Smakosz Restaurant Reviews

This is a typical Polish-American restaurant, diner-style, with full bar. A popular, quiet spot for lunch in the vanishing Polish neighborhood. Clean, nicely but modestly decorated, in good style. Go there if you want to try authentic Polish food of reasonable quality and price. Beef tongues were excellent, exceptionally tender and tasty. Treat yourself to some Polish beer or liquor that you won't usually find in the local store. Fast, friendly service. Cozy party room in the back. Close to Jefferson Park Transit Center and I-90, Foster, Central, and Lawrence exits.

Food was good. But the interior is not impressive.... until you go to the back room where you can host a private party for 20+ people. The owner is very accommodating. Waitresses are very helpful.

My friend and I arrived at 5:45 on a Thursday evening. Only one other table was occupied. My friend had a Margarita and I had a glass of Merlot. The waitress brought a basket of sliced, uninteresting white bread and butter. The beet, sauerkraut, and cucumber salads were delicious. The cucumber rivaled the one made by my Austrian grandmother. My friend had veal with mushrooms and dumplings. I had duck with canned (?) cranberry sauce and dumplings. Portions were large (1/2 duck) but the duck was not crispy, lukewarm, and tasted warmed over. The dumplings were good. It was okay but not good enough to go back.

I am Polish & their food is authentic and delicious. The decor is lovely, and we were impressed with the service, despite only having one waitress. Street parking & reservations are recommended.

For the past 5 years, I have been having an annual party for about 20 at Smakosz. They have a lovely private room that is intimate and charming. After spending several years moving our party around Chicago’s best Polish restaurants, this is our favorite! The food is homemade, the owner and staff are great to work with, and the location is central to people come from the city or the burbs. My family is Polish and knows good cooking.

Many years ago a colleague raved about this restaurant to me. I decided to check it out since it is located only a mile and a half from my house. Smakosz Restaurant has been a go-to restaurant for me ever since. The food is simple, wholesome and reasonably priced. Unlike other restaurants, none of the dishes at Smakosz is greasy. Each dish I tried is delicious. My most favorites are stuffed cabbage and trout. I also like the salad that is offered before the main dish, except the sauerkraut that comes with the salad. I also like apple pie or apple cake that looks somewhat like apple crumble. Over the years, I have introduced Smakosz to family, friends and acquaintances. Every single one of them like this restaurant. I even introduced it to my polish contractor who has been taking his clients and friends there ever since.

Smakosz (Polish for Gourmet) is a wonderful home-style Polish Cafe (a Diner really) with a very small dining room, and comfy but worn booths and two large tables for parties located on West Lawrence Ave. in a quiet safe neighborhood. The menu includes dozens of classic Polish home style dishes (heavy food) plus nearly half a dozen "specials" on the board (in Polish). Polish is spoken by all staff and nearly all diners. They have Polish cable TV and more than 6 polish national and regional beers. We had the "stuffed" veal, veal tongue, and stuffed cabbages. All came with a kraut/cucumber salad and in very hearty portions. Prices were from 8-12 and the menu was in Polish and English. Upscale this place is not, so don't expect too much from the decor, but the small staff of 1-2 native Poles (the cook is easily over 60) make wonderful rib-sticking food at very reasonable prices. Service is good, but a bit slow because this place has a very small staff. Be patient with English and enjoy. They take cash and credit cards and our total for two with a beer each was under $25.

While this restaurant has been there 16 years, we just stumbled upon it and it is the BEST Polish food you will ever find. Loved the pork cutlet hamburger w/mushroom gravy served with a delicious Polish side salad. Potato pancakes are excellent too. Will definitely go back. Everything made from scratch!

Had a great experience. All four of us ordered the combo plate to get an idea of the different food. I liked everything. The menu here appears to be outdated. The combo plate was $16.99 but still reasonable. Saw serveral groups eating there that were speaking polish which is always a good sign for authentic food.

We went to leave some relatives to the airport and on our way back we left to luck the choose of s restaurant (well, we really were looking something interesting in Google Maps). This restaurant appeared as a different option with a good rating (although based in only 38 opinions) so we decided for the trying it. Perhaps we would find a hidden treasure. Polish food, in our remembrance, is a very good one whit very special dishes when are prepared nicely. The place is authentic since the name. As soon as you get in you will hear the sounds of a different language among the waitresses and the clients. That add to the expectation about having a real and original lunch. So we asked a chicken noodle soup and chicken nuggets for the kids; one duck and one veal in chef's sauce for sharing. The initial salads served had a nice touch. The path looked good - but remained only in expectation as the rest of the dishes came. The soup was ok - salt was missing, which is not really a problem and was easily solved. The veal had a not bad but strange touch. The sauce was simple and without any magic there and even it diminish the potential of tasting the meat. The duck looked good but it was slightly dry. Taste ok but nothing spectacular. The cherries sauce that came with it was good as it seemed to be made with natural ones. I might say that the best dish in taste were the chicken nuggets - and I have to say that I am not a fan of them. So, in summary, the food stayed below what we expected - but not bad. Totally plain, taking away the advantage of having the great flavors that this cuisine can bring to you. He service was ok and the prices decent.

