Leopold

Waitress knew everything about the menu. The wait staff was curitious and polite. They were a great balance of attentiveness and not over powering
/​/​Thursday special — beans and sausage for lack of a better name — meh weird.
/​/​grilled bread — 4 $ — good.
/​/​Mussels — 18 $ beer and blue cheese — i liked this.
/​/​veal sweetbreads — sweetbreads is pancreas and other glandular organs in the body. :-)
ahhh it’s gone so whats the point of this review! ha.

the food was fantastic, the beer selection was sizable and the advice from the waiter on pairings was spot on. very good rustic-​Belgian fare …
Type of place that I se myself going to with a few buddies to catch-​up over drinks and a relativelty nice dinner.
looking forward to my next visit.

Get the sriracha blue cheese mussels! You won’t regret it. Whether you order the fries or bread with it, you’ll be stuffed in heaven.
*****************
Well shoot. I was going to finish this review from a couple months ago but it has CLOSED. I’m making a mental note to always remember the mussels here. Maybe someday I can recreate it or hopefully I’ll see it on a menu someplace else. :(

Leopold, why is it when I have found you that I read on Eater that you were sold?! This upsets me because we had an amazing dinner with you just a few weeks ago.
The service was fantastic. Our waiter did a great job of explaining the menu and providing recommendations. The décor was trendy and it was a little loud but it was spaced out well– it didn’t feel like you we’re cramped.
The food was delicious as expected. We started off with oysters which were fresh and delicious. They also paired well with our wine. We continued with the beef tartar that was so good our party was fighting over the last bite. We also enjoyed the braised rabbit leg — it was so tender and juicy. Of course, I have to mention the poutine. It was the perfect balance of salty goodness. Just thinking about it makes me crave it! Everyone loved everything.
I am really hoping we can make it back for one last bite. I wish we had more time to enjoy. I will definitely keep this chef on my radar.

Unfortunate news, guys. I’m gluten intolerant.
Womp womp. Cya, (conventional) bread, pasta and beer.
First off, I will say that it really rustles my jimmies when a restaurant says they can make food gluten free and it’s not. It really messes up the rest of my day (and can carry on into the next several days). That said, I can be justifiably apprehensive when I eat out these days.
Leopold did an amazing job accommodating for me and a friend with Celiac Disease. There was no cross contamination and the waitress knew what we could and couldn’t eat.
We had duck breast with duck hash (HOLY SHIT, so good), a cheeseplate, a smoked salmon salad, a roasted squash salad and sorbet. The non gluten items the rest of our companions ate were brussel sprout gratin, poutine and a pave.
Everything was so good and Leopold did an excellent job of keeping GF diners happy.

I really love this place. The food is always so delectable and the drinks are strong and interesting. I know for sure I am a fan because I have nothing funny or sarcastic to say…

