C-House

Lobster salads are the BEST here. Perfect place to host a business lunch. Great service and wonderful overall experience.

So nice to stay at a hotel with a great restaurant (that you have a deal to) that has same evening availability!
Started with the Bone Marrow appetizer: consuming this felt so illegal!!! Perfect combination of the bone marrow with the red wine onion marmalade.
Grilled squid: A bit overdone
Halibut entrée: Fantastic. Perfectly cooked fish, deliciously smoky sunchoke purée and oyster/​chanterelle mushrooms.
Drinks: Coconut mist sounds more exciting than it tastes. Pointsetta was good.
Fantastic service! Big fan of the modern nautical theme.

My husband and I stayed at the Affinia Hotel for Valentine’s Day (yes I know it’s now Nov and I’m just now reviewing them) and decided to have dinner at the C-​House, for one it was steps away from our room. I was pleasantly surprised at how gorgeous the place was. My husband got their Valentine’s Day special which was a four course meal I believe and then I got the 11 mini tacos for my appetizer, pork chops for main course and then these candy thingys for dinner. The food was amazing! My favorite was the mini tacos. It had freeze dried corn around the tacos and they were soooooooo good!!! Everyone needs to try them!
It’s been awhile since we were here so I can’t remember exactly what wines we had but from my memory everything was perfect that night. Décor, gorgeous & service, great! I would hope that we make our way back here.

Came here for brunch on a nice summer day. We were give the option to eat outside on the patio or inside, but we chose to stay in. Service was good — our server was attentive and helpful. Eggs and cofffe were average but the burgers are the best! The place is inside the MileNorth (formerly Affinia) hotel — love the hotel and C-​View lounge on the 29^th floor, by the way! If you need a place to stay in Chicago near mag mile, MileNorth is perfect.

Came here for a buddy’s bachelor party.
We got a load of appetizers: (below are the ones I remembered)
Roasted Bone Marrow– Pretty tasty– it’s hard to do marrow wrong (unless you burn it). (3.5)
Roasted squid with chorizo and pork rinds– Way too salty. (2.75)
Bite sized fish tacos– refreshing, good contrast of textures (soft slightly slimy yellowtail fish vs. crisp corn tortilla shell), light in flavor (3.5)
Pork belly– A bit on the dry/​overcooked side– it’s hard to make pork belly bad because it’s so tender/​fatty, but I don’t know, these guys managed to make it mediocre. (2.75)
Entrée:
Grilled NY Strip on a bed of mushrooms topped with braised veggies of some sort– This was decent. But just decent. The meat was cooked properly, (medium– pink inside) but the meat itself was not tender. Granted its not as easy to make tender steak with NY strip (which is meatier by nature compared to other fattier cuts), but this was just ok. (3.25)
As a side, I got the apple and eggplant ratatouille with goat cheese– it sounded like an interesting combination– it turned out just to be ok. The eggplant was undercooked, and didn’t serve as a good texture contrast with the apple and the goat cheese. The goat cheese really didn’t meld with the veggies/​fruits for some reason. Sigh. (3)
For such a high-​end place, it was slightly underwhelming. The wine we had (an Italian grape that I can’t remember the name of) was excellent however.

Ever since I finished my meal at C-​House, I’ve been dying to go back. Everything on the menu sounded delicious, but my friend and I decided to split the mozzarella and sundried tomato flatbread and yellowtail mini tacos. The flavor profiles were amazing; very bright and fresh. The flatbread came with a salad on top and it tasted like it was picked fresh from the garden moments before. The yellowtail was ceviched and exploded with flavor.
The main reason we decided to share appeitzers is to totally justify hitting the desserts hard. The have a candy bar, which includes a variety of confections made in house. If you check in on Foursquare, you get a free sample of three items from the candy bar. We did and had a toasted marshmallow, milk chocolate caramel (which had a little bit of salf on top) and dark chocolate hazelnut. Each one was delicious.
They also have cake and pie-​type desserts but we both gravitated to the homemade ice creams. Three scoops for $ 8 is a deal and they were served on a bed of chocolate cake crumbles. The ice cream was creamy and the flavor was really strong.
The roof is small but cozy. Be aware it has a different menu than the main floor restaurant. Either way, definitely give it a try.

