Northside Seafood Recommendations

My wife's birthday is approaching and when asked what she wanted to do to celebrate she said she wanted seafood (her New England roots run deep). I come looking for suggestions for a restaurant that is:
1) On the north side of the city
2) Has a seafood focus or has a variety of seafood dishes (it doesn't have to be all seafood but has something more than the one fish main dish option)
3) Has food for a vegetarian (me) to eat

I think we are looking at something a bit nicer than Glenn's Diner but not necessarily fine dining. I tried searching the site for this but couldn't come up with much. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

In addition to Glenn's, there are Fahlstrom's (as in Glenn Fahlstrom) and Fish Bar. Both have excellent seafood, but neither is overtly upscale, and it sounds like you're looking for a bit upscale. If so, GT Fish & Oyster and Shaw's Crab House are both still terrific. GT Fish is one of my favorite restaurants in the city, and Shaw's is the most evocative of New England seafood restaurants. All have discussion topics here on LTH (here, here, and here, and here).

Other upscale candidates include Portsmith (liked it), Hugo's Frog Bar (liked it), Catch 35 (went some years back and was disappointed), and some places I haven't been (Eddie V's, Truluck's, Ocean Cut).

Some of these are downtown in River North and the Gold Coast, which may or may not be included when you think of the North Side. Check all of their online menus to see which also offer sufficient vegetarian choices for your needs.

Oh, and Eater has a listing/map of 20 of Chicago's Best Seafood Restaurants.

My Top Picks: GT Fish or Shaw's.

EDIT: After checking out their website menus, the vegetarian choices at GT Fish are extremely limited (an eggplant side, and french fries), so that could be a problem. (It's not a great place for carnevors, either, as they only have one meat dish.) Shaw's has numerous salads and sides, like most places.

Oyster Bah?

I've only been to Oyster Bah once, and that was for brunch, but we loved it. They had recently started brunch service and the food was terrific - had my 1st oyster! The service staff were wonderful. My sister and her girlfriend were familiar with the host from another restaurant he had worked it, he had a great personality. All in all, a great experience, and really looking forward to going back.

We recently enjoyed Two Lights. https://www.twolightschicago.com

Lula does a lovely job with fish and has a great atmosphere.

Thanks everyone! In talking it over with her, she was charmed a bit by Oyster Bah, in some ways because of the name, and so right now that is most likely where we will go, though it is still a bit up in the air.

I am glad of this forum though because it reminded me of GT Fish and Oyster (where we have been before and had a nice meal, though looking at the menu I have no idea what I ate) and put Two Lights on our radar for the future. It's good to have a few seafood centered places in my back pocket to use for future date nights.

Will report back wherever we end up.

Thanks, Joe, for checking back with us! It's helpful when we hear back later from anyone asking for recommendations, and unfortunately that doesn't always happen.

Thanks also to annak for the recommendation of Two Lights, which I had never heard of and is now on my list of places to try.

Had a very nice meal at Oyster Bah on Saturday. We were seated at a high top in the front of the restaurant in a very tight area (we were maybe 4 inches from the table next to us). Service was great and my wife got to indulge her seafood craving with oysters (big fan of the citrus garnish that came with), a cup of clam chowder and a seafood roll that was chock full of seafood and had the classic New England bun. We also split a very nice burrata that came with roasted brussel sprouts and I had a shaved brussel sprout salad with a side of roasted broccoli for my main course. The salad was very light and tasty, though maybe could have used a bit more of the goat cheese and cherries (there was a lot of brussel sprouts compared to the other elements) and the broccoli was very good. They also gave my wife a complimentary peppermint ice cream with hot fudge for her birthday which was a great way to end the meal.

This was a great recommendation and one I could see coming back to on a more regular basis.

nsxtasy wrote:Other upscale candidates include Portsmith (liked it), Hugo's Frog Bar (liked it), Catch 35 (went some years back and was disappointed), and some places I haven't been (Eddie V's, Truluck's, Ocean Cut).

In Jan 2022, Mrs Willie & I took a week and rented a VRBO home in downtown area of Naples. Nearly every afternoon we would have some fresh stone crab claws &/or smoked fish dip from local markets. The flavor of every claw we had was just amazing.

So we've had a jonesen for stone crab claws this spring. As most markets where I would get stone crab claws in Chicago didn't seem to carry them on a regular basis as I remembered, we've been to Truluck's Rosemont location twice. Both times the claws, despite stating they are flown up fresh daily, didn't live up to expectations, (to narrow down on if it was a claw size issue, we tried different sizes of claws).

