredients become so altered that the food starts becoming unapproachable, but I think this creativity really keeps diners on their feet and allows us to marvel at the wonders of modern cooking. Thus, while all the food at Senza was good (and really good at that!), sometimes it was so approachable that it lost some of it’s «wow» factor.
However, still highly recommend a visit here. Food was great and approachable, and presentation was absolutely beautiful.

Came here for an absolutely incredible 11-​course dining experience. From start to finish, service was impeccable. Wait staff was relaxed, friendly, and completely on-​the-​ball without being over-​bearing.
Each course was unique and creative– the flavors played off each other seamlessly. I loved that they keep such a casual setting in a fine-​dining establishment. All the perks of a fine dining experience, without the pretentious aspect.
An absolute must-​try. I hope to be back again soon!

Insanity. I hardly have words. (aka I’m about to write a buttload of words.)
The location was great for us, as it was two blocks from our hotel. But we walked right by it at first because it’s not on a block in Lakeview (between Boystown and Lincoln Park) that screams, «Come get fine dining next to the cheapest looking nail salon and used book store!» I suppose that gives it the «hidden gem» or «diamond in the rough» appeal. We arrived at 7pm on a Friday, and there were only a few other diners in the small establishment. I’d say it started to fill up around 8pm. Upon our first step in and our last step out, the service was inviting and attentive. That sounds so cliché, but what we experienced was perfect hospitality from the hostess and several waiters who clearly served to please. Our welcome was warm, our glasses stayed filled, our food was delivered in a timely fashion and with thorough introduction, and our questions were answered.
We got the 5 course prix fixe which included an additional course and an amuse-​bouche for $ 85/​pp + tax + tip. Definitely a splurge for us, but hey, this is fine dining in Chicago, ya turkey! We couldn’t not try at least one cocktail, so we ordered the Stony Point for $ 12. The cocktail had bourbon, ginger, thai chiles, and mint, so though it had a little kick, it was balanced and refreshing. I thought the cocktail was a great value, as it was well-​crafted, unique, and was a generous amount.
My photos and their descriptions should provide ample information on each thing we ate, so I will spare you every single agonizing already-​illustrated detail and just tell you the highlights. For me: the spring onion soup. I think this was a culinary MASTERPIECE. I found it perfectly executed because every single element of taste was complemented by another. Like the rich creaminess of the «soup» base complemented by the fresh zest of the orange and lemongrass. And the sweet king crab complemented by the salty garlic emulsion and savory rosemary. Every flavor was distinguishable and delicious even when all combined together. A highlight for the both of us was the amuse-​bouche oyster. Again, the sweet and salty, but fresh, combo cannot be dominated. My boyfriend just closed his eyes and shook his head for a good 60 seconds when this met his mouth. The foie gras provoked the same reaction from him. It was, of course, melt-​in-​your-​mouth insanity. So insane that he tried to grab some off my plate, which is the craziest goddamn thing any grown man can do. Also allow me to rant and rave about how pork belly is old news and lamb belly is where it’s at. Way more flavorful and tender, or at least the sexy stuff that Senza serves is! My boyfriend said the Oatmeal streusel was fighting for first place in his rankings, but I did not try it because it contained pine nuts (F you, allergies!!!). But it contained «pine nut nougat, apricot, sherry ice cream, dreamsicle». At the end of the meal, after wiping my tears of joy, I was able to get a peak at the kitchen and received an autographed menu from Chef Sandoval (*fan-​girl squeal*).
(A not so savory after-​note: My boyfriend and I both got very upset stomachs the next day. We are convinced it was due to dinner, and I was contemplating subtracting a star, but will give Senza the benefit of the doubt, just in case. If it WAS because of the richness of our food, then it was worth it?)

Sensory overload. I mean the ultimate mixture of flavors IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY. We decided on the prix fixe menu for $ 75 per person. While it was very tempting to get the tasting menu, I fought the urge to go all in. However, I wondered if I would want more after trying the items slated for us. So how did I make out? I left feeling extremely satisfied but not ready to pop full. A win and just enough option.
All of the items are gluten free even down to the bread. The food presentation is adorable and service was great. Each course was brought with new silverware and delivered simultaneously. The deliverer would them provide a description of the course. Everyone was genuinely pleasant, poised and genuinely upbeat. I would place this in a top ten list of places to try without question. It was a very memorable experience.

