North Pond Restaurant

I wanted to try North Pond for a long time, and was extremely disappointed by the outcome.

I was underwhelmed by the food, service, and atmosphere. Maybe I am just extremely picky, but this restaurant really lacked in lots of areas.

First of all, the food was a complete let down. The amuse bouche almost made me throw-up. Literally, I was gagging and drinking tons of water just to get the taste out of my mouth. Now, this could be due to the fact that liver pate just really isn't my thing, but my dining companion did not care for it either. For an appetizer I had the sweet corn soup which was just o.k. Again, I wasn't like "Oh my gosh! This is so good!". Also tried the beet salad, and, what can I say, it was beet salad. For my main dish I had the cannelloni with ricotta. It actually lacked flavor...in other words, not so good. The dessert was an extreme disappointment. The raspberry and vanilla pot-de-creme just didn't do it for me. Don't get me wrong, it was tasty but I like sweet desserts, and this wasn't sweet at all. What bothered me about this is the waiter recommended it after I implied I was in the mood for something sweet.

And, the service was definitely off. Horrible spacing between the courses, waiters did not know much about the menu items, etc.... They did print cute birthday menus for me and wrote happy birthday on my dessert, which was nice. However, this is standard practice at any nice restaurant.

And the view...o.k. I guess it's nice, especially for Chicago. But, I was sitting inside, so I really did not get to gaze at the lake all that much. I really think they should have sat us outside since it was one of my birthday dinners, but I guess they did not think so.

Also, I really did not care for the decor of the restaurant. And, all in all, I can think of dozens of more romantic restaurants. I probably won't be back to North Pond. Maybe I just had a bad experience, but one bad experience is enough for me.