Vermilion: User Reviews
We were a party of 12 in which the 9pm reservation had been made 1.5 weeks in advance. We were promptly seated at 9pm and our drink service was quite responsive all night. The major issue was with the food service. It was horrible!! We had the prie fix meal which was 5 courses. Can you believe that we did not have all our courses by the pivitol midnight hour on New Years Eve? We only had 3 of the 5 courses by midnight! Just to remind you, we were seated promptly at 9pm. When I asked the waiter when the final course, dessert, would arrive at our table, he said you still want that course? We did initiate a conversation with the manager for that night and he was of absolutely no help and did not provide any explanation as to what was causing the delay. He did not show any remorse or concern for our dissatisfaction in service.
Finally, when we first selected Vermillion, we had plans to enjoy the dj on the promoted cleared dance floor area. They moved 3 small tables primarily bc people were still eating since many others had not received all their courses either. So a tiny dancing area for our New Years' celebration of 12? What a disaapointment!
The food was OK but I have a tolerance for spiciness and I had a tought time with the heat. I could not eat one of the fish courses bc it was too fishy..not covered up with all the spice. Please Beware!
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...Not so sure about this place. The $12 cocktails we started out with were tasty, but had no trace at all of alcohol- this was true for all 3 of us at the table. Each of us ordered from the small plates section of the menu which sounded promising.... I did not expect to be filled from tapas, but for $60 a piece I also didn't expect to be starving when I left. There were however some interesting flavors (we especially liked the wild boar jibarito and duck vindaloo arepa) , and service was friendly and down-to-Earth. (Although after presenting our check, our server disappeared and did not come back for close to 20 minutes.) I doubt we'll be returning.
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Went there a month and a half ago and had a great experience from hot and sweet appetizers and entrees to great wine to a fantastic, witty waiter. Because of this, we booked Valentines reservations. However, it was so far removed from the first experience we probably won't go back for quite a while. They pushed you out the door within an hour and a half, the food was unprepared, the waiter pressed....etc..
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I love the food at Vermilion. It's such fun to taste the exotic flavors they blend creatively into some of the most exciting dishes I've ever tasted. I especially love all the small plates they offer allowing you to sample a bunch of different taste adventures at one sitting. As an avid fan of creative restaurants this place is a favorite stop.
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here's the perfect restaurant for GNO. order all of the appetizers-you won't be disappointed. We especially enjoyed the cocktail made w/ jalapenos, simple syrup, limes
and pear liquor-WOW-what a sensation! Chocolate chili dessert to die for!
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Our concierge sent us to Vermilion and we thanked him later. The from great service and energy of this place takes second only to the food. The food as in the New York strip steak and lobster combo. Spicy food is in my blood and other than a few places seems always to miss the mark. Either being only spicy and not flavorful enough or visa versa. Finally a perfect balance in Chicago at Vermilion. The steak had a red sauce with bright acidity, tangy, and nice heat. The lobster was that blend of bite, aromatic, and rich. Both dishes worked really well alone or together. I will return to Chicago sooner than later to see what is new at Vermilion.
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Ordered off the express lunch menu...still took almost an hour to get our order. And, the restaurant was not even half full. Food was OK.
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Food Average, Great Ambiance, Interesting Drinks
By winelover from South Loop, July 24, 2008
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I am a big fan of Indian fusion but when done tastefully and within limits. The food here is overspiced (not hot but pumped with spices) so much that everything tastes like spices, our seekh kabobs were tasted like curry powder rather than the meat. The entrees had the same problem and the fillet was pretty fatty. Chocolate dessert had cayenne pepper like spice, but not a hint (which is great) rather it was too much cayenne pepper which got in the way of the chocolate. Wine list is pretty weak, although not bad. Overall, everything had too much spices, so much that the lobster tasted like spices with a little bit of lobster and lamb tasted like spices with a hint of lamb. Worth trying once but not a place I will go back to again unless someone tells me that they have a new chef.
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Horrible Service - don't bother going here
By KMac1127 from Northwest suburbs, June 19, 2008
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We had a party of 10 for dinner on last night (Wednesday). It took 40 minutes for the waiter to take our dinner order despite repeated requests to do so. Drinks arrived randomly - 2 or 3 at a time, then a wait for 15 minutes before the rest of the drinks arrived. We ended up asking the hostess to pour more water, since we could not find our waiter and we had asked the busboy multiple times with no result. Extra plates and glasses were never taken away, we never got extra silverware despite asking the waiter, the busboy, and /or the hostess. When dinner was finally served, one and half hours after being seated, only half the food arrived, and then a 20 minute wait for the rest of the meals. 2 people had order dinner only, no appetizers and ended up without food for 2 hours before being served their dinners. We ask repeatedly for naan, and recieved 1 piece, sliced for a table of ten for $4. We devoured it and had to wait 15-20 minutes before we got more. At this point, a few complimentary servings would have been appropriate. As for dessert, we ordered 8 desserts and 2 coffees. After 20 minutes -- you guessed it -- 4 desserts, no coffee. After 3 hours at the restaurant, we have to leave to catch trains (having missed the earlier one) and we stilll had not received the rest of our orders. No one on the staff ever apologized, offered anything complimentary or cleared the dirty dishes! ( To top it off, the ladies room was short of toilet paper --ick!) Even though the food was good, I would never recommend this place to anyone, ever.
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Review Summary
The following scores represent the average rating submitted by 116 users:
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