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    Recommended Reviews - Smetana

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    Aleyna S.

    Great food and reasonably priced. The smoked salmon, roe and potato pancakes were delicious and definitely large enough to suffice as an entire meal.

    Polish Plate: stuffed cabbage, Polish sausage, pierogis and potato pancakes.
    kris r.

    Bright and welcoming restaurant. Service wonderful. We began with a cup of borscht which was really a bowl in any other restaurant. The rye bread was so good. We shared the Polish plate which also came with a bowl of cucumbers cream and dill or some other salad choices- the cucumbers were great. We had a little taste of most of the items on the Polish plate but were too full to finish. The pierogis were spinach and so tasty. Also loved the Polish sausage . My mother thought the stuffed cabbage had too much rice but I thought the taste was so good even with more rice. Had lemonade and tea. Wish this place was closer to my home -- Roscoe village- because I would order on a regular basis

    To go plate!
    Vikki Y.

    Ordered carry out because their kitchen was closing at 7pm on a Sunday! I ordered two orders of the stuffed cabbage and one order of the chicken noodle soup. The food was ready as the time I requested and was so tasty. I grew up eating Eastern European food at friends houses and I loved the flavors of what I ordered. The stuffed cabbage came with a side of yummy potatoes with dill and a side of yummy beets. The food was fresh and very tasty! Portions were okay (not huge) and I'll definitely return to try other dishes. The restaurant itself is not very big or super fancy but it had plenty of seating and was very clean. There is plenty of parking in the plaza outside. It's right next door to the nail place and one of the first restaurants in the plaza (it took a second to find it). The prices were very Glenview/Northshore. My order for two orders of stuffed cabbage and one bowl of soup came out to be $60.00 which is kind of high compared to deli prices. However it was very tasty and comparable to prices in the area. Would definitely return and try other items!

    Herring Beets Tartare
    Joy C.

    Smetana was located in a strip mall at the corner of Lehigh and Glenview Rd., in downtown Glenview. In between a Dunkin' Donuts and a liquor store. We walked here on a Saturday around 6pm and we were the only customers at that time. Our server greeted and seated us right away. Since we were not familiar with the items on the menu, we wanted to try different things. HERRING BEETS TARTARE- the herring and the beets went well together. POTATO PANCAKE w/ SMOKED SALMON- the salmon was good and the pancake was ok. BOGRACH- this was a hearty soup and there was a lot of meat. It would have been better if the meat was more tender though. PORK CUTLETS- I enjoyed the beet salad and the mashed potatoes. The pork cutlet was nothing special. Overall, it was good to finally try Smetana and the unique dishes they have. The service was friendly and efficient. The place was clean and I liked the neat interiors. More power to this small, local business!

    Rebecca F.

    This is a great restaurant. High quality ingredients and everything is cooked to perfection. I had the breaded pork chop with a side of mushroom sauce poured over. We also had mushroom and kraut perogi and spinach and cheese perogi and they were both excellent. I also tried everything on the Polish platter. I hope this restaurant enjoys a lot of success because I want them to stay here in the community so we can continue to dine here. The service was excellent too.

    Outstanding spinach, potato and meat pierogis.
    Will K.

    Outstanding food. Very good recipes and cooking to back it up. The pierogi plate features a mix of spinach, potato and meat pierogis and were all delicious. The chicken noodle soup was outstanding, a very flavorful broth with a great mix of thin, light noodles and chicken breast chunks. The restaurant interior is medium sized with maybe 8 tables and works as both a nice date night setting or casual meal. Nice interior touches. SUPER friendly servers, including Oha and Kanza. So sweet. I hope the new restaurant does well and lasts. A great add to the neighborhood. I'll surely be back.

    Polish plate
    Victoria F.

    Came here based on a friend's recommendation, and I am glad I gave it a try! We went on a Saturday afternoon (not peak hours) so there were plenty of seats. The space is on the smaller side, and I could see there being a wait during normal dining hours. The decorations were charming and gave a cozy feel. Our server was helpful in describing the different dishes. We got the Polish plate, combination, pierogies, and European schwarma. Although the food is on the pricey side, I thoroughly enjoyed each dish. I thought everything was fresh, flavorful, and had beautiful presentation. We were too stuffed for dessert, but next time I want to try the honey cake!

    Hot fruit tea with oranges and berries
    Lisa A.

