Skadarliya

I’m Macedonian who lives in California, and good Balkan food is a rare occasion for me. I’ve been to Chicago 4 times so far and have tried all the Balkan restaurants in the area. Skadarliya, with no doubt has the best customer service and the best quality of Balkan food that I’ve tried so far. Their breakfast cheese bread (Burek) was good as back home on the Balkans, and their stews, soups, and quality of meat was super tasty. Now whenever I’m back in Chicago, I know what place tastes the most like home.

My best friend and I tried Skadarliya on Ogden ave. European (Serbian) food. The food was good, cocktails were nicely balanced flavors. I had cabbage rolls and lamb soup, my friend had mixed salad, salmon with cream sauce. Our B52 shots were the bomb. Lol. The atmosphere is modern, classy and fun. The place was quiet at 7:30 and livened up with music and a hip, beautiful crowd by 10:00. Our server, Sashka, was excellent. She told us about Sunday brunch from noon to 4:00 and when we asked about her accent and where she was from Sashka gave us a quick 5 min run down about how Yugoslavia was broken up into Masadonia, where she is from, and Serbia, where the other servers are from and Slovene. Yugoslavia (Serbo-​Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene. We had an excellent experience at Skadarliya. Looking forward to going back.

Menu states chicken thighs actually Is s small chicken steak on that dish, it was good but you expect one thing and get something different also their menu shows items that are not the same as their menu in their web site I went there last week to taste the cooked sauerkraut with meat which was not available called today to inquire about the dish and, not available it was the reason I went there the first time

Let’s start off with the multitude of reasons for my rating, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I’m not sure how this place has received so many 5 star reviews because half of them point out reasons why they should be lower. I’ve been there both just to eat and to see live music, this is going to be a review of both experiences.
For starters I am Serbian but was born in America, but I have been eating this food since I was a child and have been to Serbia numerous times. I know what the food is supposed to be. Let’s start with the name, it is a play on Skadarlija, the famous street in Belgrade that is known for cafes and live music. Try and Google Skadarlija and their name would be buried, I think this was smart on their part if they want to have a more universal appeal to cultures other than Serbs. From the way they’ve renovated the building (which if fantastic) to their curb appeal they knocked it out of the park as far as Serbian restaurants go in Chicago. It’s a much more modern feel than their namesake, but it does tell you what they’re about. Food and music.
Looking at their website it seems to be they are trying to cater to a broader crowd that just Serbs. I’m saying this because the whole thing is in English. For the most part it’s pretty well done. That said, with them being new and having music every weekend, one would think they would keep the events page updated with who was going to be there and when. There is a couple of other places to find this information out, but it definitely isn’t their website.
Now lets move on to the food. My niece was coming to town and wanted to go eat Serbian food. At this point I gave her the option, we can go to my trusty spot right down the street from Skadarliya, Zupa or we can try the new place. It was convenient since it was a Friday night and I have friends that are musicians that were playing there that night. We arrived about an hour and a half before the music was supposed to start. The place was pretty much still empty, there was one table that was pretty lively, Veljko Paunovic the coach for the Chicago Fire was there with a group. Other than that not many people. When we walked in and said we wanted to eat the response was not what I was expecting. We don’t have any tables, as in they are all reserved for the music later. While I can understand that I explained that we just wanted to eat and would be happy to give up the table when we were done. We were seated and then it was time to peruse the menu.
I was impressed by the variety and prices of the menu. The selection is there and the prices are very reasonable for food. When it comes to Serbian food like any other cuisine there is some differences into how it’s prepared based on where the person cooking it grew up. The seasoning or the meat make up of the cevapcici can vary if someone grew up in Belgrade or Kraljevo as an example. Cooking it well should not vary. So I ordered the «Montenegro Schnitzel» or Crnogorska Uvijac. It is a pork filet that is stuffed with cheese and the wrapped in bacon. I regularly order this at Zupa and have nicknamed it the Crnogorska Ubijac, which translates to the Montenegrin Killer for what it probably does to my cholesterol, but hey it’s the weekend who cares. What came on the plate was two of the rolls with a side of french fries and two spreads, kajmak (which is butter, cream cheese and sour cream mixed together) and a spicy garlic cheese spread that I can never remember the name of. I guess french fries are the easy way to include potatoes with the meal, but my baba (grandmother) never made french fries with any Serbian meal. It was always homefries or potato salad. Regardless they weren’t salted (which is a surprise from a Serbian place) and very bland. The meat was cooked through and wasn’t overdone, but was overly dry. Thank god for the melted cheese to give it some moisture or I probably wouldn’t have ate it. My niece had the pljeskavica (basically a Serbian style hamburger) this is probably what I should have ordered, but it still feel through. The same fries that I had came with it, we won’t relive that. The pljeskavica took up half the plate, that is to be expected. However the biggest disappointment is with pljeskavica comes lepinje. Lepinje is a Serbian style flat bread that goes hand in hand with Pljeskavica. The was nowhere to be found. What came with it was a basket of sliced italian bread that probably came from Jewel down the street. This was my only time I’ve ate here, and unless something dramatically changes I’ll continue to eat at Zupa down the street or Balkan Taste in Downers Grove. Balkan Taste is unique in that the owner is actually a Cordon Bleu trained chef that puts his spin on Serbian food. It isn’t traditional, but that’s the charm.
I’d give my review of the bar, but don’t have enough space left, but will be brief. It’s way overpriced ($ 15 for vodka tonic) and don’t even try for a cocktail