C-​house, what’s happened???
The first time I was here, I had their much raved about burger, and it was spectacular. the fries were perfectly crisp without being oily, the burger was a perfect medium rare, and the pretzel bun was soft and delicious… This was the memory of 2 years ago…
I visited for lunch with a co-​worker recently to relive this burger memory, but found myself munching on a denser/​tougher pretzel bun, a medium well (even though I ordered rare) burger, and fries that were more soggy/​oily than crispy.
The food was still good, but it’s lost it’s ability to «wow» for the meal…
Verdict: If I come back, I’ll have to switch to seafood to see if it’s better… but they no longer have one of the best burgers in Chicago, in my humble opinion…

So after being super impressed with all the televised creations and peer reviews of Marcus Samuelsson, I thought this was going to be out of this world. It was good, but not what I was expecting. Starting off, the ambiance is pretty cool but nothing original or too exciting. It was a Wednesday when I was there and really dead. Granted, it was a Wednesday but still. Our server was very flighty and told us it was her last day there (as though she was happy about it). That’s just odd to say to customers. Her service was still good, but like I said, it was dead.
Definite points for having a solid Torrontes by the glass on the menu. The two girls I was with got a savory cocktail (tried to look up the name but the cocktail and wine list as labeled on the website is really just a wine list) that sounded really good but neither one of them liked it so they ended up doing Torrontes after. We started with the fish tacos, which I think are overrated. I’m actually surprised that so many people rave about them cause they had sort of a cardboard taste to the shell and I found the fish to be rather bland. However huge redemption with the sweetbreads. They are perfectly prepared and served with some citrus on the plate that cuts through the fattiness of the sweetbreads beautifully. I’d go back just for those. For my entrée I got the venison. While it was good, it wasn’t great. They recommended medium rare, which I of course agreed to but it was medium. Nevertheless, it was tasty. Again, it’s Samuelsson so I’m expecting to be blown away and just was not. Would I go back? Probably, but would hope for a better experience next time.

I am really surprised to see the low reviews for C-​House. My meal was really tasty! I am a Top Chef Master fan and I was really looking forward to checking out a Marcus Samuelsson creation.
I went a few days ago and had a delicious meal!
Appetizer — Started with Mirada oysters which were delicious and had some unique dressing on the side. A very tasty cocktail sauce that was different than your run of the mill.
Entrée — I had the Pan Seared Halibut with risotto, english peas and morels. The fish was cooked perfectly with just enough sear on the edges. The peas were literally the best peas I’ve ever eaten (though probably because I’ve never had fresh peas before!). There was an interesting mix between whole peas and purée for a variety of texture alongside the more delicate fish. The one thing I regret is that the morels were chopped up so finely you couldn’t appreciate their true meaty texture. But the dish overall was fabulous.
The person I came with ordered the hanger steak medium rare and it looked cooked to perfection.
Side — We went with the mac and cheese, and while this is becoming quite the overdone fad (who could make BAD mac and cheese?!?) this mac and cheese really was delicious. The pork sausage and goat cheddar added a unique savoriness to the dish unlike your standard mac.
Dessert — A trio of gelato and sorbet didn’t disappoint.
Milk Chocolate Cheesecake Gelato — A. MAZING. So creamy and yum
Mint Julep Sorbet — Refreshing
Blueberry Cardamom — A hint of cardamom without being overpowering
The service was great while we here, and I agree it was slower than I would expect a place with a «celebrity chef» at the helm to be. I would definitely come back!

