We found this awesome place by chance. Being familiar with European food, this place had us excited about everything on the menu. Prices are so reasonable that we couldn't decide what to eat. If you're in the mood for a quaint little place with a very exceptional quality and service, this is the best choice. read more

Restaurant Mehanata - Authentic Bulgarian attire. - Modern European Near Me - Des Plaines, Illinois

What a wonderful place to introduce me to Bulgarian cuisine. The beautiful décor complemented the food that was just delicious. I had a wonderful experience. I would definite go back when I'm in the area. read more

My boyfriend is from Bulgaria so we had to try this place when passing through Chicago. The service was good. The location has no parking so you have to park in the auto junk yard. My boyfriend said the food wasn't what he expected and that he's had much better. But pricing was very fair so that was nice. read more

Restaurant Mehanata - The best thing we had was bacon wrapped feta. What isn't good in bacon?! - Modern European Near Me - Des Plaines, Illinois

Strongly recommend! Bulgarian taste is very accommodating: if you like anything among eastern European, Mediterranean and central Asian cuisines, i think you would enjoy Bulgarian foods a lot. I've been to this place over 7 times in past 3 years and the quality is consistently good. I don't find anything tastes bad from the menu. I visited it last week with 2 friends , the first time since the pandemic started. We had the chef's salad, grilled octopus, chicken kavarma, pork and beef shish kebabs, fried yogurt and three bowls of soups. All meats and vegetables tastes fresh and their goat cheese is amazing. The park kebab is very tender and juicy. Kavarma is a stew (although it tastes like sauté in Mehanata) of chicken and flavorful vegetables (onion, tomato and mushrooms) , if you enjoy anything like stir fry or kazan kebab, you would like it. The portion and quality of all of the dishes are the same as before. The waiters and waitresses are careful with wearing masks mostly although sometimes they forgot so bring your own mask if you come for dining in even if seating outside. It was a very good place to come with friends and families before the pandemic because the foods are in big portions with reasonable price. We plan to come back as soon as we come back to Chicago again. read more

So I walked into the restaurant with a friend from work. I felt welcome in the food was intriguing very tasty to say the least. The pork skim and the sausage fried sausage were amazing. Our desert was made in heaven, an astounding fig cake, top with chocolate slivers and mascarpone. Truly a foodies heaven. Our waiter was extremely helpful and friendly, Toni really made a difference. read more

DON'T GO THERE!!!! They will rip you off!!!! I went with my friend for lunch and the waitress charged us for 1 small glass of peach juice 5.99$ and on top of that she added another 2.99$ for peach juice. She overcharged us. When i asked her how much was it she lied us that it was 5.99$ for peach juice. But later on I found out that that price was for Fresh squeeze lemon juice which we didn't order. So she lied on top of charging us triple. Typical bulgarian gypsum read more

Delicious food ! Great service! Amazing atmosphere ! Unfortunately I don't live in Chicago ,but if I did I would definitely be there every day. However ,I will definitely be back! Congratulations to the owner! He did a great job making this place feels like home ! read more

Made it back to my favorite Bulgarian place! Had the shopska and kaverma. The kaverma was perfect! I love stopping by this gem whenever I'm on the north side of Chicago. Don't forget to stop at the Bulgarian market up the street read more

I like this place because they have a nice bulgarian interior,good food but the servers are really rude and not profsional!

I am regular to the restaurant, so I may be somewhat biased. But there are some improvements I saw last month which are just facts - the patio got a new look with a new large umbrella cover and beautiful new, solid wood tables (new tables inside too). In the menu - we got a selection of "fresh" - Bulgarian favorite of freshly squeezed fruits, which we've missed in Chicagoland restaurants. read more

I love the food here; anything and everything you pick large portions and amazing. The prices are very appropriate. Music and dancing on weekends. Great for larger groups. read more

Went here with my father the other day. Besides being charged 99cents for mustard, the food was very good. No complaints there. But unfortunately i will NEVER go back here. As other comments have pointed out, the service is by far the worst i've seen. Our waitress barely came to our table, our drinks were not refilled (i had to go to the bar to get extra water), questions were answered like i was annoying her. I was very uncomfortable. I'm sure business is good here, BUT, it could be a lot better i'm sure if the service was better. read more

