Bacaro

The food, service, and atmosphere were excellent. Upscale dining for Champaign-​Urbana area. Pricey, but worth it for a special occasion.

Food and service were spot on. Menu was simple yet diverse. Nice room.

Menu is comprehensive. Atmosphere intimate and quiet. Service pleasant.

Our favorite date night restaurant in Champaign, though we can’t go as often as we’d like since it is a splurge. The staff is always great: knowledgeable (ask them for recommendations and you will not be disappointed), but not stuffy at all. This is a restaurant that could be plopped into downtown Chicago and do well, but does not have downtown Chicago prices. It is on the high end for Champaign, but no more so than many of the other fine dining options and the food here is amazing. If you want a memorable dining experience in Champaign, this is the place to go.

Winter menu is very expensive and limited that’s why I did not list bacaro as 5 stars. The food was very good but over priced for the market value. The pork chop came with rib and had good flavor, the seasoning gave the top a nice crisp and crunchy taste and feel. The pork chop was accompanied by a few small Rosemary potatoes with a mix of arugula and a hint of olive oil. The lasagna was not a traditional lasagna, this one had a zesty lemon grass sauce which wasn’t too bad, but if you’re expecting traditional, this one won’t be for you. Over the experience was great lots of wine to choose from and pleasant atmosphere.

Best place to bring your date for the evening. Wonderful service and food!

Fantastic food. The food comes slow on purpose. Abandon any thought of 1 hour meal. We were there 2.5 hours. It was awesome. The proportions aren’t «Central Illinois» they are regular heathy proportions. Slow down and enjoy the experience. I had the best soup I’ve ever tasted. Bring your rich relatives or boss who will pay. Expensive.

Awesome spot to go if you want something a little more intimate and quiet. Good spot to bring a date. Menu changes with the seasons. It was a couple weeks ago since I’ve been. Server was Evan he was awesome, super knowledgable and cool personality. Good food and atmosphere.

Came here with a friend’s parents (who were paying!) and we loved it. The service was great and the food was amazing. I just personally could generally not afford to come here as a student.

Hands-​down one of the most interesting restaurants in Champaign, their wine selection is second to none, with food that confounds Midwestern cuisine expectations. Though seating can be a challenge on weekend nights, it only speaks to the quality of what they offer.

My boyfriend surprised me and took me here for my birthday and boy did he make a great choice. We each ordered the tasting menu and neither of us were disappointed. Everything we were served was amazing. We had things like drunken goat cheese and several other things we had never tried before that we both just loved. I can usually find something I don’t like when I go somewhere but with this restaurant I had not one issue. Everything from the staff to the atmosphere was just simply wonderful. I cannot wait to go back again.

I had the pork belly and my date had the fettucini. both had a perfect combination of flavors. the wine was great. ambiance was perfect. kiefer, our server, was knowledgeable and professional. top notch dining experience!

This place is one of our favorite places to eat! The service is always spot on, the waitresses are always so knowledgeable about the food and extensive wine list! We first started going here five years ago and we have the most amazing oatmeal cream pie with sea salt. My husband remember how much I enjoy that dessert and called them and asked if they would make that dessert for my birthday. It was so thoughtful and sweet! It is hard to find a restaurant that cares this much about it customers!

This is a great spot for a date night or a special occasion, but it does have some caveats.
We went for our first anniversary. Staff were excellent — greeted us with free Prosecco, lots of happy anniversaries, and so on. Staff are incredible, professional, courteous, knowledgeable, patient, responsive, and kind. Really kudos there.
Portions are small — you probably would expect that in this sort of establishment.
We opted for a la carte options. I don’t mind paying top dollar for great food, but the total for two people prix fixe with wine substitution is $ 240 before tip. Now again, I don’t mind paying, but there are michelin starred restaurants in fabulous cities that are not –this– expensive. This is Champaign, a small but charming place in central Illinois.
Wife and I had a bottle of wine, two pasta entrees, and two desserts to the tune of about $ 110 after a nice tip (20−25%) — You can eat reasonably here if you avoid the prix fixe menu.
The food was great. Everything was jam packed with flavor, perfectly cooked, and elegantly presented.
Would definitely return for another ‘date night’ or special occasion. Definitely not a place to go for dinner if you’re looking for grub, though.

This is a very very nice little gourmet restaurant that serves very good food at a little bit of a high price. The service was good and my friends and I did have a great time; I guess it could just be a little warmer for the tab. I would definitely get the Lamb Porchetta again and the Panna Cotta for sure.

High end restaurants like this are rarely a problem for getting a true GF meal and this was no exception.
We went for a market Monday tasting menu meal with wine pairings. We were worried as the first two courses came out because they were a bit small but each one got larger and more delicious. It was about a 2-​hour event to get through the whole meal but we got to try so many different things (the theme of the night was wild bore) and even though some weren’t our top choice, I really loved the set up of the tasting menu and the wines were a lovely addition!

