Cape Cod Room

For the price I wouldn’t come back here again.
The food was okay. I had the lemon sole. It was good but it wasn’t fantastic. This place is suited for old, rich people that have dull taste buds.
Also, our waiter was really snarky and when we ordered carrots on the side, he told us we wouldn’t eat them and that we should order another side. Um, if we want carrots, we want our carrots!
Luckily I didn’t pick up the tab otherwise I would have been really p’d off!

I love that there is a place like this that exists here in Chicago, it’s quiet in the middle of a very busy area and been in business for over eighty years. The food and service reflects the reason why it’s been in business as long as it has… Love this place it’s history and the service is superb…

We used a 3-​course Gilt City deal which made our experience worth the price we paid. We ordered the ahi tuna starter to split, had scallops and halibut as our entrees, shared a side of asparagus, and shared a brownie dessert. Everything was delicious. Seafood was super fresh. The ahi tuna starter came with corn fritters which were basically funnel cakes with corn which I found an odd thing to accompany seared tuna.
While the food was good, my biggest nit would have to be with service. Our server was an older gentleman who was not friendly at all. He didn’t take the time to explain the menu or offer recommendations. He didn’t offer us a drink refill at all. Granted, our gilt deal came with one glass of wine. But we would’ve ordered more if he offered. Also, he didn’t explain to us the dessert was a standard selection which we did not get to choose. It came with a nut topping which could’ve been an issue if someone had an allergy. At one point, he even walked by our table burping out loud.
I probably won’t go back. It was cool to experience this «Chicago institution» once. But between the terrible service and the fact that there was hardly anyone there on a Saturday night, I walked away feeling underwhelmed.

I’m conflicted by this restaurant. The food was decent and the service was good for the most part. The two servers at my table were excellent. The problem was a table in the middle of the room with seven ²⁰⁄₃₀ somethings. All they did was drink for the majority of the evening. They ordered one bowl of soup for the seven of them.
As they continued to drink their conversation bordered on the obscene. Lots of swearing and discussions about genitalia size. I’m not sure why the restaurant allowed this.
My dinner was over $ 100. It got to the point where I quit eating and left. If you’re going to make fun of groups of people don’t do it loudly in a public space. I’m from a liberal West Coast city and even this was more than I could handle.
I’m staying at the Drake Hotel and this is their restaurant. They should be more aware of what is going on in their establishment. It was a very loud group and everyone could hear the conversation.
I’m disappointed and the food review is irrelevant at this point. I will not be returning.

My girlfriend and I LOVED this place. I took advantage of the Gilt City deal that ended up being an incredible deal for us.
The restaurant is located in the Drake hotel downtown, and it was really nice. Most people were fairly dressed up, and the place was pretty intimate. With it being in the center of downtown and in a very expensive hotel, it would only make sense that this place was very expensive. In my opinion, the food and service matched the price. Our server checked on us frequently, and answered all of our questions with great patience.
We had a crab cake to share as an appetizer, and it was great. The crab was clearly fresh (as it should be in a seafood restaurant), and it was very flavorful. This was a great start to an amazing meal.
My girlfriend had the Swordfish which she really enjoyed, and I had the Rack of Lamb. The rack of lamb came with a great spinach salad that had a sweet dressing to go along with it. The Lamb was the best thing I tasted all night, and the portion size was great. It was cooked perfectly and seasoned well with rosemary and garlic. Lastly, to top everything off we had a slice of cheesecake to share.
With my girlfriend and I being long distance, it was an amazing end to her visit. I would suggest going, especially if you can take advantage of the Gilt City deal! All together we paid like $ 90 for everything I described and two glasses of wine.

I would like to try this place again. The food was good but the service was slow. It is a funky place in the Drake hotel that could be really good.

New chef has made a huge difference. Food is very fresh and well prepared, ambience is unique.

Meh… I have had better. The place has been there since 1933… doesn’t seem all that much has changed since that time. Old and tired and stale. Just because the place used to be famous doesn’t mean it should look like it is stuck in 1933. If it was truly still that famous and great, tell me why on a major holiday weekend (Memorial Weekend) for Chicago, that this place inside the BEAUTIFUL Drake a Hotel was empty. Prime time dinner time on Friday night and they may have had six tables seated. And by the time I left, I only saw one other table still dining. Service was good but the food was nothing spectacular. The bread was cold and seemed old, the Swordfish was underwhelming, the lobster deviled eggs flat, they said to have the crab cake… the best in the world… good but not the best and muscles were fair. Sorry but there are much better seafood places in the City than this place.