We celebrated a birthday here last night with a mix of Europeans and Americans. Everyone had a great experience! The food and service was phenomenal! The biggest appreciation goes to our waitress Galya and the DJ. Galya was very nice and helpful. The DJ played the best selection of music all night long and everyone was very pleased, we just were not leaving the dance floor! This is currently our number one choice for celebrating events in the future! read more

I would like to start with saying that the food was amazing so thank you for that. I don't usually wright reviews, this is going to be the first one on yelp. I was very disappointed with the staff there. First of all our waitress was ignorant, rude and disrespectful. She took our appetizer order, instead of bringing us the smoked salmon platter, she brought the grilled one, when we politely tried explaining her that we ordered a different thing and we would like the order corrected she went off on us, she started arguing waving with her little note book in front of my face, raising her voice saying that we did not give her the correct order. This is the moment when we asked a waiter that was on the floor to let us speak with a manager but unfortunately we didn't have any success, he said that the manager is not in the office. I have never been treated this way ever before as a customer and I will never go back again, also I will not recommend this restaurant to anyone just so they avoid the experience I went through. I don't know the waitresses name but it was January the 5th around noon. I hope my comment will be taken into consideration. Thank you and have a great day read more

A wonderful Bulgarian restaurant with huge portions. The decor lets you imagine you are in old country. Their foods are just awesome. During warmer months, their outdoor seating is usually filled. I've got to say I'm so glad this place is close by. read more

I went with a few friends there the food is a bit different but it tasted very good the staff is friendly and the price is reasonable definitely I will be back if you are up for something you haven't tried before check this place out read more

We are not Bulgarian, but we are familiar with Balkan cuisine. We had seen some very good reviews for Mehanata and decided to try it. This restaurant does not disappoint! We started with an appetizer of the fried potatoes with garlic and dill. It arrived piping hot and fresh. We also ordered the country chicken, chicken with vegetables, the grilled pork plate, and beef shanks (sorry, I do not recall the Bulgarian names for these dishes). Again, everything arrived steaming hot and you could tell that everything was fresh and made to order. The grilled pork plate (this was the dish for 1, not their special platter for 4 people) had a small pork chop, a shishlik (kabob) of 5 or 6 pieces, pljeskavica (looks like a hamburger patty), a large cevapi (kepapche), fries, and fresh diced tomatoes and cucumbers. Everything was fresh and perfectly cooked. The shishlik and pork chop was moist and had a wonderful grilled flavor. I'm not sure how they prepare their fries, but they were delicious and not like any fries I have had before. There were 5 of us and no one could finish their meal because there was so much food. At the waiters suggestion, we decided to try their fig cake with mascarpone cheese. Don't let the sound of a fig based cake put you off, this was amazing. We were told that all of their desserts are homemade (with the exception of some type of chocolate cake). The service was friendly and excellent, and they were very helpful with helping us select our meal. They have a very large selection of appetizers and entrees so don't hesitate to ask if you are not familiar Bulgarian cuisine. I don't normally get this ecstatic over a restaurant, but Mehanata was really an exceptional dining experience. read more

First attempt at Bulgarian was a delight. The staff were excellent and the food delish. I would def return for a second showing

Awsome food. Exceptional service. Recommend 100% will be back for sure. Entire family loved it!

Just not very good. The service was not the best either. We had a large group and all tended to agree on the same.