    Absolutely love, love, love this place. I think it was recommended by the Yelp community leader, Kesha, and I headed with high expectations and I give it an 10. When you walk in it is so inviting, nice seating arrangements with comfortable covered chairs which adds a nice touch and the waiter was so pleasant and helpful because I had only been to a place in West Roger's Park that was good but it was very rundown and they didn't seem to care. This place was refreshing, inviting and very bougie. They offer many vegetarian options and meat of course. I'm not sure what they're known for but first thing on the menu is pierogis, meat, cheese, potato, sauerkraut, mozzarella, and spinach. They're really good but I can't imagine eating 10 by myself. It's a good shareable option. I chose Ukrainian borscht as my soup (it was cold windy and slushy) and also shared the Zapiekanka with mushrooms and cheese as an appetizer. Next as my main course I had the breaded pork chop with mashed potatoes and I chose beet salad, and everything was homemade and authentic. The waiter told me that you put sour cream on everything and including the soup. I'm not accustomed to that so I didn't try it tonight. The pork chop was very good and real mashed potatoes were good but I really liked the beet salad. I got to try a bite of each item in the Polish plate and all of it was scrumptious. The fruit tea served hot or cold is very enjoyable with fresh fruits and in the summer I would love it cold but tonight hot was perfect. The crepe dessert was a bit cold but all of it fresh. There's a nice drink menu with hard cider, beer, wine and signature cocktails, but I can't handle the liquor so can't comment on that. Being such a foodie I could come here every day but I suspect my finicky husband will lose interest. I'll find my gal pals to join me. See you soon, Smetana, my little "sour cream "!!

    Cherry Pierogi
    S S.

    Really delicious food here. The place itself is on the smaller side but super quaint. The staff/ owner is super nice and speaks at least 3 languages (English, Russian, Polish) which is helpful if you have older family members that want a taste of home but don't speak English. The food is also phenomenal, everything is fresh and made from scratch and tastes exactly how your grandma would make it. The portions are also fairly large and the prices reflect that.

    Blueberry pierogis

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    1 year ago

    Awesome food. Worth a try! It's central European food which is unique. Rather than Hackney's give yourself a different treat. Family owned!

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    2 years ago

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    2 years ago

    Great and tasty food. Nice selection of drinks and reasonable prices. Will come back. Thank you

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    2 years ago

    Lovely atmosphere. Welcoming services. And good food. We like coming here for a lunch on weekends.

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    3 years ago

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    4 years ago

    We have been walking by but not stopped until now!! It was great! Super clean, great service and the food was beautiful and delicious.

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    3 years ago

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    4 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Great Eastern European food ! Friendly staff and great service. Will come back to soon!

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    2 years ago

    Average food, good service. Great drinks made by the owner. Very accommodating owner.

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    Page 1 of 2

    Smetana Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - Smetana

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    Velour - Ribeye Steak

    Velour

    3.9(37 reviews)
    7.5 miO'Hare

    I think "Velour" is the best Ukrainian restaurant in the Chicagoland area nowadays! I discovered…read morethis place when I googled places with the live music for my daughter's big birthday and we decided to stop by for tasting dinner. Born in Ukraine, I can confirm the authenticity of the cuisine. We tried several appetizers and main dishes and every single dish was A+! Fish soup had a wonderful flavor, black cheese Varenyky proved the chef's skill to make an excellent house made pasta , traditional Ukrainian Banosh (a Ukrainian version of Polenta on cream served with feta and pork fried lard) was mouthwatering, Golubci (Stuffed Cabbage) that we ordered as appetizer melted in the mouth and had an absolutely perfect proportion of the meat and rice complimented by a masterfully created sauce. Our main dishes did not disappoint either. My husband's octopus was tender and well seasoned, Kyiv chicken was lightly breaded and was very tasty, beautifully plated duck leg confit was at the level of the best French restaurants , and the roasted rabbit leg in the mushroom sauce , so rarely seen on the other menus, was to die for. We were so full after the dinner that we ordered our desserts to go to enjoy at home. This gem with masterfully crafted cocktails, the unique ambiance and unparalleled service is truly the greatest representation of the exquisite Ukrainian cuisine. The adequate prices and personal attention to each customer makes this restaurant a Must Go! I highly recommend!

