Restaurant Review – Happy Greek and Eastern Orthodox Easter!
The Easter celebrations continue this week in the Greek and Eastern Orthodox churches on Sunday, April 24, and Chicago’s restaurants are going all-out with traditional celebrations for dining out, delivery, or pick up!
At Avli’s River North location, 702 N. Wells Street, the celebration begins the night before, with a post-Mass Midnight Greek Feast on Saturday, April 23 for a traditional midnight dinner feast featuring classic Spring Greek dishes.
They re-open at noon on Easter Sunday, along with Avli’s other locations in Lakeshore East, 180 N. Field Boulevard, and Lincoln Park, 1335 W. Wrightwood Avenue, for Executive Chef Nikos Kapernaros’ traditional Greek Easter feast of Tsoureki Sweet Bread; Greek Easter Salad, and vegetarian Magiritsa. Avli slowly cooks the lamb with Greek oregano and serves it with traditional oven-baked potatoes, asparagus, lemon, and herbs, followed by a Halva fruit dessert, and a red-dyed hard-boiled egg symbolizing rebirth. For more information, click here.
In the heart of Logan Square, Andros Taverna, 2542 N. Milwaukee, Chef Doug Psaltis, according to their website, serves Mediterranean food “cooked from the soul.” For this holiest of days, their week-long celebration of Easter featuring spring menu items including traditional kokoretsi, tender goat kleftiko and a feast of lamb. Their regular menu will also be available, as well as wine pairings. For reservations and information, click here.
While there are no Russian/Ukrainian special menus listed for Eastern Orthodox Easter, there’s certainly no shortage of Russian/Ukrainian dining in Chicago. North Center’s Jibek Jolu, 5047 N. Lincoln Avenue, serves highly recommended Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Russian, and Uzbek cuisine. “Taste like home,” says a recent Google reviewer. Borscht is a hearty Russian beet soup, with a fresh variety of vegetables, served with sour cream. Kuurdak is an ancient Kyrgyz dish, with sautéed chicken, lamb or beef, with onions and roasted baby potatoes. Boso Lagman is a beef and vegetable stew, pan-seared with noodles. Plov with Lamb is a legendary national rice dish cooked in a traditional cast-iron kazan, served in a seasoned broth stirred with lamb, carrots, onions and garlic. Google reviewers highly recommend their honey cake for dessert.
Near the Art Institute of Chicago is Russian Tea Time, 77 E. Adams Street, which has been serving Eastern European specialties for 28 years. Ukrainian Borscht is a sweet and sour soup of beef, beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Olivye Salad is a traditional Russian salad made with diced potatoes, carrots, pickles, eggs, peas and mayonnaise. Entrees include Uzbek “Layer” Stew Domlama is a stew of potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, red peppers and onions with a touch of cumin. Stuffed Cabbage Golubtsi is a cabbage roll stuffed with ground beef, chicken, carrots and sautéed onions, simmered in tomato sauce. It’s served with buckwheat kasha and carrot salad. For dessert, try a Napoleon Bonaparte. For more information, click here.
Καλό Πάσχα(Happy Greek Easter!)
z velykodnem(HappyUkrainianEaster!)
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
