- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Teresa II Polish Restaurant & Lounge
Category: Restaurants Polish Polish [Edit]
4751 N Milwaukee Ave(between Giddings St & Lawrence Ave)
Chicago, IL 60630
Neighborhood: Portage Park
(773) 283-0184
- Nearest Transit:
-
Jefferson Park (Blue Line)
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Price Range:
-
$
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
14 reviews for Teresa II Polish Restaurant & Lounge
14 reviews in English
-
Review from Sitka C.
Chicago, IL
2/8/2012
I come here for the experience, not the food. The food is good, and the pierogi and borscht are really good. However, I love the atmosphere of this place, its like you stepped back into 1965. Teresa reminds me of my own Polish grandmother so it could be said that I have a favorable bias towards the place.
This is such a local and casual place; you can even see them making the food in the kitchen. Teresa would not take my plate until I cleaned everything from it. Some diners will hate that, but for me there is something awesome and comforting about finding your grandma's kitchen in the middle of Chicago :) -
Review from Joe M.
Chicago, IL
2/1/2012
I have lived right down the block from Teresa two all 29 years of my life and remember my grandma taking me there when I was a child. The place has not changed a bit since then. The mushroom soup is the absolute best. Homemade pierogis, potato pancakes or cheese blintzes, you can't go wrong.
-
Review from Mike M.
Park Ridge, IL
9/8/2011
I just finally went today. It was delicious, basically your polish grandmother that you never had comes and takes your order then goes and cooks it in the back. Good prices too. The only drawback is that it takes a kind of a long time if you are need to have a quick lunch. I ordered the polish samper plate which was just enough for lunch at 7.95
-
Review from Michael G.
Rockville, MD
12/9/2010 1 Check-in Here
In my attempts not to look weird, I occasionally end up doing weird things. See, I had waited for 20 minutes to catch the CTA Holiday Train on the Blue Line, so I wasn't going to just ride it for one stop to Belmont (where the errands I needed to run were). Plus, I thought it would look weird for a grown man with no children to take the Santa Train on purpose (but it shouldn't, by the way, because it's AWESOME!). Anyhow, I decided to take it to Jefferson Park because it seemed like a reasonable, uncreepy, distance.
But once there, I couldn't just wait on the platform and take another train back. I had told total strangers that I was running errands in Jefferson Park. So I had to follow through. Right?
Unlike me, Teresa has nothing to prove to anyone. She is old school and authentic Polish (just like her restaurant which looks straight out of the 1960s). And there was no Polish or Eastern European techno music either. Nothing was needed to add to the authenticity (she was playing 94.7 on the overhead speakers when I was there). There are a few Polish places that could be described as "being like in your grandmother's living room" but this takes it to another level. After you order - a process made somewhat complicated by needing to translate Polglish (i.e. "not filing" does not mean that the portion isn't large, it means "not filled") - the server goes right back into the kitchen and makes your food in full view of about half of the diner's tables.
The actual quality of the food, however, shatters the illusion a little. My pierogis, while plentiful, were lightly breaded. This was just confusing and subtracted from the taste. My "clear" beet soup, while it warmed me up from being outside, was actually clear (only sort of reddish) and void of vegetables. And it had a sour kick to it that I wasn't particularly fond of. Extra points, however, were awarded in my mind when I tried to order "borscht" and was told quickly in response, "beet soup." How proudly Polish is that? Screw the Russkies (even if borscht is Ukrainian) and their recipe!
Such hospitality was shown to me, however, that I can't help but think fondly of it. I was given a free potato pancake while waiting and a free dessert. While it didn't warm my heart as much as the Holiday train, to know a little, family-style, Polish dive like this still exists in Chicago was pretty heartwarming. -
Review from Anna P.
Gaithersburg, MD
Alright alright, until my Babcia opens up her own restaurant, no Polish restuarant is going to get 5 stars.
The decor- lacking. However, Ms. Teresa makes you feel right at home. Her food was very good, and definitely had the homemade element. We all thought the entrees and side salads were very good. If I had one complaint about the food, I thought the soups were a little watery for my taste. I prefer a soup with some texture- but that is just a preference thing. Give it a try, I think you'll like it and its reasonably priced.