I was fully prepared for an expensive dinner and was fully rewarded with a dinner check of nearly $ 300 for two people. If service matched the bill, it would not have been as obscene. First of all, the two of us stood at the host desk chatting with a couple from out of town who had been waiting for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes and no host at the stand, we went to the bar, each finished a drink and paid for them before I saw the host. I hadn’t even seen him on the floor earlier. I begged for our table as my wife found the bar seats uncomfortable. Once seated, a waiter came by and promptly replaced our empty drinks. Being later on a long day, Friday, we ordered our starters immediately and they came promptly. The bowl of Bookbinders soup was just as I remembered it from the original restaurant. My wife was fully satisfied with her crab cake. After 35 minutes of the waiting for our entrees, I became frustrated and asked for the check. I was told that we would promptly have our food. My wife’s sole was tasty but overbreaded and the greasiness later gave her indigestion. My swoard fish was just plain cold. Their special desert of strawberry short cake was a nice way to finish the meal but at that point, I was so tired and frustrated that I just wanted to go home.
If I wanted a good meal there in the future, I would go in ahead of time and slip the maitre’d a few hundred dollars and when I got there would go back to the kitchen and give the chef a hundred. Frankly, it is not worth it. Abysmal service, mediocre food and snobby. By the way, the nice couple from out of town after waiting an hour for a table, sat at the bar for a short while and left. I counted at least a half a dozen empty tables while we were there and a huge wait staff that did very little. This Chicago institution is an embarassment to the Drake Hotel and to the Hilton Chain. It is time for them to close and start something new. The only ones getting good service were the regulars and they, unfortunately fo the the Drake, will soon be gone.

My friends and I went there for dinner since there was no place available at the time. We didn’t expect about the food that much because there were just few customers in the restaurant.
Our waiter was nice but another waiter (big old ugly guy) was so rude. I was sick so I didn’t feel like to have any wines or other drinks. I requested hot water and he was kind of talking behind my back with another waiter just because I asked for hot water. I bet he thought that I couldn’t hear but unfortunately I did. So WTF!!! It’s not your business, not even think about it. I suggest to keep your nasty mouth shut when you work.
**The foods were good but some stuff are rude, need some basic education**

The Cape Cod Room is one of my family’s favorite restaurants in the city! We have been going for about 20 years and it is still perfect!
The service is always wonderful, and this is definitely somewhere you should try if you are looking for a classic fish house with an old-​world, New England charm!
The recent updates to the menu are also wonderful.

Well my wife and I decided to finish our trip with dinner at the hotel (Drake) instead of going out.
We picked the Cape Cod Room which unfortunately was not a wise pick. I guess we should have been alerted by the lack of people in the dining rooms.
Although the food was I guess. ok, my wife had the Grouper, very bland, I has the Scallops so so, the service was horrible! Other then taking our order 30 min in, we never saw the waiter the rest of the dinner. lol! I think the busser brought us our meals and he never came back!
For the money… would not recommend… at all! To many good restaurant in Chicago!!!

Went for Valentine’s Day dinner. It was nice and cozy sitting in a booth. Our waiter was great and overall the service was wonderful. I had the sea bass and my husband had the lobster, after starters of shrimp cocktail and the bookbinder soup. I want to go back tomorrow!

I went here for restaurant week this past Saturday. I wish I could give more stars, but I can’t. This was an overall bad experience. The service wasn’t great, the potatoes came out cold, a spoon was dirty and the food was bland. Some people in my party ordered off the standard menu and they said the food was ok. There wasn’t an ambiance to speak of… very similar to eating in a hot stuffy church. The experience was so bad, that we actually walked over to Shake Shack to get food after our meal.
Don’t go here… there are way too many good restaurants in the city to waste time or money here. I’ll be surprised if it’s open for 6 more months. Disappointing.

Very expensive, so be prepared! Dinner for 2 was nearly $ 200 with tip.
The service was excellent. Our waiter was very friendly and he definitely made our experience pleasant.
The food was excellent! I had the salmon and my date had a lobster tail, which I was able to try. The portions were great and the presentation was top-​notch. Everything was excellent!

