Brasserie By LM

I had a good dinner here last night. Service was good and the food tasted great. I ordered mussels a fries which were fresh and perfectly cooked, and my husband ordered a classic burger which he enjoyed. The beer selection is great and cocktails are tasty, I had a negroni. The only thing is the server switched our credit card with another customers and we didn’t notice until the following evening, so had to cancel our credit card which was a pain.

I’m surprised by some of the negative reviews of this place, as I’ve never had anything but a positive experience here. My friends and I come very often for the bottomless mimosas on Sundays (they have it on Saturdays too), and it’s amazing!
I would recommend trying their breakfast potatoes, and of course the mimosas! I will be back this weekend as usual. :)

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a «swanky» downtown restaurant on Halloween (of all nights). A group of 6 of us came in full costume to eat dinner before going on a «booze cruise» on Lake Michigan. I ordered salmon and my husband ordered fettucine. I don’t remember what everyone else ended up ordering but I know we were all really happy with our food. The food and specialty cocktails were really good! Maybe due to the holiday and everyone being at parties, the place wasn’t crowded at all which was great (this was a Saturday night around 6pm). I felt that the food was really good and the service was prompt. Overall, a great experience and a really convenient location if you are headed to another event downtown.

I was here with my family for a pre Nut Cracker dinner. We gave ourselves about 2 hours’ time.
We had the 3 course set dinners, wine garlic herb mussels and pasta Arrabiatta.
For the 3 Course Prix Fixe Dinner Special $ 25
We tried both APPERTIZERs:
Onion Soup Gratinee croûton, melted cheese
and
Mixed Greens Salad sunflower seed, seasonal vegetables, red wine vinaigrette
Entrée:
Boeuf Bourguignon potato purée, mushroom, onion, bacon
Both DESSERTs:
Teurgoule Brasserie By LM’s Signature Cinnamon Rice Pudding and Chocolate Tart
The French onion soup topped with melted cheese was good but it seemed to be missing the wine taste.
The salad mix is unique and excellent.
The Boeuf Bourguignon was absolutely out of this world! Very soft and tender and juicy like beef stew.
Both rice pudding and chocolate tart were good.
For the wine garlic herb mussels, they seemed to have a mix of small and big mussels with the big ones on top and the smaller ones hidden under the big ones inside the bowl. It did not have any cooked wine taste that I was expecting. Not sure the kind of wine used here. The French fries were slightly crunchy and tasted unique.
The pasta Arrabiatta was good and flavorful.
For dinner, the place did not have many people and there were like 3 servers around. Not sure if this is the norm for dinner.
Overall for dinner, I absolutely loved the Boeuf Bourguignon. All the rest that we had that night were just alright.

I had heard this was a good place to go for breakfast, so I decided to go try it out. Disappointing. The food was lukewarm and not very good. The service was slow and inattentive. The ambiance was fun and open and the view of the park was gorgeous. Honestly, if it’s summer and you’re going to sit outside and take in the scenery, this could be a great place to go for a drink, but otherwise, skip this place for food. Such a disappointment.

And the challenger receives 3 stars from the judges (Star Search reference). Brasserie by LM food is so damn good it deserves 4 stars, but the crappy service made me remove a star.
My BFF and I came to Brasserie by LM for a catch up brunch and upon arrival we were greeted by… wait for it… NO ONE. We stood there for about a minute waiting for someone to acknowledge our presence. When we realize that wasn’t going to happen I flagged down a lady who appeared to work there and ask if it was open seating or something because we had a reservation, but no one was manning the host/​hostess desk. She just shrugged and kept walking. Annoyed at this point (3 minutes has passed now) I start staring down every waiter and waitress that I see trying to get someone to come and seat us. FINALLY a waitress comes over, asked if we have been helped (NO we respond), asked if we have a reservation (YES we respond) and then she says, «OK» I’ll prepare a table. I thanked her and told her my stomach thanked her as well.
Once we were seated we quickly ordered our food and prayed the service wouldn’t continue to be crappy. Thankfully, it wasn’t and our food arrived in a timely manner. The food was delicious so I highly recommend checking this place out, even though the beginning of our dining experience was less than desirable.
I recommend trying
*Apple Tatin Pancakes (caramelized apple, crème chantilly, homemade pancakes, caramel sauce) — 4 stars so good, so rich, so sweet, so shareable
*Croque Madame (hot ham and cheese sandwich, béchamel, Dijon mustard, fried egg) — 4 stars almost as good as the ones I ate when I lived in Paris.
*Croque Vegetable (spinach, brie, caramelized onion, béchamel, Dijon mustard) — 4 stars
Oh and I recommend you NOT try the apple juice as it cost $ 5.50!!! I mean who the hell charges that for apple juice?! If it had booze in it I would have been A OK paying that price. However, since it didn’t I’m still mad I had to pay that when they probably paid less than that at Jewel for the bottle the juice came out of.