ABC
Easy as 123
Or simple as do re mi
ABC, 123, baby, you and me!
When the Chicagoist featured C-House’s fabulous lunch deal, the 123, I checked out the menu and knew where the next birthday lunch group would meet.
C-​House, located in the Affina Hotel, is just far enough off the craziness that is Michigan Avenue to have a nice, relaxing meal. The interior is very earthy, clean and simple — wood seems to be a common theme throughout the restaurant.
We started out with an order of the mini yellowtail tacos. Served with pickled onion, avocado and cabbage, my companions liked them quite a bit, but I found them to be mediocre. The yellowtail portion per taco seemed skimpy and overpowered by the avocado and mini shell.
The 123 deal allows you to pick any one soup or salad appetizer, any one sandwich, and any one candy bar dessert for $ 15. All of the items are served at once on a wood plank. The deal allows you to try a nice cross-​section of the lunch meal, so all six of us ordered it.
Picking out my starter and dessert were easy, the sandwich was where I struggled. I went with the potato cheddar soup — the only soup option. The soup was good, the fried cheese curds are what really made it. I passed up the salmon burger and hot smoked salmon for the tuna melt. The sandwich was served open-​face on a thick, buttery slice of multigrain bread with greens on top. The sandwich portion was good albeit messy, I think it would’ve worked better with the greens under the tuna. All sandwiches also come with fries and homemade ketchup. I didn’t try any of the other sandwiches at the table, but I heard no complaints.
For my dessert, I opted for the dark chocolate with orange and black tea «candy bar.» My candy bar was three little truffles — quite delicious, just not what I expected based on the name. Candy bar is a bit of a misnomer;none of the candy bar items ordered looked like actual candy bars, one even resembled a whoopie pie. However, since we’re talking about tasty, unique, creative candy, I didn’t care about being surprised by the presentation.
Overall the food was quite good. Unfortunately, the general consensus was that service was friendly, but slow.
Bottom line: For $ 15 this lunch deal is hard to beat. The food is solid and the portions are generous. I wavered between 3.5 and 4 stars, but decided to round up despite the service that was a little too unobtrusive.

Restaurant Week has rolled around again, and again I’m taking advantage of this deal to try something new. A bit off the beaten path, maybe, but C-House’s proximity to my workplace was one of the factors in choosing it, the other being their vegetarian entrée.
Due to my companion’s terminal tardiness, I bellied up to the bar and sampled a lovely Manhattan-​esque cocktail called the Buster Brown. Cute name, delicious cocktail, though I have to say that the prices are teeny bit steep when you can get something a bit more fanciful at places like Violet Hour or Maria’s. It’s a downtown hotel, though, so what can you do.
After being seated, our server helped me select a single, lovely West Coast oyster and brought us the great house made bread. We both went with the cheddar potato soup, studded with two perfect cheese curds whose saltiness was a great counterpoint to the soup. I would order this again, and what do you know, it’s on the regular menu. Excellent.
Our entrees, also on the regular menu were equally satisfying. Boyfriend enjoyed his ravioli with winter squash, and I loved the hangar steak and the creamed kale it rested on. Perfectly cooked to order, the meat was a tiny bit on the salty side, but let’s be frank, I sometimes shake salt into my hand and lick it off. I’m sick, I will die of high blood pressure (actually mine is fine, believe it or not), it’s ok.
Desserts were good, though boyfriend’s chocolate cake was a bit too dense in my opinion. Which is possibly why I went for the «coconut creamsicle» which involved coconut custard, citrus, and sorbet. Very refreshing.
Our server was great and helpful, and I was really happy that the hostesses were fine with the fact that someone (I wonder who?) made us a bit late in getting seated. They were probably fine with this because I was spending a small fortune at the bar, but what can you do when your date’s car won’t «go go Gadget» over the traffic on the highway?

