This Westin Hotel restaurant offers unique spins on traditional seafood dishes.

by Molly Priesmeyer

In Short
Located in the former Farmers and Mechanics Building (an old bank, get it?), this elegant, wood-lined restaurant offers kitchen views, salmon as thick as filet mignon and indulgent desserts galore. The restaurant is majestic and breathtaking, but rounded booths offer plenty of cozy spots, too. The fare is new-American: The walleye, salmon and lobster dishes all come with the chefs' unique twist. In fact, every dish here has distinctive finishing touches, like salads served with lemon-emulsion dressing or scallops dressed up in almond-cauliflower puree.

03/28/08

Just plain avoid....

by ByDefinition

Recently visisted the BANK for the first time, and was hugely disappointed. What a grand space with unique character of the surroundings to have such a sad dining experience. Service slow, with frequent disappearing acts, portion size small and inconsistent, over priced, and overall disappointing. Time for new management and kitchen staff, to make this place a go, and bring in returning clientele.

02/25/08

Good food

by epal

My sister and I went to B.A.N.K. one day after work. The drinks were ok, but I loved the cheese plate! Other than that the place was just average. I would suggest it if you are in the area and do not want to walk far, but if you are not and don't mind walking I wouldn't suggest it.

02/18/08

Don't make excuses...just fix it!

by kaddewompis

8:00 Saturday night dinner. Group of six. We made reservations several weeks in advance on OpenTable. Here's a summary of the night's events:

- 8:00 reservations; seated at 8:45 (we heard "2 more minutes" about 5 times)

- reservations for 6; table set for 5 (blamed opentable)

- server (literally) ran past our table asking if we needed drinks. 4 of the 6 of us had empty glasses, he left without taking one order

- not enough menus. server apologized for the oversight and brought a 6th menu but then ran away without taking our drink order (again)

- finally ordered/received drinks at 9:10

- apps and salads were good so we tried to put our frustrations behind us and enjoy ourselves

- tried to order a second pineapple drink and the server said, "sorry, you drank all our pineapple juice" It's MY fault somehow?!

- tried to order the sea bass (the special that night); the server said, "sorry, we just ran out of that." Perhaps if we hadn't had to wait an hour for our table....

- dinner arrived: medium-rare steak was medium-well done, lobster was "rubbery", some meals were made correctly and good

After all of this, we asked to see the manager. We calmly explained all the things that had gone wrong with our dining experience. He immediately started the long list of excuses, including: opentable messed up the reservation (even though I received a phone call to confirm my reservation for 6 guests (from the restaurant!) earlier that day, they had more "walk-ins" than expected that night (why should I suffer for this -- I made a reservation!), the wait staff had more tables than they could handle (he took responsibility for this). He gave us a big pitch about their commitment to quality and how they want every guest to have a good experience, blah blah blah. We were done hearing excuses. Not even a bevy of complimentary desserts could remedy the situation. It's a nice space that deserves a better restaurant.

• Pros: decor, wine list
• Cons: service, service, service

01/21/08

Great for drinks, terrible for anything else

by bloomer13

I went with a group of friends for dinner on a Sat. night. We had reservations but got there early to have a drink. By the time we got our table it was almost 10:00 and the waiter told us the kitchen was only staying open for us so we had to order quickly. He didn't come back to take our order for twenty minutes. Everything we ate was very salty and the waiter was very rude. At the end of the night we asked him to split checks and he completely messed it up and blamed us for it. When we left him a terrible tip for our terrible time, he tracked us down at the door and asked us why, then stormed off when he didn't like the answer. He was very childish. The only good thing about the place was the drink we had there before we got our table. We sat in the lounge areas on the side and had an appetizer and drink. The waitress was extremely nice and when we asked her to split our check she smiled and said no problem because it was really easy!

• Pros: Very cool atmosphere, nice cocktail waitress
• Cons: Terrible waiter (I think one waiter is causing the bad service reviews)

12/15/07

Don't waste your money on B.A.N.K.

by strand2641

I went to B.A.N.K with some friends for a dinner club. We had been looking forward to going there all year. Sadly, we were very disappointed. We had poor service at the bar and our table. The server was extremely disinterested in our group and unfriendly. The menu online lists a Kobe burger and when I asked about the item, I was given a rude look and told that wasn't a correct menu and she didn't know about that. All she said is that there is something from room service like that with a eye roll. The food wasn't impressive and overpriced. Save your money and go somewhere else!

