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My wife and I are visiting North Pond for dinner for the first time tomorrow (we have had its Mother's Day brunch) and are looking for suggestions as to what we "must try." Conversely, is there anything we should avoid? Thx.

I was particularly impressed by a squab entree and beet appetizer at North Pond. The desserts, though, were not very exciting.

The menu is very seasonal, though, so who knows if the February version of a dish will be better or worse than the July or November version.

I had one of my best meals last year at North Pond. I ordered the 5-course tasting, really enjoyed every dish. You can be assured that the attention to ingredients is a genuine goal and the preparations are straight-forward greatness. I think Sherman is doing great things and we had a particularly great waitress that night.

Enjoy!

Betsy, bless her heart, took me to North Pond last night for a belated birthday dinner. On Ed's recommendation, I had the beet salad, which last night was "Beets, Frisee: candied baby red, gold, and chiogga beets, cauliflower panna cotta, and watercress." On my own initiative, I had the "Halibut, Spring Garlic: white bread-crusted halibut filet, artichokes, lemon, green almonds, banana fingerlings, green garlic broth." I ate the beets too quickly for a photo, and though they were lovely they weren't breathtaking. The halibut, on the other hand...

I wish I could convey how wonderful that broth smelled and tasted. The lemon and the green garlic made the most wonderful spring perfume you could imagine. The white bread crust was amusing, and worked along with the artichokes and the potatoes (and, I admit, a third piece of bread) to soak up every last drop of the broth.

Betsy had the duck eggs with wild mushrooms and brioche followed by "lamb, frik: grilled leg medallions, frik and English peas, lamb croustillant, avocado, tomato sauces." Frik turns out to be a lot like bulgar. I was too busy with my halibut to reach across for her lamb, but it sure looked good


The nice thing about a birthday dinner is that you can't possibly skip dessert, no matter how lukewarm other reviewers have been. I'm so glad we didn't. I went straight, as anyone who knows me could tell you, for the rhubarb. Specifically "Rhubarb, Citrus: Warm Rhubarb Cardamom Tartelette, Almond Crumble, Lemon Fromage Blanc Sorbet."
Simply one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. Betsy's "Chocolate, Tropical: Dark Chocolate Mousse Dome, Passion Fruit Custard, Exotic Fruit Sorbet, Ancho Caramel," on the other hand, didn't taste nearly as good as it looked.

We had a lovely table right by the window, overlooking the pond. My menu came with birthday wishes printed on it and my dessert plate repeated the sentiment, this time in chocolate. Great service. Great company. And a walk back through the park.


What a great meal. What a great kid. What a wonderful restaurant. Thanks, Betsy!

North Pond Restaurant
2610 N. Cannon Drive
Chicago, IL

773 . 477 . 5845

Excellent meal / terrible, indifferent service. Arrived at 6:15 PM for a 6:30 Reservation and was told I could not be seated until 6:30 imagine my surprise when we escorted to out table at the appointed time & noted the dining room was only 20% occupied. I don't understand why we were made to sit in the bar when the restaurant was virtually empty. This unnecessary wait & the service ruined an otherwise excellent meal.

You had to wait fifteen minutes in the bar? Oh, you poor thing....

Well, I think Ed's question is worth pondering, especially as it may have a valid answer that Ed hasn't thought of. Those of you who know more about how restaurants are run than I do: Is there perhaps a good reason North Pond kept him waiting? Like for instance, the kitchen is geared to produce food on a schedule based on that evening's reservations, and if people try to order significantly ahead of when the restaurant has planned, it throws things off? Or is that a stretch?

Or maybe they thought he'd order a drink at the bar, which he wouldn't have if he were seated at the table when he arrived?

Ed,

Was there anything else that was terrible or indifferent about the service besides the wait? Just curious if that was the start of a string of negative experiences or if things went along ok after you were seated.

-John

Very interesting...I went there with a party of four and we went at 6...the place was completely empty...we were brought into the bar to wait...one of my group thought that we may be getting worked for a drink so he ordered one so that we could make it to the table...I now know that is their MO...I have not been back since then and was considering Brunch there on Sunday but NOW NO WAY

To me, that is a stretch. Then again, I've not worked in a restaurant for many years. . .

The only possibility that I can think of is staffing. They may staff based on history and reservations. It could be that waitstaff was not starting until the time of the reservation, so they didn't want the servers to be overwhelmed and give poor service.

But, as I type that, it's sounds far-fetched to me. Unless they keep late hours, most servers start close to the same time (usually around 5-6 PM). There are some staggered starts, but since waitstaff is paid a lower wage, most places I've worked have not worried too much - so what if they pay a server $3.00 an hour to not have any tables? Of course, someone could have been late - maybe the called in and said they'd be in shortly. Or called in sick, so a replacement had yet to arrive.

When Betsy and I showed up exactly on time for our 5:30 reservation we were led immediately to our table. So the stop at the bar doesn't seem to be an essential part of the visit.

