Nick’s Fishmarket

First time someone took me here saying we are going to a fancy restaurant, I thought it was a big joke as we were walking into a McDonald’s! Little did I know this gem of a place shared a cabin on the back porch of what used to be NBD, then First Bank, then BankOne, and now Chase.
I was enjoying a two for one lunch thing here for a while splitting the bill with whomever I took with. And now what? Now it’s over and the downtown location is closed… McDonald’s still stands.

Good food, but not a place I would pick if lunch were on my dime.
A former colleague invited me for a working lunch at Nick’s. Even though I’ve been un/​under-​employed for a while, I don’t think it was odd that I had some major sticker shock when checking out the menu online.
My friend ordered the lobster rolls on special and I went with the tuna melt. Her dish came out as three mini sliders with some fries on the side. It didn’t look like a whole lot of food, especially for something I am sure was quite pricey. My meal seemed more generous, the tuna steak was huge, but worth the $ 19 price? Debatable. My fresh ahi tuna melt was more like a grilled tuna sandwich, which was fine, but for $ 19 I expected more. My tuna came out very rare, I wouldn’t even call it seared since it wasn’t browned; I was a little surprised I was never told how it’s normally prepared and asked if that was ok, fortunately it was. The sandwich was good albeit messy, the oven roasted tomatoes were a bit too thick and kept shooting out from the bun no matter how much I wrestled with them. The wasabi aioli made the sandwich; without, it, the seemingly unseasoned piece of fish would have been quite bland.
Their dessert selection is impressive. I didn’t get anything, but the cart they rolled out had at least 8 different options in addition to the ice cream and sorbet you can get.
Service was ok, I didn’t really click with our server despite her politeness. We obviously weren’t in a hurry to get through our meal and I felt like she was trying to rush us along; even dropping the check without asking if we wanted anything else (we did).
Bottom line: It’s a safe choice, but after two visits I fail to be wowed by anything other than the prices.

Tuesday night, 7:00pm, business dinner, 7 guests.
There are a few disjointed things going on here and they don’t connect to the price point of this place.
The upstairs bar area is great, clean lines, intimate seating areas, windows that open up to the street. I wish there were more Loop after work drink places like this. Of course you have the obligatory TV sets blasting the game in your face at every angle; but that’s Chicago, I’ve gotten used to it and can’t mark it against them.
So after a drink we head downstairs to the dining area. So bizarre. You take an escalator to what looks like the entrance to a mall parking garage or subway. I thought it was a joke and we were going the wrong way. But then the entrance to the dining room is off to the right and you see it once you get down.
The downstairs dining room has a cafeteria feel to it; way too bright, the tables are spaced out to fill up the room. Another weird thing: the Banquets are raised higher than the main floor so they look over all the other tables. Guests in the banquets are sitting side by side so I felt like we were at dinner theater and my party was the entertainment!
Another strange item: The restroom area. The restroom are outside the dining area and I guess they share them with the McDonalds next door and the Salvation Army??? They are totally gross, not clean, and when I went to the bathroom there were 2 homeless people and someone puking in one of the stalls. Remember how much you’re paying about $ 40 bucks for a piece of fish here…
D– Bread… They give you a dinner roll at the beginning. They should finish baking them before serving.
B+ Oysters Rockefeller. Not a big fan but they were tasty. I scraped off the congealed yellow cheese sauce they had sitting on top.
B– Tuna Sashimi. Nothing special here. You’re paying 14 bucks for a few slices of raw tuna. You can get this at any sushi place in town.
C+ Escargot. A disappointment. A giant puff pastry filled with a heavy cream sauce that had just a light garlic taste… snails interspersed within… It reminded me of a chicken pot pie. We called it the Swanson’s Frozen Dinner Escargot.
B Filet Mignon. A nice cut of meat. Plenty of food here. I asked for rare and got medium-​well. Great garlic mashed potatoes and crispy greens. Not over salted! Kudos.
C Deserts. They bring a tray over with samples of all their deserts which is a nice touch but maybe they should forgo that because they all looked gross. Sort of like the stuff you get at TGIF… All with a heavy hand and everything drizzled with chocolate or caramel sauce.
C Service. Like other reviewers have noted we had about 4 waiters but no clear idea of who was in charge of our service. My wine glass stayed empty for a long time even though there was a bottle of chardonnay chilling nearby. I didn’t feel like they were trained well.
The average entrée price is $ 40 and the average appetizer is $ 15. Plus drinks and gratuity you’re looking at $ 100 a head. The service, dining area and other misses doesn’t add up to the price.