Oh- while we ate, she had Christian music playing. I'm not the biggest fan of it for my dining experience...... -
Review from Kent S.
Chicago, IL
Sure, if my babcia cooked at all remotely this good, we'd likely have had a better relationship. Offering me hard-boiled eggs and beer, or cantaloupe and beer, was never an exciting dining option for an 8 year old boy, but might I digress.
During a casual stroll through Jefferson Park, I decided to finally try this place that I had long been meaning to visit. It was alright. Alright.
There were two children running around the front of the house while they're Polish mother yelled things at them in Polish. I went to the restroom and then they vanished. Perfect start. I stared at the hilariously classic menus that have been updated year after year with a pen and white out. I ordered a side of bigos and a side of potato pancakes.
Delicious bigos. It was one of the most colorful forms of this dish that I have ever seen. The potato cancakes, though, were so oily that I had asked for more bread so that I could use them as a blotting tool. After that event was completed, they were more my style.
Even still, the mistake I had made was ordering two sides. Both of which rang in at $4.75 were more than enough to be an entire meal. After feeling as stole Teresa had held me hostile while she was tooling around in the back for about 20 unattended minutes, I didn't know what to do. The layout is setup so that there's no good way for you to politely yell back without being invisible. And mind you, I am patient, I'm not joking about the twenty minutes. Thankfully, my phone is loaded with apps that keep me entertained. I assumed that she might have been giving me that time to enter a coma.
As for Polish food, I'll put this place down as pretty good. There are quite a few other places that I like more than this one, but my cause for bumping the rating up a notch was that when I got my bill, I was confident that she thought I had wanted two full dinners and I just didn't realize how big Teresa considers a side dish to be.
Next time: Kiszka!Listed in: Polish Chicago
-
Review from Bialynia C.
Chicago, IL
3/22/2007
Hmm, how would I describe this place? How about: I'm afraid to eat the food here because the cleanliness of the dining room leaves much to be desired. Also, the waitress seemed to also be the cook, and I never heard or saw water running in the kitchen after she left our table...
I'm a big fan of Polish food, but even though Chicago is chock full of Poles, a real good Polish restaurant is still really hard to find. Teresa's might very well have good food, but even though I'm never afraid to try raw fish or some steak tartar, I was definitely questioning whether I should be eating the fully cooked meat pierogi. -
Review from Don G.
Chicago, IL
11/11/2009
So yes, it's like Grandma is cooking for you, but what the hell is wrong with that? I fell in love with this place. Not sure what Bialynia C. saw while eating, but that place was so freaking clean, you could watch Teresa cooking your food from the reflection off of the 60 year old tile work in the kitchen.
I will say, it's not for everyone. The service is slow and the cooking time is even longer. But you feel like you are at the home of a good friend or something.
I could see a scene from a David Linch movie being shot there, no question. SO GO, have a cocktail, order the best potato pancakes, order the meat, and sweet cheese perogies (I got half and half), and if they have the Dill Pickle soup (I know, it sound bad, but it's NOT) order it. You will not be disappointed.
Also, I saw the Parisian Schnitchel come of of the kitchen.
It looked amazing.
Check it out and support a piece of history.
This place isn't going to be around forever, sadly. -
Review from Marian J.
Flagstaff, AZ
12/9/2009
I absolutely love this restaurant, and I believe I love Teresa, too. My mom used to hang out at this restaurant with her friends, as well as me, in tow. I was really happy the restaurant still looked the same, and I was really happy to see Teresa's pictures on the wall - that made it easier for me to remember her. We moved away when I was about five or six.
Teresa's serves up food in the style of my mom and grand mother's cooking. It's hearty, traditional, and does not skimp on ingredients. I had a variety of different foods, some what of a sampler, if you will, and I absolutely loved it! Everything was seasoned well, cooked to perfect texture, and the assortment of flavor from the fresh cabbage to the black tea took me back to my grand mother's kitchen in Zakopane, Poland.
