NoRTH seems to be just yet another overated Fox restaurant. We went away somewhat disappointed after reading all the positive reviews from fellow Yelpers. Here's my breakdown -
1. Space - the restaurant has a somewhat cool vibe, but the space is too open. There's nothing that really breaks the room up, so you just feel like you're in a big room of tables. Not bad, just not super compelling.
2. Menu - pretty good set of options. Seemed like a strong start here.
3. Food - this is where things started to slip. A good indication of the quality of an Italian restaurant is it's bread. This wasn't the good stuff - it was the light tasteless unnoticeable bread that every medium Italian restaurant serves. Ours was dry, maybe because it was later in the evening. The food was all beautifully presented, but lacked great flavor. I'm a big fan of burata but theirs was entirely flavorless. Salads were overdrenched in dressing, though the ideas were good.
3. Service - our waitress seemed very well-intentioned and nice, but paid us very little attention. Asked for olive oil with the bread instead of the standard butter - oops, missed this. Asked if we wanted more appetizer olives - then forgot to bring them. Seemed to approach the table at awkward times, but then was nowhere to be found when trying to pay. Not super impressive.
Bottomline: This restaurant is kinda mediocre. It's hard to really go beneath 3 stars, because it's nice and moderately well executed, but it's far from inspiring or even a solid recommend to friends. Options might be few up here in North Glendale, which is the only reason I can think for why others rate it 4 stars.