Over the years we have visited «The Cape» on many occasions and always enjoyed the dining experience. 10 years ago we moved out of state in retirement and missed this fine dining so when we returned to Chicago for the Christmas holiday we had to return to this restaurant once again.
Big mistake! I guess this is one time that we should have remembered it for what it once was and not for what it is now.
While the restaurant is still a nice quiet place to dine where people can talk and not have to raise their voices the menu has been trimmed down with less selections. Out of potatoes au gratin at 7pm…

It’s been a few years since our last visit to the Cape Cod Room and found on this visit, the restaurant had declined greatly. The decline would explain why we could get a table without a reservation on a busy Friday night when all other downtown Chicago restaurants were either booked solid or had no tables available until 10pm.
Our table ordered the Bookbinder Soup, which was delicious but the filets although ordered medium rare, were tough and overcooked. The waiter even apologized as he sat down the plates by saying, «let me tell you a secret, never order a steak in a seafood restaurant.» One of our diners did order a salmon dish and said it was excellent.
The plus side was our waiter was attentive, the restaurant was quiet, its location inside the historic Drake Hotel – and that the restaurant still serves the Drake Hotel’s infamous executive martini, only its served in a much smaller brandy sniffer now.

Craving sea food and wanting to try a new place, we found ourselves at the Cape Cod Room at the Drake. We started with oysters and the clam chowder. The clam chowder was good, however very heavily salted. My boyfriend enjoyed the New York Strip and said it was excellent. It was cooked perfectly as he requested rare, which he finds surprisingly hard for many restaurants. I had the hot pot. I am not a huge fan of mussels so I asked for no mussels and for them to be replaced by the other seafood in the dish. But the server misunderstood me and didn’t change the dish. It was good, I was just disappointed that there weren’t more shrimp or scallops instead of the mussels I was going to eat. However, the garlic green broth in the hot pot had lots of depth of flavor and I enjoyed soaking up every last drop with my bread.
The food was good, however I think there are better seafood options in the City for the same or similar prices.

Quaint. Delicious. Flawless. MCB!
Although located in the infamous Drake Hotel, I can’t describe the «Cape Cod Room» setting as «fancy.» Though there is the wonderful history as well as fine food and linen tablecloths, there are also those heavy wooden chairs commonly seen in more casual seaside eateries. Though there are no less than three crisply-​dressed attendants to your table, there is also a friendly ease with they serve you… and with a ready smile. Though the space is actually quite large, it’s divided into intimate sections and multi-​levels. Add some maritime artwork, wooden panels and copper lighting and you have yourself a spot reminiscent of well, of course, the eastern seaboard. Quaint.
Although you’ve got Oysters Rockefeller, you’ve still got French fries (and the enduring ketchup, ala Heinz.) The clam chowder was properly portioned with … Clams! I’ve noted a recent rash of heavy potato and rosemary in «clam chowders» and it just won’t do. All of us enjoyed our entrees. Diver scallops were smooth and buttery, perfectly prepared and plated in a cream corn sauce. The rack of lamb was tender and succulent — also beautifully plated. I found an unusual satisfaction in that there was no «specialty» cocktail menu at hand. This isn’t trendy or fussy — let’s get to the Vodka martini, straight up and have some nice wine with the meal. (Excellent selection by the glass.) Delicious.
Although there was no «official» host at the podium upon our arrival, we were nonetheless readily greeted and seated by a window overlooking Oak Street & Lake Shore Drive. Then, the ice man cometh. How many cubes? I notice subtle nuances that create a unique experience and something as seemingly «little» as «how much ice would you like in your water» suits me. (Not that he actually had to ask — big points on picking up nonverbal diner cues, Mr Iceman). No one, including our head server, Raul, missed a beat. Flawless.
We knew we were having dessert elsewhere, but a «Drake Hotel» wrapped chocolate square upon leaving was a nice touch! Milk Chocolate Bonus! (MCB!)

Being this was my first time to this restaurant, let alone my first time in The Drake Hotel, I have to say I wasn’t impressed. I should’ve been figuring this is a historical hotel! This is a quaint, small restaurant with a quiet atmosphere (at least when I was there), perfect for a date. Unfortunately the food is something left to be desired. Not bad but not great. I had the crab cake which was pretty good and the Whisky Grilled Lobster. Intrigued? I know I was which is why I ordered it but it wasn’t anything like I thought it would be. On top if that, the waiter suggested an AWEFUL wine which I did NOT drink!
All in all, I hope staying in the hotel is a better experience.