Amazing- everything we ordered was delicious. They have a gluten free menu you can ask for. Service was great and very helpful with dietary restrictions and recommendations. Highly recommend
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Heidi Rozeske
Consider me impressed. The food, the vibe & the staff.
The menu changes bi-monthly and the staff is aware of the levels of gluten avoidance possible.
I enjoyed a mushroom rice and redfish at the suggestion of my server. The layers of flavor were excellent and made a great pairing with the orange wine!
I'll come back and bring my gf friends!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Reese
This was my first time at Maxwell trading and went here for Restaurant Week. Everything was amazing! I really liked the Suzuki tartare and the Japanese sweet potato in the Thai curry was gas 😮💨. The interior was beautiful; felt like I was in a movie scene!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Erik Jensen
Starting off with the positives, the service was great. The waiter was friendly, gave us good advice, and attentive. The wine selection was also very good with a broad set of options. The Japanese Sweet Potato and the Basque Butter Cake were the two highlights of the meal, I’ll definitely remember both for a long time.
The rest of the food was just fine. For beginnings, the chicory Caesar had fresh ingredients but was very hard to eat the way it was shredded and the vinaigrette dominated the flavor. The Prosciutto and Gnocco Fritto seemed unbalanced, with very mild cheese and very little jam, so the prosciutto overpowered the flavor, and it was also kind of hard to eat.
For seconds, the soup dumpling tortellini was tasty but kind of just a worse version of a real Chinese soup dumpling. That said, the Japanese Sweet potato was fantastic and the highlight of the meal. The Thai red curry it came with was maybe the best I’ve had since moving to Chicago, just a really fun dish.
For substance, we had the Turbot which was good. The kombu beurre blanc was really nice with it. The Swiss chard was fresh too. But the potatoes were burned.
Overall, I think this would be a great place to bring a larger group. The vibes are great and the menu is varied enough that everyone will find something they like. The combo of street parking and convenience to transit makes it a good fit if you’re all coming from different directions. But with just two people, I just wanted it to be a bit better.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Jackelyn King
I loved everything, this was the best dining experience I’ve had in a long time.
Favorites were the pork chop and sweet potato. But also don’t skip the french onion dip!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: French Onion Dip, Tortellini Soup Dumplings
Mark Mueller
Very interesting menu. Excellent staff. Just a great place.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Darian Carter
Best restaurant in Chicago. Don’t skip the sweet potato! We loved this place and were super impressed with the vibe and server was so friendly! Basque butter cake was to die for
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Ricotta and Hot Honey Dip
B P
Good food bad service
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: Griddle Cake
Kevin Ladd
Excellent creative and perfectly executed food offerings with incredible service. Very cool atmosphere, too. That, and free street parking 😁
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Mark A
I was excited to try Maxwell’s Trading as part of Chicago Restaurant Week. This restaurant has been super buzzy. It was named one of the top 15 hardest restaurants to get a reservation. So I was ecstatic when I scored a reservation and went in with high hopes.
The food was really good. My date and I tried different things to taste as many dishes as we could. The restaurant encourages couples, even entire tables, sharing the dishes family style.
For course one we got the Suzuki tartare and the Japanese eggplant with griddled bread. The Suzuki tartare was the better dish with lots of bold flavors. The eggplant was okay, but the star of that dish is the griddled bread. It gives roti vibes.
I heard a lot about the Japanese sweet potatoes that I just had to order them extra. They are caramelized sweet potatoes over curry. The flavors really work and contrast off each other. It is offered as an entree on the Restaurant Week menu but I don’t really feel it is that substantial enough to be your entree.
For course two we got the half chicken and the redfish bouillabaisse. The redfish was probably the best dish I had the entire night. I wish I had an extra grilled bread to mop up the bouillabaisse, it is that delicious. The chicken was good, but lacked the wow factor.
For course three we got the red bean brownie sundae and the black sesame flip. The sundae is excellent and not too sweet. The flip is unbalanced and way too heavy on the Cynar. It is almost the only thing you taste.
The ambiance is dark and moody. It is very loud and noisy. You feel like you have to speak up, and almost yell.
The biggest negative was the service. There is a fine line between attentive and pushy and they were way over the line. You could tell they wanted to get you through and flip the table. As soon as we had paid a manager came over and said, “I hate to be that person, but we need the table because the next reservations are breathing down my neck.” We weren’t loitering there. We literally had just paid and the manager pushed us out. I found it beyond rude and not very good customer service. I understand they were busy but people should be able to enjoy their dinner and time out.
Very disappointing service. We arrived 30 minutes early for our reservation and sat at the bar. After being seated, we were immediately rushed to order our 4 courses, which felt unwelcoming for an anniversary dinner. Our server was not warm or attentive and never returned to our table after taking our order.
To make matters worse, a manager approached our table without any explanation or justification. This intervention was completely unwarranted, and made us feel uncomfortable and unfairly judged. what was meant to be an enjoyable evening and ultimately ruined the experience.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: French Onion Dip
A. S.
Gosh the food was SO great here. The tortellini with two pockets of flavor was AMAZING. The service was exceptional. Cocktails were very well crafted. Would come back absolutely.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Stanze Smith
Beautiful place, luxurious flavors, nice presentations, decent cocktails, bar staff was sorta busy but I would have liked a little more attention paid to us as we sat in front of them eating. Price point is par for the course as it's location and style of dining. Sweet potato is worth all the popular credit it gets!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Eva Moriarty
Always amazing food
OGDNA is-me
delicious food and matching service. the waitress and the food runner were both knowledgeable and helpful regarding the menu.