Not sure where to start… I am basically speechless of how amazing, breathtaking, out of this world this restaurant is!
When you walk in. It’s not lit up with beautiful décor. So don’t be disappointed by that. It’s pretty basic until you start eating!!!
They have fixed menu for you to choose from. You can choose the 5 course or the 9 course. However, everyone in your party has to chose the same course. I came here for my birthday with my boyfriend and we both chose the 5 course which was perfect!
The dishes are unique with plenty of flavor!!! we had scallops, oyster, pork belly, soup. Made from all sorts of ingredients! The presentation was out of this world!
I can’t really explain this place but come here for a special occasion! You will NOT be disappointed!!! It’s pricey but worth it! If you bring your own wine it’s just a 20 dollar corkage fee ;) enjoy!

***Along with Acadia, Senza might be the best restaurant I’ve been to in Chicago as well as one of the very best restaurants in the country***
Chicago is my favorite city for high-​end cuisine because so many restaurants here utilize modern cooking techniques to deliver really creative and unique food that is new, delicious and undoubtedly original. Many high-​end Chicago restaurants also only feature one or two tasting menus; this allows guests to enjoy a great variety of ingredients and preparations as well as creates more of an identity that limits the choices you have to make. Guests here can leave knowing that they really experienced the restaurant and were not just plagued by poor choices.
With these extensive tasting menus though, occasionally a course does not work. With several Chicago restaurants, some courses (typically only a few) get a little too whimsical. The course works at tantalizing the mind but not at creating a satisfying and delicious flavor and texture combination. Senza though utilizes modern techniques to really create fresh and new food while still allowing guests to take pleasure in a perfectly seared scallop or enjoy a warm root vegetable soup.
Senza reminds me of San Francisco’s Sons & Daughters, which is another restaurant where the food is very modern but also approachable and classic at the same time. Also like that restaurant, Senza is a small place that feels like a real find. The restaurant has a casual neighborhood café look, but there are elegant touches throughout the room like the nice table centerpieces here.
Senza features two tasting menus. There is a 9-​course tasting menu as well as a 5-​course tasting menu (and this menu is just an abbreviated version of the longer menu). The longer tasting menu starts with a few amuses – a fresh west coast oyster topped with some good heat from a chili sauce and a refreshing beer ice as well as a hamachi shooter with yuzu, fragrant cucumber blossoms and dashi bubbles that really explode with the savoriness of that Japanese broth.
The first course was a perfectly seared scallop (crispy on the top, very moist and soft as well as nicely seasoned) that sat next to seared foie gras (very creamy but also a distinct crust), preserved blueberries, crunchy granola, onion caramel, and charred leeks (crispy on the outside but also with the texture of a braised onion).
The next course was a warm and hearty parsnip soup with a strong punch from horseradish cream. There were great garnishes too like potato, soft butter poached lobster and crispy guanciale. The soup kept changing and developing flavors, which was really satisfying though I did think the abundance of dried cherries was too much.
An excellent loup de mer came next and it was flawlessly cooked (moist and flaky); there were lots of fun textures too like crispy trout skin and juicy trout roe.
An indulgent piece of pork belly followed, which was flavorful without being too rich or fatty. The outside was crisp, but there was also a tender braised meat-​like experience. The fat was rendered down very well and it turned almost creamy. Garnishes included fragrant greens and toasted marshmallow.
Next was a really good morel agnolotti, which combined satisfyingly thick pasta with a creamy and strong mushroom center. Garnishes included very good black truffle, excellent morels and sweet and tart kumquats.
The main course was lamb two ways (very juicy and tender belly and the more entrée-​like lamb rack though the rack was slightly overcooked). There were fun touches with this course like garlic chips and onion ash, but there was also a straightforward but delicious cippolini onion.
There is a strong attention to detail everywhere including the hearty, warm and toasted caraway loaf (Senza is also a gluten-​free restaurant).
The cheese course was fun, creamy and pungent cheese in a soup amuse presentation with great quince. The first dessert was very creamy and pronounced vanilla ice cream paired with great apricots, marshmallow and crunchy oats. The second dessert featured a chocolate butterscotch cake (great flavor though dry like a lot of flourless cakes) with excellent garnishes including orange bitters meringue and butterscotch ice cream.
Service was excellent – very personable but also professional, polite and polished.
Prices are high, but the 5-​course tasting menu is reasonable given the quality of the food here.
Senza is a truly special restaurant. It has the innovative touches of a high-​end Chicago restaurant as well as the vibrant flavors and light preparations of the Bay Area’s very best restaurants. I really enjoyed Acadia and felt that it might put out more exciting and more nicely prepared food than Senza, but Senza is still very special and one of the very best restaurants I have been to in Chicago; Senza would also be one of the best restaurants I have experienced across the country.
There are a few parking structures nearby.