Being from Chicago and around Michelin Star restaurants, coming to C-​U and seeing a «fine dining» really made me wonder. For Mothers day, my boyfriend and I took my mom here and, wow — exquisite. Scallops were a bit over cooked, however, our waitress guided us flawlessly through the 2 wines we ordered; exceptionally knowledged. She gave great, and confident recommendations, while treating us like her only table, but keeping a casual touch to our interactions. The deserts were all created by their single pastry chef, and we enjoyed them. Definitely recommend as one of the finer places in C-​U.
At least try it out — don’t expect gluttonous portions — this is fine dining, we were full by the end — but I see comments on «small portions.» They’re not small, they are well portioned, and well plated– if you want a doggy bag, go to applebees and settle with severely mediocre.
Well done, Bacaro.

The wine menu was large and the waiter was very attentive. The only issue was that the waiter used the exact same phrases with all of the table around us, so it seemed ungenuine.
I ordered a very good glass of Riesling. Which, wines are pricy, but it was probably about 4 oz for $ 7. Which is pricewise on the high side. They brought bread to our table with olive oil. The bread was very fresh and the oil was high grade.
My husband ordered house made gnocchi that came with pork. I ordered a ravioli stuffed with bacon and several fresh vegetables. Both meals were very good, but on the small side for $ 17 each. We didn’t order dessert, as we aren’t dessert people.
It was a good dinner, the ambiance was nice and we were seated at a table near the windows in the front. I just am not super impressed with the portions or the prices.

Restaurant review
I still can’t decide whether this is a 2 or 3 star restaurant. If you put the restaurant together as a whole package including the ambiance, the uniqueness of the food, and culinary innovation you would get a 3 star restaurant, however the flip side is that the culinary flavors do not resemble anything like the gastronomic experience you get when you dine at Next in Chicago or Charlie Trotters when it was still open. You pay quite a premium for the dish that are notably small. Our dinner meeting was held at this location. There is plenty of meter parking, just remember to not go over or you will likely be ticketed. I started my meal with the wagyu beef stew which had smoked potato and a bone marrow crostini. I can honestly say the crostini was amazing with bone marrow that offered an amazing umami flavoring, however the actual stew was salty, the beef was not tender by any means sort of tasting like a dinty moore stew. This cost 13 dollars and the portion size was very small. My main entrée for 33 dollars was the grilled lobster tail with kale, crispy black truffle polenta, and additional lobster claw and pieces of lobster on the side with a acidic lemon tasting sauce. Once again the portion size was quite small as you see from my picture. I don’t believe you get the whole lobster tail as it looked like ½ of a lobster tail. There was a piece of claw meat on the side and the other side was shredded lobster meat. The lobster was cooked well, tender and well flavored with the black truffle polenta balancing the seafood, however the attempt at the different texture from the arugula/​kale along with the soft polenta and the lobster did not work. Our meal ended with a flourless chocolate cake with blood orange champagne foam and pomegranate jelly. The grapefruit foam hit the spot, but again the cake was a sliver and for that cost you would think the portion would be bigger. Due to the long wait for the waiter to bring the dessert menu, I ended up getting my first parking ticket in Champaign. So I agree the flavors and small portion size at this price do not make this a place that I will frequent. As another Unilocaler said, if you want to impress your date this maybe an interesting place to try, however I am going to try to find another culinary gem elsewhere.
Pros: local sustained food, changing menu
Cons: VERY expensive, small portion size– I left hungry, taste and texture just does not work for some dishes
Hidden deals:
If you really want to impress your date, try the 7 course tasting menu at 85 dollars. I don’ t know if that is a deal but at least you get to try everything for $$$

I surprised my girlfriend (from northern Italy) on her birthday with dinner at Bacaro. The atmosphere is very nice and sophisticated. We were promptly seated (we had reservations) at a beautifully set table right by the window.
For starters I ordered a negroni and she had a glass of white wine. We then ordered our meal: pizzetta with zucchini and burrata as our antipasto, bucatini and fusili as our primi, and salmon and scallops as our secondi.
The appetizer was a little underwhelming, not enough burrata in my opinion. The first plates were very, very good and reminded us both of Italy. There was however, one issue: my girlfriend’s plate of fusili came with a hair on it. We told the waitress and she immediately took care of it and was extremely apologetic — very professionally handled.
Our second plates were even better than the first. The salmon and scallops were cooked to perfection and left us both wanting more.
We finished the night with a caffè corretto (on the house). They also gave my girlfriend a birthday present of chocolate dipped biscotti which was very thoughtful and a nice finishing touch to a wonderful night.
The unfortunate fact that we got a hair on one of our plates and I am still leaving a 5 star review should speak volumes about this restaurant’s quality of food and service.