My bf and I went to dinner here tonight and it was pretty good. We sat upstairs in the bar area, which had its ups and downs. We were served our food pretty quickly, but there was also a loud obnoxious woman sitting in the booth next to us which was much too close.
The food… we ordered the crab cake appetizer, which was pretty good. Nice and crispy on the outside, with big flaky pieces of crab on the inside. Only downside was… there was only one of them. What’s with that new trend? One crab cake… sheesh…
My bf ordered the crème of bacon and onion soup at the utterance of the «bac» in bacon… it was good, but definitely needed the bread accompaniment. I also had the lobster bisque, which was very tasty. I didn’t realize how salty it was until I had scarfed numerous spoonfuls, but it was nothing some water couldn’t fix. And it didn’t deter me from eating more of it.
The entrees were a big hit and a miss. I ordered the big-​eye tuna with the asian bbq preparation. The tuna was cooked nicely but the sauce was sickly sweet. It was too bad, the spots of tuna not smothered in brown goo were delicious. Fortunately, the blackened grouper that my bf ordered was FANTASTIC. Sometimes thick cuts of fish just get cooked to hell, but this dish was perfect. The french fries were also good… the onion rings (too thickly breaded, I prefer the shoestring myself) and the potato croquettes were passable.
The only other weird thing was that we had two waitresses… there was clearly some turf war going on that we caused. It was awkward, but it didn’t end up affecting our order at all.

Good place for lunch, especially on a day with decent weather (rare though that might be). No jumbo capers, but who am I to complain about small capers.

Lunch was busy, I snagged a spot t the bar. I went for the tuna melt sammich with fries $ 16.00
I had thought it was going to be a little expensive until the thing arrived, a nice soft bread bun, light mayo and a huge fillet of grilled tuna! — side of fries were crispy and hand cut, awesome.
This meal was very high quality, filling and a nice surprise, what more can you ask?

Nick’s is in my building and I’ve been there probably 50 times in the past several years. The economy must be impacting them because it’s gone substantially downhill in the past couple months. They are known for their lobster bisque, which normally is served with a croquette on top. The past couple times the bisque has been minus the croquette, but even wiorse, minus the chunks of lobster.
They have also downgraded their serving and waitstaff and it takes way too long for them to get to your table. Unfortunately, even with the convenient location and the price-​fixe dinner menu in the bar, a bad meal is a bad meal. If you eat in the bar area, stick to the happy hour $ 5 bites and the flatbread pizza.

I love Chicago. I am absolutely, unabashedly smitten with the food, the people, the shopping, the energy — just about everything about it.
Unfortunately, I can no longer say that I love Nick’s in the same way. Nick’s! You are letting Chi-​town down!
I ate at the Nick’s in Rosemont a few years ago on a rare trip outside the city proper, and remembered it quite fondly, and have eaten at Nick’s on Clark quite a few times as well — so, when I needed to make a last minute reservation tonight and take out a big group that wanted seafood, I thought of Nick’s.
I was wickedly disappointed. The food was still quite good — I have no complaints with the kitchen at all. But what was once a special, great experience along with the food is gone. Our service was seriously off — to the point where I thought for a second, «Am I in a Red Lobster, or a restaurant?» Everything was rushed, service was non-​solicitous, just all in all really disappointing. For nearly $ 100/​head, you just expect a little more class.
And — it wasn’t from being too busy. The restaurant (we ate downstairs) was probably at 30% capacity tonight.
So, as good as the food was, I wouldn’t recommend it. That pains me — but this is Chicago. There are too many good restaurants to waste your money at one who can’t bring the experience to match the price of your meal.
If you must come here, the Dover sole and the sea bass are very, very good. Just don’t expect much else.

Yikes, I was broke… and hungry by the time I left this place last night.
My meeting ended a little early, so I decided to have a drink at the bar while I waited for my party to arrive. The ambiance was nice, dark setting with romantic lighting. Attractive men in suits chit chatting at the bar.
The glasses of wine started at $ 9… So, here’s a little tip I got from an employee at Nick’s (I can’t reveal names becaues he/​she may lose his/​her job)…Ready?
Their happy hour specials are $ 9.00 Martini’s from the menu made with Svedka vodka, yuck. The same martini’s (without happy hour special), are made with Grey Goose vodka range from $ 1 – 4 more. So basically, you are getting ripped off if you order the happy hour martini special.
Here’s the real kicker! The flavored martini’s, aren’t actually «flavored» if you order the happy hour version. For example:
«Blueberry Muffin» is supposed to be made with Stoli flavored vodka. if you get the $ 9 special, you only get a «muffin» martini made with regular wells vodka. They don’t add special flavoring to make up for the missing blueberry part.
«Peach Champagne” – This martini is not made with special peach flavored vodka either, but it’s the same exact price ($ 9) on the regular menu… So basically, if you order the Peach Champagne martini, don’t order the happy hour version, because you can get the real version for the same price.
I wasn’t impressed with the over-​priced bite-​sized appetizers either… It was a tease. As I mentioned above, I left this place broke and hungry.
It was fun checking this place out, but I can’t afford to keep coming here on my nonprofit salary.

