- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Czech Plaza Restaurant
Rating Details »
Category: Restaurants [Edit]
7016 Cermak Rd(between Home Ave & Wenonah Ave)
Berwyn, IL 60402
(708) 795-6555
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
18 reviews for Czech Plaza Restaurant
EVERYTHING IS PERFECT! Been eating their since College. Love the crunchy Breaded Pork tenderloin, the dumplings are old world, the breads are excellent. The sweet/sour sauerkraut, are old world and excellent and , the desserts are home made and the potato soup is as pleasantly thick as Split Pea soup. I have been eating there for more than a generation and though I am Italian, The Czech Plaza makes my second most favorite ethic food.
It is the best, I advise ordering the dumplings they are as good as any I have had even overseas. I am a fairly big eater and yet I always have enough left to take home for the next day.
When it comes to authentic "Bohemian" food, Czech Plaza is as good as it gets.
Growing up I remember my Grandmother making some of these dishes but she never got too extravagant with her cooking. We used to go to a bohemian place on the circle in Brookfield called the Corner Restaurant, but when the parents passed it down to the kids they just didn't have it in them to continue the traditional quality and service as the older generation did, so they eventually closed. Now Czech Plaza has been around for quite some time but I only discovered it a couple of years ago. Recently I had the chance to go revisit some of my old hometown haunts and I had to make a trip over to Czech Plaza to get some hometown cooking. As a tip to the inexperienced diner, come here hungry, very hungry, and do not, I repeat do not go over board with the delicious soft & freshly made rye bread basket when it comes out, have a slice with butter but keep half to go with your soup. I read some other guy's funny review and I chuckled when he said he had to carve the liver dumpling in his soup! It's funny because it's true! The Liver dumpling soup, for me, is the only soup I order here, and yes you can eat it with a spoon, fork, and knife. But it truly is a delicious creation in a perfectly light and savory stock broth. This time we did order an appetizer, which is really bold given the size of their entree's. We shared a plate of potato pancakes and oh were they perfect. Browned just right, crispy edges with creamy but still well formed grated potatoes in the middle that sung with flavor.
As far as the entrees go I'm kind of a traditionalist when it comes to ordering old recipe items like the Svickova, the Beef with Dill Gravy or Chicken Paprikash. I always go with the dumplings but I sometimes trade off between Sauerkraut or Cabbage. They're nearly identical side dishes except Sauerkraut I believe is a tad less sweeter and has caraway seeds in it. When whatever entree you order arrives you'll see why it was best to lay low on the rye bread because it will be huge.
But I do recommend that you snag that rye bread up and put it in your doggy bag box to take home with you.
Moving on, the beer selection is really choice and I would be hard pressed to get through all of the choices in less than three visits here. My favorite however is the Golden Pheasant, a Slovakian beer, in a big bottle - yeah baby!
Service is not very consistent, but I have found this to be true at many many authentic European restaurants every time and every town. Eventually you get everything you need it's just not always when you want it.
Now here is a very important thing to remember before you even stick your fork into your delicious beef 'n dill gravy!!! There will be dessert after your meal. There are no exceptions to this rule! And you will be given choices of the most amazing pastries and they also will be huge. I myself had the Poppy Seed Cake. Damn good! I ate the whole thing, and my tummy made that "ding" sound just like the one your old oven timer to tell you when it's done. Boy was I done, but you'd be best to not stick a fork in me because It would be like the scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life after he eats "Just one tiny little wafer thin mint!"
Only since it is a consistent subject in my reviews will I bring up the matter of pricing of the menu. The price for all their meals are completely fair and I don't ever have to question or even look at the prices on the menu here. It would be perfectly fine with me if they had no prices printed on the menu because I would order everything I wanted anyway and would know whatever amount I had to pay would be fair.
Cheers!
Husband and I came here on a Friday night. Once we were seated, the water and rye bread (yum!) was brought out immediately.
The meal comes with soup, potatoes or dumplings, vegetable, and dessert. We both ordered potato soup and, although my husband really liked his, I found mine to be very concentrated. It tasted as though it came out of a can and needed to be diluted. For main course I ordered stuffed cabbage and my husband ordered Farmer's Market Special - a dish that had sausage, roasted pork, pork butt, and meat loaf.
Stuffed cabbage - the sauce was very bland and a little sweet. The stuffing was a little "grainy" and dry.