Food: 3.5, service: 4.
FOOD: My boyfriend and I went to Leopold Friday evening to celebrate his birthday.
We selected four dishes (plus dessert) from the menu. The waiter recommended two to three dishes, but we were hungry and wanted to try a variety of items.
We ordered:
1) Apple-​Sage Pierogis: Farmers’ cheese, potato, spaghetti squash, swiss chard, sherry gastrique, crème fraîche;
2) Warm Winter Squash Salad: Arugula, farmers’ cheese, pomegranate, pumpkin seeds; Belgian ale vinaigrette;
3) Mussels with Frites: Goose Island 312, Sriracha, blue cheese;
4) Black Bass: On special… I don’t remember the exact preparation, but it had some kind of vegetable purée, thinly sliced beets, frisee, tomato confit, etc.; and
5) Cherry Root Beer Sorbet by Black Dog Gelato.
My favorite dish of the night was the pierogis. Rich and delicious. I especially liked the spaghetti squash and would have happily eaten more of it. A very comforting dish.
The salad was good, but nothing special. It wasn’t warm as the name indicated. I’d skip this one and order something else.
Mussels were also good. I liked the preparation, which was one I’d not seen before. My boyfriend thought it was too spicy, but I enjoyed the heat. The frites could have been crunchier, but I still ate them all with the tasty aioli with which they were served.
The waiter made the black bass sound amazing. He said it was among the top fish dishes he had ever tried. It was good, but again, not great. It wasn’t especially memorable. My boyfriend ended up eating most of it.
Overall, we had a nice dinner at Leopold, but I thought the dishes lacked the wow factor that would have pushed my review higher.
SERVICE: I made our reservation on OpenTable, and in the comments box, I notified the staff that we would be celebrating my boyfriend’s birthday. I asked them to put a candle in his dessert. Not only did the staff honor my candle request, but they also put a birthday note on the table before we arrived. I was impressed.
Our reservation was originally set for 7 p.m., but my boyfriend got held up at work and asked to go a little later. Around 5:30, I called to see whether I could change the reservation to 7:30, and the receptionist was able to change it for me without any attitude. Very good.
The busboys were quick to remove empty dishes and to wipe down the table.
My main complaint was the time between ordering and receiving our food. Our first two dishes (pierogis and salad) arrived quickly; the second two (mussels and fish) arrived much later, and then one right after the other. I know the servers have little to do with cooking, but a little warning about the delay would have been nice.
DECOR: A cute, cozy spot. Much bigger than it looks from the outside. Good for a date. We sat near the front of the restaurant, and at times there was a draft when the door opened.
Enjoyed our time but won’t rush back. Too many other dinner spots to try!

Definitely have to raise my star rating here. I finally went back to Leopold on Wednesday night for a dinner with some Boston University alumni. One of the managers at Leopold went to BU. Sadly, she couldn’t be there but she did tell the staff to give us a really nice complimentary appetizer tray! It had some pâté, some cheese, almonds, and sausage. Everything was a lovely taste of what was to come.
I enjoyed a few nice beers (Winterkoninck to start and Ommegang’s Rare Vos during dinner). They went really nicely with my brave choice (if I do say so myself) of sweetbreads. Although it was my first time trying sweetbreads, I have to say that I loved the preparation in the salad. All of the ingredients were so flavorful and fresh in the salad. I’d definitely try sweetbreads again after this great introduction!
I tried a bit of my friends’ meals too: beef brisket special, duck confit hash, muscles in white wine sauce. Delicious… all of it.
And the piece de resistance… dessert. The Black Dog sorbets were so flavorful (chocolate, blood orange, cherry root beer). and the waffle was fluffy and light. The whiskey maple sauce and fig compote really added to it.
Very impressed. Love this joint!

If you are interested in trying Leopold, sure, continue reading this review. But also go to their web site and focus on the following: menu; bio of chef Michael Dean Reynolds. The food is a direct continuation of the farm described there. It’s neat that in a world of farm-​to-​tablers, there’s someone who’s actually lived on one. A farm, not a table.
I started out by taking two good pieces of advice from servers: a red wine whose name escapes me (helpful, I know!) and the winter squash salad. The salad was what my husband would call «simple but good.» I prefer simple, so it was simple AND good, with arugula, farmer’s cheese and squash in a Belgian ale vinaigrette.
My main course at Leopold was like «The Beatles» by The Beatles. That is to say, white all over. I had the pierogi with apples, potatoes, farmer’s cheese, crème fraîche, spaghetti squash and sage. Usually I try to eat the rainbow but this was nevertheless a winner. The carb and cheese combination was lightened slightly by the apple. Good choice on a January evening.
Luckily, my husband and I have a shared love of brussels sprouts. We share them regularly even though I have a record of going beyond the unspoken ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ sharing etiquette. Unluckily, we do not have a shared love of bacon, but luck struck yet again when our waitress offered to serve the bacon on the side. Thus the dish was poised for perfection, and the only reason it wasn’t, in my opinion, was the proportion of sprouts to gouda: too much of the latter. With all due respect to Wisconsin, Paula Deen and Timer the cheese cowboy, sometimes less is more.
After dinner, we somehow talked ourselves into having room for dessert and shared the Belgian waffle with figs and white chocolate-​cherry-​allspice gelato. I liked all these elements more than I anticipated, and they played very well together. The gelato and figs in particular were wonderful, and I’m usually not crazy about figs or cherry.
The service was good, from beginning to end, including hostess, bartender and waitress. Approachable but knowledgeable. One minor point that may or may not fall under service was the fact that we sat in the smaller rear dining room and I faced the back, so I watched a lot of kitchen activity. It was kind of interesting to see the wheels turning, but it is a different experience than one would have while facing the rest of the pretty dining room.
Overall, a great evening. It was particularly cozy and suited for a winter dinner but I imagine Leopold can pull off any season. We’ll definitely keep it in mind for the future.