I have been there many times since they have opened. I am Serbian and this is pretty darn good for authentic Serbian food. Their menu is a little weird in the fact that they do not have all the items all the time. I suppose it has to do with the amount of business they expect on certain days. Like sarma, they only have it on Friday and Saturday. This is understandable as it’s a labor intensive meal to make. Everything that I have had is fresh. There is no large container of salad sitting waiting to be dished on a plate. That’s just not Serb mentality. When you order a salad the slice and dice and put it on a plate.
The prices are reasonable especially based on the portion size.
I’ve looked through the reviews and there ere a few about staff inattentiveness but that’s not really an issue for me. First of all most of the staff are recent immigrants so some of that could be language barrier.
The drinks are reasonably priced. They have free valet parking. It’s actually the only parking on busy nights. I always tip the valets $ 5. I’m a softy because they are countrymen. (I’ve been here for 52 years).

I don’t think it’s three dollar signs. I thought the prices were lower than that. In any case, interesting place. I found out that apparently there’s a buffet on Sundays in a very narrow window of 11 – 2? I hear that that’s the best time to go to get a sampling of things. I ordered the cevappi and my husband got the skadarliya. The food was fine. I would like to go back and try other things though. It didn’t wow me. The service was very friendly and the interiors are beautiful. This place gets packed on the weekend. I think they have live music of some sort.

Come hungry because there are some immense portions here. I’m Eastern European so I’m sort of familiar with the food here. It reminds me of home-​cooked meals but saves me all of the work to cook it. The wait staff was attentive and helpful with the menu.
I’ve eaten here three times and each time has been a good experience. I like the grilled menu because I try to eat healthier. I just get vegetables instead of the bread or fries. Most of the dishes seem to be served with fries or some sort of potato. For under $ 15 you can eat and probably still have leftovers.
The goulash is great and so are the soups. If it’s your first time eating Serbian food then you might want to order a couple different plates with your friends and try a little of everything. The burger (which is a big bunless patty the size of a plate) is very flavorful but too greasy for me.
There are two other Serbian restaurants in the area (Zupa in Lyons, and Dunav) and each one has it’s own positives and negatives. I think Skadarliya is a great addition.

It was my first visit on 2÷25÷16
From the beginning i was very excited about this place. Such a nice place! Very good food…
I’m vegetarian so ordered a fish soup they bring me pork soup then grilled fish with mash potato and vegetables they bring me with french fries! Then no forks!
I’m not that picky! I ate a little bit and rest i was thinking to take to go. So there was leftover almost whole plate (french fries, vegetables and grilled fish untouched) The waitress took my plate to the kitchen and then come back with the box in the plastic bag.
I paid+ good tip and left happy.
Then i arrived home and just opened to see if it’s everything ok… AND GUESS… IN THE BOX WAS ONLY THE GRILLED FISH AND Lemon!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? REALLY?? where are the vegetables and French fries???
This is not professional at all!!! Next time I’ll check everything
before to pay.