Great food! Meat is really good. We tried lamb chops, pork chops and some dish with beef and mushrooms, it was delicious

This one was slightly better that Avenue BG when it comes to service. This time I was determined to speak in English so that my friend wouldn't feel excluded. I also was pretty fast in saying "Hello" upon entering the place so that they don't even think they could speak to me in Bulgarian. Same goes for the waitresses in this restaurant as for those in Avenue - they don't like speaking English. They seem terrified of the prospect of doing so. Soon after we started ordering I said something in Bulgarian (you can't help it with some of those dishes) and waitress scolded me for not telling her I was Bulgarian. Until the very end of the evening, she would speak to us in Bulgarian and I would speak to her in English. No way I was getting this fiasco from Avenue repeats itself. I also made sure I specifically ask for tap water which she had no idea what it was. So I had to translate in Bulgarian and her reaction was just priceless. I seriously can't believe these people! I understand there is a huge Bulgarian community in Chicago but that is no excuse not to be aware of the world around you! It seems like they live in their Bulgarian bubble with their Bulgarian attitude and refuse to change and be welcoming and respectful to people. Oh, the signs in the parking lot are all in Bulgarian so there is no way for you to know where exactly you are supposed to park unless you know Bulgarian. They can't even pretend they want other people visiting the place! The food was not bad especially for the price. It is nice having a ton of food at a reasonable price. read more

This is the worst place to go when you are on a diet. The food is so amazing is that unhealthy for you. There are a lot of great items on the menu that are good but still, you can't come to Mehanata and order tomatoes and cucumber salads. It's unheard of! Would be like going to cheesecake factory where there are a lot of desserts and instead you use the bathroom and leave. They have lamb, pork, beef, chicken, fish and they are all so delicious. (All cooked in different kind of ways) The awesome part is that all the dishes have pictures. All the pictures look exactly like the food that comes to your table. Not deceiving at all and wonderfully fresh and gorgeous. They even have a pronunciation part that helps us eastern Europeans that are not down with Cyrillic letters. (Latin letters all the way baby). My friend and I had the chicken soup. Yum! A salad and lamb dish with mushrooms and garlic. Idk what part of lamb that came from and frankly it was so good I do not care to know. (put a gun to my head and I still will not be able to pronounce the dishes or even know what they were) The service is the only reason this place gets 4 stars. Maybe they were busy inside and didn't care to visit the tables outside but they were inattentive and slow. But hey who cares, their fries and feta cheese dish kept me busy while I waited for the server to realize we needed the check. I wanna stay away from this place because bikini season is here but who am I kidding. This place is amazing. read more

Pretty solid Bulgarian food. If I'm in Chicago I'm guaranteed to stop here for some taste of my hometown. Loved it

Not sure if it's sad or wonderful that you could drive past the place and not ever think there's a restaurant there. Looks like an old C&W bar from the outside with a few tables. So, you might think that means it's not going to be crowded - HAH. Midweek, 5PM, you might have to wait for a table. Anyone who has dined there once is likely to go back, and not just the local Bulgarian population. I am not Bulgarian, and my only issues are trying to pronounce the menu items correctly and being foolish enough to think I am going to finish the entire meal - and I can eat! The portions range from generous to huge. All the appetizers I have had have been very tasty. Not every European-style restaurant in our metro area really knows how to prepare offal in a tasty fashion, but these folks do it like overseas. The sweetbreads rival any I have had in Europe and are on a par with the way they taste in an Argentinian parilla. The tongue and tripe are smooth, savoury, and filling, so, I save that up for wintertime and actually have it after salad as a main due to the size of the portion. They have chopped salad called Shopska of cucumber and tomato that is shareable, but often a side of similar comes with a main course. The shislik (shishkabob) are large portions with the pork and chicken combo coming on two full skewers. That's easily enough for 3 people to share and a single shislik is fine for 2. The dish that reminds me of Moroccan cuisine is Sach - like a tagine without the dome and served on a wooden dish instead of clay. I love the mix of grilled meats that is the makeup of the Kasapski Sach (small) $ 16.99. I had dinner.3 family members picked at it. My wife and I had the leftovers for dinner the next night. It came with a huge plate of fries. Yes, that was the SMALL portion - the large probably feeds a family of 6. The pork combo grill is year round unsauced barbeque in its smokey savouriness. Lamb chops are great. Fries come with most of the mains and they do their fries well. The fig and mascarpone cake for dessert is one of the nicest pastry offerings anywhere around and sits very light. I have stuck with the Bulgarian beers offered and not been disappointed. I learned from some Austrians many years ago that a clear schnapps helps the heavy food to move around and what they have labeled as fruit brandies are just what is needed. The apricot is a little sweet and the plum and quince are not, like an Obstler or a French eau de vie. This is the place to dine on a budget because you likely will have a second meal at home from your leftovers. The person who wrote that this is indeed the crossing point of the Middle East and Eastern Europe in regards not only to history but cuisine hit the nail on the head. Some of the dishes will be a variant of what a Mediterranean, Lebanese, Turkish place will serve, some are more like Hungarian, Romanian, Russian - not so much Czech or Polish. Try it out without hesitation. When all else fails, point to the item you want on the picture menu - you do it for Dim Sum, so why not here as well? You will be shocked when the bill comes as to how little you paid for so much food and you will enjoy the leftovers as much as you did the first time round. read more

