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Category: Restaurants [Edit]
Neighborhood: Rogers ParkLoyola (Red)
Why, Cafe Suron, why did you close? We drove all the way from West Town, only to find a darkened store front with a "wine bar coming soon" sign. Argh. This city has enough good wine bars, we need more kickass, affordable, BYOB restaurants. At least update your website to say you're gone.
Sad.
As I always do when I eat at Persian restuarants (or any restaurant), I ordered the lamb, in kabob form. They were truly delicious--big chunks of perfectly cooked lamb, dill rice, and roasted vegetables that made me feel healthy just by eating them. The boyfriend had a fragrant Chicken Koubideh (ground and seasoned chicken with rice and veggies).
We also tried the grilled and seasoned sea scallop appetizer which was so-so (go to Sai Cafe for the best scallop appetizer) and the feta cheese with olives. The feta was delicious--tangy and a little bit dry but perfect when paired with the olives.
2 entrees, 2 appetizers--$33 (not incl tip)
The interior is a bit cavernous, but the yellow walls give it a glow. There is a fountain, but didn't seem to have water running in it. The chairs/tables are casual--patio fold-up chairs, white table clothes--as are the clientele.
The restaurant is BYOB and charges $4/bottle for wine.
I run by here frequently and it never seems busy, which is strange given its prices, quality food and good atmosphere. Whatever the reason, I'll be stopping in often to support my local Persian restaurant with my wallet AND stomach!
**6-27-07**
Added the 5th star--bathrooms are clean, staff is still friendly (maybe a little slow but they seemed pretty young and we were there to relax anyway), and the desserts are worth saving room for! No dessert menu, but (and even better) a dessert tray with 5/6 choices.
I went with some girlfriends and with each of us getting an entree and dessert (and corkage fees for 3 bottles of wine) we each spent less than $30.
Food is great. Too bad to hear they're CLOSED.
All the food portions are considerably large. What was the reason to close is not sure, but wish they're open. The sabzee dishes are great. Fessenjoon, Chicken Koubideh and badamjoon are to die for.
Parking is a little drag, maybe is that the reason they closed(Not sure).
Wow; let's start with the great atmosphere: it's almost an indoor/outdoor thing, lots of plants and warm colors, and bistro-type tables. Good place for a date.
The real attraction, of course, is the food. Starting, of course, with the appetizers -- for noobs to Middle Eastern food, there are the usual safe choices of things like baba ghanouj and dolmeh (still good); for the more adventurous, there are more unusual Persian choices like borani or gormah sabzi. The calamari appetizer is also fantastic; pan-seared and done with a spicy pepper/basil sauce; they taste almost Thai.
I can't even express in a review how much I love the fesenjan (a Persian dish with chicken smothered in a pomegranate-walnut sauce). The entrees are all great, but this one is a real standout, something so unusually good that you find yourself raving about it later.
Service is very friendly and helpful, too. My only regret is not bringing a bottle of wine the first time; it's a BYOB.
I agree with everybody else:
Cafe Suron serves excellent Persian food and mediterranean charme!!! You feel almost you sit in a court yard of some mediterranean restaurant. The only bummer is: I went there at least 8 times and everytime I went it was kind of quiet. Not too quiet, but not the kind of busy it would deserve. Therefore the missing 5th star is NOT the fault of the food or service, but rather the fact that it feels sometimes quite private. (with that comment I don't hope to make it more quiet)
So, if you live in Rogers Park you should know it! If you don't live there that's the place to go to and introduce your date or reserve a big table with friends and enjoy something off-Andersonvillish.
I recommend it highly! It's worth the trip north on Sheridan Rd.
Although the menu has gotten pricier and more upscale, I still love this place. The staff is wonderful. The atmosphere is just as Lori E. describes (in summer when the windows are open) with wonderful art lending to the mood. Parking is usually impossible - but they provide "free" valet service. BYOB with a $5 corkage charge. The food is good to excellent.
They serve like 15 vegetarian appetizers plus some unusual seafood options - all with warm pita. We especially enjoy the smoky baba ganoush and fine calamari in a refreshing vinaigrette type sauce.