After all of the buildup and anticipation connected with C-House’s Raw Bar offerings, I will kick off this review by stating that I did not even venture to this side of the menu. I came here on a Tuesday night and quickly found that I need not have bothered making a dinner reservation for two – the place was very sparsely populated, a nice break from the usual scene at restaurants around town which are usually teeming around the holiday season.
I settled into the meal with a kir royale champagne cocktail, my dinner companion ordered a single malt, neat. We shared the scallops appetizer, which was a bit disappointing as it featured two scallops (what if there had been more than two people sharing the dish?) and was slightly fishy on the finish. I have lived to tell the tale, so I suppose the fishiness was more annoying than catastrophic. Things improved on the main course. I ordered the bolognese pasta, which featured pappardele that was likely made in-​house and provided a gourmet spin on a favorite (though, I would not expect anything else from a top-​Chef featured restaurant). My friend’s grouper looked good and I heard no complaints. Wine pairings were excellent as well, as I went with a medium-​bodied syrah that was a good foil for the bolognese.
When dessert came around, my friend and I decided to pass, but many of the offerings looked too good to pass up (including many that appeared seasonal). If I come back, I will work backwards through the menu, starting with dessert. On balance, pacing of the courses was good and service was knowledgeable and courteous. Perhaps there was a lack of waitstaff/​servers as it appeared a busboy was dropping off some of the dishes, with our sever making only token appearances toward the end of the meal.

Sometimes I think of hotel restaurants as sub par, but C-​House absolutely stands alone.
It may have been one of the best seafood meals I’ve ever had in Chicago. We started with a three tier appetizer of oysters, clams, and mussels. They brought us a few pieces of sashimi off the raw bar too that were so fresh and buttery. I had a beet salad that I couldn’t stop eating. They made something so simple really special. I could have licked the dressing off the plate.
For my main dish, I had squid ink pasta and it lacked a bit of seasoning, but I mentioned that to the server as feedback, not in any way intended as a complaint. He was very apologetic. So I at least felt like the servers were in tune with good service and understanding the customers. Desserts were homemade candies and didn’t impress me much; which was fine because at that point I could have been rolled out of the restaurant.
We sat at a high top table on backless stools. I think that’s fine for a bar, but for a very nice sit-​down meal I prefer a booth or nice table with seats that have a back for leaning on when I have stuffed myself to the brim. Due to this table set-​up, I also didn’t have any place to put my purse so it sort of sat on my lap the whole time and was a bit uncomfortable.
Additionally, we got to take a sneak peak at the upstairs outdoor lounge. This is definitely a unique, classy, trendy escape several floors up that lends itself to a good mingling scene. With the outdoor element and being that high above the city, it’s no wonder this spot is so popular.

2.5 stars.
This restaurant was a disappointment. Was very intrigued by him on Top Chef Masters, so i was expecting a little more. What we got was average. lets divy this up into good and bad:
Good:
–Attentive wait staff and they fix problems without needing to ask.
–Scallops: They were cooked perfectly and were very tender like butter. The presentation was spot on.
–Yellow tail tacos: Best part of the meal. Its four mini bite size tacos with a delicious crispy shell and some pretty excellent tuna. Excellent flavor. Kind of ceviche-​esque.
Bad:
–Friend had hair in her food
–Same friend’s pork chop was too salty
–The morels on my dish were demolished. Couldnt tell if they were burnt, dehydrated and then not rehydrated properly, or both. either way, they were NOT good and they should not have been on the plate.
–The fois gras had a nice sear on it, and tasted good… if you COULD taste it. It has this cherry sauce on it that just completely overwhelmed the dish. All you could taste was cherries in every bite.
–Our server was not very knowledgeable, granted he admitted he was new, but still.
Poor selection of fish. Lake superior whitefish, farm raised salmon and trout. No thanks.
With so many options in the area, i would recommend going elsewhere. The meal was average. The only saving grace was the fact that the took one meal off of the bill, and comped us some food, and we didnt even have to ask. They were clearly embarrassed at their missteps. The prices here aren’t too bad, but you get what you pay for.

