"Oh, super-expensive French cuisine, where have you been all my life?"

That's the question you're bound to ask when you visit Les Nomades for the first time, and, as luck would have it, Les Nomades is the answer. Or, rather, its address. From the outside, this uber-classy restaurant looks like a quaint little home (hidden among high-rise buildings and trendy, too-good-to-be-true stores and eateries) mere blocks away from North Michigan Avenue. It even has a little gate that one would typically associate with keeping the cat in. But as you walk across the cement pathway, up the few stone steps and through the big, wooden door into Les Nomades, the annoying honk-honk, beep-beep, shop-shop from down the street disappears from sight, from sound and eventually from mind as you immerse yourself in the soft yellow glow of the decor, warm as a hug from your grandmother (only not as smelly) or the service from one of the most helpful and attentive wait staffs you'll ever come across.

Like other prix-fixe restaurants in the area, Les Nomades offers either four courses ($100 per person) or five courses ($115 per person) and a wide range of options for each and every course. For the plats premiers, try the herb- roasted Maine lobster with fall squash mosaic, Chanterelles and curry brown butter emulsion. For the deuxieme, try the frisee and grilled octopus salad with aged sherry vinegar, lardons, potato and soft poached quail egg. For les poissons, try the grilled tasmanian salmon with celery root mousseline, beluga lentils, apple, watercress and horseradish emulsion. For les viandes et les volailles, try the angus beef fillet with sunchoke potato gratin, spinach, trumpet royal mushroom and shalot sauce. And lastly, from les fromages et les desserts, try the pastry assortment: chocolate mousse, lemon tart, coconut creme brulee and caramel ice cream.

Oh, and don't forget your jacket, else you won't be eating anything at all.

Centerstage Reviewer: Benjamin Andrew Moore