The food was pretty good (the bests ones were the chorizo pasta, mussel toast, and cauliflower; so so was the steak and carrot dish). Our waitress was also a delight! But two main things make this a two star review: 1. The menu is printed so small, anyone with any kind of vision impairment would not be able to read it. From an accessibility standpoint, this is unacceptable in the year 2021. Your ability bias is showing, Apolonia. 2. The NOISE. The place is extremely minimalist in design and in an industrial space, with nothing to buffer sound. Even with the restaurant half full, the four of us could barely carry on a conversation. If you want to be seen? Go to Apolonia. If you want to actually read your drink list and have an intimate evening with friends or family? Pick a different spot. read more

I wanted to love Apolonia the way I love S.K.Y., but it was not to be. We tried six dishes, three of which were outstanding - the cauliflower, pork confit and mussel toast. The lamb toothpicks were good, but overly salty. The cod and roasted carrot salad were both super disappointing. The cod had zero flavor and was in a word, uninteresting. The roasted carrot salad had been drenched in salt and pepper and was completely unbalanced with strawberries that were also drenched in balsamic. I want Apolonia to succeed, but they may need some quality control on their dishes, based on my experience. For now, I'll be sticking with my tried and true fave S.K.Y. read more

Loved it! Great setup, creative and delicious food. Almost everything we had was so unique and yummy - the desserts were meh. The yellowtail appetizer was amazing and our favorite. Definitely a great place to take a group bc it's so spacious inside. Would recommend only ordering one pasta as they were kind of similar. Don't know what those 4 star reviewers were thinking... read more

Good vibe, creative and delicious food, but pricy unless you are dating and celebrating.

I just got through eating here and I'm starving. Very trendy Phoo-phoo food. The dinner portions are tiny!!! Taste good, but come on....this is still Chicago. Not very satisfying read more

Another great place in Chicago. Love the staff and the food is great too. This is a hidden gem for us as is walking distance from our convention hotel. Lighting is too low for me as I had to use my phones' flashlight to read the menu but that was not a big deal. Food made it worth it. You cannot leave this place without ordering the pistachio dessert. LOVE IT!! So sad I didn't take pictures but we were starving this day lol read more

Omg. This was one of the best meals I have ever had, and I've lived in Chicago for 10 years. Someone at a local business had recommended it to my friend, describing it as "out of this world." My four friends and I all 100% agreed. We got a bunch of small plates (all but the broccoli and cauliflower), two pastas, the chicken large plate, and two desserts, and every single dish was incredible. Highlights were the truffle puff bread, mussel toast, steak tartare, and mafaldine verde, but you truly can't go wrong. We did have to wait quite a long time for our first drinks to arrive, but after we politely explained this to the host/manager and asked if they were on the way, they comped our first round of drinks. I can't ask for more than that - every place gets busy sometimes, especially with current staffing challenges, and having a round of cocktails/wine covered more than made up for the wait. Especially once we tasted that food! Please come support this south loop restaurant! read more

Went here with my wife for first time on recomendation of a friend. Joint was jumping! Got seated right away by very friendly hostess. That start to the evening carried through all evening with great service, very attentive and knowledgeable about the food and wine. The food: beautiful on the plate, delicious in the mouth, unusual combinations of flavors. We will definitely go here again, even though we live on the other side of Chicago-area (Evanston). read more

Food all tasted great, knocked off one star for lack of vegetarian options. Got the black truffle puff bread, white bean hummus, and mafaldine verde pasta. Each item tasted great and had unique components to them! Staff was very friendly and service was quite quick as well! read more

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Dinner at Apolonia was the most delicious food I've ever been served in Chicago--or anywhere I've eaten in Chicago or the continent. Really delicious, exquisitely prepared, and unique. Kudos to executive chef Joe for a fascinating dining experience. The mussel toast, yellowfin tuna, and puffed black truffle bread were spectacularly good. Great service, beautiful space, wonderful! read more

The menu was limited; food underwhelming; and service hit or miss. I don't ever need to return.

I love the food and ambience of this place. The food was delicious. We started off with the oysters and they were really fresh. The calamari in the warm calamari salad was slowly grilled and the dressing was subtle yet tasty. I ordered the grilled Branzino while my boyfriend got the Berkshire pork confit and. The Branzino was grilled to a crispy skin and tender meat placed on top of a sweet and tangy sauce with marinated olives. The Berkshire pork confit crispy on top and tasted like pulled pork on the inside and laid on top of the amatricana sauce with pearl onions and spinach. We also wanted to try the pasta there and the F. Al Sugo pasta was really good, the sauce really made that dish hard to stop eating. We ate all the pasta and tried to finish eating all sauce off the plate as much as possible. Lastly, we topped the meal off with the Banana Budino cake and it came with banana ice cream. Honestly, i wish they sell the banana ice cream by itself because after one taste I was sold. The cake was very moist and sweet and it was really good paired with the ice cream. Go and try this place out! I bet you won't be disappointed! read more