«Pretty good… BUT.»
Food is tasty, BUT they didn’t guide us well regarding how much to order, and they did a poor job spacing out when the dishes arrived at our table. There was one point at which we had NOTHING to eat for 15 minutes, then suddenly 3 things arrived all at once, even though the server told us he would be trying to space things out correctly.
Drinks are fun and tasty, BUT the selection isn’t that great. Oh, and I suppose I should mention that my fiancé found a paper clip in his cocktail. A freaking paper clip. The server was very apologetic, took that drink off of the tab, and had the chef send us a free scoop of ice cream… but what’s done is done. How the hell does a paperclip get into a drink?
Decent décor, BUT the bathrooms are super lame. I know, it’s not all about the bathrooms… but when you’re dropping over a hundred bucks, I suppose one might expect something a bit nicer than metal stalls. That said, the hand dryer is fun.
Ultimately, this place tries — and I expect it is possible that we simply had a one-​off experience (poorly timed dishes, bizarre paper clip instance, etc).

What a brilliant choice for date night with my wife. I bookmarked this place almost two years ago and now I regret not making more of an effort to visit. Both the service and atmosphere were completely perfect for our post-​theater dinner. I love their classy/​cool vibe with slightly rustic accents. Don’t ask me to fumble trying to describe the aesthetics; just look at the photos and take my word that it looks even better in person. I don’t think that I could design a restaurant interior more suited to my tastes. And everyone from the hostess to the bartender to the dining room staff wore welcoming smiles. In particular, our server Sandra was wonderful.
So the stage was set, but of course the food should always be the star, and it was. I was indifferent to both of the Belgian drafts that I tried, as well as the soft pretzel appetizer. However, everything went up, up, up from there.
I ordered the seared whitefish with mustard spaetzle, parsnips, pecans, and short rib vinaigrette. Genius combinations – delicious, delicious genius. On the side my wife and I «shared» the frites and the brussels sprouts. By «shared» I mean that I greedily devoured most of the frites and our forks dueled over every last morsel of tasty brussels sprout. The latter are cooked in a little crock with chestnuts, bacon, and gouda, but the waitress graciously offered to bring the bacon on the side since there was only one pork eater at the table. The Belgian-​style frites were absolutely perfect, and although the accompanying samurai sauce was underwhelming, I dipped the frites instead into the creamy goodness left behind in the brussels sprouts crock. One of my better ideas in recent memory, I must say.
Of course we rounded off our meal with dessert: Belgian waffle with white-​chocolate/​cherry/​allspice gelato, fig-​currant compote, and hazelnut crunch. I typically go for chocolate desserts, but this one sounded brilliant and tasted even better. It was a superb final note to our excellent meal.
Although I ordered Belgian beer, Belgian frites, and a Belgian waffle, the Low Countries influence was overt but not clamorous. This is thoughtful, modern food, with a few embellished classics sprinkled in, that deeply satisfies. The handsome room and friendly staff make it taste even better. I hope to return again soon.