Lots of good entrees to choose from - most come with good grilled veggies and a mountain of either dilled or "white" persian (Basmati?) rice - go with the dilled or order half and half. Delicious beef, lamb, chicken and/or seafood kebabs. Order a combination plate and try two. Fish is good too, especially the superb and modestly priced Hawaiian Tilapia.
In my book, Tilapia is a very over-rated and usually over-priced fish. But here it is really something special. I know people from a good distance a way who say this dish alone makes Cafe Suron a "destination" restaurant. They also serve salmon, ahi tuna and mahi mahi, but "only when it meets their freshness standards."
Meat eaters will enjoy the lamb and beef kebabs and vegetarians will find plenty to like about this place too. Ask about special events with international music and dance. Prices have risen over the years - but are still very reasonable. Give it a try. Closed Mondays.
If you look up "dream-boat of a restaurant" somewhere, Cafe Suron would surely be the definition. The food is fresh, healthy, authentic, truly affordable and so ridiculously kind to your tastebuds, not to mention pretty. It's BYOB, and luckily there's a liquor store just across the way if you forget your preferred bottle of wine. Cork charge is only $5. The place is quaint, and less than a block from the lake, which makes for a totally lovely evening (whether it be with family, friends or a date) to go for a stroll on the lake after a super tasty meal. Serivce was friendly and attentive. I absolutely can not wait to go again.
3 blocks from the Red Line Morse stop. Go as soon as you possibly can.
ummm, so i happened by cafe suron tonight and saw that it had closed. i think for good. IS THIS TRUE?!!?!
someone, anyone, please let me know - -
alright. just to be hopefull, i will discuss cafe suron in present tense. as in...it is still present.
i really have to hat tip dave h. here. he's got it downn.
the food is, ugh, really great. i particularly remember how wonderful the dilled rice was. i would say even better than Reza's. the gormeh sabzi and paneer is delish. BUT (as dave mentioned) the fesenjan is so amazing and flavorful. (please, please, please still exist)
also, get the turkish coffee at the end. i remember going here on a hot date once and convincing him that a gypsy in egypt taught me how to read coffee grounds (mmm, not true)...yep, i definitely recommend telling your date that too.
Any place I can get a lamb/scallop combo is going to rank a couple of stars for me, and when it as delicious as the meal I had here I don't feel so bad about it. Everything we had was very tasty, and when we got the bill and realized that even with the corkage fee our meal was only going to be about $30 a person, well that was a very, very good feeling.
They only lose one star because I don't think its a good place to go with a group. The tile floors and high ceilings can make it kind of hard to hear the other end of the table, so I had to sit sideways for much of the night.
Oh! And get dessert. I had this berry-cream-cake thing that was awesome, and from the look on my friends' faces the chocolate covered cheesecake is amazing too.
Bland, tasteless kabobs. Every meat's overcooked. Not worth the hassle of finding parking near Loyola.
Everything's served w/ saffron rice. Every plate looks the same. WHY?
I recommend that you stop doing whatever you're doing right now if you're in the Chicago area and go to Cafe Suron. In fact, don't even finish reading this review. Just go, come back and read it, and then it will be easier to agree with everything that I'm about to say.
I worked at Cafe Suron for almost two years while going to Loyola University of Chicago. If you spend as much time in an establishment's kitchen as I did, and as much time with the owners as I did, and you still absolutely love a place, then it must be good.
Cafe Suron is owned by Farruzan and Faraz Namdari, brothers originally from Shiraz, who came to the U.S. via Pakistan, then Paris, as Ba'hai asylees. Farruzan is an intellectual. He has a reflective, artistic soul. He is scarily observant, never abuses his powers of speech. If you don't see him out front hosting, he's in the heat of the kitchen turning kabobs, broiling fish, and making your salads look too good to eat. His exhaustion always looks on him like some sort of enchantment. He's the only person I've ever met who can pull that off. Faraz is witty, sarcastic and charming. Also a good soul, but has a very different demeanor from his brother. Female patrons of the restaurant definitely ask if he's around if he's not in plain view.
