Jan 06
Tapas in Chicago - lots of fun
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Popular throughout Spain in bars and restaurants, tapas are appetizers that usually accompany sherry or other aperitifs or cocktails. They can also form an entire meal and can range from simple items such as olives or cubes of ham and cheese to more elaborate preparations like cold omelets, snails in a spicy sauce, stuffed peppers and miniature sandwiches.
Most tapas served now is more involved, think mini servings almost. There are both hot & cold tapas, make sure to try both.
There are some menus for tapas listed on all the websites below to give you an idea of what to expect.
Tapas is lots of fun as you get to try a great variety of dishes, deciding as a group what to get next, and served with the sangria is ooooooohhhhhh so good.
A few tapas restaurants in Chicago I’ve been to are:
Emilio’s Tapas - has various locations, I have only dined at the Ohio street location and thought is was very good, as was the sangria. http://www.emiliostapas.com/
Café Ba-Ba-Reeba 2024 N. Halsted Street - http://www.leye.com/restaurants/rest_home.jsp?id=5
Café-Ba-Ba-Reeba was good, Emilio’s was very good, and my favorite would be Café Iberico at 739 N. LaSalle. http://www.cafe-iberico.com/
indo79 reviewed Café Iberico: http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/Forum11/HTML/000100.html
Anyone been to others in Chicago?
however, i feel that their paella (sp?) could be better ...
from Zagat.com
make your dining experience cheaper, just saw that discount certs were available for all Emilio's locations (suburbs as well) at http://www.restaurant.com
Write ups from Crain's for 1492 and Cafe Iberico
1492 Tapas Bar
42 E. Superior St.
(312) 867-1492
Price range at lunch, $4.92-$21.92
This attractive restaurant provides a lovely setting for a business lunch: The dining room is painted a creamy yellow, it's softly lit, tables are covered in linen and service is mostly excellent. It's housed in an old Victorian townhouse — a little spooky on the outside, but inside it's warm, welcoming and clean.
Start with the jamon serrano plate ($8.92): In a nice twist, the toast that accompanies the ham and cheese is topped with a sun-dried tomato. Another winner, the queso de cabra (also $8.92) — goat cheese melted in a tomato sauce — is made by the book and with excellent ingredients. Beef tenderloin ($9.92) is sliced thin and served on toast with sun-dried tomatoes and manchego cheese. Pimiento rellenos ($8.92) are soft red peppers stuffed with a seafood mash, a feast for the eyes and very filling. Grilled squid ($6.92) is tender, but its broth didn't please. Ditto the Sevilla salad ($10.92), its greens soggy and its dressing too sharp. The flan ($5.92) is more cake-like than a typical custard, but still serves as a wonderfully sweet endnote.
Diners accustomed to tapas-sized portions — servings the size of an appetizer — should beware: Many here are oversized. We had too much food for two.
We were one of only three tables occupied on a recent weekday. The gracious, attentive service, quality food and just-off-Michigan Avenue location makes 1492 deserving of a crowd.
Cafe Iberico
739 N. LaSalle St.
(312) 573-1510
Price range at lunch, $3-$12.95
This vast place comes to life at night: It's noisy and filled with young and old professionals catching a good and not-too-expensive meal of tapas and paella while sharing a pitcher of sangria. Daytime is different, and it's then you see that the bar area is a bit grungy (though it's a quiet place for solo diners to catch a meal, much as in Spain) and the main dining room oddly lit. Though not full, Iberico certainly attracts a noontime crowd, mostly long tables filled with co-workers and families. I brought a bunch of teenagers who had the day off from school. One had traveled in Spain, but the others were new to the cuisine. We all enjoyed the hubbub of passing, sharing and comparing the tapas and paella and had a wonderful meal.
TOP TABLE
1492 Tapas Bar is a better choice for a quiet business lunch, but we preferred the fare worth fighting over and festive atmosphere at Cafe Iberico, which reminded us of Spain and of another top tapas restaurant in Chicago, Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba (2024 N. Halsted St.), open only at night during the week.
Cold tapas arrived in a flash and the lunchtime paella (ready in half the usual 45 minutes) was a pleasing mix of rice, chicken, fava beans and thin yellow beans, surprisingly good for a "quickie" paella ($7.95). We tussled over certain hot tapas: the tender grilled salmon in green peppercorn sauce ($6.25), beef tenderloin skewers set on caramelized onions ($5.50) and the queso de cabra with herbed toast. Our favorite was the jamon Iberico ($5.75), a platter of razor-thin ham, manchego cheese slices and toast topped with chopped tomato. Piled together, it's one of life's great taste treats: salty and cooling with a crunch.
Desserts are freshly made and very good. Flan ($3.25) has the appropriate jiggle, and we left not a bite of two specials, a chocolate-filled sponge cake and a chocolate-filled crepe ($3.95 each).
