State & Lake Chicago Tavern

Trendy with a Midwestern style
I had a difficult time ordering from the menu, not much I was interested in. However, the appetizers "in a jar" we're pretty good and $5. As a main course, I had the whitefish, the sauce was very good and the fish was good. Not much flavor, this is where 5 stars was not warranted. The dessert menu looked appetizing but too full to try. I did get a cappuccino and pistachio brittle, yum!!
A shot out to Bonny the waitress, she rocked!

I feel like the hip thing to do is make a restaurant that looks cool and then rely on the ambiance to keep people coming back. Sure, State & Lake looks awesome, but from the service to the food, it's just... meh.

I had the hipster veggie sandwich, which was interesting on paper - butternut squash, shitake mushrooms, etc. But the end product didn't quite pull it all together. A little soggy with an overload of sauce, and the fries were limp and plain. It had such great intentions but didn't really deliver.

Again, this place looks killer, but if you want to create a great experience, you've got to make it happen all the way through. S&L does not.

Food was meh and some things way overpriced.  I had the beef barley soup - rather than being thick and hearty is was beef broth with about 9 pieces of barley and l less than a bite of beef short rib.  There wasn't much to it both in terms of stuff in the soup and actual soup - and for 8 bucks, pricey..   We ordered the pretzel app - that was really tasty - the cheesy dip and grainy mustard were nice.   The soda was overpriced - 4 dollars for a diet pepsi.  BTW - if you ask for diet coke, you will get diet pepsi - they won't let you know this.