Was staying in rosemont, needed a polish fix from Chicago, was a long uber ride, local storefront, Monday night, had pierogi, home made, well made, it was a quiet night, I reminisced about my polish lineage, the restaurant made me feel good about where I came from.

There were 10 in our party and we asked if they could serve us a "family style" dinner. Dinner was superb, service was excellent, conversation flowed, and we had a wonderful time. We shared the generous portions of pierogi - sauerkraut with mushroom & potato and cheese; goulash; potato pancakes; golumpki; Kielbasa; cutlet; beets; boiled cabbage; & I had a bottle of Zywiec. Made me miss my grandma's cooking! We will be back!

Amazing perogies!!! Overall great experience eating Smakosz' food and the owners are very welcoming. The food is also very authentic.

Delicious food, just like mom used to make! Stopped in for lunch, everything was fantastic, we cleaned our plates! Nice family restaurant, friendly service, wish there were more places like it!

Small size restaurant in north-west part of the city, offers a wide assortment of great Polish food, like pierogies, blintzes, stuffed cabbage and many more... Home made taste brings me to this place very often. I recommend this place.

Perfect spot for a small gathering of friends to celebrate. Food is delicious! We had around 20 people in a private room and the hospitality and service were top notch! Classy ambiance with candles hanging from the ceiling and exposed brick walls. We brought a projector and were able to use their screen to show a video.

First visit here on the recommendation. It was excellent. Ate with 5 others and all liked the food a lot. I had borscht, chicken cutlet and mashed potatoes. Others had pierogi, blintzes, and potato pancakes. Service good. Small place but there was no wait.

Finally tried this place. Very authentic. Great Polish comfort food. Loved the Trout and the breaded pork cutlet. Tried the cheese potatoe dumplings and they were good too, very filling. Friendly atmosphere. Don't be afraid if you don't speak Polish, you will be helped out! Easy street parking.

I'm not sure how I missed not going into Smakosz before this, but I'm glad that we finally did. It is right on Lawrence Ave., just west of Central, and there was plenty of street parking. When you enter, there are a number of booths, as well as tables that will sit 6 or 8. The hostess turned out to be the server, and though she was efficient, she wasn't overly friendly, though that could have been that she was getting a lot of calls for take-out. She brought out bread and an appetizer salad plate with cabbage, red cabbage and red beets, along with our drinks. We tried the stuffed cabbages and the beef stroganoff. Both were really excellent and were huge portions. We wanted to try the apple strudel, but they were out of that, so we elected to try the plum strudel which was sprinkled with powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream. I didn't know what to expect with the plums, but it did taste very good, almost like it just came out of the oven. The stuffed cabbages were almost as good as my Mom made, so I'd recommend this place, and I'm sure we'll be back to try other dishes.

When you enter into this restaurant, it looks like typical diner because you see the booths there. Next, when you open the menu you find great variety of choices. Normally in places like this you don't have that many choices but here you have. I have been there five times already and the food was always very good. Actually it tasted like home made. When I asked how the red borsch is made I found out that it is not from the paper bag but is made in the kitchen, and it really taste great! In conclusion, I think the food is worthy every penny which you spend there.

Uncrowded at 7:30 on a Monday evening - we were the only people speaking English in the place. Manu has a wide selection of beef, por, fowl, and fish selections, and several varieties of borscht.. Chose the beef in hunter's sauce, after the waitress explalned what the sauce was. Delicious. Very large portion of sliced beef. Came with mashed potatoes and a salad. Had a polish version of Appel strudel - large portion, and came with lots of fresh whipped cream.

Our group stumbled into the restaurant on our way to a business meeting. Great ambience. Great prices. The peirogies were very tasty, the potato pancakes with mushroom also very good. The apple pie was huge and great flavor too. The server was helpful and friendly also.

I am Polish on both sides of my family and grew up eating Polish food, so I had always wanted to go to an authentic Polish restaurant when I got the chance. Chicago is blessed with numerous Polish restaurants, so choosing can be overwhelming. As a tourist, I had to rely on the internet to help me choose, and I was very happy that I chose Smakosz. It is dated looking on the outside and on the inside, but the food more than makes up for the decor. I recommend the Polish sampler if you are not familiar because it has a variety of different items, though they are all pork-based. The food was all excellent, and the service was perfect. It is also a short walk from the Jefferson Park stop on the blue line, so it is easy to get to if you are visiting from out of town like we were. If you are interested in trying Polish food, I urge you to try Smakosz. You won't be disappointed.