Our server was competent but a little rushed. She smiled and lingered only once, to help us correctly pronounce certain Spanish words.
from Zagat.com
Sign up for the birthday club at Sangria and get $25 worth of free tapas on your birthday.
Arco de Cuchilleros should be avoided, in my opinion. Cafe Babareeba is very Americanized. The two times I have been there, I could not find someone who could even understand Spanish to take our order.
When my friends from Spain lived in Evanston to go to graduate school, the only Spanish place they would go to was Cafe Iberico. I like it better than the others, but I find that it is not as strong on varieies of non-seafood dishes.
It's so much better than Tapas Barcelona in Evanston. If your friends lived in Evanston and came to Chicago just to go to Iberico, you better believe it's good!
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When once you have experienced being a 1K, you will forever fly the friendly skies with your eyes set on 100% mileage bonus and SWUs, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return, every year!
It's so much better than Tapas Barcelona in Evanston. If your friends lived in Evanston and came to Chicago just to go to Iberico, you better believe it's good!This was about 10 years ago when Iberico had first opened and only had the space to the right of the bar. Tapas Barcelona wasn't open then. That reminds me that I need to try them the next time I'm in Evanston for dinner - last time we tried to get in there the wait was too long.
I noticed their frequent advertisements in the Tribune though.
Originally posted by Sweet Willie:
Saw this tapas restaurant advertised:
1492 Tapas Bar
42 East Superior
312.867.1492
“four floors of Spanish hospitality in the Gold Coast”
Live Flamenco Music and Dance Performaces on the weekends.
1492 Tapas Bar
42 East Superior
312.867.1492
“four floors of Spanish hospitality in the Gold Coast”
Live Flamenco Music and Dance Performaces on the weekends.
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When once you have experienced being a 1K, you will forever fly the friendly skies with your eyes set on 100% mileage bonus and SWUs, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return, every year!
Saw this tapas restaurant advertised:
1492 Tapas Bar
42 East Superior
312.867.1492
“four floors of Spanish hospitality in the Gold Coast”
Live Flamenco Music and Dance Performaces on the weekends.
sounds expensive...flamenco music is a nice touch though. going to check it out?
If you want to go to Meson Sabika, reservations are needed for the weekend evenings.
My fav is Cafe Iberico, though. Weekend evenings do get really busy by 6pm. In case you're wondering, they do not take reservations for weekend evening.
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Jimmy
We also love a tapas place in GRR where we live. The funny thing we have found is that in general, the places that do tapas well in the US seem to be better quality than the average tapas bar in Spain. I think in Spain tapas are probably more considered "fast food" where in the States, being a little more "exotic", more care is taken in their preparation. Please don't take this wrong, we had some very good Tapas in Spain, but the average seemed a bit less quality than the States. Can someone corroborate this, or have we just been really lucky to find good tapas places in the US?
from Zagat.com
The two times I have been there, I could not find someone who could even understand Spanish to take our order.
Haha....isn't that the truth.
Yep, by far..Iberico is VERY authentic...this coming from a Spaniard. The decor, the interior smell, the menus...everything. Emilio's in Hillside, while more American feeling inside, has a very Spanish flavor to its comida! http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/biggrin.gif
Café Ba-Ba-Reeba 2024 N. Halsted Street - http://www.leye.com/restaurants/rest_home.jsp?id=5
January 20: Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba! hosts a six-course tapas dinner paired with wines, followed by a presentation on the artist El Greco by curator Dan Barber of the Art Institute of Chicago (7 PM; $40; 773-935-5000).
Café Ba-Ba-Reeba 2024 N. Halsted Street - http://www.leye.com/restaurants/rest_home.jsp?id=5
From Zagat online:
Artista Ba-Ba-Reeba!: Picasso Tapas and Wine Dinner: Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba! hosts a six-course tapas wine dinner paired with a slide-show presentation of Picasso's work narrated by curator Claire Kunny of the Art Institute of Chicago (May 20, 7 PM; $40 inclusive; reservations are required; tickets are available at www.cafebabareeba.com (http://www.cafebabareeba.com) or at the door).
Saw this tapas restaurant advertised:
1492 Tapas Bar
42 East Superior
312.867.1492
“four floors of Spanish hospitality in the Gold Coast”
Live Flamenco Music and Dance Performaces on the weekends.
We ate there end of September and really enjoyed it. We shared 2 or 3 tapas, then SO had paella while I had 2 more tapas for dinner. Shared the signature dessert which is dedicated to the employees of Windows to the World which was the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center (hope I got the name right). Oh yes, also had lots and lots of sangria!
Thanks for the heads-up...what do you like most about Cafe Iberico?
Less splash, more substance. Not to take anything away from Emilio's, I feel that Cafe Iberico is more rustic/real.
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