Farmer's Market Special: The pork butt was dry, the sausage was ok, the meat loaf was garlicky and "gamy". Unfortunately, I didn't get to try the roasted pork because it was devoured by my husband. He said it was the best dish on the plate.
The sauerkraut was sweet-ish and the desserts are definitely not home made. The cocktails/drinks are stiff and cheap and the service is extremely fast. Our bill was $32 with 2 entrees, 2 cocktails/drinks, 1 coffee, and 1 diet coke.
I grew up with Grandma's Bohemian food for Sunday dinner. This place is as close to that as I can get.
Dad and I had a few of the stand-bys: Koprova Omacka (Beef with Dill Gravy) and "Half 1/2 Half" ( sliced roast pork and fried pork tenderloin cutlet), both with dumplings, cabbage and liver dumpling soup. All were amazingly good. The soup was very flavorful- lots of garlic in the broth. The liver dumpling was tender yet firm- pure heaven! The dill gravy was the best I've ever had- the sauce gets most of its flavor from the brine, as the beef is actually pickled first. My only complaint- the gravy for the pork was more of a packaged brown gravy, not the best. The waitress, a young Eastern European cutie (yes they ARE there), was very nice and brought us extra dill gravy instead-SCORE! Dessert (who has room?!?!) was homemade apple strudel - to go, finished at home after my flight to Atlanta. Sweet dreams!
Do be sure to have a stein of the Pilsner Urquell- its a large pint and goes down so well with the food.
A word of advice: When you arrive, you will want to dive head-first into the yummy homemade soft rye bread. Go slow- it will fill you up. That is the major reason why they're so quick with the leftover boxes. But, when you are ready to go, be sure to grab the bread too- thats the true "Bohemian" way to do it :)
For years our favorite place was the Corner Restaurant in Brookfield. Now that they've closed, I think we finally found our replacement.
We usually get carry out. I'm a big fan of their breaded pork tenderloin. A nice crust. I like their dumplings as well. My other half loves their mashed potatoes; I think they are okay. I really like their chicken noodle soup. Lots of chicken and lots of noodles. The home made rye bread is quite tasty too.
The portions are huge. You will definitely have leftovers!!
Fantastic home-style dinners....you really get your money's worth at Czech Plaza.
The roast beef with rice is not to be missed...the sauce can't be found anywhere else. The bohemian dark rye is great too, you'll probabaly be getting your fill of it before the food comes.
This is right by my place so I wanted to try it out. The boyfriend didn't like it much but I did. I ordered the breaded steak and it came with potatoes, soup and dessert, and I also got a pint.
I wish I could go more into detail but I was here a few months ago so it's not so clear but I know i wasn't floored by it. I remember it being super cheap and a ton of food so I will go back and update.
I LOVE this place! Went here for lunch wanting to give this place a try with my college bud. He had meat pierogies, I had the "Farmer's Platter", a smattering of sausage, the Czech version of meat loaf, smoked pork butt, pork loin, and bread dumplings. They give you a bowl of nicely flavored brown gravy to pour over the bread dumplings, and I opted for the side of sauerkraut, though cabbage is also an alternative. My buddy loved his pierogies and liver dumpling soup. I really liked the farmer vegetable soup with rice...in a tomato based broth. Nice kolacky for dessert, but be advised this is NOT the kind of kolacky you'd find in a Polish restaurant...this more coffee-cake like, but delicious nonetheless. The place was nicely decorated, the service was great. I wish they'd open a Czech Plaza closer to where I live in the northern suburbs. This is great comfort food. Tastes just like what my grandma would make, if she were Czech. But she was Polish. I'll be back whenever my travels take me to Berwyn. Highly recommended! Oh, and the price is right too! LOTS of food...lunch for two...$18 bucks plus tip (and I tipped generously for the great service!)
I wish I had something different to add- but everyone has pretty much covered this place.
I love that you can get a complete meal with bread, soup, entree, and dessert for less than ten dollars.
The bread is thick cut, homemade rye bread that is wonderful dipped in the soup. I haven't had the liver dumpling soup, but I can vouch for the creamy mushroom. It is hot, tasty, but the mushroom taste is unoffensive. I say this because I do not like mushrooms, but I enjoy this soup.
I usually order the Chicken Paprika because it is one of my favorite dishes that my grandmother occasionally makes. For $8.50 you get half a chicken! The orangey-pink gravy may throw some off, but it is rich, thick, and perfect. It works well with the huge bread dumplings, something else my grandmother makes from scratch.