Amazing- everything we ordered was delicious. They have a gluten free menu you can ask for. Service was great and very helpful with dietary restrictions and recommendations. Highly recommend
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Consider me impressed. The food, the vibe & the staff.
The menu changes bi-monthly and the staff is aware of the levels of gluten avoidance possible.
I enjoyed a mushroom rice and redfish at the suggestion of my server. The layers of flavor were excellent and made a great pairing with the orange wine!
I'll come back and bring my gf friends!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This was my first time at Maxwell trading and went here for Restaurant Week. Everything was amazing! I really liked the Suzuki tartare and the Japanese sweet potato in the Thai curry was gas 😮💨. The interior was beautiful; felt like I was in a movie scene!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Starting off with the positives, the service was great. The waiter was friendly, gave us good advice, and attentive. The wine selection was also very good with a broad set of options. The Japanese Sweet Potato and the Basque Butter Cake were the two highlights of the meal, I’ll definitely remember both for a long time.
The rest of the food was just fine. For beginnings, the chicory Caesar had fresh ingredients but was very hard to eat the way it was shredded and the vinaigrette dominated the flavor. The Prosciutto and Gnocco Fritto seemed unbalanced, with very mild cheese and very little jam, so the prosciutto overpowered the flavor, and it was also kind of hard to eat.
For seconds, the soup dumpling tortellini was tasty but kind of just a worse version of a real Chinese soup dumpling. That said, the Japanese Sweet potato was fantastic and the highlight of the meal. The Thai red curry it came with was maybe the best I’ve had since moving to Chicago, just a really fun dish.
For substance, we had the Turbot which was good. The kombu beurre blanc was really nice with it. The Swiss chard was fresh too. But the potatoes were burned.
Overall, I think this would be a great place to bring a larger group. The vibes are great and the menu is varied enough that everyone will find something they like. The combo of street parking and convenience to transit makes it a good fit if you’re all coming from different directions. But with just two people, I just wanted it to be a bit better.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
I loved everything, this was the best dining experience I’ve had in a long time.
Favorites were the pork chop and sweet potato. But also don’t skip the french onion dip!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: French Onion Dip, Tortellini Soup Dumplings
Very interesting menu. Excellent staff. Just a great place.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Best restaurant in Chicago. Don’t skip the sweet potato! We loved this place and were super impressed with the vibe and server was so friendly! Basque butter cake was to die for
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Ricotta and Hot Honey Dip
Good food bad service
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: Griddle Cake
Excellent creative and perfectly executed food offerings with incredible service. Very cool atmosphere, too. That, and free street parking 😁
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
I was excited to try Maxwell’s Trading as part of Chicago Restaurant Week. This restaurant has been super buzzy. It was named one of the top 15 hardest restaurants to get a reservation. So I was ecstatic when I scored a reservation and went in with high hopes.
The food was really good. My date and I tried different things to taste as many dishes as we could. The restaurant encourages couples, even entire tables, sharing the dishes family style.
For course one we got the Suzuki tartare and the Japanese eggplant with griddled bread. The Suzuki tartare was the better dish with lots of bold flavors. The eggplant was okay, but the star of that dish is the griddled bread. It gives roti vibes.
I heard a lot about the Japanese sweet potatoes that I just had to order them extra. They are caramelized sweet potatoes over curry. The flavors really work and contrast off each other. It is offered as an entree on the Restaurant Week menu but I don’t really feel it is that substantial enough to be your entree.
For course two we got the half chicken and the redfish bouillabaisse. The redfish was probably the best dish I had the entire night. I wish I had an extra grilled bread to mop up the bouillabaisse, it is that delicious. The chicken was good, but lacked the wow factor.
For course three we got the red bean brownie sundae and the black sesame flip. The sundae is excellent and not too sweet. The flip is unbalanced and way too heavy on the Cynar. It is almost the only thing you taste.
The ambiance is dark and moody. It is very loud and noisy. You feel like you have to speak up, and almost yell.
The biggest negative was the service. There is a fine line between attentive and pushy and they were way over the line. You could tell they wanted to get you through and flip the table. As soon as we had paid a manager came over and said, “I hate to be that person, but we need the table because the next reservations are breathing down my neck.” We weren’t loitering there. We literally had just paid and the manager pushed us out. I found it beyond rude and not very good customer service. I understand they were busy but people should be able to enjoy their dinner and time out.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 3
Restaurantji Recommends
Very disappointing service. We arrived 30 minutes early for our reservation and sat at the bar. After being seated, we were immediately rushed to order our 4 courses, which felt unwelcoming for an anniversary dinner. Our server was not warm or attentive and never returned to our table after taking our order.
To make matters worse, a manager approached our table without any explanation or justification. This intervention was completely unwarranted, and made us feel uncomfortable and unfairly judged. what was meant to be an enjoyable evening and ultimately ruined the experience.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: French Onion Dip
Gosh the food was SO great here. The tortellini with two pockets of flavor was AMAZING. The service was exceptional. Cocktails were very well crafted. Would come back absolutely.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Beautiful place, luxurious flavors, nice presentations, decent cocktails, bar staff was sorta busy but I would have liked a little more attention paid to us as we sat in front of them eating. Price point is par for the course as it's location and style of dining.
Sweet potato is worth all the popular credit it gets!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Always amazing food
delicious food and matching service. the waitress and the food runner were both knowledgeable and helpful regarding the menu.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Clay Pot Rice
Loading...