I’m going down to two stars because of yesterday at brunch. First of all, dinner is always good and I have no complaints and Jake the bartender is awesome. But they may need to revamp brunch a bit.
We walked in and we were two of three customers at the place. We ordered biz and gravy with duck and the rabbit hash.
For some reason I expected a basket of muffins or pastries while we waited for brunch… It just seemed like the right thing for Leopold to do.
Anyhow, we get our food and they bring out biz and gravy and the Leopold breakfast. Obviously, the Leopold bfast is not Rabbit Hash and we find out the waitress made a mistake and put in the wrong entrée.
My husband didn’t mind and also didn’t want to wait for another 20 minutes for food so he ate the bfast and said it was good. The biz and gravy needs more duck, less bland gravy, and about 8 minutes added to the cooking time for the biscuits. Not at all what I had hoped for.
Fast forward to the bill. Although my husband ate the wrong breakfast he was given and the waitress admitted it was HER fault for putting in the wrong order we got NOTHING taken off the bill. Not even our $ 3 cup of coffee. REALLY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? We just spent $ 50 on brunch, got the wrong entrée and they can’t comp a $ 3 cup of coffee for bringing out the wrong dish?
Bad move Leopold… Bad move. Being the stellar restaurant you are, I expected a bit more from that mistake. We lay down cash here… A Lot. It’s down the street from our house and we enjoy dinner here. But after yesterday’s incident, I’m a bit jaded and might not be back for awhile…

So I really like Leopold — it has a great, welcoming, neighborhoody feel to it. Very comfortable and very enjoyable. This is nice Belgian influenced comfort food — I felt a bit like I’d been transported across the Atlantic.
The waitstaff was very accommodating and helpful — friendly and approachable. We tried a number of the dishes and all were delicious with something for everyone. Salads were terrific — Endive and Apple was particularly yummy. Buttered prawns were also very good, and the addition of szechuan peppercorn slaw added a terrific crunch and light note to the dish. Moules were great as were the frites. All good so far.
These are definitely small plates and good for sharing. We had 6 dishes for four people, along with a couple of sides and plenty of drinks. It worked out just great.
I’m still scratching my head on the Poutine though — we didn’t order it, so I can’t really comment on Leopold’s version. But why am I seeing it on menus all over the place? I’ve got plenty of relatives in Canada, where it hails from, so I’ve had plenty. It was never really good to begin with. And at my age eating fries, gravy, and cheese is a recipe to become 300 lbs. What’s up with all the poutine?
But I digress. Leopold is really terrific — warm, friendly, and yummy. I could easily become a regular.

I was confident in taking my foody friend from Manhattan to this place for dinner. She couldn’t stop talking about the goodness factor.
Started of with ribeye tartar (excellent), mussels in white wine (a bit overcooked), moved on to seared scallop (fantastic) and griled steak (perfection) for main course.
Belgium waffles w/​maple ice cream, sour cherry gelato and panna cotta for dessert. Life is good.
Recommend making reservations for earlier time (before 830) if you plan to come here on a saturday. Otherwise, you will not get to try the fluke and/​or the chocolote pave. Another reason to come back I suppose.
Big props for service. We had a third addition to the reservation last minute and that was accommodated right away.
Minor drawback: not many choices of red wines by the glass.

Score for Belgian cuisine!
Four of us visited Leopold for restaurant week and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We had an early reservation, so the restaurant wasn’t very full, but the atmosphere was really nice even without it bustling full of people. The décor is light, but comfortable and the space, with the brick behind the bar is very warm. I’m not sure if it gets busy during the evenings on weekends — it almost looks like there is a lounge area in the front section of the restaurant (perhaps this area is used more like a bar at night?). In any case, the atmosphere was great — a 5. (note: I didn’t get the ‘smell’ that people are mentioning in reviews — I think the restaurant smelled just fine and I didn’t seem to reek afterwards… so, not sure).
Aside from the fact that our poor server had to wait for us to order for a while since we didn’t pay any attention to the menu at all, he was great. He was attentive, but not overbearing and he was quite nice (and helped us with our drink selections). Our food came out at just the right time (and we didn’t get in trouble for sharing the restaurant week menu). A 5 for service.
On to the food. First of all, let me say that I like pretzels. I’d go so far as to say I love pretzels and this pretzel at Leopold is delicious — simple but good. The mustard for dipping is flavorful, but not too spicy and also comes plenty to a portion. The salad was tasty with a zesty dressing. I had the mussels for my entrée and they were very good, perhaps a bit unsalted, but quite delicious. I would have enjoyed a loaf of bread to dip into my sauce… but in retrospect, I probably didn’t need an entire loaf of bread with my dinner! The waffle dessert — ahhhh — so delicious. I could have eaten 3 servings had I had enough room. I also tried the brussel sprouts — yum and the lamb entrée which was a special — also yum. The food was great — aside from using a slightly generous salt next time on the mussels, I give it a 5.
Value for restaurant week was good, and a quick look at the regular menu shows that Leopold is on the higher end, but I think still has quite good value. The side orders were generous and some of the entrees (mussels) came with fries. I think the salads were a bit small for the normal price, but all in all, good value (a 4).
As for bathrooms… I didn’t visit, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I would like to return! 4.5 rounded to 5.