Or maybe a waitress was late, or the chef was having an argument in the kitchen with a morel supplier about his lack of morals, or maybe someone was clumsy and spilled a pitcher of water right near the lovely window table they were giving them, maybe the hostess had to go to the bathroom, maybe there was a bicycle accident on the path and they were bandaging someones knee, maybe.................

Our situation was not due to staffing...in a restaurant like North Pond, the servers are not rolling in right at the start of service.

I've had a few dreadful service experiences over the years, which have spoiled entire meals. Waiting 15 minutes to be seated when I arrive 15 minutes early for a reservation is not one of them.

One assumes you mean generally, not at North Pond at particular, right?

That's correct.

(FWIW, the absolutely worst service experience I've ever had was at Crofton on Wells.)

So, it sounds to me like servers were seen to be there, you couldn't tell that there was any problem (like they seem harried, hurried or hassled) yet they simply were not waiting on you. What were they doing? I have seen similar situations - I am looking for the reason that the people are all standing there not waiting on me, but can't find it. . .I want to give the benefit of the doubt, but they aren't helping me find it.

Last Friday evening I enjoyed a meal at North Pond with my family. Before our meal even began, our experience with the restaurant was marked with a bit of uneasiness. In the end this wouldn’t come to define the meal, but the situation was rather strange.

We had made a reservation for 8:45 and called ahead to let them know we’d be running maybe 15 minutes late. Not laudable but not exactly a travesty either. The hostess, after checking with the dining room manager, informed us that if we were not there by 9:00 they might not be able to seat us, 9:10 at the absolute latest. This wasn’t because they had booked the table to turn but because the restaurant claimed the kitchen starts to break down after 9:10. I realize North Pond is in a park but to have what is effectively a fine-dining kitchen close at 9:00 on a Friday is absurd.

Fast-forward a few minutes to my sister running from taxi to restaurant in heels in order to secure our rather transient table at the hostess table. It would turn out that other parties would come in after us and the kitchen did not in fact start to break down until well after 9:10. I understand they’re probably trying to contend with alcohol regulations in the park, but after we’d told the hostess we were on our way a little bit more flexibility, or even reassurance, would’ve been nice.

Anyway, things soon improved when we were seated. Although we weren’t even able to dine in the front room, I found the main dining room quaint, the open kitchen fitting the rustic lake house vibe. Our server was very pleasant and friendly, again maintaining the image that the restaurant was something of an escape from the city.

Between the four of us we were able to sample a nice selection of highly seasonal menu. The cooking here is solid, if a little bit lacking in finesse and complexity. This comes out in the dishes—comprised of good ingredients, well executed and conceived but somewhat one-dimensional.

The most memorable savory dishes of the night were the crab salad—light, fresh, subtly creamy—and the salmon draped with lardo—subtle with its light seasoning, the fish and fat were foiled by a parsley-onion coulis. That these dishes are memorable is perhaps notable because they were so simple. Those dishes with more components became somewhat muddled.
On the sweeter side, we were served an intermezzo of aggressively herbal sorbet—anise-mint, I believe—with a rhubarb compote. An assertive palate cleanser to say the least, but also a welcome surprise. A vanilla-raspberry parfait-pot-au-crème-thing was also quite tasty.

North Pond isn’t a restaurant that will inspire fits of culinary enlightenment. With that said, it’s a solid restaurant from concept to execution and somewhere I would definitely go back to. Something of an escape from most “city” restaurants can be a nice thing from time to time.

We had a very similar experience when we took my future MIL there for her birthday in October. The food was amazing, and our waiter was fantastic- we couldnt' have asked for more from him.

However, the hostess didnt' really get things off on the right foot. We arrived right on time for our reservation, on the dot. The restaurant was 3/4 full. When I told her we'd arrived, she told me we would have to wait until our reservation time. Not wanting to make a scene in front of the future in-law, I feigned ignorance and asked if our reservation was for a time other than 6:15. She said, yes, but it's not 6:15 yet. We stood to the side. A party of six came in without a reservation and was seated immediately. We were seated ten minutes later. The whole thing was just...weird. It was totally out of sync with the rest of the evening, which was absolutey lovely.

Normally in such a situation, I would speak up, at least inform the waiter what had happened, but again, don't want future MIL to know what a total shrew I am this early on

In light of this and the other comments that have been made about "strange," unhelpful, unwelcoming and/or seemingly hostile service at North Pond, one wonders how this comes to be at a restaurant that obviously cares a great deal about food and ambience. The staff members who are falling down on the job--I wonder if they started out "good" and have been made "bad" by too many encounters over the weeks and months with bad customers. (For instance, I get the feeling, reading between the lines of the anecdote you tell, that the hostess had "had it up to here" with customers arriving late, and you bore the brunt of this frustration.) The only two other explanations I can think of are that whoever is hiring at North Pond is hiring ungracious people who are ungracious before they even start on day one; and that ungraciousness is a matter of policy, not accident. And I can't think of a reason why either of those would be the case. The problem is not limited to North Pond. And I hesitate to focus on the negative part of your post when your experience of the restaurant overall was positive. But it intrigues me.