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Kind of between 3 and 4 stars for me. Food was well prepared and nicely presented. Good service. Pleasant space. Not a ton of meat-free options. The truffle bread didn't live up to the hype. A little pricey but that's the direction of the neighborhood. read more

Delightful place, great service. Loved the warmed octopus salad. Banana budino croissant was ok. I was not in love with it as much as other reviewers. read more

An exquisite take on nouvelle Mediterranean in Chicago's south loop. The perfect gustatory destination for those seeking newly enlivened takes on classic Mediterranean flavor profiles. Every portion of animal protein I ate on my first meal here--scallops, ocean fish, beef--was expert in its preparation. But what really sang were the vegetables, which were every bit as savory as the proteins with which they were paired. And whatever you do, do NOT skip dessert. The sweets by Pastry Chef Tatum Sinclair are mind-bendingly delicious. read more

I admit to being a total food snob at this point, which I only mention because very little surprises me anymore. I fully appreciate a well-executed dish, but I've probably had some version of the flavors and textures before. But Apolonia surprised me. Repeatedly. The cucumber & watermelon salad sounds simple enough in its description, but the attention to detail in its components brought the dish to a remarkable blend of flavors that far exceeded the sum of its parts. The stracchino cheese was the perfect vessel to marry berries and radishes...who knew that they could compliment each other so beautifully? I wasn't blown away by the truffle puff bread, but it was good, and if that's the low point of the dining experience, then Apolonia is doing a lot of things right. Several hours after dinner, I'm still trying to pinpoint the source of all of the flavors from the mafaldine verde dish. Like other courses, the components were familiar but worked together in ways I've not experienced before. The cocktails were a bit disappointing. I was excited for the Smoke Monster's use of mole, but I really didn't get any of that classic sauce's taste. Similarly, the Curried Away didn't have any curry flavor that I could tell. So the bar program needs some work. Having said that, the wines-by-the-glass list was pretty impressive. Service was mediocre. My friend and I gave every indication that we weren't in a hurry, But we were still often wondering if they forgot to fire our next dish. And water/cocktail/wine glasses sat empty for far longer than they should have. read more

We dined in this weekend and had a great time. Service was great, our glasses were always full and the attention to detail was on point. My favorite was the mussel toast. Vicente checked in on us a couple of times. Great guy. read more

Delicious food. Very slow service but worth the wait. Staff seemed new because they didn't know where the to-go items were. Sit down place.

Amazing amazing amazing! Opulent change a thing from service to drinks to food. Don't pass on the confit pork or yellowtail crudo. The stone fruit and cream was a great dessert. read more

Had a 5pm reservation on a Friday. When I arrived it looked like things were just getting started for the evening. Not many people around. I arrived a little early, but my parter hadn't arrived yet. They were only going to seat when the full party arrived. That was ok and they directed me to the lounge area to wait. Not long after a waiter came with a glass of water while I waited. We ended up wanting to eat at the bar area. Lots of spacing bc of covid with only room for 3 sets of 2 people. The bartenders were nice, attentive, and answered all questions we had. We decided to get a bit of everything to try since the portions weren't big. The truffle bread was great (not pictured). We got the chorizo sausage, Vegetable Pinzimonio, and the Tarte Forestière to share. And we got the Rabiola cheese ravioli and the grilled Texas prawns for our entrees. All of the food was good and prepared and plated nicely. I would say nothing we had though blew our socks off as amazing and need to have again though. We most enjoyed the Tarte Forestière and the Vegetable Pinzimonio the most. Everyone there was friendly and nice and a good experiences back inside of a restaurant. The cocktails were great though and I would gladly go back for a happy hour. read more

Apolonia - Chorizo sausage - Modern European Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Wow! Amazingly great. I got lucky walking down the street from McCormick Placelooking for dinner. Try the wedge salad but resist the temptation to ask for blue cheese dressing. The green house dressing was delicious and like nothing I've ever tasted. The grilled branzino was another excellent celebration of flavors. read more

Really likes the mussel toast bread! Must order and the pastas were all delicious. We ordered the lamb special but it looked different from the picture, but still good. Very filling. Love love love the variety of food here and the pistachio desserts read more

