Hoyt's Chicago — Restaurant in Chicago

I would give this a negative star if i could. The food was over priced for what we got and hardly edible in my opinion and I'm someone who does NOT complain much about anything and will eat anything. I had the whiskey burger and my fiance had the baha fish tacos. The burger was cold and the toppings looked disgusting, I feel like they gave me a wrong order burger someone ordered hours ago and it just sat around. I tried the fish tacos because i absolutely hate wasting food but she could not even swallow a bite. I shortly after realized why and i almost vomited on her plate. That was just the dinner portion, prior to that we stood by the door for 15min wondering if we could even be seated, then a bus boy or some janitor seated us. We then waited for about 20 minutes to get asked if we were helped yet, we said no. Then this "server" if you will call him that said "What do you want", so we ordered our food. Didn't get water or utensils/napkins or anything until long after having to ask for them. Later after our food came out I had to wave someone down for a water refill because i was not about to wait 45 minutes to get a specialty drink but we ended up with lukewarm water for the evening. Right after that another couple was seated at a table that was dirty, by that i mean it still had a half eaten burger on plate and other uneaten food as well as their drink ware, they left, as we should have. Unfortunately i did have to tip, 50 cents maybe but that was even too generous for the service we got, remember TIP is an acronym, its something earned, not given. But i did have to tip because i did not have exact change and we waited far too long for someone to come take our payment. 10-15 minutes went by where we didn't even see an employee so i left cash and we left. This was the worst experience i have ever had eating anywhere. So glad i decided to have my birthday dinner the next day instead. Do yourself a favor and stay hungry if you are considering this place. If you are management reviewing this, know that i truly feel bad that your employees are so careless, maybe do a review training course or something on...

We came to Hoyt's on a whim, and I was struck by how hard the place is trying. And how terribly uncomfortable that makes it.

Atmosphere wise, it's fine. Not terribly nice, but not terribly well put together either. The colours are incongruous and the music is a yuppie nightmare of Vampire Weekend and Yael Naim. Both of which I like in a decent setting. Like I said, trying too hard.

The lobster mac & cheese is actually quite good and underpriced. It has much more meat in it than any other I've had, and the ingredients are first rate. The calamari was pretty solid ingredients wise too, but was ruined by presentation and lack of forethought. It's packed into a tiny, expensive looking, mini-frying basket that crushes the leftover oils together and makes the flakes of breading fall off as you flail helplessly, unsuccessfully to dip the limp pieces into the all-too-heavy sauce that does nothing to compliment such fine squid that would be better served by simple lemon and pepper. Point is, the breading could have been more robust because of the way it was served.

What really slayed me was my burger. From the description it is a high end burger, made well, and constructed with care out of good meats. I got a burned white bun on a falling over tower of mediocre meat which was similarly over cooked with the wrong cheese and zero seasoning. Oh, and the ketchup was in a tiny cute little flip-top can. Yay. I ate maybe a quarter of it and then packed it up. I write this two days later and I am so throughly displeased with my $17 burger that I have called Hoyt's to let them know I can't eat even my leftovers.

Off the top of my head Flemming's, Leamon Tree, and Fat Shallot all have a better, cheaper, less neurotic meal. Oh, and Shallot is...

This is the first meal I've had here in Chicago that was really good. It was a riff on basic american pub fare, everything started out with pretty ordinary descriptions, but they all ended up with extra flavors that raised the food from the normal to the extraordinary. Zagatz rates it a 26 and I agree. We started with a pretzel with a couple of sauces. The pretzel was obviously made there and was a good example of its type. The sauces were okay, the mustard was a good hearty one that you'd expect for a pretzel, the cheese sauce I really couldn't place, it was okay, but did not have much character. Needed more garlic ;-) The second appetizer was a deep fried cheese curd with a tomato based sauce. The cheese was fine, but the sauce was extraordinary. It used an Italian pallet of flavors and was quite nice. Dinner was a hamburger with fries. Ostensibly. The burger was actually Kobe beef and was quite good, cooked on a grill so there was some smoke in it, and was lightly seasoned. The cheddar was a good quality one, well aged and flavorful. The bun was home made, toasted, and good although mine was a bit small for the meat and by the time I finished it'd gotten pretty soggy. On top were three very nice onion rings, there was some flavoring in the breading, probably a bit of garlic powder so I was happy there. The fries were good ones deep fried, then sprinkled with some cheese and truffle oil. Very tasty as well. All in all I was pleasantly surprised, I've been having bad luck with Chicago restaurants so far, this one I...