I really wanted to love this place. We came here for a pre-​Nutcracker dinner and I was hopeful when I saw it was $ 5 infused martini night. A table of three tried all four options:
Grilled Pineapple Vacation: tequilla based with a nice hint of jalapeño; hands down the winner for me, despite not being the biggest tequila fan out there
Kentucky Florida Line: weird screwdriver like drink with bourbon that the OJ way overpowered
Leaves on Lake: rum based lovely autumn smelling drink that my friend really enjoyed
Rosemary’s Sister: I’m not a gin fan so I didn’t try, but my other friend really liked it
For the food, we shared the cheese plate, which was divine, and the garlic/​white wine mussels with french fries, which was eh. The sauce was good, but the mussels themselves were pretty cold by the time they arrived at our table as were the fries, which also were way over cooked and over seasoned with cheese. Less would have been more in the case of the fries.
Overall it was okay, but not great. On a busy-​ish Saturday night there were only two servers and drinks were left unfilled for too long and the check took forever when we were anxious to get to the Nutcracker a few blocks away. I’ll probably try the brunch, but skip coming back for dinner again.

Avoid like the plague.
Several members of our party got ill after eating here.
We stayed around until around closing, and rather than informing us, they played ridiculously annoying music very very loud, effective, yes. a**holes.

Attached to my hotel and I was tired so it was easy. I was impressed. I got the hamburger «off the grill», which meant it came with no bun, a fried egg, salad and fries. It was delicious! And I was stuffed. And it was $ 10! Shoot. That’s a bargain.
Cinnamon rice pudding dessert was tasty, but unimaginative. (The waitress convinced me to order it.)
All told, with soda (and I never drink soda, so this was a splurge), tax and tip: $ 25.
What a deal!

I decided to try this place recently but I was not terribly impressed by it. To start off on a high note however, I thought the place was nicely decorated, the noise level wasn’t too bad and the location was perfect. The staff was also quite nice and their responsiveness was impressive too… but in the end, I found several aspects of this restaurant coming up short.
Their menu is woefully inaccurate. I saw a 312 on draft and ordered it. Immediately, the server told me they didn’t have 312 and told me as if they never had it in the first place. Fine, but what restaurant in Chicago DOESN“T have 312? Anyway I ordered a Sofie instead and the server came back to me and told me they were out… so now it looks like they don’t keep a decent stock of drinks at their bar. The upside though is I got a summer lizard wit beer which was fantastic. Next, the food. I ordered a pasta with chicken dish. The pasta was overcooked, the sauce was bland and the chicken was shredded and tasted like it’s been in a freezer for days. It was mushy, grainy and it was like chewing on wet carpet. I was very disappointed with the entre I got and although I do not eat French-​type food often, this would not make the cut in Chicago, Paris, or Buffalo NY for that matter.
I think other options on the menu could be explored, and hopefully tastes better than what I had. After experiencing a mediocre meal though, it would of course put a bad taste in my mouth, both figuratively and literally in terms of returning here again.

We had the blue cheese burgers and they were great :)) also great service again and a good wine selection!!!

I would come here just for the cheese and meat plates. I literally had that for dinner with a glass of wine and I was in heaven. Service could be quicker. Entrées could be fancier but over all a nice place!

I met some friends here and have to say, the outside patio view is great, but the service is not so great. While people were nice, I was told I couldn’t have a mocha because it ‘wasn’t on the menu’ (but a cappucchino was) and they had chocolate. ANd the waitress also had to ask what a mocha was. Hmmmm…
I didn’t eat, but my friends said the food was good.
Overall, it’s alright. Don’t know if I’ll be back. Location isn’t as convenient.

