North Star American Bistro — Restaurant in Brookfield

My husband and I have been here a number of times. As usual, the food was delicious. It is nice, though, that I hear a change is coming to the menu soon as it is a little boring. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Chicken and Mushroom Risotto, but it would be nice to have some different alternatives, especially for desserts, if nothing else. The 4 desserts offered haven't changed since we discovered the restaurant a long time ago. Frankly, they aren't really impressive and definitely need a freshen up (when you live 10 minutes from The Elegant Farmer, their cobbler isn't even an option, and my husband makes a creme brûlée that is delicious). Ok, enough about food. It is delicious and you won't be let down. Service, on the other hand, could use a "warm-up". When making the reservations, my husband clearly informed them it was for our 25th(!) wedding anniversary. No one said a word about it. Kinda disappointing, especially when it was a "big" anniversary. I could live with that though. What I didn't like was our waitress's false warmness. I realize that it's no fun being a waitress, and you'd rather be at the table eating than serving the food; however, it is the job you are doing. While she wasn't rude or anything, she barely made eye contact with us and just seemed like she didn't care. While we didn't have a huge bill, we still didn't just order 2 main dishes - we had an appetizer, a soup, and a glass of wine. Besides, that shouldn't matter. When dropping off the bill and picking it back up, she said the right words, but was looking in another direction and moving very quickly away while saying them! Just very cold. I worked 5 years as a receptionist/secretary at a large, busy counseling facility and KNOW customer service. This waitress wouldn't have lasted a day where I was. Genuine warmth goes a long way, even on...

A group of gals went for an early lunch. We were treated to a great time. Ambiance is great, server was friendly, and the kitchen was super accommodating. Presentation was beautiful - the pictures came out great with minimal effort!

Fried eggplant and zucchini I kept grabbing the zucchini so didn't get to try the eggplant lol. I'll have to reserve opinion on the taste since I'm on keto and I scraped off the breading. Another friend wanted all my breading lol. She said it was delicious!

Caramelized gouda burger The kitchen was very accommodating to my keto needs. I went bunless, with the thousand island sauce on the side. I subbed fries with a house salad with ranch on the side. I don't know if this is their usual way, but they really filled the plate up with the side salad. It was almost as big as my friends' salad plates. Thanks!

Daily Special - scallop salad The salad came with 3 jumbo scallops atop a bed of romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado and bacon.

Roasted beet and goat cheese salad with chicken The grilled chicken ($6) on top of the salad was huge and the roasted red and yellow beets were delicious. Otherwise, the salad itself wasn't too special.

Grilled chicken club This looked more like a burger than a club sandwich. And tasted like one too! Portion of the fries were also quite huge.

Creme Brûlée Not as sweet as other creme brûlées I've had - which is great! I always love a delicious dessert that isn't smothered in sugar. This one was top notch.

Flourless chocolate cake personally, not my favorite fare. I guess a chocolate cake needs flour. But I also wasn't loving the raspberry sauce drizzled over it - this was really sweet (unlike the creme brûlée). The raspberry sorbet was great, but the sauce was overpowering. Someone with a sweeter tooth than myself would have loved this.

Overall a...

Not a good night at North Star! Ordered a drink at the bar and got a table for dinner right away. Things started out OK. They transferred the tab to the table. Waitress had a flighty personality. Not attentive at all. Had to ask for water, butter on the table, but no bread. I asked what the butter was for. She said, oh yea, you can have some bread. We have eaten here several times before and decided to try some new entrees. My wife ordered the veal, not good! had a hint of all spice or cinnamon flavor (not consistent with Itailian as described) & tomato sauce soaked into the breading. Very disappointing dish. The hostess did stop by the table, not the waitress, and asked how the meal was. My wife told her that is was disappointing, and she asked if they could bring her another plate. The problem was not with the plate, but just a bad dish, so she said no and choked down enough to stop her hunger and left the rest. I had the chicken special for &18.95. Very tasty, but the portion was small and I was not filled up. We ordered the apple crisp for desert with gelato, and that was very good. We also had a bottle of Carnivore Cabernet that was excellent. Then the check came. The transfer from the bar included 2 drinks & a bottle of wine that we did not order, but did not include the 2 drinks we did order. The waitress said she would correct and brought the check back. The server did say that the manager was crediting the dessert for the confusion. We had a gift card & paid cash for the difference. The server made the payment process confusing and uncomfortable. Left a 20% tip anyway, but will likely not return soon. Truly an off night for the North Star. If we return, we will stick to the tried and true dishes, and hope for a more...