Another chance to stand on a rooftop! Count me in!!!
A friend of mine decided to have a birthday celebration on top of the Affinia Hotel earlier this afternoon and I was automatically in. I arrived and there was a huge group outside… first thing I thought was I was going to be in a Roof-​like line. I walked past everyone and went to the desk and asked was it a line to get upstairs and he said «no, go right on up, but we are closing it down around 7 because we have a private party coming up» It was already 5:50 so I knew I needed to hurry up and do some drinking.
The elevator took about 7 minutes to make it down to the first floor and once we got into the elevator it was kind of small, maybe fitting 8 people at best. Made it out of the elevator and stepped into a pretty nice view. Not as big as the other rooftop decks, but just as nice. My group was already there having sips and it was only right if I jumped in and toasted the birthday girl. The waitress recommended the Daniel-​Sen which was delicious. I don’t remember what it consisted of but it was good. I wanted anither one, but they stopped serving us drinks because they ready to kick us out. LOL (It was time for the private party to come up)
Me and one of my buddies were not ready to go so we decided to grab a drink at the bar downstairs. Very nice space which also has outside seating. I grabbed a Change Is Gonna Come (shout out to Sam Cooke), which I also do not remember too much what it consisted of except some bourbon. Good stuff! Beer selection is a little weak, but places like this don’t expect you to come and drink beer anyway. We sat there and watched the NBA Draft on the Plasma screen and had more and more drinks. Cool bartender chatted with us about various sporting events.
Good place to come and hang, whether it be inside, outside or up there!

The waitress was so bad, my wife told me it had to be her first week and I should give her some advice, not just get pissed off. I agreed it was not all her fault, it was poor training, so I’d bring up a few things. When she next stopped by I asked her how long she’d been working at C-​House. Two years!
Nice décor, mediocre food with nothing distinctive, and dinner clientele that were definitely not interested in fine dining. Hotel guests using their laptops as they ate. Young Asians in dirty jeans and t-​shirts came, ate quick, and left like they were at McDonald’s. Hotel guests dominated, with few real diners. It’s no wonder that when I went on Open Table Thursday morning, I couldn’t get a Friday night reservation at Takashi until 9:30, I couldn’t get in Les Nomades until 9:00, and C-​House had openings at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30. Having their world famous chef Marcus Samuelsson stop by the table twice didn’t add much to the evening. (Had he asked how our dinner was would have been more impressive than a smile and a quick «Aren’t you lucky to have seen me» glance.)
Our food: foie gras, ravioli, trout, and a side of English peas. Each dish had ingredients that were suppose to impress you, but really didn’t blend together well. Not a single impressive taste out of the whole meal. Reasonable prices, but who cares when the meal is a bore. Add pathetic service and this is a loser.

C-​House has been on my list of ‘to-​try restos’ for some time now. And Chicago Restaurant Week, with its prix fixe menus, offers the perfect opportunity. I do realize that restaurant staff is absolutely slammed this week, so we of course anticipate to tip on the full price of lunch rather than on the $ 22 special menu price. Contingent, of course, that we receive at least fair service.
I started with the Werp Farm Baby Lettuce Salad. The poached egg was the highlight– unfortunately, the dressing didn’t do much to enhance the flavors of the slightly peppery frisée.
For my main course, I ordered the C-​House ‘burger’, which is actually made of whitefish and served on a pretzel bun with housemade tartar. I really enjoyed the delicate, mild whitefish though the pretzel bun was unlike any I had before: it was hard and dry. I love pretzel buns but this one didn’t bring me any joy.
Speaking of something else I wasn’t brought– the candy bar dessert trio. Both of my dining companions received their desserts and I waited, waited and waited some more before we were finally able to win the attention of the super friendly server assistant/​busser, Edison. Another 5 minutes passed and finally, I received my dessert (which didn’t measure up to any of our expectations).
Throughout the meal, there were several times when we needed our server, made eye contact and still she ignored us. Then we had a different server who also ignored us. It took another 15 minutes for someone to pick up the credit card so we could close our check (Edison to the rescue, once again).
It’s one thing to be efficient and indifferent, it’s quite another to ignore and act in an inhospitable manner. Unfortunately, we received the latter type of service. I can only hope that this type of service doesn’t regularly persist.