    A native Ukrainian at my table confirmed the food was authentic. Note that authentic and good are…read morenot the same thing. Most of the food we ordered was pale and underseasoned - if that's the tradition, I'm sorry for Ukrainians. The lard assortment - the Ukrainian board - was unexpectedly excellent, though the sport peppers were undoubtedly added to please American palates. Points for simply trying: this is not a cuisine you find on every corner, and the effort is real. But the vareniki (a.k.a. pierogi to Poles) were store-freezer quality, one kind dyed an alarming charcoal black for no obvious reason. Then the service. Two of the dishes we ordered weren't available. The mains arrived before the appetizers - and arrived lukewarm. Our waiter gave the impression he'd rather be anywhere else. The room doesn't help: it's set up like a banquet hall, bandstand and dance floor included, dressed for a wedding party. The crowd was mostly Ukrainian, which is the one honest endorsement here. And then the bill. A 3% credit-card fee, never disclosed until the check arrived - not on the menu, not a word from the waiter, just there at the end like a parting gift. That's not a gray area: Visa and Mastercard both require a surcharge to be disclosed before you pay, and it can't exceed the merchant's actual processing cost. Springing it on the receipt breaks the rules they agreed to when they started taking cards. If you're going to charge it, post it before I order, not after - the sleight of hand colors everything else. Two stars. One of them is entirely for the lard.

    Photos
    Velour
    Velour - Ribeye Steak

    Ribeye Steak

    Velour

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    Jibek Jolu

    Jibek Jolu

    4.1(232 reviews)
    1.4 mi
    $$

    Jibek Jolu was all I could ask for to relive my time in Kyrgyzstan!! As soon as I walked in, I saw…read morethe familiar design, camels, and all the detail that transported me out of Chicago, yay!! It's so refreshing when a restaurant can do this! I wanted my family to experience a glimpse of Kyrgyz food, so of course we ordered all the things only a local would know about ! Shout out to our guide during our trip- he made sure we tried lots of cuisine that was all the way Kyrgyz food! The crispy eggplant is a must and is my favorite ! The eggplant is light and the sauce that is drenched on top is perfect to balance the fried crispy exterior. Next I ordered Samsa, Plov, and lamb kurdock. My husband ordered the beef rib and mash potatoes. Not the most Kyrgyz but he did try everything and loved it all! If you want a taste of central Asian cuisine please come to Jibek Jolu! Don't forget the honey cake!

    Ambiance is nice. You can really tell there's a little community that goes there a lot. The…read morelocation is kind of quaint, you can totally miss it on a corner at the end of the downtown plaza if you're not paying attention. I definitely felt a little underdressed but it's not technically a super fancy place but i would recommend dressing up. The night i went there was also live music, which was so nice! Exploring the menu was awesome because some of the food was very new to me and I wish there was a way for me to order and try more than just one dish. I had the Rice Plov which was SO GOOD!!! I had never even heard of it before until i came here! Would definitely recommend coming here to try at least once!

    Photos
    Jibek Jolu - Interior

    Interior

    Jibek Jolu
    Jibek Jolu - Honey cake

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    Honey cake

    Magic Jug - Pelmeni (Meat Dumplings)

    Magic Jug

    4.4(88 reviews)
    8.3 miDunning
    $$

    Under no circumstance whatsoever would I ever use the term "comfort food." So normie, so NPC, so…read morerevolting. At least, I thought I would never apply this opprobrious term. But what other word exists for capably made Ukranian food? It is comfort food qua comfort food. The Platonic ideal of such. Savory in the extreme with more subtle notes of sweet and tart. On a previous trip to Chicago I lodged in a neighborhood bordering Ukraine Village. The proximity allowed me to sample a few establishments from the Ukraine. Things were fine; nothing extraordinary. On this more recent trip, I braved an excursion to the western suburbs, just for the Magic Jug. A food blogger named Hammond said it's the best. He did not lie. So it's in the occidental hinterlands of the city. And yet, my fellow diners were all from the Ukraine. So Ukranian, in fact, they all spoke the mother tongue. Besides that, the surroundings were not particularly Slavic. Minimalist pinewood interior makes you think moreso of Japan and less so of the Eastern Bloc. But anyhow. The chief feature that makes it so good is that everything is seasoned and flavored perfectly. The cooks - all from the Ukraine and all women - each possess palates with sniper rifle precision. The pelmeni (stuffed dumplings of similar appearance to tortellini). So beefy. So oniony. And finished with an herbaceous garlicky seasoning. The golubtsi (stuffed cabbage) at Magic Jug is without it's usually tomato sauce, giving you breathing room to really basque in the chicken broth in which the rice and veg were cooked. The effect: think a reconstructed chicken noodle soup - only with a fat dollop of smetana (sour cream). And the stewed liver. Really like a liver Diane. Don't be a wuss, eat the liver. Get it with mashed potatoes. I had mine with buckwheat so you don't have to. They also have several selections of house made bread. I ordered the one that's like a pull-apart brioche. Too full to appreciate it from on a visceral level, I was still able to note the craft involved. Within it, there contained the balancing act of well developed gluten and pliant interior.

