McCormick & Schmick's: One of the Best Seafood Restaurants in Chicago (Chicago-Area Restaurant Review 14)

While Chicago is definitely not known for its seafood, it does have a few great seafood restaurants, and McCormick & Schmick's is near the top. The decor is elegant, but a little more relaxed and less formal than Nick's Fish Market and a little more comfortable than Shaw's (our favorite Chicago seafood restaurant, which we hope to review soon).

We started with the shrimp cocktail. The shrimp was very good, and the sauce is spicy, but there was not quite enough of it, and the shrimp was not quite as good as Shaw's. Steve ordered the iceberg wedge with blue cheese. The lettuce was okay, but didn't seem very fresh, but the blue cheese was excellent. Lisa had the mixed greens salad with blue cheese and walnuts, which was very good, and her lettuce was fresh. Steve's main course was wild sockeye salmon from Alaska. This may have been the best salmon Steve has ever eaten. It tasted extremely fresh and full of flavor. Also, for the first time Lisa has ever seen, Steve ate all his vegetables (carrots and asparagus), which he actually really liked. LIsa was eating light, so she had the New England Clam Chowder, which was good, but not exceptional.

Eating light did not prevent Lisa from ordering McCormick & Schmick's flourless chocolate cake for dessert. It is a large wedge of cake with a few sliced strawberries and strawberry sauce. The chocolate is dense and very good, though Coco Pazzo's flourless chocolate cake remains Lisa's favorite. Steve ordered apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. This was really good quality, but as Steve had hoped, the cinnamon ice cream tasted odd enough that he was not tempted to eat the whole thing.

Lisa had a glass of Ravenswood Syrah, a wine with that had just the right amount of fruit flavor without being too sweet. In another first, Steve, trying to be pretentious, drank a glass of Claret, which was a bit dense, but was a nice change and was appropriate on a 55 degree night.

The total bill at McCormick & Scmick's was about $145.

Steve and Lisa again agreed on the bathroom review ratings, though for different reasons. The Women's Room was clean, had nice marble floors, and stalls that had real walls, making them like small rooms. Normally, this would put a restroom in 2.5-3 territory, but the doors on the stalls would not lock, and it was very hard to close them, as they scraped the floor when they moved. The Men's Room was good in every respect, even having a door you could push open (avoiding the need to grasp the door handle), but a 3 was turned into a 2 because, for some reason, the place smelled like a State Fair bathroom.

Our ratings for McCormick & Schmick's, 41 E. Chestnut, Chicago, Illinois,

8 of 10 Fish Hooks (it is a seafood restaurant, after all); 2 of 3 Bathroom Brushes