Opened in May, this swanky and urban upscale seafood restaurant impressed me with its food, presentation, and decor. We dined there a couple of weeks ago and they were kind enough to accomodate our sixteen person party, and proceeded to serve us very well. In my experience, this is a good test for a restaurant.
The decor was very well done with a great cocktail and waiting area near the bar. I missed the second floor Jazz Bar but hear it is a great place to meet for a drink. We congregated in the lounge area where they have very modern sofa’s and cubes with short tables making it easy enjoy a drink and talk with your friends while you wait for your table. The bartender’s were very quick to acknowledge you even though they were quite busy at the time. I love the fact that you can order a nine ounce glass of wine but felt they could have offered a extra large glass instead of the separate mini-carafe which proved to be quite akward when buying two. A 27oz Globe would have worked quite well and I believe would be acceptable to most wine snobs.
The dining room was very dramatic with a booth style bench along the southern wall complete with throw pillows at each of the tables. One gripe here, I sat in the booth seat which was just a bit shorter than the corresponding chair, making me just a tad shorter than the person across from me. Not a big deal, but I certainly noticed it. In the future, with a normal four person party, I would request to be sat at one of the tables in the center of the room. I do prefer a one person per side square instead of having someone directly next to me. The room was perfectly lit with a warm feeling that was niether too dark or too light.
Now for the important part, the food and wine. The wine list itself is very diverse and reasonably priced considering the downtown location. We opted for a bottle of the Nero d’Avola from A Jello “Furat” and were very pleased with the rich plum and currant flavors and sweet tannins. I started with the Baja Roll from the Maki Roll section. It was tuna, yellowtail, and jalepeno toped with a avocado salsa and was good, but in the future I wouldn’t order a roll with that type of spice. Having tried it, I would stick with rolls that are more true to asian flavors. For my dinner I had the Saute’ed Chilean Sea Bass. It was served atop a crispy potato ravioli with a tomato and artichoke relish and thyme beurre blanc. The fish was cooked to perfection and I was very disappointed when there was none left on the plate. The dishes were visually appealing which added to the experience. I would have like to have had dessert, but had reached my limit.
If you would like to see what else is offered, you can visit their web site at www.brguestsrestaurants.com. Besides what I had, they offer what appears to be a good variety of shellfish, sushi, seafood, and hearty cuts of beef.
I would certainly recommend this restaurant to my friends and look forward to another visit. I would say the average price for a couple would be in the $150 to $200 range with a single bottle of wine and could certainly go up without much effort.
Interested in the River North / Streeterville location, there is certainly plenty available. Within just a few blocks there are well over 500 condos on the market. Here are some ranges to consider: 1bed condo $200k – $2.2M, 2 bed condo $290k – $4M, 3 bed condo $480k – $5M, 4+ beds (only 12 on the market) $1.5M – 6.5M. If you can afford to rub elbows with some of Chicago’s Elite, I am sure a $6000 monthly assessment won’t be an issue. Of course there are plenty of the 1 bed units with assessments as low as $250 per month.
If you or any of your friends are in the market and would like to check out some buildings, feel free to contact me and we can discuss your search.
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