This place is solid. Few frills. Pretty straightforward fare. Simple menu. Bottomless mimosas if that’s your thing. Lots of pastries/​breads.
There are definitely better brunches to be had in Chicago, but if you value being able to walk in and not wait, this is a good option. If you are in the South Loop, you should give this place a shot one weekend.
Nothing bad to say, really. Always had good service. The food always met expectations. I wouldn’t put it on a Chicago bucket list, but unless your expectations are just too high, you probably won’t be disappointed.

BRUNCH served on sat/​sun! walked in on saturday morning on a whim when walking by. SO glad we did! Lady who first assisted us (manager maybe?) seemed like she didnt want to be here, looked tired, but, our host was ever so kind and sat us down by the window.
server was on and off, he came around a little late all the time (coffee unfilled, water needed, check up, etc) but he was friendly so meh. food took a LITTLE bit of time but the food was SO WORTH IT.
my bf got the LM eggs benedict, which was perfect consistency of runnt-​gooeyness and flavorful. the hollandaise sauce was a bit on the richer side (and orange, im not sure what spice they put in there since I didn’t eat much) but it was so good.
I opted for the croque madame!!! DO get this! i am uploading a photo of this too, but it was the perfect warm, juicy and burst of flavor in every bite. the cheese and ham was so good, and crispy perfection on the crust. the runny egg on top was the cherry on top!
both came with a side of potato chips (thick) and it was so good too, sad I couldnt finish mine since I was so full!
if you are seeking brunch, DO GO if you are here on weekends.

This makes me SO SAD to write, but I feel like people need to know how awful this staff is.
My sister was a total regular and decided to take me there. Food was delicious. And when I say delicious, mouth is watering just thinking about my sunny side up eggs and sausages. Anywho, I was seated next to the big wall near the bar. My purse was hanging on the back of my chair NEXT to the wall. I NEVER got up, once. Our waiter seemed pretty cool, at some point he ended up leaving during our meal because it was the end of his shift.
I had taken my ID out of my wallet (in my purse) for our mimosa brunch and was putting it back in after maybe 45min/​an hour? In this time period, I never got up from my chair. I went to put my ID back in my wallet and my wallet was gone. I initially was in disbelief because something like that has not ever happened to me, so it was a bit shocking.
I decided to be mature and understanding and calmly asked the waiters if they had found a wallet, they said no. Then I decided ok I guess it was stolen. I told them that my wallet had been stolen but didn’t understand how because I had never gotten up from my chair and I was sitting a considerably far distance from other people. The only people who came by my table and me were the bus boys who put down our plates and picked them back up and our two waiters. They immediately asked me if I was sure that I didn’t get up from my chair. Then proceeded to ask me if I even brought my wallet. at this point my sister was furious that they tried to make me look like a fool.
Once we realized it could have been someone apart of the restaurant staff, we told them. The managers both vouched for the waiter, stating he’d been here for three years and he didn’t need to steal. I don’t know what that means, but ok. They kept lying for the waiter and said he was in the back doing some things, but when my sister kept insisting on speaking to him, he had miraculously left (a while ago).
At the end of it all, I had cancelled all my credit cards and had no money whatsoever with me. This was a Saturday and the banks had just closed an hour prior. You would think they would comp my meal, but they sent me my check with no apologies or anything.
It disappoints me to have to write this, because the food was amazing. But the way everything was handled was very irresponsible and I’m sure the restaurant owners wouldn’t want any customer to feel the way we did: dissatisfied and disappointed. At the end of the day, the customer is the most important person. The least they could have done is comp-​ed my meal. BTW: we are two girls in our early twenties who don’t have big girls jobs yet (LOL)
Go there for the food if you’d like, but beware of the thieves and unsympathetic staff who just stare at you for being upset.

We’ve been going to the Brasserie for a few years – whenever we visit Chicago. On a recent visit, it was the first place we stopped to eat. There’s outdoor seating, which is surprisingly private – even though the place is right on Michigan Avenue. Indoors is quieter, and the large widows allow for people watching.
Service has progressively slipped over the years, but is never rude or intolerable. The food is refreshingly different and well prepared. There appears to be a concern for good quality ingredients, preparation and presentation. (They use Julius Meinl coffee) We have had many breakfasts and lunches at the Brasssrrie… all enjoyable. The Mister dreams of their breakfast potatoes… and their frenchfies are done in a similar fashion.