    This place is absolutely a must try. We've been wanting to stop by for years and finally went in…read moreand literally everything that came out of the kitchen was so flavorful and amazing. We weren't sure what to order or how to narrow down what to get and the server made some great suggestions. For salads we had the cabbage salad and the beet salad, both were really good on their own and also if you mix them together too. The large meat pie - I forgot the name of it - was incredible too, and I had to get it with a side of the mushroom gravy which went well on everything. The dumplings were really good too and the mushroom soup was probably the best soup I've had in years. We will definitely be back.

    Photos
    Magic Jug
    Magic Jug - Pelmeni (Meat Dumplings)

    Pelmeni (Meat Dumplings)

    Magic Jug - Pelmeni (Meat Dumplings)

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    Pelmeni (Meat Dumplings)

    Anelya - Plum Dessert

    Anelya

    4.2(79 reviews)
    10.3 miAvondale

    This was a very special experience. Chef Clark and Chef Kim know good food. They develop delightful…read moreideas, they serve you stories and memories you'll make and stories and memories you'll think of every time you take a bite, and they truly live this life. Parachute was incredible, and Anelya is just as spectacular. It had been on my list to dine for a while, and my husband and I finally had the chance to go. Imagine my delight when I saw Chef Kim on America's Culinary Cup. What a bright mind, and everything she delivered had immense talent behind it. Together, these chefs bring what you can experience in a meal to new heights. So it should come as no surprise that every bite at Anelya was just as good as expected. From the roe tart to the pampushky, to the varenyky, to the kyiv, and the honey cake, every single bite was a dream. This is a must visit, and one you'll want to make multiple times. Chef Clark and Chef Kim, thank you for bringing this special place to Chicago.

    Had dinner with friends at this spot we've been eager to try for a while! Overall, it was a solid…read moreexperience with excellent service--the staff changed our plates frequently--and a quiet atmosphere that made it very easy to catch up and talk. The Food: Marinated Mushrooms (white wine, mustard seed): Hands down my favorite dish! Packed with incredible flavor. Trout Roe Tart (chive cream cheese, fresh wasabi): Delicious! Loved the fresh pop of the trout roe paired with the tangy cream cheese. Potato Pancakes (sea buckthorn jam, feta): Really good--perfect texture with a great balance of savory and sweet. Holubtsi (short-rib stuffed cabbage rolls, pearl barley, tomato demi-glace): Tender, flavorful, and cooked perfectly. Varenyky (sauerkraut-filled dumplings, chanterelles, walnut-mushroom sauce): A tasty, classic dish. Crayfish Deviled Eggs: Good flavor, though the crayfish portion felt smaller than pictured online and they were a bit heavy on the filling. Pampushky (Ukrainian garlic bread): Decent, but slightly denser and less soft than expected. Salo (cured pork lardo, garlic): A bit disappointing--mostly fat without much depth of flavor. Chicken Kyiv & Pork Ribs: Both proteins were noticeably dry and relied heavily on their sauces (though the apricot glaze on the ribs was very tasty). Dessert: We tried both the Napoleon and the Medovyk (honey cake). The Napoleon was the standout winner--crisp, balanced, and delicious! One final thing I just had to say, the price of 1 small bottle of Diet Coke was $7, I think that's highway robbery!

    Photos
    Anelya - Interior

    Interior

    Anelya - Entree Potato Pancakes

    Entree Potato Pancakes

    Anelya - Dessert Pomegranate Sorbet

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    Dessert Pomegranate Sorbet

    Smetana - modern_european - Updated September 2026

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