Hub 51, River North

Hub 51
51 W Hubbard St
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, November 11th

The Victims: Four work colleages

The Damage: About $60 per person

The Background: My company has a lot of international visitors. A lot. This is fun for me at this stage, when I’m still new-in-town and somewhat of an international guest myself. So I don’t mind taking the reins on organizing dinner. I wonder though when this will get old.

On this particular evening, our “Welcome to Chicago” dinner was for a colleague visiting from Spain. Organizing a work dinner is not easy. There are many requirements. Firstly, given that a lot of people live in the suburbs, you need a restaurant that’s relatively downtown so people can easily catch their trains. This rules out A LOT of cool places. Secondly–again because of the commuters–you have to eat early. (This is generally not a problem in Chicago, where most restaurants start serving dinner at 4:30 pm. Yes, you read that correctly. But it just means that your reservation window is small…you need a table between 5:30 and 6. Any later and the commuters bail.) Thirdly, you don’t want to mortgage the farm on dinner. It has to be decently priced. And lastly, I like to take country-of-origin of the guest in question into consideration, which can eliminate a whole swath of restaurants. Italian guest? You’re screwed. For all these reasons, Hub 51 was my choice.

The Entrance: Hub 51 is LOUD. I have made a bad choice. We can barely hear each other over the din, and or table is in front of a roped off area where the young and upwardly mobile of a large financial services firm are celebrating something. Loudly. My ears ache. (They are also all wearing suits and ties, which you rarely ever see in Chicago anymore.) The restaurant is also dark. Very dark.

Hub 51 also has a lot of Mexican items on the menu. This is annoying because our guest–again visiting from Spain–is actually Mexican. I hate taking natives to a place that serves inauthentic versions of their food. I have obviously not done my homework well enough.

But wait…Hub 51 serves sushi too. And not in a fusion kind of way. There, sitting next to the guacamole on the menu, is the sushi. I believe this was the Tuna and Thai Basil roll, with avocado and wasabi cream. It was okay. Luckily, the presence of the sushi made me feel better about taking our Mexican guest to a restaurant with a Mexican-tilted menu.

Best was the ceviche. Whoever made this knew what they were doing. It was fresh and light and not skimpy on the seafood. (Although perhaps a little too much avocado for my taste, after all the avocado in the guacamole and the sushi roll.) I don’t see this on their dinner menu online, so I’m wondering if it was a special.

These were my fish tacos, a disappointment to fish tacos everywhere. (So disappointing, apparently, that I neglected to really photograph the fish.) The indeterminate fish was dry and there was nothing on this plate to brighten it up. Even the tomato salsa was boring. I ate the black beans and left the rest behind, not even asking for a doggy bag. Bad sign. Oddly, the dish was accompanied by cole slaw.

The Verdict: Eh. I’ve had better. Particularly in places where I could hear myself think.