So much potential, wasted on overcooked everything.
Was lured into the Brasserie on a Tuesday, drawn by the promise of bottomless mussels. Not finding «bottomless mussels» on the menu, decided to order the standard serving of moules frites with white wine/​herb broth, for $ 13.
The broth was truly excellent. Rich, flavorful, and not excessively sour as other mussel purveyors tend to offer, the white wine/​herb broth was worth the price of admission.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good luck ended. While the broth was good, there was precious little of it — while Chicago competitors such as the Publican, or my NYC go-​to Le Parisien (Kips Bay, Manhattan) offer at least second-​knuckle quantities to be slurped up, no such luck here. Further, the smallish mussels were greatly overcooked, so much so that the outer ring of flesh was often fused to the shell. For shame.
The coup de grâce was the cooked-​stiff fries. While they looked rather appetizing covered in cheese and herbs, each bite required concentrated chewing to soften the potato staff, then to swallow. How does a French place botch frites? Outrageous.
So against my better nature, I declined the second bowl (two bowls = bottomless???) of mussels and decided that my time would be better spent gawking at Sue the T-​Rex. Because her fossilized bones were probably softer than the fries. (Heya!)

They charge an 18% tip on groups of 5 or larger. Like who does that? Also, adding on gratuity is now illegal in the state of Illinois, so… also what? Our waitress was terrible. She didn’t know the menu or the specials; she was slow and inattentive. On top of that, after speaking with a manager, she was supposed to notify us that because we were a group of 5, we would be charged the (illegal!!!) added gratuity, but she didn’t.
The food overall was alright. I ordered the prefixe menu which included soup or salad, beef bourguignon or a chicken dish and dessert. I went with the salad and the beef bourguignon. It tasty, but the portions were smaller than I expected. For dessert I ordered some chocolate tarte-​ish thing. The whole meal was actually very unmemorable.
We ate on the patio, which was nice, but kind of cramped. People walking behind me kept bumping my chair and it got a little cooler than we would have liked, but that was on us (darn Chicago weather!). Oh and this kind of relates to the restaurant, but the bathroom (which actually is outside in the hotel lobby) was being cleaned while we ate here and I wanted to use the bathroom, so I knocked and tried to ask the man when he would be done. He then got really annoyed and left and told me to use the bathroom. It felt really uncomfortable and rude.
I don’t think I’ll be back.

One of the owners of Brasserie By LM contacted me on Unilocal and invited us to come back for a second go around. Good deal because we were planning to return anyway. We liked the proximity of Brasserie By LM to the ITU Triathlon and planned to hit it up again after the Chicago Triathlon this past Sunday. What’s better than bottomless mimosas after an exhausting day of racing and spectating in the scorching summer sun?
We got the $ 25 bottomless mimosa deal again. That is a sweet deal that comes with a brunch entrée. The only reason NOT to get this deal is if you don’t imbibe. We’ve decided that our minimum is three mimosas at Brasserie By LM.
Once again, we were seated right away in the bar area and we had a fabulous server. No problems in that department either time.
My friends and I all ordered different foods than last time. I got the French Toast which was right up my alley on that day. M got the burger (which came medium and not rare like my burger last time) and was satisfying to her pallet. She especially enjoyed the potatoes that came on the side. Our friends ordered the croque madame and something else. They seemed to enjoy both of their selections.
The quality of food at Brasserie By LM is good. It’s not: «Oh-​my-​gosh-​this-​is-​freakin-​amazing!!!» or even, «Hold up. I’m having a mouth orgasm…» But it’s good. There’s nothing special done in the plating department. There aren’t any complicated layers of flavors or textures. I think it’s good and I like it. Well, I liked my French Toast. For the price, I think it was bangin’.
We’ve decided that Brasserie By LM will be our after-​race-​tradition. I’ll chalk up our issues to mis-​ordering. For example, if I know I like fancy burgers then I shouldn’t order a plain one. M now knows she dislikes tomatoes on her Benedict.