I have sampled the breaded pork tenderloin and the beef koprava with dill gravy- It's all good!
I usually come towards the end of the night, when most of the better sounding desserts are out. Like someone said, the desserts are the weakest part of this establishment, but by that time, I'm usually so stuffed, that I don't care much.
Perhaps I chose poorly. I have spent time in Eastern Europe. I have had the food. I have eaten well. This was not my experience at Czech Plaza. I must admit that my motives in coming here were not pure. I was on the hunt for the next Paulina Porizkova. She was not here. My disappointment grew from this point.
I brought Vamsi to Berwyn the day after he got cooties from a Cocktail stripper. Neither one of us had had Czech food before, nor had we ever been to Berwyn, so we thought this would be the perfect place to catch up, have an adventure and try some ethnic food. Granted, I can miss the side of a barn when I am zoning out and driving, but I didn't see this place. It's right on Cermak/22, but unless you are studying for the numbers, you'll pass it by. It's an unassuming building, which is fine. I am not here for the party. I am here for the food.
Our really nice waitress greeted Vamsi and me and I was charmed by her genuine friendliness. We were the only two brown folks in the place and were the youngest by a good forty years - we stood out. Nevertheless, we were greeted and treated with nothing but courtesy. Vamsi ordered water and I got a big, honkin' Czech beer served in a gigantic glass. Things are looking good. Now, I had done my homework. I knew that I could get a copious amount of food for little cash. I was ready to order. I ordered...and the waitress was not feeling it. Vamsi had shamed me by ordering something off the superspecial™ menu. My fried porkchops were not going to cut it. I relented and ordered the 1/4 duck and pork chop with cabbage and dumplings and liver dumpling soup.
The food. There was a lot of it. But it didn't taste particularly good. In fact, it didn't taste much like anything. The soup was a broth with a GIANT liver meatball in the middle of it. Yes, I ordered a liver dumpling soup. I was ready for liver. But this? This was LLLIIIVVVEERRR. I thought happy thoughts as I carved (yep) into it. I remembered why I hadn't had liver & onions since I was a boy. It wasn't a bad taste. It was the mental game of what I was eating. They should have called it "brown candy." No problems eating that. My entree was equally laborious. The duck and pork were both boiled to brown greyness. It made me sad to look at. My dumplings were heavy and plentiful. I was hoping for light, pierogi-like fare. Nah. These were DENSE. The potato that bore these babies must have been a good fifty feet and fifty pounds. My cabbage (and I like cabbage) was awash in a thick, sweet sauce. I didn't care for it. I like my cabbage dry and crisp. Broken of spirit and out of breath from attempting to eat my meal, I perked up at the idea of dessert. Mmm, I like dessert. Not this one. I got the apple strudel. I was cold...and tasteless. Disappointing.
Again, nothing tasted bad, per se, but nothing was really good. It was culinary muzak - heavy, drab and a little depressing muzak. Hmm, maybe not muzak. Maybe it was more like a dirge. Ah man, I am sounding so mean. And I don't mean to be...but this meal was exhausting in a bad way. My food baby came by way of Rosemary. If this is indicative of Czech food, I fear that my time in Prague will be spent at Burger King.
...ah-ha.
We found you Czech Plaza!
Three of us: Me, the boyfriend, and the brother-in-law felt the need for someone else to make us a home-cooked meal and wandered over to Czech plaza.
When you walk in - the place is quaint, the tables are close together (all the better to point at the next table and say "I'll have that!"), the service is quick, the beer on tap is cold. The ages ranged from late 20's to 80's. I.E: taken my sweety out- to taken my sweet old Oma out.
We had:
Pork w/sour cream sauce and bread dumplings.
The Farmer's Meat Combo (or something that sounded like that).
The pork & pork combo (close enough).
All the dinners came with bread basket, choice of Awesome soups (try the Liver dumpling!) and dessert. All between $8.00 and $9.50!!! You almost can't believe the prices - they must be circa 1970?!
The food was delicious and plentiful, the soup was exactly like my Mom would have made. The desserts were small and a little bland...but come-on, at that point you'd already had bread, soup, a full plate of food, and a bowl o' gravy on the side...who had room?
If you like pork, breaded pork tenderloin, pork meatloaf (yum!), or Czech pork sausage - And if you like gravy, brown gravy, sourcream based gravy, and pork gravy - Well, visit Czech plaza.
For the three of us and three half liters of beer the bill came to $43.00, Nice.