Farruzan and Faraz worked to transform a 1920s tea salon/hotel lobby into their restaurant. The fountain in the middle of the floor is an original piece. The walls are painted inviting earth & brick tones, the ceiling like a sky accented by wispy clouds, and the floor is stone tiles. The northern wall of the restaurant is waist-height to ceiling windows that make the whole place glow in the daytime and provide cool lake breezes in the evening. I didn't mention--Cafe Suron is on the east side of Sheridan Rd, the one block of property right next to Lake Michigan.
The whole place is a rotating art gallery, filled with paintings from local artists, some of which are for sale. It includes paintings by Ario (see one of his little ones in my profile pic), an intense Chicago artist who uses a lot of underwater imagery and fish to represent life cycles. He, like me, is a pisces. All the two top tables are also hand-painted works of art by either Ario or Farruzan. You need to go to Cafe Suron for the art even if for some crazy reason you dislike kabobs and fessenjan.
Which brings me to the food. Hopefully by now you've taken my suggestion of going there first, or at least taken a look at the menu. All of the items listed are delicious and come in large portions. The food is Persian with some inspired options. You'll get a kashke bademjan (fried eggplant, carmelized onion, whey) that is better than most homemade kashkes and a grilled portabello mushroom cap that no one orders just once. Cafe Suron is the place that taught me that scallops are perfect just as they are. They just need a little butter. Never overcook them. Cafe Suron loses money on every scallop they plate. Each are huge, and cost almost $4 a piece. They give you 3 in the combos, and i think 5 in the scallops entree. Same goes for the jumbo schrimp.
Some of the best choices on the menu are the inspired options, particularly the paneer, the tilapia and the blackened tuna. The paneer is chevre, baked in tomato sauce in a clay dish in the oven until it's golden brown on top and served with toasted pita. Only warning on this is it's really filling and you won't want to stop eating. The tuna is served up like a steak, rare in the middle, with asparagus on the side. Some customers would come and order the tilapia every time. Such a simple fish, cheap in the grocery stores, is transformed--battered with horseradish, breaded with panko crumbs, pan fried to seal the fish, and then put in the oven to cook. It comes out and is dressed with a dill butter sauce with just a touch of roasted red pepper. Served with white or dill rice. You can always go 1/2 and 1/2 on the rice or substitute grilled vegetables for rice if you're carb-conscious. For Iranian customers, though it's not on the menu, Farruzan will make a pitcher of doogh upon request. And yes, we will bring you out a plate of raw onions if you ask for it. I can't even remember them charging for it. The dessert at Cafe Suron is a combination of house-made (Persian) and ordered items (European). Ask for the shirin or the pear tart & get a cup of tea or turkish coffee to go with it.
Things to know about Cafe Suron.
1) It's BYOB but you can bring whatever you want. There's a (not very well enforced) corkage fee of $4.
2) Cash or check only. They don't have a credit card machine.
3) Closed Mondays.
4) They have Flaminco dance performances. Used to be every 3rd Thursday of the month but call for dates.
"Suron" means celebration. The place is a celebration of the unexpected and the roads that brought us to where we stand today. When you go, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Really, really good food and good prices. I've been here a few times (even had my reception dinner for my wedding here) and I love it! They're the friendliest wait-staff /owner ever and they will greatly accommodate you in any-way possible. The food is spectacular.. My favorite is the Hawaiian Tilapia.. SO SO succulent and fresh and generally well prepared.. (be careful if your with a date it may make you drool un-controllably) Very bright and colorful dinning experience all around from the general look and feel of the place right down to the food itself. The only downside is parking can be a little rough (they may have a valet now) luckily we live walking distance.
I miss their Gorma Sabezah (sp?) ! I haven't had anything like it elsewhere. But then again, I haven't been to many Persian restaurants quite like this one. The staff is very friendly, the menu is reasonably priced and the restaurant itself is beautiful. It makes you feel like you are somewhere on the Mediterranean sipping wine with a breeze wofting through the open windows. Plus, it's right near the lake so you can take a nice stroll after you eat!
The food is delicious, the dinning room is wonderful, the service is soso.
One of the few things I miss about Rogers Park. I lived right next door and this place was awesome. It's great just to walk by--so vibrant and colorful. The food---fantastic! Not to mention the owner is pretty hot.
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