As for the 15 minute wait and the 2 minute wait mentioned above-totally unwelcoming and awkward as hell. No justification. This is the service industry-you make people welcome when they arrive. The only possible reason not to seat is if there isn't a table, and there better be if you have a reservation. (Although there are front of the house managers that overbook to the point of not being able to seat reservations anywhere near on time.)
As time goes on I've experienced more and more moronic lapses in service throughout the course of a meal. A good server, hostess, manager are all worth their weight in gold. ( And seem to be a lot scarcer than gold.)
Ed, thanks for raising my blood pressure.

As another data point, I last went to North Pond about a year ago and upon arriving (on time) was a bit confused by the hostess requesting us to sit at the bar for a drink while our table was set up. My confusion was mainly because at that time it was not a fully packed restaurant and looked as if it had capacity to spare.

HOWEVER, the rest of the meal was as terrific as it always is there and it remains one of my favorite restaurants in this city. I look forward to returning soon.

Sounds like they have a hostess/flow issue they need to work on.

I had a similar experience last time I went, which was for bunch. My GF and I arrived earlier than the other four, and the hostess suggested we wait in the bar area. This was a little strange simply because the restaurant was empty (it was the first seating for bunch).

After about two minutes, we asked if we could just wait at the table. We expected the hostess to "follow the script," so to speak, and tell us that she couldn't seat us until the whole party arrived. Instead, she smiled and graciously lead us to our table. We wondered why we were initially asked to wait in the bar area, but perhaps the hostess was relatively inexperienced and was following the general instructions given to her.

We also brought a bouquet of flowers (the brunch was for my mother's birthday) and, when we entered, the hostess immediately suggested that she put the flowers in a vase on the table. She noted to us that she would be sure to save the paper so we could easily re-wrap the flowers to take them home. This is was quite thoughtful and we appreciated the gesture.

Most importantly, though, the multi-course brunch was incredible. If you haven't been to North Pond, please don't let this discussion of front-of-the-house experiences dissuade you from trying it. I've experienced much worse at other restaurants..

I've been to North Pond several times in the past, so I know how good the food is and how lovely the setting, but for me, I have to say that these Tales of the Hostile Hostess very much dissuade me from making a return visit. If North Pond were the only lovely place in town where one can eat well, it could afford to offer a lousy front-of-the-house experience, but it is not.

If I'm going out for a nice (and relatively expensive) evening, the last thing I want is to start it off being angry. Which I would be, if what happened to several posters here happened to me. BryanZ said much the same thing as you--that despite the "attitude" from the hostess, he'd return to North Pond--so clearly there is more than one way to feel about this, but that is mine.

I agree. My experience at North Pond really wasn't so bad that it has turned me off. By contrast, my experience at Blackbird definitely has dissuaded me from going back. I'm sure I'll make it back there eventually, but - like you said - there are so many great restaurants in town, and I'm more excited about trying other places.

Had dinner Saturday night. Great atmosphere, super spot, good service.
Food was interesting & delicious.
Spent $ 200.00 and we were still hungery. Portions were rediculously small.
Is it me, or is this place over rated???

Dynamite review...praise everything about it but then say it's overrated

To be fair, the OP praised everything BUT the portions, which were judged too small for the price paid. That said, I think that portion size is almost always an irrelevant criterion for any meal costing over $10, based purely on the math. Ten dollars is the amount that will clearly purchase enough foodstuff to satisfy the biological needs of any normal diner. Just see how much that amount gets you at a typical "burrito the size of your head" place, for example. Looking at the OP's $200 ticket, paying by the pound would've covered ten pounds of fillet mignon at Jewel, or about 400 pounds of uncooked rice. At a restaurant, especially a spot with some pretension like North Pond, you just have to recognize that you aren't paying by the pound for your food. The last meal I enjoyed at North Pond left me utterly stuffed (I had a tasting menu). Maybe there wasn't enough food on the plate at the OP's dinner; I wasn't there, but I wonder.

I ate at North Pond for dinner last weekend. I thought it was great. Some of the dishes were phenomenal, notably the beet salad, the peekytoe crab mousse which accompanied the sauteed skate special, and the light almond cream for dessert. The portion sizes were perfect, not at all small; we all left comfortably full. The service was perfect, friendly and efficient, including the hostess (who seated us immediately) as well as the servers who tended to our table.

North Pond is an excellent restaurant, serving delicious food made from local ingredients where possible. (In fact, when we arrived, one of the staff was gathering some herbs from their herb garden; you can't get more local than that!) Kudos to Chef Bruce Sherman. And the setting in the middle of Lincoln Park, at the edge of the pond with the city skyline looming over the far shore, is exquisite. (The building used to house the place servicing the skaters on the pond in winter.)

It's the perfect place for a romantic dinner or a celebratory splurge. I recommend it!