If you have a taste for Czech food and don't want to spend a bundle Czech Plaza is the place fo you. I visit CP with my brother and his family several times throught the year.
I order th Market Special. Cabobs and sausage, ham and pork, with liver dumbling soup. It's an acquired taste comfort food.
Excellent!
This is one of the very first places my hub too me to when we first started dating, and it also was the place we took our families to after we got married (married in court, lunch at Czech Plaza). While I wasn't really big into Bohemian food, I am now. My in-laws love meeting us here for dinner and it's cheap...$30 + tip pays for 4 adult dinners.
Like Ed B. said, the breaded pork tenderloin is the thing to order. My sister doesn't like anything fried, but she will eat the breaded pork tenderloin from Czech Plaza whenever she gets a chance. They've got great dumplings, too!! I've had the roasted pork and the pierogies, but my first choice will always be the breaded pork tenderloin. And there's always too much food!! With dinner, you get soup, and a choice of side dish (sauerkraut, sweet cabbage, and some other selections), dessert (go for the kolackys and coffee. Beverages and alcohol are separate. I believe they carry a small variety of Bohemian beers, too!!
If you are anywhere near North Riverside shopping mall, make a bee-line to Czech Plaza for dinner. But it's got to be before 8:30 p.m. They like to close shop early, as do most Bohemian places in our neck of the woods.
Excellent. Most people like Klas down the street from here, but I like the food at Czech Plaza better (though i thought Klas had better Ghoulash soup). The price is also better here, but there is no salad bar.
I either get the Wienerschnitzel or the 1/2 Roast Duck.
This has been a family favorite for a while. The price is awesome. Plus the portions are huge so you are guaranteed left overs for lunch tomorrow.
Don't go too late though because they close at 9 ( think) and start to run out of the specials as it gets later.
If you are driving there it is easy to pass. It is on the northside of the street (Cermak) and it a small one story building next to a bank. Keep your eyes open for street parking once you see the laundromat.
Holy cow, if you enjoy Czech / Polish food, you'll love Czech Plaza. It's my favorite Czech / Polish restaurant (even better than Bobak's). There are so many good choices on the menu, but the breaded Pork Tenderloin is so hard to pass up....a spectacular version - crunchy outside, moist and succulent inside, wonderful gravy (especially over the dumplings). That dish is really one of the best I've ever had for "casual" food. The Liver Dumpling soup is to die for. And I love the cucumber "salad" (really, thinly sliced cucumbers in a vinegary, sugary "dressing). And their own rye bread is great - my family likes it because it's not too strong, though I could take it stronger. Service is okay, but can be a bit off for drink refills (so I ask for a pitcher of water every time) or if you need something once your entree is brought to the table. But the food makes up for it. Second favorite entree?? Svickova - pickled beef in a sour cream sauce. But that Breaded Pork Tenderloin is so difficult to avoid.
The portions are enormous. I always have enough for a second full meal of leftovers. I'd give 5 stars if the service were a bit better.
You can spend a little under $10 per person and still be full and have leftovers. The real gem about this place is their outstanding goulash soup (which is only served on Saturdays and they won't make an exception is you ask for it on any other day) The food portions are large and the servers can be hard to understand with their strong Czech accents which gives this place a strong sense of authenticity. This place has a strong "Old School" vibe since the majority of their customer base tend to be older Eastern European people. The owners, who are usually the hostess/bartender are wonderful people.
YUMMY!!!! The food is very similar to German food, and maybe polish, but is in my opinion executed better than any of those. First off, the atmosphere is old world, the exact opposite of trendy. There are many old people here also. So what? I go for the food. The liver dumpling soup is unbeatable, you have to try it ( if you don't hate liver). Lately I've been ordering the turkey dinner only served on Sundays. OMG! I can have all dark meat, SO tasty and juicy and easily 10oz+! I like it with stuffing and mashed with gravy. I also like bread dumplings served with a side of homemade gravy. The dinners come with fresh rye bread, starter, entree, potato and vegetable, AND dessert! Turkey is $10.00 or $11.00. Most dinners range from $8.00-$14.00. Last time my boyfriend had a medely of 3 meats, each was truly tender and succulent!! I like the duck, crispy, juicy and priced well! I can't remember everything I've had since I've been going on and off for 30 years. As I've said, I like the food here better than any Polish or German restaurant I can think of! Make an effort to get there, it's 10 minutes west of Chicago.