I visited this restaurant during the Open Table Food Stimulus prix fixe menu. The food here was ok. I’m from California and I keep forgetting that the seafood in the midwest is not the same as on the coasts. The lobster bisque had one small piece of lobster in it, the entrée was not memorable, and the dessert was only ok. I had made a reservation noting that I was going to be doing the prix fixe menu. They seated us in the bar area where it was so loud. I dont think I’ll be coming back here for a long while.

Possibly the best clam chowder I’ve ever had outside of New England, and that’s saying a lot.
A beautifully located restaurant that has a to die for view during the christmas time. Floor to ceiling windows make you feel like you’re dining in a forest covered with white christmas lights while the city’s skyscrapers reach up to the sky. I loved just sitting there and soaking the atmosphere in.
The wine menu was decent, the beer menu even better, and the fish was fabulous. A welcomed respite during a hectic week. I’ll definitely return on my next visit.

The food at Nick’s Fishmarket is great which is why I sat and wondered why the place was empty. Empty! Just us and another table that walked in as we were leaving.
Maybe most people chose to eat upstairs which is the more casual Nick’s Grill as there were people there. But we wanted to sit in the dining room which was empty. Granted it was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving– but I felt like I was at a party that no one showed up for.
The good news? Service was amazing. We had 4 different servers taking care of us so my bread plate (with these amazing garlic butter rolls) was never empty, nor was my water or wine glass.
Started with some oysters (Blue Points, my fav!) and some ahi tuna tartar. Very good. There was also a salmon «lollipop» (their word not mine) that had some kind of cream cheese in it. Like a «Tootsie Pop» made of salmon. Odd but good.
The real star of the night was the lobster bisque. OMG! It was absolutely the best bisque I have ever had. Smooth, creamy, perfection in a bowl.
I had the Chilean Sea Bass which was good served with mashed potatoes and my dining companion had the lobster thermador (so rich, so fattening, so good)
All in all– a great dinner served by people who wanted to make our evening memorable. Check it out. They obviously can use the business if last night was any indication!

Flew up to Chi-​town to surprise my girlfriend of 10 years with a wedding proposal. I got the neccessary info. I needed to find her and surprise her at the hotel. I got so hammered at the bar waiting on her I almost forgot why I was there. Anyway, she was on her way back, completely oblivious that I would be there… blackout drunk that is. I surprised her, puked on her shoe, lost the ring, got in a fight with the bartender, flirted with the other bartender, broke my nose, and she dumped me
I love Chicago… Nick’s is pretty damn good too!

First of all, I have never eaten dinner here and I never will. It doesn’t seem worth it. I would adjust your expectations accordingly.
For lunch, ahem, liquid lunch… it is good.
Once and a while, work becomes so taxing that my co-worker[s] and I require a sit down lunch rather than a takeout sandwich, etc. For this purpose alone, Nick’s satisfies. The décor is nice; lots of great windows for staring at passers by. The service is excellent and the food is at least better than your downtown alternatives.
I might advise against the tuna sandwich; but everything else I’ve seen and eaten was quite good.

Atmosphere: Amazing, Elegant, love the outdoor fountain!
Food: Perfect
Price: Expensive
Service: First Class
I’ve not been since they remodeled, I know about 10 years! Place looks great, food is excellent, service was spot on!
Party of 5 at 5:30pm, great table with view! Escargot, Oysters, Smoked Salmon all excellent and fresh!
Grouper, Sole, Salmon and Mahi all very good!

Quite a throwback… To those weird hotel/​conference center restaurants that you would run past as a little kid as you run away from your parents towards the pool when you stay in a big hotel near the airport on your way somewhere with your family when you were 7 and everything was a mystery.
Saturday night dinner in the bar — depressing. And the dining room is like a subway stop (submarine stop)?
Play a little game– see if your server notices that you’ve filled your bread basket with McDonalds sandwiches. You can get them without leaving the building.
Now :
The food was really good. Grade A fixture/​standard seafood. Get the Beurre Blanc Mustard sauce on your fish, ask specially for it.

