Cafe La Sera

Lentil soup big thumbs up. Humus is very good but ratio of pita to humus is a little pita heavy.

What a cool place! M brought me here after stopping at House of Glunz for some wine. Café La Sera is BYOB. M eagerly told me about how the owner is dedicated to her restaurant and how M wants only to support and promote her business.
Café La Sera looks like a casual café, but the décor is much more sophisticated with luxurious furniture and African-​style paintings.
The owner waited on us and brought us a flat bread pizza, baked brie, and Zengo’s Chopped Salad. Yum yum yum! Everything was really scrumptious. I loved the light, crispy texture of the pizza crust. The roasted red peppers on the pizza tied in with the same ingredient on the chopped salad. The brie came with a savory spinach butter, crackers, apples, and grapes.
I watched other diners get coffee drinks and sip outdoors. I saw that there was a shelf of coffee and some other products along a wall. There was a case with some cheesecake desserts. All of this was not in the cards for my visit, but maybe next time.

Sitting in café sera as I write this review. It appears to be a coffee shop. My espresso is excellent. Looks like they carry many coffees here, mine is a yummy Julius Meinl. The croissant is the single worst pastry I’ve ever tasted. It is stale, and has the texture of a grocery store bagel. So frustrating. Excellent coffee, crap pastry. Not sure if I’ll be back.

I LOVED THIS RESTAURANT! It was really cozy and laid back. The food was amazing and the staff was so nice. It is a great place to go with a small group of friends!

I find the negative reviews of this place baffling – you walk in, fully expecting a nondescript coffee shop whatever, and instead you get the only place in the city (possibly the country) where you can get Ethiopian coffee (they basically invented the stuff, you know), Ethiopian food (it’s a touch dumbed-​down, but still), and Turkish (or Serbian, or Greek, or whatever you like) coffee – what’s not to like? And the staff is very nice, and it’s in that weird grungy area before you get to Old Town, where frankly there’s just not much else to be had – for what it is, it’s great. Definitely worth a trip.

I think this place could be really good if they got their act together.
Unfortunately, today being my first time there, I was only semi-​impressed.
I ordered the Lemon Herb Salmon Salad
«we are out of salmon»
I ordered the Shrimp Salad
«we are out of shrimp»
I ended up getting the Taouk on Rice, which was good. but very standard Ethiopian dish… so nothing exciting.
My friend got the French Chicken Sandwich, which looked good but isn’t very creative… it’s chicken… on french bread.
We had a
certificate, so we ordered coffee to go before the end of lunch.
I ordered Turkish Coffee
«we ordered our turkish coffee 6 months ago and it never came… so we’re out»
Okay…is anyone noticing a trend here?
Also, it was FREEZING when we sat down, and when I went to the bathroom I learned why… their backdoor leads to an adjacent indoor parking garage. and it was WIDE open!
Needless to say, if I hadn’t had the certificate I would have left an unhappy camper.
I WOULD come back to try breakfast, since I have heard more about that then lunch, but we will see.
Good luck!

I highly recommend getting the
coupon in which you can purchase a $ 25 gift certificate for only $ 3. I went with two friends for dinner and we ordered: baked brie, lamb wrap, kitfo wrap, and tibs wrap. Our total, including tip, came to approximately $ 50.
The baked brie was awesome; the cheese was soft and smooth, and it went well with the pleasantly crusted bread. My lamb wrap was more Americanized Ethiopian whereas the other two wraps were more authentic. It’s worth a try if you’re hoping to try something new.
My friends weren’t too fond of the spongy, sour Ethiopian bread or having to eat with their hands. The waitress came by and insisted that that everybody should enjoy the meal without knife and fork to get the best of the Ethiopian cuisine and culture.

I have been dreaming of baked brie ever since I left!
I highly recommend the
coupon and using a discount code on the site. It’s usually «FORK» and you can get a $ 25 gift certificate for $ 3.00… score!
I had no problems with the service, and the food was excellent. I already mentioned the baked brie, but the hummus, paninis, cookies and smoothies are fantastic as well! I definitely intend to return!