Looked promising, Russian/​Czech although the name doesn’t translate to either. The limited parking was a little hard to handle, they did have a valet service that was pretty good except the workers either couldn’t or wouldn’t speak English. (an attempt at reinforcing the strong ethnic feel of the place??)
The atmosphere is heavy ethnic and all the staff looked authentic to the suspected origin without any weird outfits or costumes… that’s about it!
The drinks tasted watered down and one persons martini that was sent back returned tasting so heavy on the vermouth it remained unfinished. The servers were not very attentive and I had to go to the bar for my own drink (bottled beer) twice.
The buffet looked promising with stuffed cabbage, pork, a vegetable medley and potato dumpling casserole. Although the desserts were unrecognizable I accepted that as regional and took the bait on the buffet. I should have ate the bait!
The food was cold, EVERYTHING! After pointing it out to the sever and struggling through some of the offerings I finally shared my wife’s dish, a stuffed something (advertised as cabbage) that was, thank heaven, warm but a just bland, unseasoned and pasty ground meat mixture. I never thought you could over cook cabbage.
The sliced meat, which I assumed would be a seasoned ham, was dry and leathery like jerkey. Everyone in our parties opinions were that this place needs a tune up, from top to bottom, of course I’ll never know because I’m not going back.
All that and it came in at a slightly (we felt even IF the food would’ve been acceptable) higher end price, about $ 38 each. No value here diners!
At least our car wasn’t damaged.
p. s. I couldn’t help but notice the Sterno heating cans were still not lit on the buffet when we left.

I really enjoyed my visit to Skadarliya. Its such a nice place!!! They did a really good job on the décor. Service was really good as well. My waitress was an EXPERT at reading my body language. She like picked up right away on when I needed anything from start to finish. Food was really good as well. I went with the Filet Mignon with the mushroom sauce and had a glass of cabernet with my meal. Everything was delightful and I cant wait to repeat!!!

Great Serbian food, reasonably priced. Nicely decorated. Friendly staff. Highly recommend it if you enjoin trying new foods. The dessert was excellent.

I have been here four times since they opened. I’ve tried to let them get over the startup phase. As of now the menus are frayed. But that’s not too important because they rarely have what I order from the menu available anyway. Also the cute perky waitresses naïveté started out as kind of delightful. Unfortunately like a child suffering arrested development the servers have been stuck in their own personal Ground Hog Day where everyday they start is as of it’s their first day and repeat into infinity.
For example, Forget about ordering a drink though they have a full bar.
«I’d like a screwdriver please.»
«What is screwdriver?»
«It’s a mixed drink made from orange juice and vodka.»
«I’m sorry, we don’t make mixed drinks.»
«Could you get me a glass of orange juice and a shot of vodka?»
«Of course, what kind vodka you like?»
At which point my head is only made to feel better by slamming it on the table and hoping to be Tasered back into the real world.
The food is lovingly prepared in advance. Chilled to await an order, then warmed for serving to the point that even Velveeta cheese wouldn’t melt from the two seconds it gets being waved under a serving lamp.
I don’t rate one star lightly. In fact my typical rating is 5. I suspect this is a place that caters to Serbian nationals and seats others as a courtesy. After four tries I have to say I won’t be back absent some compelling information that the fundamentals of the restaurant biz have been mastered.

What a transformation from the previous owners! Very modern décor. Just beautiful! Super clean. Food was outstanding. Slight language barrier but they make it pretty easy with their menu printed in two languages. We appreciated that. Nicely done. A well deserved 5 stars.

It was great. I had veal (a little fatty but delicious). We had the cold appetizer plate which was good and the Bomba for dessert. The waitress was awesome and helpful.

This place is super far from me and I was a bit hesitant to drive out but I’m glad I did! The place is very spacious and clean. The food is pretty good, while I wasn’t impressed with all of it, for the most part it’s great! The menu is stupid long, I panicked when I saw it because that many options could make me super indecisive. We ended up having the sarma because we both love it so much and I saw that there’s a dish on the menu that I looooved having as a child– ustipci! What I didn’t know was that leskovacki ustipci and the ones my grandma makes are two VERY different things. Both are delicious but I don’t think I’ll be ordering that dish again simply for the fact that there’s a lot more on that menu that’s worth checking out.
I like the service as well! The server was super sweet and attentive. She got me water and when she saw I downed it in a second and asked for another one she brought out a larger glass, haha. She was also very good at explaining dishes when we had questions. Overall this was a nice experience and I’m glad I got to try this place out!

Great food, attentive service, good prices and nice atmosphere! Second time back, first time had a few drinks on a Friday while enjoying live Serbian music and tonight on a Tuesday night decided to try the food and we are glad we did!

The ambience is great, much better than Dunav. The service is great, very fast and servers are very friendly… but both meals we ordered — stuffed cabbage and a meat stew with vegetables are EXTREMELY salty. I have been drinking water for the last few hours. I asked the waitress and she said: «This is how the chef likes it». I am afraid to risk it again.