Yes, the appearance of the restaurant is some what dated, but the food is amazing. I find it unfortunate that some people need the modern sterility of a McDonald's (and by the way, as a food service manager with ten years under my belt - I have seen way more disgusting things in nice, new modern restaurants - things I have called not only their corporate office about, but the health department) to enjoy food.
Teresa's made me feel as if I was visiting my Great Aunt's house, with the lace curtains and formal china for tea and soups. I liked the flowers at the table, and I thought the place was charming. I absolutely love this restaurant. We have quite a few Polish restaurants back here in Arizona, and I was sadly disappointed when I tried them.
Next to my mom's pierogis and Bigos, Teresa's is my favourite. -
Review from Ji P.
Chicago, IL
10/13/2008
I love Polish food. I practically grew up on it since I'd often go to my friend's house after school and her grandma would make us all sorts of yummy things. Fast forward to a few months ago-- I went to Teresa II with a different friend who also likes Polish food. We were really excited. Upon entering, we felt like we had just stepped into a Polish grandma's home. Everything looks old and outdated, the light filters in through the filmy windows, and you can pretty much see "grandma" bustling around the kitchen.
My friend and I decided to share the Polish plate (which has all the popular dishes one plate). We had started off with some interesting salads-- so by the time we had taken a few bites off the Polish plate, we were completely full. Unfortunately, our server (a.k.a. grandma) would not have that. She told us to keep eating, gave us a complimentary plate of sweets, and walked away several times when she saw that our plates were not yet clean. A part of me felt like a trapped animal while another part of me felt like an overly loved and spoiled grandchild. :\
Somehow . . . we got our plates to an acceptable level and she finally brought us our check with the words, "Now you are finished." Ha. She was certainly something else. Anyway, the food was definitely homemade and good-- but I wasn't blown away by most of it and I almost feel like I've had better. I probably would go back if the craving for some really good bigos (or hunter's stew) hits me in the future, though. That was good stuff. All in all, I'm glad I tried Teresa II-- and the experience was wonderful . . . in a twisted sort of way. ;) -
Review from Katie B.
Chicago, IL
This place was interesting! It is definitly like grandma just cooked me a meal. The polish plate was delicious and I thought everything was cooked perfectly. I would give it 5 stars for food, but it lacks some ambiance and our waitress asked us AFTER our main course came out, "what would you like to drink?", but we got a good laugh out of that. She was old and cute like my grandma. The place is old retro cool(we took a video of the place), but dark and closed off with curtains over the windows. So that is why I gave it a 4 total rating. I would suggest going with a group of friends for authentic Polish food they deserve more business.
-
Review from Jennifer W.
Chicago, IL
12/2/2006
I can't give this place enough stars!! The service is the best I've had in Chicago (the owners are usually there and take great pride in serving you). The atmosphere is kinda Eastern European/ Diner...kinda cute, kinda not... but not the reason I go. The food is really different and great (very fresh...you can hear them cutting in the kitchen after you order), and you get tons of it...The polish plate is under $10 and you get more than enough food for 2 people...and it comes with at least 8 different things (did I mention it includes, soup, salad and drink in the price). I love going to locally owned places like this b/c you feel like you're supporting people from the neighborhood. The only Polish place I've ever been, but really good. GO!
-
Review from Curt H.
Glenview, IL
3/14/2011
There's so much more to a dining experience than simply the inane details of the physical decor. Here it is: We love this place - - the entire family, including my teenagers because it's real. Enjoy grandma and her quirkiness. If you need something, go back to the kitchen and get her. If you want to try something, ask her. Share the food. Enjoy the homemade nature of everything. We're certain everything there is made by her (except the bread - from bakery next door), straight from a trip to the vegetable market, butcher or bakery (3 doors away). The plain potatoes with a few carrots even taste weirdly really good. Yes, it's old. It's crusty. it's dingy light blue with printed garage sale paintings crookedly hung about. But it's all about what Chicago is about, and places like this won't be around long as long as it's deemed even remotely noteworthy if a place like this has Wi-fi. (C'mon, Yelp.) How about asking if the perogis were made by hand to order?
-
Review from Mandelbrot Q.
Chicago, IL
11/25/2009
Excellent, hearty polish food in an empty room that looks like its been unvisited since the 60s.