11/12/07

Doesn't seem to care about honoring Reservations

by rickbyers

Reservation 8:15 PM via Open Table Online service.

We arrived at 8:05 and found a place in the Lounge, we ordered a cocktail and mention to the Server our 8:15 reservation and that we had a Show to go to (Rippington's) at 10:00 PM. She confirmed our reservation. At 8:30 I spoke with the "front desk" reagarding our reservation, they stated they were waiting for the patrons at "our table" to leave. At 8:40, I asked our Server again about our Reservations and she said "your table will be ready soon". At 8:45, we're finally seated, the Manager happened to walk by our table, so I stopped him and mentioned the 1/2 hour late Reservation. He responded with "this happens with Open Table Reservation Service" I'm not sure what he meant other than it seems to happen with some frequency. His answer was not in the form of an apology nor what can we do to make things right.

Since we were not pleased with his repsonse and rather not have to rush thru the dinner, we simply got up and left. We walked down the street and were immediately seated at Zelo's, where we had a great dinner and were able to get to the show in time. Thanks Zelo's for the timely and friendly service.

• Cons: Doesn't seem to care about honoring reservations

09/30/07

Beautiful space, awful food, ho-hum service

by jriehm

We walked in, and seeing the great room, expected a great experience. Yes, it makes a better bar than restaurant, but that didn't bother us. Our waiter, however, did -- he was a bit lackluster, and something told us to go slow. We started with a bottle of wine from the relatively pricey list -- it was fine. Then we ordered 2 appetizers (tuna tartar and deviled eggs) to share. The tartar was tasteless, and the eggs were cold and rubbery -- with a microscopic amount of caviar. We decided to NOT toss good money after bad, and skipped the entrees in favor of 2 more appetizers. They were equally bad. We spent much of our time trying to figure out why the chef insisted on coating everything in sight with copious amounts of sea salt. Eventually, we gave up and walked over to the lobby bar at Chambers hotel for wonderful drinks and dessert -- and really nice service. As soon as BANK is replaced (and it will be) by a restaurant deserving of this wonderful space, we'll return.

• Pros: The space is beautiful

09/24/07

When there's lobby space, throw a restaurnt in!

by tandc

My first reaction when walking in was, "this is a restaurant?" It looked as if tables, chairs & booths were thrown into an open lobby space to create a dining room. Anyway, we waited a few minutes to be seated at the unattended hostess desk until the manager finally noticed so he apologized & promptly seated us. At first we were seated at a single's table but we asked to move into a booth which our server was kind enough to do. The booth gave us privacy and set a much more romantic tone. The menu was small and nothing really stood out so we just went with the seared walleye and lobster & risotto croquettes. My fiance loved the walleye which also included poached lobster, we both liked that the walleye was lightly crisped and thought it went well with the lobster and butter sauce. On the other hand, my croquettes were very sticky and lacked the taste of lobster. The website promotes a wine celler in a bank vault which was neat and we also liked the $ sign tab holder. All in all, we wanted to give this place a chance but we will probably not return.

09/16/07

Great food & service at the bar!

by sarastiles

We avoided getting a table because of reading bad reviews (considering the service by the waiters) on-line, and grabbed chairs at the bar. The bartenders were VERY friendly and fun, and the drinks (we tried their Mai Tai and Mojito) were delicious. The bar snacks are spicy crackers, which reminded me of oyster crackers--delicious. I had a giant bowl of lime-flavored mussels, which were delicious. They are considered an appetizer, and for the amount of mussels you get, it's a great value at $7! My friend had the Ahi Tuna entree, which she loved. At $26, we thought it a bit pricey, but she said it was worth it. The bread was warm, Italian-style, which we loved. We'd have tried dessert if we'd had room, but we were too full. The room is gorgeous, and is mostly original, from the 1940s. Don't miss the beautiful wine cellar, which is inside the old bank vault. I found it strange that the restaurant was so empty, especially on a Saturday night at 6:30 p.m., but I'm hoping the place catches on. We loved it and have already picked out some menu items to try on our next visit. I think we'll stick with sitting at the bar, as the bartenders were wonderful. Why mess with perfection?

• Pros: On the light rail, ambience, friendly employees, delicious food
• Cons: none that I can think of