What we did end up really enjoying is a regular entree that Truluck's offers.
MISO-GLAZED SEABASS w/crab fried rice, chilled cucumber slaw. Each time we've been the fish has been perfectly cooked and fish as well as crab fried rice have been delicious.

Truluck's Rosemont
9860 Berwyn Ave
Rosemont IL 60018
https://trulucks.com/locations/rosemont-illinois/

Sweet Willie wrote:So we've had a jonesen for stone crab claws this spring.

I've never been there, but Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab downtown is known for stone crab. It's even in their name! If I wanted stone crab, that's a place I would try.

Sweet Willie wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:Other upscale candidates include Portsmith (liked it), Hugo's Frog Bar (liked it), Catch 35 (went some years back and was disappointed), and some places I haven't been (Eddie V's, Truluck's, Ocean Cut).

In Jan 2022, Mrs Willie & I took a week and rented a VRBO home in downtown area of Naples. Nearly every afternoon we would have some fresh stone crab claws &/or smoked fish dip from local markets. The flavor of every claw we had was just amazing.

So we've had a jonesen for stone crab claws this spring. As most markets where I would get stone crab claws in Chicago didn't seem to carry them on a regular basis as I remembered, we've been to Truluck's Rosemont location twice. Both times the claws, despite stating they are flown up fresh daily, didn't live up to expectations, (to narrow down on if it was a claw size issue, we tried different sizes of claws).

What we did end up really enjoying is a regular entree that Truluck's offers.
MISO-GLAZED SEABASS w/crab fried rice, chilled cucumber slaw. Each time we've been the fish has been perfectly cooked and fish as well as crab fried rice have been delicious.

Truluck's Rosemont
9860 Berwyn Ave
Rosemont IL 60018
https://trulucks.com/locations/rosemont-illinois/

Truth be told, Everglades City and Goodland, Florida is ground zero for stone crab claws. What you eat today in Naples, Fort Myers, Bonita Beach, was harvested late last night and cooked today. FYI, the season ended yesterday. Shipped and frozen claws will never be able to come close. I winter in Marco Island and typically go to Kirk's in Goodland on Tuesday and Thursday for claws. First off crabbers are a different breed of fisherman. Sometimes they crab, sometimes, they dont. This year they were crabbing, because the wholesale cost of claws is so high. Early on, supply was great. About a month ago, I was not able to get great quality or quality. It happened to coincide with the end of season/winter and most of the crabbers stopped crabbing. Also most of the crabbers were trapping and harvesting only colossal; which typically dont make it outside of Florida. The price on those tripled this claw season. I do not eat frozen claws out of season or outside of south Florida as I want the pristine stuff cooked today!!

Sweet Willie wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:Other upscale candidates include Portsmith (liked it), Hugo's Frog Bar (liked it), Catch 35 (went some years back and was disappointed), and some places I haven't been (Eddie V's, Truluck's, Ocean Cut).

In Jan 2022, Mrs Willie & I took a week and rented a VRBO home in downtown area of Naples. Nearly every afternoon we would have some fresh stone crab claws &/or smoked fish dip from local markets. The flavor of every claw we had was just amazing.

So we've had a jonesen for stone crab claws this spring. As most markets where I would get stone crab claws in Chicago didn't seem to carry them on a regular basis as I remembered, we've been to Truluck's Rosemont location twice. Both times the claws, despite stating they are flown up fresh daily, didn't live up to expectations, (to narrow down on if it was a claw size issue, we tried different sizes of claws).

What we did end up really enjoying is a regular entree that Truluck's offers.
MISO-GLAZED SEABASS w/crab fried rice, chilled cucumber slaw. Each time we've been the fish has been perfectly cooked and fish as well as crab fried rice have been delicious.

Truluck's Rosemont
9860 Berwyn Ave
Rosemont IL 60018
https://trulucks.com/locations/rosemont-illinois/

Truth be told, Everglades City and Goodland, Florida is ground zero for stone crab claws. What you eat today in Naples, Fort Myers, Bonita Beach, was harvested late last night and cooked today. FYI, the season ended yesterday. Shipped and frozen claws will never be able to come close. I winter in Marco Island and typically go to Kirk's in Goodland on Tuesday and Thursday for claws. First off crabbers are a different breed of fisherman. Sometimes they crab, sometimes, they dont. This year they were crabbing, because the wholesale cost of claws is so high. Early on, supply was great. About a month ago, I was not able to get great quality or quality. It happened to coincide with the end of season/winter and most of the crabbers stopped crabbing. Also most of the crabbers were trapping and harvesting only colossal; which typically dont make it outside of Florida. The price on those tripled this claw season. I do not eat frozen claws out of season or outside of south Florida as I want the pristine stuff cooked today!!