B.A.N.K.

03/28/2008 Posted 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.

02/25/2008 Posted 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.

02/18/2008 Posted 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

01/21/2008 Posted 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)

12/15/2007 Posted 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!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

11/12/2007 Posted 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

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

09/30/2007 Posted 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

09/24/2007 Posted 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.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

09/16/2007 Posted 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

08/21/2007 Posted by joejones67

We were excited for our dinner here and ended up being disappointed. This place has alot to figure out. We arrived early for dinner on our anniversary, and the hostess recommended that we have a drink at the bar. The bar was packed full of business travelers, so we asked to be seated, she seemed confused by this. Not sure why, but they proceeded to seat us at easily the worst table in the restaurant in the middle of an area where people were standing around drinking - we found it very uncomfortable, as did others near us. We asked if there was another table (which there were) and she said no and didn't seem to care. Most of the tables are near the massive bar, which is eliptical and takes up most of the well-decorated space. Seemed to be a good place to have a drink, but not dinner. Food was marginal at best. The salt and pepper calamari appetizer was a total joke - about 8 tiny pieces of calamari under (no joke) a foot of frisee salad that wasn't even seasoned. The lobster risotto croquettes were decent, but cold. Our waitress was disappointed in us for not ordering drinks, as evidenced by her sad-puppy face. She also pushed us hard to order sides, and seemed disappointed again when we insisted that we had ordered enough between 2 appetizers and 2 entrees. She also forgot to tell us the specials, we thought there weren't any until we heard them after we ordered. Our entrees were ok, my wife's filet was good, however, it came with frozen spinach (Birds-Eye or Green Giant, if I'm not mistaken- which is fine but not when i'm paying $35 a plate). My lamb chops were sad, much like our waitress. We eat at higher-end restaurants on a regular basis (Lurcat, Nami, Salut, Campiello, etc), and would put this way at the bottom of the pack. If I had to guess, I would say they jack up their prices because they're a hotel restaurant and most of their guests are paying via corporate card. Unless your company is footing the bill, go somewhere else.

Pros: Nice place for a drink

Cons: Poor value for the money