The food is excellent and always fresh.Not only that but the portions served are pretty large and the prices are reasonable. The ambiance allows you to explore the Bulgarian culture. The staff is excellent and always available to attend to your needs. read more

Very disappointing experience the second time I visited this restaurant.They had to serve over 100 people attending the festival Verea ,so apparently the meat was cooked well in advance.I ordered a Bulgarian dish that resembles stir-fry ,so I've got freshly cooked vegetables and 3 different kinds of meat that was almost impossible to chew.The attitude and the lies of the waitress as well as the suggestion she brings her supervisor to convince me that everything is freshly cooked did not help at all .Will think twice before going there again. read more

I came in not really knowing what to expect other than what I read on Yelp. I've never had Bulgarian food and was interested in the adventure. Upon arriving I was a bit confused on where to park but realized the parking lot directly beside the liquor store was fair game. Walking in you get a little sense that you are not in a different country. Most people were speaking the native tongue and the covered boths gave an outside type vibe. They had pop music lightly playing in the background and looked like the place could turn into a dance club late on the weekends. (With some rearranging) I had my first Bulgarian beer. I'm generally a craft guy but wanted to try something new. I would say I enjoyed it more than a bud light but on the same level. Now to the best part...the food!!! Almost an overwhelming menu but I loved all of the meat and cheese options. My date and I had some sesame seed chicken for an app which was fried perfectly and was pretty good but nothing special. Then the kabobs came out. I got the pork/chicken combo and wow what a presentation. Thankfully they tasted just a good as they looked! Huge chunks of meat and perfectly cooked peppers, onions and mushrooms. The other great thing is that I was able to to buy two dinners an app and a few beers and skated out of their with a bill under $50. read more

This was a great find, the food is delish! My fiancee went here last week for a work dinner with a Bulgarian colleague who was in the US for work. He came home with leftovers and declared that "I have to try his leftovers" when walking in the door. I did and I admit, I finished them off. 6 days after his first time there he took me there for dinner and we had a great meal. Service was great, food was delish and we were lucky enough to enjoy their outside patio. This was my first time having Bulgarian food and I am hooked! Also, we were one of 6 tables throughout the time we were there-we were the only non-European people in the whole restaurant- that says a lot. read more

First time trying Bulgarian food. I was very impressed! Food tastes amazing. Service was also great. Our server (I think his name was Rado) took very good care of us. It was very clean inside, with very nice decor. Don't think twice about this place- try it! Overall great experience! read more

It was my first time trying Bulgarian food and it was definitely delicious. I like that the food was very authentic and not heavy. We ordered fried zucchini and it came with a nice yogurt sauce that went really well with it. Most of the food was not battered which was very nice for a change. The fries were addicting. We ordered a roasted vegetable spread and ate it with the fries. read more

We stumbled on this place while looking for something to eat before a show. It's a nice find. The surroundings are comfortable, and our waitress was pleasant & helpful. She advised us to share a sampler plate, which worked out quite well - a mix of chicken & sausage prepared five different ways. For starters we had the pita bread with spices, and the yoghurt balls. Both were tasty - the yoghurt part seemed more like cream cheese than yoghurt, which according to the waitress is the result of the Bulgarian yoghurt being a bit different than the Greek, plus the impact of the deep frying. The total, with tax & tip, & including 2 glasses of the house merlot, was $48.00, and we had some leftovers to bring home. The place kind of sneaks up on you when you are headed north on Lee, so be on the lookout for it on the east side of the road. Don't park where the liquor store is - there's a sign in Bulgarian in part of the parking lot, but I think it means "don't park here." The waitress told us to park beyond the fence in that lot. read more

