Impressions of 1/North in the west loop?

Business lunch there tomorrow. Did a search and didn't find anything. Menu looks very nice in a downtown upscale American sort of way. Just curious if anyone has firsthand experience.

I haven't been there, but I did find the menu here:

http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurant ... uisineid=0

best of luck.

I've been to a number of lunches there. The food is pretty good, but nothing spectacular. It can get extremely loud though. Certainly not the best place for intimate conversations.

for a business lunch, it is a fine choice. not exactly somewhere i'd plan a personal dinner, though....

food is good, some things better than others, but can i actually recall items i've had? not really.

miss ellen

I've been to several business lunches @ 1 North. I've enjoyed the smoked trout salad quite a bit, and I recall another salad that was quite good, too - I think it was a cobb type thing to which I added shrimp. I've had a decent burger there, too, though I wouldn't go out of my way for it. I have not been there in a while, though.
My fondest memories at 1 North come from the holiday parties thrown by a law firm whose services I use frequently. For the past couple of years, they rent out the whole place, and have stations of beef, seafood, desserts, etc., and also have roving waiters w/ some of the best cocktail appetizers ever. I still remember the bacon wrapped scallops. Good times!

I was just there last week. As noted here, it is quite noisy and hard to hear, but the food is good, if not spectacular. I used to be fond of their skirt steak sandwich until they tinkered with the menu and changed it. I had a special last week, a grilled pork tenderloin over potatoes and asparagus with a green peppercorn sauce. It was very good and I would order it again.

Suzy

A quick report: all was as people had largely predicted.

A handsome, bustling room. A bit loud. Large menu, friendly, prompt service---although our waitress made a point of taking orders in a specific pattern around the table, then failed to remember which of us had ordered which drink or dish. They also left the used appetizer dishes cluttering up the table for while after the main dishes arrived.

Nothing was bad and nothing was notable. The basket of flat crisp bread on the table was quite munchable, especially smeared with the lightly herbed butter.

Fritto misto of squid, scallops, zucchini, string beans was generously portioned, but one could taste little difference between any of the items. It was served with a ramekin of ketchup and one of a yellow sauce that looked like the nacho sauce you pump out at a movie theatre. It's taste was so indistinct that several tries failed to yield a consensus as to what it was.

Had the lobster/shrimp BLT. The menu description included bacon bechamel and arugula. The bread might have been brioche - it seemed eggy and delicate. Again, there was so little flavor in the other components that the authentic bitterness of the arugula overwhelmed the sandwich, despite the putative presence of such strong flavors as shrimp, cream, tomato and bacon.

The heap of fries that came with the BLT were generous and very good.

Tried the molten choc. cake with gelato. The gelato was a very nice choc. gelato. The cake was fine but not special.

If someone was going to bring me there, I wouldn't talk them out of it, but I see no reason to return on my own. Perhaps they do more with the pricier entree end of the menu. Hard to say.