I had walked by this place a lot since it is on the street where I live. I’d planned on visiting but then got more motivated when a friend was visiting and I got a
coupon. You have to spend $ 35 for the $ 25 coupon so that was a challenge, because the prices are quite reasonable.
The menu seems to have something for everyone — there are some exotic Ethiopian dishes and regular fare, as well. They also serve traditional breakfast all day, which is handy to know — and lunch items and sandwiches.
We started with the hummus and pita appetizer which was delicious. Then we shared a bowl of meatball soup which was just wonderful. Some of the best soup and hummus I’ve ever had — and I’ve had a lot.
I ordered the beef kebob — but it didn’t come on a stick. It was very flavorful, but not what I was expecting. More like chunks of well seasoned beef on a bed of tomato sauce, with crunchy bread toast cubes. My pal ordered a lamb wrap which was very good. There was plenty of food (too much, really) — and we could have ordered one entrée to share.
The service was a bit slower than I would have thought, given that there was no one else in there at the end of the night. And we waited to pay the check because we weren’t given one — finally we went to the counter to pay. It wouldn’t have mattered so much, but we were on our way down Wells to Second City so then had to rush.

December 2, 2010
after reading all the reviews on the Unilocal website, my wife and I decided to give La Sera a try for lunch. We just can’t find anything negative to report on this restaurant.
1. The restaurant appeared to be very clean hand he took over was very nice.
2. The music selection is very good (soothing)
3. The staff was at our table immediately and we thought they were very friendly.
4. There seemed to be something for everybody on the menu.
The Julius Meinl coffee was an excellent
5. Both of us ordered from the exotic entrées that came with a soup. We enjoyed the lunch very much and we expect to return again
Tommy S.

This place is confusing. I was in the area looking for a place with FREE WIFI and stumbled upon CAFE La Sera. I was intrigued, especially since it didn’t look like a coffeeshop (I know, I know. Café doesn’t necessarily mean COFFEE but still).
I returned with a friend, to celebrate taking our board exams. I ordered (with lots of excitement) the Lamb Wrap, grilled lamb on a skewer wrapped in a tortilla bread with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and yogurt sauce. Funny because even after listing all those ingredients, I don’t remember tasting a lot of them. The lamb was very… grindy and dry. It was as if I flew to Greece, ordered lamb, and instead got the alley cat’s chewed up leftovers. Scratch the flying to Greece part, just think alley cat’s leftovers. $ 10.95…wasted.
My friend ordered the Roasted Veggie Wrap which tasted WAY better than what I had. For $ 3 less, you get a grilled flat bread with roasted portabellas, eggplant, zucchini, red peppers, red onions, spinach, and herb goat cheese all wrapped inside. For that I’m giving this place 2 stars. VEGGIE DISH SAVES THE DAY.
As for the Ethiopian coffee for $ 3.20, it just tasted like really strong coffee to me. Nothing really stood out other than the fact that it was beautifully presented. Like, Genie’s bottle kind of presentation (see photo).

I was meeting my favorite Unilocaler, Unity O., for coffee and picked La Sera because of it’s location.
I had never had Julius Meinl coffee before, to Unity’s dismay, and I liked it. Our server was very attentive and made sure our cups were filled but gave us the space we needed for our girlie chat. I was in the mood for a little snack, so I had the mediterranean chicken salad which was very good. There wasn’t anything too special about. It was just chicken breast on top of a salad, but it hit the spot and was a nice light dinner.

I’ve been here several times and I’ve always had a good experience. They serve Julius Meinl Austrian coffee and their food is tasty. Their prices are very reasonable too. I too, would rather support a small business owner than a corporate chain.
Yes, they’re slightly laid back in their service but it’s a coffee house that has small dishes. It isn’t Chez Ooh Lah Lah! The owners/​staff are consistently polite and nice to have a chat with.
If I’m in a need to get on the move a bit quicker, I simply tell them when I come in. Not too long ago in Chicagoland, the customer went to the register to pay when they were finished rather than have your server «take that for you»! I haven’t any dilemma with this mode of operating at all.