I frequently pass by Senza because I live in the neighborhood, and from the outside, it looks like an unassuming minimalist café, but dang
.it’s.cover.
I came here for a special occasion and the entire experience was terrific. If you are celebrating an anniversary, birthday, promotion, or have foodie friends/​generous parents in town, don’t pass up Senza to give you a memorable dining experience. Every night, and on a rotating basis, the chefs serve up either a 5 course or 11 course prix fixe menu with the option to pair with wine. (5 course: $ 75 + $ 50 wine pairing; 11 course: $ 125 + $ 75 wine pairing). Certainly not cheap, but the food was solid and beautifully prepared in every way, and the wine pairings were delicious for every course.
Expect very diverse flavors that come from flowers, plants, berries, roots, fungi, game, fowl, seafood, purees, foams, reductions, powders, and a bunch of culinary techniques I can’t describe. The dishes in the 11 course menu range from light and earthy to rich and decadent. Top the 2.5 hour dining experience off with 1 cheese course and 2 amazing dessert courses with dessert wine pairings and you have a very satisfied lady with a healthy wine glow.

Senza– the Italian word for without. This Chicago eatery brings out the best flavors of simple ingredients without compromising flavor. You will leave this restaurant without an empty stomach, without a wish for better service, and without a desire for anymore that simply was.
When you walk in, the hostess automatically takes your coats and lead you to your table. Luckily, we had a reservation.
Senza has a gastropub feel but a bit more upscale and classy. Dress code is like an elegant casual
There are two options: the five course prix fixe and ten course tasting menus. We opted for the ten, hoping for a more complete experience. The entire table must order the same, which is unfortunate but understandable.
Everything was delicious. The Kumamoto oyster was the perfect way to start our meal.
The wagyu tartare was also luxuriously delicious. It was like a deconstructed hamburger: raw beef, mustard panna cotta, etc.
I’m always excited to see foie gras since it is banned in California (and used to be in Chicago). The scallop that accompanied it was also perfectly cooked and had a nice crust.
The loup de mer was pretty good: I liked the crispy skin, but the fish taste was a little too fishy.
I also really liked the agnolotti. The pasta was one of the few agnolotti that I’ve tried that wasn’t too salty. The filling was nice and creamy and the huckleberry and kumquat provided the perfect amount of sweetness.
The pork belly is the only dish I wasn’t a big fan. It was cooked perfectly, but I didn’t like the celery and celery root pairing.
The lamb was also pretty tasty. I preferred the seared version better than the sausage. It was a perfect medium rare. The sausage had a lot if spices and reminded me of a Mongolian hotpot flavor.
Desserts were also pretty good. The oatmeal was like an upscale parfait, and the chocolate fruit pair is always yum.
I really enjoyed the entire experience. If you’re looking for a place with good food that isn’t tourist-​y come here. You will leave without disappointment!

I went here for an anniversary dinner with the gf.
We ordered the 5 course and she got the wine pairing.
I had a cider that the server described as barnyard-​y and it was but in an interesting way.
We wanted to each get different items for each course but some of the items are not dairy free which is the gfs food restriction. They were very accommodating of her food allergies and the entire menu is gluten free.
The parsnip soup was really amazing and they have gf a dairy free version. She also got a little Meyer lemon soda for the cheese course instead of the cheese that I got. Was really interesting experience and I would love to go back.
Definitely a special occasion type place.
No ala carte menu just two options for 5 or 10 course tasting menus.
Others raved about the gluten free bread course but as a bread eater I didn’t think it was special at all. Gf didn’t seem to either.

Given Senza’s convenient location in residential Lakeview, my boyfriend and I decided to ring in 2014 with Senza’s freshly minted star. Senza took kindly to the «mint» part of that with floral, fragrant, and herbal accents throughout the five course tasting menu and cocktails. A special treat if you’re debating between the five vs. ten course is one is able to select your course independently of your party (mind you all must do the same course number) and therefore two people could conceivably order all ten items on the menu.
When we arrived at Senza the hostess was very nice, as was the entirety of the staff throughout the evening. The hostess even opened the door for us when we walked up, and she had a pleasant, informal greeting. We were seated in the corner table, which was nice and cozy on the snowy evening. I loved everything about the atmosphere, from the window into the kitchen to the sound absorbent tiles on the ceiling which allowed the small restaurant to be rather quiet.
As mentioned before, we opted for the five course tasting menu, with two cocktails as opposed to the wine pairings. An amuse bouche was delivered first, which started the evening off right with what my boyfriend describes as a «culinary rollercoaster.» The oyster took our mouths through a variety of flavors, from ham to mint, and provided a sign that we had a great evening ahead of us. Also, the plating for every dish was beautiful and sophisticated– a feast for the eyes and mouths.
For the first course I ordered lamb tartare, one of my favorite dishes of the night, while my boyfriend ordered the scallops. One of my favorite things about the tartare was the variety of familiar flavors melded perfectly, and the caraway cracker, though small, was delicious. The scallop was moist, tender, and not chewy as scallops can often be. While there was a lot of blueberry on the plate, my boyfriend assured me he would order it again.
Next up was parsnip soup, which was the only course that did not give two options to choose from. The presentation was beautiful, with all elements of the soup arranged in the bowl before the creamy broth was poured into the bowl tableside. Gluten-​free rye bread was also served and tasty, especially with the salted butter.
Pork belly was our third course and enjoyed by everyone. I especially liked the pickled celery on the side. The kitchen cooked the pork belly perfectly, but I think my favorite was the duck, our fourth course. The duck, served slightly blackened, was perfect on it’s own, from the spices on the outside, to the way it was cooked, to the tenderness the meat. I could have eaten this alone for my fourth course, but it was also served on a bed of black trumpet mushrooms and various other emulsions and sauces. If you take one thing away from this review, it should be that the duck should not be missed.
Before our dessert course we were offered a small cheese course, which was interesting and delectable at the same time. Dessert was good, although I would not say it was the highlight of the meal given the excellence of the other four courses, and the fact there was nothing in the desserts which made them stand out.
All in all, this was a great dinner! If Senza changed their menu up I would definitely be back sooner rather than later. Also, I asked for a menu before leaving and the staff was lovely, printing off two menus with the date and the items we ordered highlighted and putting them in a envelope. The service really couldn’t be beat.

