When I first learned about the opening of Commission Row, I was excited and booked a reservation right away. I don't think any of Cunningham Group's restaurants are average, other than this one. When you walk in, you are immediately greeted in a little lobby area that sits in front of the dining room, which is separated by a curtain. There is a main floor and an upstairs; however, the upstairs didn't appear to be open. The bar area is quaint and due to the open concept of the space, it does get loud. Loud enough the server couldn't hear me when I was ordering while sitting in a booth.
For an upscale restaurant, I was a little surprised to see plastic woven placements rather than tablecloths. My placemat still had some remnants of something from a prior table on it. We were greeted right away by our server and were given ample time to peruse the menu and cocktail listing. I ordered the Sidecar which was delicious. My spouse had a dirty martini and my friend an Aperol Spritz. Her Aperol Spritz was missing the garnish and was light on the Aperol. While this may seem like a small complaint, this would not happen at any other high end establishment charging Chicago prices. We were told to put in our entire order and our server would pace the courses accordingly.
We started with the lobster bisque and bone marrow. Both were good, but not amazing. The lobster bits in my bisque were on the rubbery side but the actual bisque was flavorful. We also ordered the Petite Seafood Tower consisting of 6 oysters, 6 chilled shrimp, mussels in a calabrian chili sauce, 1/2 lobster tail, and crab cocktail. We also added on 6 crab claws. The seafood tower came with a quartet of sauces to choose from - mignonette, cocktail sauce, hot sauce and remoulade. The hot sauce was the star of the sauces. The crab cocktail is not a cocktail after all, but strictly chunks of dungeness crab. It wasn't until we each had an oyster we realized we weren't ever told where the oysters were from...were they East Coast or West Coast? Where they all the same? We don't think so based upon the taste, but who knows. The seafood tower arrived at the same time as the starters which left very little room on the table making it a tad uncomfortable. I probably could have been more clear when ordering so that the appetizers and seafood tower wouldn't all come out at the same time. Before we were even finished with our appetizers and seafood, our entrees came out - scallops, hamachi crudo and tuna carpaccio with the crispy brussel sprouts and french onion mac and cheese. What was the star of these dishes? The French onion mac and cheese. The hamachi crude was topped with a slice of grapefruit, minus one sad piece. The were fine, nothing to write home about. Would I order it again? No. Am I glad I tried it? Kind of. The tuna carpaccio was good, but again nothing special. The plate wasn't cold for either of these items which seems odd as well considering.
We did order a bottle of wine for the table and ended up grabbing it ourselves at the end as we weren't even sure if there was any left once we were paying for the meal. Turns out there was so we polished that off. We opted to skip dessert and head down to the "speakeasy" downstairs. It's a small quaint space with cocktails ranging from $15 - $25. The drinks were good, but $22 good?
So, overall, I'd say a little disappointing for a CRG restaurant. I'm all for spending money on a great meal and experience. But if I want to spend the amount we did here, I'd rather go to Hinata, Vida or St. Elmos. The experience did not rise to the level of their prices. read more