I second Brad C.‘s review. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten up and walked out of a restaurant, though I’ve wanted to many times in the past.
Never received our food, nor water refilled after the order was taken a good 45 min after ordering sandwiches.
The worst part is that we were only one of maybe 3 groups there during lunch.
Too bad. I guess I’ll just cross it off my list.

It’s hard to say if I had bad service when really I didn’t have any service at all. Today was a great day so three of us grabbed a seat outside. After a few minutes of looking over the menu we placed our orders and got our waters. About 15 minutes later we saw the people near us get their good and it looked pretty good. Then another 30 minutes went by and our food hadn’t come out and glasses of water were empty. I then saw a group of guys who I saw about 30 minutes before walking back towards us with Quiznos cups. They had walked passed us, ordered and had eaten and our now walking back to work all while we were still sitting there with empty water cups and no food. At this point we got up and left.
It sounds like others have had similar service experiences, which is sad because the food did sound good. But you won’t see me back here.

I love Ethiopian food but it was always such a trek from River North to the North-side…I heard that there was a little coffee shop/​café that also had some basic Ethiopian dishes… I finally tried it and mmmmmm. I have been twice this week… Now, I don’t need to go far for one of my favorite cuisines… Lucky Me…
I must add… my boyfriend has picked it up for me twice, so
I have no décor or ambiance to add but the food, oh the food, was some of the best Ethio fare that I have ever had…

BYO, Ethiopian Food, relaxing café atmosphere!
Really, there are no ethiopian places in Old Town, Gold Coast, River North Area. Finally I found one near my place. La Sera’s employees are always kind and more than willing to accommodate. The last time I went in for take out, the woman remembered me from when a friend and I were there for dinner, remembered what I had ordered. Though it wasn’t exactly how I wanted it, she customized my order so it was appropriate for one person! She was so kind… rarely you find this in any place in the city– this level of customer care.
About the food… LOVE IT! I thought I had to go to the far north side to get this great of Ethiopian… now iI can get my fix at a temptingly close location!

This is the only «chill» café in the 60 610. Good variety of tasty food for reasonable prices. Good selection of fresh teas. Good coffee beverages, I believe they use Illy coffee.
Free wifi and BYOB allowed.
A great place to read, catch up on Facebook, play a board game, or share your projections of the national economic crisis with fellow scholars.

I don’t understand why this place isn’t busier — there have been weeks where I practically lived at La Sera. There aren’t a lot of locally-​owned places in the area that offer free internet, so it’s worth making the extra effort to head here. I see the same staff every time I walk in, and they’re always friendly.
The café has a full menu covering entrees (the salmon is pretty good), wraps (get the lamp wrap, which is seriously amazing), breakfast items, soups, and appetizers, and there’s an excellent complement of espresso drinks and smoothies. There’s patio seating in the summer and a comfortable, wood interior if it’s too cold to venture outside (or you feel like hiding indoors for some reason).
Seriously people, unless it’s 4:00am and La Sera is closed, there’s no excuse for going to the neighborhood Starbucks. Support a local business that does the café thing far better than the ‘Bucks ever will.

Nice bathroom and décor, many open meters for parking.
That’s pretty much the positive I’ve got on the place, in less than 10 words. And I’m verbose by nature so you know this was pretty blah.
The «chicken with vegetable» soup turned out to be spicy vegetable soup, maybe with chicken broth, but alas, no chicken to be found within. And although the Julius Meinl brand was everywhere from their coffee saucers to the tip can, it certainly wasn’t in their café au lait — and I assure you of that, as I was actually in the Wien Julius Meinl 5 months ago.
The music was Easy Listening — I heard Marie Digby, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5, Leona Lewis and the like pop up. I’m not picky so it was pleasant to my ears, but it was the sort of stuff my boyfriend would have blocked out after 10 seconds.
Also, their wifi didn’t work. Boooo. I mean, if you Unilocal a café for wifi, and visit it only to find the wifi is not functional, it’s a pretty big disappointment.