Lovely.
A perfect evening out at a true hidden gem for I had never heard of this place before. And I like to think I am one who is up on all of the «gems» this city has to offer.
So when a friend suggested our holiday dinner here and that it was «Gluten free» I was skeptical about what this place was about, but a mere visit to their website and I was hooked! I loved that it was «fine dining in a casual environment» and I loved even more knowing that Chef Noah Sandoval (Schwa, Spring) was at the helm creating masterpieces of food that looked as good as they tasted.
The décor is simple and unassuming. There is a banquette along one wall with comfy, colorful pillows to arrange behind you so that you are comfortable. We sat at one of the free standing tables (this place is intimate) for our large group of 5.
James, our server extraordinaire came quickly to our table and after some helpful banter about the drink menu, and the food, had us quickly drinking some of their specialty cocktails. I had one with Bourbon and ginger that had some type of spicy bitters in it that made my lips burn…but in an amazing way. And my friend went with a vodka drink made with lemon and lime that was sweet and tangy.
As for the menu– you can choose a 5 course tasting menu or the larger 10 course menu. Just know that everyone at the table has to have the same menu– and in our case– there were food allergies at the table that prohibited the 10 course menu so 5 it was.
There are choices to be made on the five course menu as three of the sections require you to choose this or that. They all sounded so interesting, I just let James do the picking for me and he was spot on.
I won’t go through every thing we had but a few of the real standouts were the scallops, the pork belly and the duck. So beautifully plated and so delicious! The 5 course dinner ran about $ 75 a person and they have wine pairings available for each course for an additional $ 40.
The entire evening was fabulous! A night to enjoy amazing food, served by people who clearly love what they do in an atmosphere that is not pretentious but almost home like. And I love the re purposing of the space during the morning hours as it turns into a coffee shop with Gluten free baked goods (and if the bread we had was any indication of that they can do without gluten, I’d say they have a winner on their hands ALL day!)
If you drive– street parking is usually available on this stretch of Broadway although there are some parking lots within a couple of blocks.
A true gem, indeed, whether you are a «self proclaimed foodie». .. .or not!

The good: the food was quality! Brunch is offered in a 3-​course prix fixe. I thoroughly enjoyed the arctic char with quail egg, pork belly confit (fatty and delicious!), and a bowl of seasonal berries subbed in for the third course. Because I’m on a month-​long Paleo challenge (no gluten, grains, sugar, or dairy), I gave the hash brown from the first course and polenta from the second course to my dining companions.
The bad: you’ll enjoy the food… but there isn’t a whole lot of it. I was barely satiated at the end of the meal, and it’ll set you back $ 24 without tax or tip added in yet. Also, it took a looooonnngg time for each course to be served. The group chatted and waited for a good 30 minutes before the first course came out. Overall, plan for 2 hours for a brunch outing.
We tried Senza for a friend’s birthday, and a few minutes after dessert was served, the waitress brought out a single candle on a chopstick holder. Some of us were expecting the birthday gal to get a special dessert or an extra scoop of ice cream or something. The candle seemed stingy. That extra something was missing…
The ugly: …that something extra may have been the gross, definitely not straight hair that was in my friend’s polenta. Nasty. I want to barf just thinking of it. For the amount of time the food spent in the kitchen, I would have liked to see more care taken in the prep of the dishes before sending them out.