A group of friends and I came here for restaurant week last night, and the overall experience was very disappointing. We came here for restaurant week on a Friday night, so they were busier than usual. Plus, perhaps since we were «restaurant week» customers, they did not give us the service they might have given other patrons. A run-​through of the night:
–30 minutes after being seated, the waitress finally came by to take our orders.
–Wine — We had to ask for a wine menu. She came back with a menu of wines by the glass. (We look young, even though we’re all in our late twenties, but that was a bit presumptuous). We again requested the full wine menu.
–Appetizers (service) — They brought the salads out first and there was a 5−10-minute lag before they brought out the soups. The waitress explained that they needed to bring the soup from downstairs, so it takes a while.
–Appetizers (food) — The caesar salad was decent, the lobster bisque was pretty good, though a bit heavy on the bourbon.
–Entrees (service) — They brought out 2 out of 7 entrees first. The table next to us complained that they had been there earlier and still had not received any of their entrees. Then, we received another 3 entrees about 15 minutes later and the final 2 entrees another 10 minutes later. One of the entrees had the wrong side with it.
–Entrees (food) — A mix of experiences. One girl’s grouper was overcooked. Another grouper was fine. The tuna was bland, and the accompanying tropical sauce did not bring out much flavor. The peppercorn crust sauce and the lemon & capers sauce were both too heavy on the lemon. The rice pilaf was also too heavy on the lemon. For a «fishmarket», the fish was disappointing.
–Dessert (service) — Another 20 minutes later, we received our desserts. Again, they did not come out at the same time. Plus, one of the bread puddings had a squashed look, and the vanilla ice cream that was supposed to be on top was on the side.
–Dessert (food) — The apple tart and the bread pudding were both quite tasty and probably the only highlights of the meal. The key lime pie did not have the tartness that a key lime pie should have, but it was still decent enough.
In the end, they knew they provided inadequate service. They comp’ed our non-​alcoholic beverages. However, the food still did not make up for the poor service, and I cannot give more than 2 stars.

Went here for lunch and this place was pretty darn good. I really like the décor of the place. He gargantuan windows really gave the smaller upstairs dining room a very open and airy feel.
I ordered the Kobi burger which was tasty. It was not the best but one of the better burgers that you can find in the Loop. The fries were very good as they were crispy hand cut fries. They started us off with these AMAZING biscuits that were warm, fresh with a hint of garlic. My girl Lara (that hot gal) that I was dining with had a Pomegranate Chicken Salad In my personal opinion and not affecting my review this thing really looked awful. I guess the combination of ingredients just was not my cup of tea. It seemed as if she enjoyed it and whatever makes my baby happy is fine by me.
I was disappointed in the service though with this being such a reputable place I was really expecting better. Everyone was friendly but we had 2 – 3 different people waiting on us. We had to ask for silverware and then we had to ask again for napkins.
Overall it was good and the burger was tasty but I don’t feel it warranted the $ 14 price tag.

Looking for a nice place to take my girlfriend to and always hearing about this place I decided to give it a shot. My girlfriend had told me awhile back that she had heard the lobster bisque here was amazing. It was a Wednesday night and there must of been some sort of function going on because the upstairs was pretty full except for one lonely table near the entrance where we were seated.
It took about 15 minutes for someone to come by and ask us for our drink orders even and she forgets one of them on the way back. We order the lobster bisque and split a flat bread order, the lobster bisque comes immediately and yes it was very very delicious (which the only reason this place is getting 3 instead of 2 stars from me). We see our waitress once more as she grabs us more beers. True she could have been busy and that would have been understandable had it not been for 2 managers and 2 to 3 other waitstaff playing grab ass by the door close to our table. We never got our waters refilled and our flat bread was given to us cold. We were never asked how everything was nor if there was anything else we would like. We saw our waitress maybe 3 times all night.
HORRIBLE SERVICE. Like I said, it seemed busy and that would have been understandable had the managers and other wait staff would not have been not working in our sight. Lovely evening though with my girlfriend and yes, the lobster bisque is great. Too bad I’ll never go back.

Love Nicks! Especially for Lunch!
My bro and I dine here pretty often, great way to catch up over lunch and enjoy a meal– makes it feel special without breaking the budget. Not too pricey for lunch!~
Lobster Bisque ~~ oh. makes me hungry now.
I am also a salmon fanatic-​they do quite well! Service is luxurious, makes you feel like you have really had a wonderful break from a busy day. Well spent hour, without too much $.