Moody Tongue Brewery is the only two-star Michelin brewery in the world, and it’s right here on the South Side of Chicago! Typically, I take my husband Brian out to a steak house for his birthday, but this year, I thought I’d switch it up and take him here. He loves beer, and his “Untappd” app entries grow every week. Well, he was super excited to add 10 new beers to his app, and I was excited to add another two-star Michelin experience to my list. This is more of an overview of our experience, and not really a review. We came here on December 1, 2023.

At Moody Tongue, you can eat in either the Dining Room, which is the full multi-course tasting menu with optional beer pairings, or the Bar, for a more a la carte experience. We ate in the Dining Room, and we were welcomed to our table by the most gorgeous centerpiece, surrounded by our first “snack” course. There was no time for pre-dinner cocktails or anything like that, we just dove right into the snacks, as they brought out our first beer, a super summery, fresh Yuzu Lager.

Even while tasting around the different snacks situated all around the centerpiece, they brought out additional items including osetra caviar on top of a super rich and savory flan, served in an egg and in a cute-yet-creepy little egg holder, as well as a foie gras tart which was melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

Next, Brian was served Hamachi, but I got big old lobster chunks in a gorgeous sauternes sauce since I don’t handle raw fish well. Next was the impressively plated Langoustine & Sea Urchin served inside a sea urchin! It had tiny flowers!

The hokkaido scallop was one of my favorite courses, and that came next, followed by a gorgeous piece of sturgeon with porcini mushrooms. These courses came with a pressed asian pear saison and an orange blossom belgian blonde, respectively, which were also my favorite beers of the night. We could’ve ended here and gone straight to the dessert, but there were still FOUR more courses to go, even before dessert!

As a bit of a palate cleanser between the fish and the meat, we were served lemon ricotta agnolotti which were heaven. We added a ton of truffle to this (for an upcharge) and it was served with a black truffle lager which I thought was bizarre. It really tasted like truffles, and I’m not sure I love the truffle/beer flavor combo. After this, we were on to the THREE meat courses, starting with roast duck, which was a very healthy serving of duck breast, plus some more foie gras for good measure.

Next up was the heritage pork with mole, which was served with a super-flavorful blue corn tortilla to soak up the amazing sauce. This was easily my favorite meat course. (Give me pork or give me death!) Following this was an A5 Miyazaki dot of wagyu beef. Don’t get me wrong, I love wagyu beef, but I feel like every dang Michelin starred experience lately ends with this course, and I haven’t had any sort of ultra unique preparation or anything to make this more interesting. Let’s start making the A5 wagyu a bit more special, now, shall we? You can check my reviews of the last bunch of two-plus star Michelin places – Cloud Street in Singapore, Oriole in Chicago, and they both ended with A5 Wagyu. Only Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona ended with Iberian Suckling Pig. Maybe that’s why they got a third star? Something to think about!

At this point, I was beyond stuffed, but there were several desserts yet to come. First, the Cranberry Yuzu Granita was lovely, with an oat crunch which gave it great texture. This was a yummy and fresh palate cleanser. Next was the pumpkin spiced beet tart which was my favorite dessert by far. The pumpkin and beet combo is unusual, but they meld deliciously into a sweet, bordering on savory tart.

Finally was the milk chocolate cremeux which was a chocolate bonanza. I had a bite or two and gave the rest to Brian who really loved this dessert. This was served with a bourbon barrel aged stout which I really enjoyed.

Sometimes fancy places give you a little to-go bag, usually with some kind of cookie or dessert. Moody Tongue gave us a special “two star michelin” lager bottle, signed by the master brewer to take home! We really enjoyed this treat the next day!

Moody Tongue gives you a unique experience with highly elevated food and beer pairings, which is super unusual. If you’re not a beer person, you don’t need to get the pairings, but these might actually change your mind about whether or not you are actually a beer person. Come here for chill ambiance and extraordinarily rich food, but if you can’t stomach the price of admission, there are a ton of gorgeous looking plates available in the enormous bar area (with an impressively enormous bar in the middle) to check out. Cheers!