Restaurants near AMC River East

DML wrote:Right next door to the theater, there is a pretty good sushi place called Niu.

Kennyz wrote:

DML wrote:Right next door to the theater, there is a pretty good sushi place called Niu.

Yes, "This place is great for a lot of reasons." If you go, please ask Cherry how the hiring process is going.

dddane wrote:made it out to Niu with some friends.. they had been for Niu's opening party 3 or 4 weeks ago so thought they'd bring us back..

VERY good food. Unfortunately that's about the only good thing to say about this place. The bar speed, kitchen speed, service, and management are far beyond bad.

A bullet point list of low points at Niu:
-A bottle of Saki we ordered took our waiter about an hour to retrieve from the kitchen. Then he brought the wrong bottle when it did come.
-We ordered drinks and 30 minutes later still didn't have them. Then when they came, one person's drink wasn't there. The waiter said it was "coming right up" .. The drink? A scotch on the rocks, probably the quickest drink to make. 20 minutes later it came, he had obviously forgot. Tip: Pre-order all drinks 30 minutes prior to you actually wanting them. All rounds took this long. Tip to waiter: write it down.
-There was one bartender working, yet 5 or 6 people at the sushi bar making sushi (plus another kitchen that had chefs making the cooked entrees)? What kind of ratio is that? Tip to Niu: people stay happy when they aren't waiting on drinks, even if your food takes forever. You also make more money.
-We kept ordering the same drinks, and somewhere mid-meal the glasses got noticeably smaller. Cheapskates. Tip to Niu: if your bar takes 30+ minutes to get drinks out, making them smaller is not going to make anyone happier nor will it speed up the bar.
-5 at our table ordered sushi, one person ordered sashimi, another a regular entree. The sushi came first, though the waiter had forgot to put in one of our rolls so that came another 30 minutes later. The sashimi came long after we had finished eating our sushi.
-The birthday boy's entree *never* came, the whole night. We repeatedly asked the waiter where it was only to hear "it's coming right up" ... It never came. Waiter knew this person's meal was not there and apparently didn't go to the kitchen to do anything about it. He repeatedly lied to us. Did he even check? There's no excuse in the world for this. This is a kitchen problem, a waiter problem, and a management problem.
-To add insult to the missing entree, I saw one of the chefs taking pictures of some of the plates he was giving to waiters. Taking pictures of your food on a Friday night??? Clearly misplaced priorities in that kitchen.
-At the very end of the meal--after the entree had been canceled--our waiter brought us Champagne glasses and said the manager had sent out something for us. 5 or 10 minutes later out came a $15 bottle of Brut California sparkling... The waiter said "this should sweeten up your night" (as if the sparkling wine were sweet? he obviously had no clue what he was serving) and proceeded to pour us all glasses. He over-poured every glass and it poured out the sides and spilled all over. Furthermore, who has dry Brut sparkling wine at the *end* of the meal??? Nobody, unless they're getting trashed.
-When our check came (the fastest thing he did all night), the entree which never came had not been removed and nothing had been comped. He claimed the entree was a mistake, but we still shouldn't have had to even look at it on the receipt after the disgusting experience we had. And they really should have done something for us given our terrible dining experience. A free bottle of fake Champagne doesn't really qualify as doing anything in my book.
-The space was nice. We were at a table in the very back (next to the fake forest) that was spotlighted with very bright lights. The lights were so distractingly bright, I felt like I was in a tanning bed. Plus you couldn't look up whatsoever without being blinded. Bugs were attracted to the bright lights, and there were bugs (fruit flies mostly) flying everywhere as we ate (one landed in a drink).

The food:
-We had a crispy calamari appetizer that was made from fried calamari that was then stir fried in peppers. Very good.
-Rolls were good in general. The "sexy Mexican" was purported to be popular, I found it to be just OK. It tasted like the sauce on a Big Mac to me, and it was all cheese/sauce and no meat. Though really pretty to look at. A cam phone pic of the sexy Mexican:

-Rasberry mojitoes were delicious.

The meal was well over $60/person. It's a terrible shame that our experience was so bad, because the food and drinks were pretty good. But clearly the waiter was incompetent. Clearly the management has no idea what's going on in their restaurant. Clearly they need more bartenders and/or chefs.

Niu is fairly new, yes... But they've been open long enough that so many things shouldn't be going this wrong in a single meal. I'm always willing to give places a second chance, but I'd have to think hard before giving Niu another try (or have a really compelling reason to do so).

Of the 100's (if not 1000s) of dining experiences I've had in Chicago, Niu probably rank this in the top 2 or 3 *worst* dining experiences.

DML wrote:Where is Sol y Nieve?
For tapas, Emilio's is on Ohio at Fairbanks (Columbus? I think the name changes at Grand). But I haven't heard of Sol y Nieve.

DML wrote:With regard to Fox and Obel: Good food, but not the most comfortable place. I usually do carry out from the Cafe (not to mention, buying most of groceries).

Athena wrote:If Indian is your preference, I rec you go the extra few blocks to India House (on Grand, refed above) rather than the nearer Indian Garden. I've always found the food at Indian Garden to be rather westernized & not worth the bother.

sdrucker wrote:

Athena wrote:If Indian is your preference, I rec you go the extra few blocks to India House (on Grand, refed above) rather than the nearer Indian Garden. I've always found the food at Indian Garden to be rather westernized & not worth the bother.

This is an old thread, but Indian Garden's actually gotten (for them) adventurous in the past month. They now have a list of specials that are off their standard menu's beaten track: bhuna chicken, melthi kabob, an Indian-Chinese dish called Chicken 65, and Bombay Chum-Chum for dessert, among a half dozen or so others.

I tried the bhuna chicken when we there Friday night. It's a hacked bone-in chicken in a tomato-based sauce loaded with fresh garlic, ginger, onions, what I think was coriander and tumeric, as well as garam masala (as per the hostess). I'm used to Lao Hunan's home-fed chicken and Demera's dishes in berbere sauce, but this could give either of them a run for their money on the spice quotient. It's ironic because a few months ago, we went there and I joked with the hostess that they should do Parsee or Keralan as a variation, and she laughed and said 'nobody would eat it'. At least they're trying to expand their palate a little.

Athena wrote:

sdrucker wrote:

Athena wrote:If Indian is your preference, I rec you go the extra few blocks to India House (on Grand, refed above) rather than the nearer Indian Garden. I've always found the food at Indian Garden to be rather westernized & not worth the bother.

This is an old thread, but Indian Garden's actually gotten (for them) adventurous in the past month. They now have a list of specials that are off their standard menu's beaten track: bhuna chicken, melthi kabob, an Indian-Chinese dish called Chicken 65, and Bombay Chum-Chum for dessert, among a half dozen or so others.

I tried the bhuna chicken when we there Friday night. It's a hacked bone-in chicken in a tomato-based sauce loaded with fresh garlic, ginger, onions, what I think was coriander and tumeric, as well as garam masala (as per the hostess). I'm used to Lao Hunan's home-fed chicken and Demera's dishes in berbere sauce, but this could give either of them a run for their money on the spice quotient. It's ironic because a few months ago, we went there and I joked with the hostess that they should do Parsee or Keralan as a variation, and she laughed and said 'nobody would eat it'. At least they're trying to expand their palate a little.

Thanks for the heads up about the menu changes, I'll have to check that out.