We enjoy trying new ethnic foods and chose this restaurant after reading reviews and we all enjoyed our dinner. Definitely a neighborhood place, with free street parking in front on a major Chicago avenue , we were pleasantly greeted by our host, waitress, and bartender…. The same person! We enjoyed the draft beer and had an order of potato and cheese pierogis with grilled onions as a shared appetizer and loved them. Very flavorful and piping hot, they were quickly devoured. My pal had the tripe soup and really liked it despite claiming it was too big to eat….he finished it all. Then three of us had the Sampler plate and were not disappointed. Lost in translation was the claimed Pork Chop which actually was Pork Schnitzel, lightly fried with a nice breading. A little red cabbage gave it some even better flavor. The cabbage roll was tender and the sausage tasty but I passed on my mashed potatoes to save room for the mains. Another friend had just the cabbage rolls and afterwards was Stuffed, too! Moderately priced and with a pleasant vibe, I’d recommend a visit if you’re looking for a Polish fix.

great food, nice people, warm atmosphere ! highly recommend ! large choice for the whole family. clean and welcoming !

I hosted a memorial service as my father wanted to celebrate his life over good food, family, and friends, in Smakosz Restaurant, an authentic Polish restaurant. Smakosz may not look like much from the outside, but once you get inside, the food and service were unbelievable! It reminded me of visiting my grandmother’s house! From potato pancakes, perogies, chicken breast stuffed with spinach, red borscht, potato dumplings, cucumber salad, etc., the food was amazing. Several friends that have never experienced authentic Polish cooking loved everything and shared that verbally with me several times since! The private room is new and decorated very nice, a small intimate gathering place for events. It was perfect for the memorial service, as it fits all of us well, including the video screen to share pictures and videos of my father. The lighting, candles, decorations, brick walls, etc., are very warm and welcoming! Renee (Owner) and Kasha (Server) were so nice and pleasant to work with. Both were so accommodating to help us prior to the event, and the day of the event, as we had to fly into Chicago for the memorial service. In Polish, Smakosz is “gourmet,” or a person who enjoys and knows a lot about good food and wines. In the future, every time I travel home to Chicago, I’ll make a stop in Smakosz for a great authentic meal that reminds me of my childhood!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm and that is my review I was very very satisfied on the Salmon – grilled served with vegetables dinner was worth the $ - Come here and enjoy "PROPER " Polish home cooking

My husband, daughter and I stopped here when we arrived in Chicago. Place has old school vibe and food is very good. The flaki were the best I've ever had. Good cold Zywiec was a plus!

We were staying at an Airbnb at Lawerence Avenue. After getting checked in and walking around the area we were looking for lunch. A quick search on the internet for local restaurants brought up Smakosz. We walked by it and it looked like it was straight out of the 70s. We decided to give it a try and are we glad we did. The decor is dark, wood paneling from the 70s. We grabbed a booth and our server brought us some water right away. She came back a few minutes later and we asked her what would she recommend as the menu had us overwhelmed. Two dishes she recommended were the goulash and the polish food assortment. we ordered both, and I had a Okocim draft beer. The beer was cold and tasty. Our server brought us out some bread to start. It was obvious we were in for some authentic polish food, we were the only table in the restaurant that spoke english. Next came the house salads. Beet, sauerkraut and cucumber salad. I can't stand beets so I passed on that, but the sauerkraut and cucumber salad were good and my wife liked the beet salad. At this point it was time for another beer which I had in my hand 30 seconds after I ordered it. Our food came out and all we could do is say WOW! Huge portions and it smelled wonderful. My food assortment included a large breaded porkchop, two yummy pierogis, a large sausage, a cabbage roll and a mound of mashed potatoes. My wife's goulash also came with a mound of mashed potatoes. It was all good. I managed to finish all the meat, but I didn't touch the potatoes. My wife ate 1/2 her goulash and boxed up there leftovers and my potatoes, enough food for another meal for her. We had great service, great food and it was very reasonably priced. If you are ever in the area Smakosz is worth trying, you won't regret it.

I can always find parking on the busy street - a big plus. A 1/4 block west of Central. on the south side of Lawrence, you'll find a softly-lit, welcoming small, family-run restaurant (they also have a decent-sized private room to the rear). The menu is stable, with several dishes being excellent: the goulash is outstanding. Pork knuckle, when available is very good. While there are no surprises here, it is definitely a comfort food stop. reasonably-priced and frequented by a good number of local Poles and their families. Booths and small tables, a small, but adequate bar, and really pleasant service make this a joy when you are tired, hungry and want a robust and satisfying meal.