The Lounge

I spent the end of every night here whilr in chicago. The have beer, wine, liquor, and food. The enviroment is very comfortable and the staff here is very friendly. They are. masters of mixology making top quality martinis to specilty drinks like sake infused with chili syrup. A great place to have a cocktail, relax, and socialize with friends.

The Lounge is always hopping. Busy. Filled.
Unfortunately, Service has significantly changed. When asked which of the cheese selections (no description on menu) are made from goats milk? Answer: Cheddar and Brie are popular. My first Clueless Cheese. He was kind to get me a cheese description print out an hour later.
Surf and Turf Roll — smelled good, taste is iffy. Loose roll. Quality ingredients are chopped into pieces mixed with sauce as filler. It must have been bad as I didn’t bother finishing the order, nor motivated to take it home.
Acai Cocktail — delicious, sweet and fruity.
Bad food and service means, it is time to move on to a different venue.

We had a good lunch with chicken sandwiches, chopped salad, and soup. The service was quick and the waitress was friendly.

The Lounge is the less-​formal dining option in the newly-​opened JW Marriott Hotel in the Financial District. I’ve already tried The Florentine but we needed a more casual (read: less pricey) option for a last-​minute working lunch, and no one wanted to walk that far, so we settled on here.
Situated in the lobby of the hotel, it’s a nice option for travelers and people who work nearby. It’s open for breakfast, lunch, dinner or after-​work cocktails. The décor is striking, with lots of dark wood and marble, and there’s high-​top tables, couches, and regular tables.
We chose a high-​top table that seated eight, even though there was only four of us. We had a lot of room to spread out which was nice because we were going over lots of paperwork, so we were able to push it aside when the food came.
The menu focuses on local and seasonal ingredients and it’s pretty standard fare, but elevated to a sophisticated level. You’ve got your requisite Asian items (edamame, spring rolls), flatbreads, mini sandwiches (Italian beef, filet sliders) and also some soups and salads to round out the menu.
I opted for the Wada Farms French onion soup and a chopped salad. Soup sounded like the perfect antidote to a cold day and I hadn’t had a good French onion soup in a while.
The soup was good; the broth was rich and complex, but a bit over-​seasoned. It came with plenty of crusty, nutty Gruyère (the cheese is always the best part anyway) on top and just enough sweet onions. Overall, a very good soup.
The chopped salad was nice too, and the perfect amount to go with the soup. It had a good variety of chopped vegetables and other ingredients: romaine, corn, tomatoes, avocado, bleu cheese, bacon, hard-​boiled eggs, and a light ranch dressing. You could add chicken breast, steak or grilled shrimp to your salad for an up charge, which one person in our group did, but I didn’t need any additional protein.
My other lunch companions got the mini-​Italian beef sandwiches, sweet potato fries, and the chopped salad with chicken breast. The chicken breast was kind of gray looking and sad, and I thought it was odd that it was served on the side and not chopped up and added to the salad itself. I mean, it is called a «chopped» salad after all. She said that even with the chicken breast, it was still not a very filling salad, so I’m glad I opted to order the soup too, because now that person is sitting at her desk eating leftovers pilfered from another lunch meeting because she was still hungry.
I also got to try the sweet potato fries, which were excellent. I’d go back just for those.
I am a sucker for their condiments — cute little jars of room-​service sized Grey Poupon, mayo, and Heinz ketchup (well, this is a hotel). I didn’t use the condiments, but I wanted to steal them and revel in their cuteness (I did not).
The service was good too, just what you’d expect from a higher-​end hotel catering to the upscale business traveler. I will definitely be back.