Another Chicago Restaurant Week experience and yet another chance to try pricey restaurants at a fraction of the price. My favorite J’s (holler Johnny T and Jelena Z) and I booked lunch for today at C-​House. I was looking forward to it all week long since I love seafood and I noticed they had a candy bar trio on the menu for dessert. Um, yum!
The food was average. The Werp Farm Baby Lettuce Salad wasn’t anything to Unilocal about. The crab cake part of my crab cake sandwich was very tasty, but the pretzel bread it came on was hard and bland. I had asked our waitress ahead of time if there was any sauce on this sandwich. She said no, but sure enough there was some mayo type sauce right on the hard, bland bread. Sigh. And while I ate most of the candy bar trio (oink oink) it wasn’t nearly as heavenly as it sounds.
The service deserves about 1 star. We had 2 waitresses and both were just awful. They didn’t make eye contact, ignored us when we called them over to ask questions (or about the sauce on my sandwich) and tried to give us the 3 of us only 2 candy bar trios. Yikes! Fortunately, there was a lovely busboy by the name of Edison who helped us throughout our meal… bringing this review up a star. Edison needs a promotion, stat! Rude waitresses need a demotion, stat!
I am happy we chose this for Restaurant Week, but mostly cause now I know not to waste my hard earned cash on C-House’s full priced menu.

Came here with a friend for restaurant week for a Sunday lunch.
I started with the clam chowder which could have used more seasoning. My friend had the lobster bisque which she enjoyed (but was not wowed by). We both had the lobster club which was too much bread and too little lobster. I also didn’t care for the fries nor the accompanying BBQ sauce. We also ordered a side off the menu, mac and cheese with goat cheddar and house made pork sausage, which was very good. Dessert was a candy bar trio: molasses fudge cookies, pistachio brittle, and what I think was the peanut chocolate bark. The dessert was probably my favorite part.
Service was friendly but we were abandoned for a little bit.
I do want to go back and try some of the other dishes, their menu appeals to me and overall things tasted pretty good.

Man, I’m not even a huge seafood eater… but this place flips my fins and makes me «mahi mahi.» Sweet Jesus of all things swimmy. A winner!
Contemporary, sleek interior… a «hotel» restaurant of excellent quailty. Housed in the Affinia Hotel, on Superior just a stone’s splash east of Michigan Avenue. Unexpectedly lovely.
The Chef’s Selection from the Raw Bar is where its AT for lunch… trust me.
–the Chef selects it, duh. No decision making for moi!
–all options sound delightful, so it’s a no risk opportunity.
-$ 18 for 5 is really a mid-​sized lunch meal… very filling. Add the green salad, and you’ve got a well balanced surf ‘n greens option. :)
and…here’s what I ended up eating all raw and stuff:
1: mini fish tacos (3) made with yellowtail, avocado spread and the poofiest little corn kernels I’ve ever witnessed.
2: tuna piled high (at least 5 pieces)
3: crab salad wrapped in thin granny smith apple with a fried apple crisp on top. (OMG, stop it, so good)
4: ribeye rawness, it tasted faintly of banana… so this was the loser for me.
5: white tuna.
Each was a spectacularly plated and created few bites… a great way to gain some variety and selection while keeping the portions small and satisfying. Fresh. Flavorful. Well presented atop a high plate with mini-​dishes.
Service: excellent.
A great spot for a biz lunch or to catch up with some pals… most definitely tops for seafoodie options in the city.