I will join in with other reviewers here and agree that the food was delicious, but the service.... oh dear... so so lacking. After we were seated, our waitress handed us menus and immediately asked what we wanted to drink. Um...haven't even had a chance to look at the menu. She came back a few minutes later, saying "are you ready yet?" Sure. When asked for food recommendations she just said "a lot of people like the puff bread." Ok.. no other discussion of the menu, what her recommendations would be. Nada. She seemed impatient to take our order and leave. And after she took our food and drink order that was the last we saw of her for our nearly 2 hours at the restaurant. Did she come back to ask how we were enjoying the food? Did she come back in the course of nearly two hours to see if we perhaps would care for another drink? Nope and nope. So strange. It's sad when poor service detracts from the talent of the chefs and your overall experience as a diner. read more

This place was AMAZING! The cocktails were so delicious - I ordered the Basic Peach and Panic at the Pisco. We also ordered the oysters, crudo, truffle bread, toothpick lamb, chicken, burrata and the bucatini - all next level delicious but the chicken and the lamb were my favorite along with the truffle bread! We waited a little bit even though we had a reservation but they gave us free dessert so it was all good. read more

This is a little hidden gem in the south loop. They have a variety of Mediterranean dishes. Everything we had was at least good, some dishes were exceptional. Great service, our waiter was lovely. Must try include the truffle bread, the branzino and the duck. read more

Apolonia - Truffle bread - Modern European Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

The atmosphere is understated elegance. When you walk in you are greeted by a cheerful staff. Jane was a delightful server. Very attentive. And the food was out of this world. The tasting menu was the best of all the classic dishes. Wine superb. A hidden gem and now a regular in our rotation. read more

We just had a fantastic dinner with amazing service including Jess and a lovely runner who recognized my guest from his iconic business. The food was amazing and I have been coming since they opened and always a delightful experience.. Thank you read more

Loved it. My husband and I were excited to check it out and sat at the bar for dinner and drinks. We got the mussel toast (!!), toothpick lamb, carrots, cauliflower, pasta with pork (!!), branzino and the cashew/brown butter/burrata ice cream dessert(!!). Loved every dish. The only one I probably wouldn't get again was the cauliflower. Will definitely be back. read more

very good, but not quite great. some interesting unique dishes, and some that were just plain. the black truffle puff bread was the winner. a must try the toothpick lamb was the biggest let down. pics of all our dishes and commentary there. read more

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We ordered a meal for 4 with 2 pasta dishes and 2 main courses "large plates" (branzino and pork confit). All 4 were very good. The 3 desserts were fine as well Service was very good. Wine list very complete. read more

We were late for our reservation and they had no problem accommodating us. The food and service was great. Looking forward to returning.

We were in Chicago dropping off kids to college so we had a larger group -7 and had so much trouble getting any reservation in Chicago for dinner. Apolonia did not allow us to book online but actually answer the phone and made the reservation! I can't believe how many restaurants 3 Michelin stars and all and they won't pick up the phone and talk to the guests. Anyway we loved Apolonia fr the shared plates - delicious we tried all but 2, the main course and desert. Alinea should watch out as we much preferred this meal Saturday after Alinea on Friday and of course it was reasonably priced. Great service. My only negative - the space is too loud and sparse. It became very uncomfortable. It's like they converted a retail clothing store into a restaurant space - it noisy and hard to hear anyone at your table. read more

Some dishes were great (the tart) and some were just pretty good (cauliflower, pork pasta, truffle bread-which i had really high hopes for). The sauces were phenomenal and get the pistachio dessert. Life changing. Take my word for it. read more

Easily a top 10 on my list of favorite Chicago restaurants. Delicious dishes, thoughtful execution, and friendly staff.

The puff bread is the star! It is expensive though. The shakshuka is also good. I like the ambience. It's quiet and spacious and bright and comfortable. Better than similar new American places that are loud. read more

Amazing food service and ambiance! We had essentially every item on the menu and the cauliflower as well as the truffle puff bread were our favorites ! The lamb pasta was a little salty as well as the chicken corn dish however the fish was stellar and definitely the star of the show read more

Food is beyond this world! Simply amazing!! Loved the truffle bread, mussel toast, pasta, and dessert. Everyone at my table couldn't stop talking about how amazing their food was. My friends and I are coming back next week to try more menu items. Food is beyond compare. You gotta come try this place! Best food ever!!! read more

Apolonia - Modern European Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I've been there several times now. Every dish I've had was delicious! The service is friendly and attentive and the space is bright and pretty. read more

Sat at the bar on a busy night, as I was in town on business on my own. Food and service were very good, and I would definitely return!

The food is not the reason for my 1 star rating. That is a solid 3 stars. My 1 star rating is for the deceptive practice of adding 5% to the bill for their employee health insurance. I believe their employees should have health insurance. I would have no issue of Apolonia raised their prices to accommodate that. However when the 5% is added after the meal and not up front it is deceptive. Raise your prices so customers know the true cost when they order. read more