Married to a Bulgarian. This is my favorite Bulgarian place. Anyway, no one has mentioned creme caramel for dessert! It is my favorite and usually order one to go as well. It's similar to flan, and you have to try it :) Sometimes they have the traditional Bulgarian dance with traditional music and costumes. Its so cool to watch and if you're brave, join in! read more

Very very European, which I love. The vibes are so chill, the food is amazing. So fresh and real..spiced very well. The beer selection could be better ,but overall I will definitely return. read more

Great food. Big portions. Reasonable prices. Good decor. Family friendly. Kids allowed. Giant tv ( I assume projector ). DJ. Bar.

Very cool Bulgarian restaurant and bar with awesome , fresh , natural tasting food. My friend from El Salvador and I had not had Bulgarian food before, we tried a dish which was sort of like a Bulgarian version of a fajita; a huge platter of marinated grilled pork, chicken, bacon, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, etc which was delicious!! the "small" is almost certainly enough for 2 people. Got a cucumber, olive, tomato, onion, etc salad which was also fantastic; and an appetizer consister of balls of deep fried "yogurt" , at least the waitress described it as yogurt, which tasted a lot like a type of cream commonly served on plantains in El Salvador.. I tried a Bulgarian beer called Kolgata or something like that, it was great. a big bottle for 5 bucks. Our waitress was very friendly, welcoming, and patient with our numerous questions .. There were a fair number of people here on a Wednesday evening, all the other customers were Bulgarians, mostly in the 20-40 age range. Nice decor and ambience. The place feels like it is trying to emulate what I imagine a traditional, old school type of place in Bulgaria might be like; with the exception that they are playing modern Bulgarian pop music. The quite large TV screen was showing Bulgarian soccer when we were here. Excellent desserts!! Oh a note for any guys who might be dubious about checking out Bulgarian food: Bulgarian women are amazingly beautiful, and I saw several gorgeous examples of this phenomenon while dining here! read more

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Nice atmosphere but poor service. Ordered a "sach Mehanata" and told the waitress to have all meat chicken not pork. When meal came I noticed that there were not french fries/ the picture in menu shows french fries/.When I asked her about french fries she said" the french fries are inside" There was nothing inside. Secondly, all meat was mix of chicken and pork and bacon:(.Not only that , but also chicken nuggets for the kids were with a musty smell. We paid around 100 $ and I had dinner at home :). Only the cake was really good. I'm Bulgarian but I will think twice before eating in Bulgarian restaurant. read more

Very authentic and, to my taste, best Bulgarian restaurant in Chicago. Try as many appetizers as you can, smoked meats, salads, cheese stuffed breaded peppers, you name them - they are all good. If you are into liver, they make it three different ways. For the entree we usually get mixed grill, which is a combination of pork, beef and sausage. One portion is well enough for two people to share. Complement it with a bottle of a red Bulgarian wine and you'll not regret. If you are a beer drinker then get Zagorka beer. read more

I called and asked if they have gift certificates as I wanted to get one for a friend. They confirmed that they do have them. After a 30 minute drive, I went in and spoke to the lady who had talked to me on the phone. She said that they do have gift certificates but that I would have to wait an hour for them. I doubt a huge order of shipment of gift certificates were going to magically come in the next hour. My guess was she was either incompetent or from what the other reviews say, was being rude to non-Bulgarian customers. Funny thing is, the certificates were for a Bulgarian family anyways. Whatever the reason, thanks for wasting my time. read more

I couldn't be happier with my experience at Mehanata. We came for a Sunday linner on our way to the airport. Having never tried Bulgarian food, we were somewhere between curious and skeptical when we arrived. However, the food was excellent and the service was super helpful in ascertaining the highlights of the menu. The food really is somewhere between central europe (german, czech) and greek and I think the result is really top notch. The only hangup is that the parking situation could definitely be improved. read more