This place is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. It’s nice having a good spot that’s walking distance (10 mins) from home.
When I first started going here (October 2011), the food was much better than recently (February 2012).
Leopold has an open kitchen, which is trendy and hip and all, but their exhaust system is non-​existent so expect to smell like fryer grease when you leave. They really need to change this, in my opinion. (In the meantime, sit towards the front if you can.)
I always enjoy the rillettes, the cassoulet, and sweetbreads, although they do switch up the menu quite a bit. I used to love the fries with samurai sauce, but last time I had them, they were too salty and not crispy enough.
The beer list is pretty darn good.
I will go back here, although I’ve had some hit/​miss experiences, so I’d be skeptical to bring foodies here that I’d want to impress since there’s a degree of unreliability.

I went to Leopold on a Saturday night with a couple girlfriends and had a fantastic experience! I didn’t realize how many places were on this stretch of Chicago — I guess I haven’t gone past West Town tavern. My loss for sho!
Elder pear cocktail was really nice — floral and perfect, not too sweet.
My friends loved the salad with duck egg, my beet salad was fine (it could have used some more goat cheese).
They enjoyed the moules & frites while I had the pierogis. While they are not a belgian specialty, the pierogis were amazing. I could eat them every weekend and be happy. The frites were fantastic too. Soooo crispy, I’m thinking maybe they are double fried in true belgian style (but I don’t know that for sure).
Our server was extremely attentive and friendly, topping off a great night!
I will undoubtably be back!

Wow. It’s not often anymore that anything surprises me. But Leopold did just that the other night with it’s impeccable service, great food and contemporary interior.
Leopold had been on my list to try for quite some time yet many of my friends, in reading the menu on line, seemed to get hung up on the rabbit and sweet breads always asking me to pick some place else. Did they not also see the braised short rib, the poutine, the sausage and the mussels?
I really wasn’t expecting much in terms of décor, for Noble Square tends to be home to restaurants that serve decent food but aren’t all that enjoyable to eat it in. But this is not the case with Leopold. The soft neutral tones, dark woods and leather covered bar stools add an air of elegance and class to the space. We sat in the back by the small private room (seats 8) with dark curtains defining the space. My suggestion? Ask to sit toward the front of the restaurant as you will be further from the open kitchen in the back.
Our server, Scott, was great! He offered up suggestions, suggested we share a few items and was quick with great wine suggestions as they had a couple of special wines that we were not familiar with.
We started with the steak tartare. Absolutely perfect, with the raw egg oozing into the meat and the variety of breads served along side. Next up– we went with the moules and frites (their regular mussels although on the night we were there– they were also offering up a variety with sausage cooked alongside). The mussels were plump and tender and the pepper aioli sauce that came with the fries was terrific. We also ordered a side of the lamb gravy (usually used for the poutine which sounded amazing but it was just too huge of a portion so the gravy was the next best thing) And finally– the short rib served with a heirloom tomato salad which was fork tender and also delicious.
Hard to believe we had room for dessert after splitting all of that that but the Belgian waffle sounded too good to pass up and we were right. The waffle was stacked atop maple gelato and topped with a Bourbon butter sauce! I seriously wanted to lick the plate!
The only downside of the entire evening was that parking is tough in this neighborhood. But you if you are patient, something will open up on Chicago or you can usually find parking by the church located a block south. They did tell me they are thinking about getting valet soon so that should help. Dinner for two with drinks ran about $ 125.
I can’t wait to tell my friends who «poo-​pooed» going to Leopold about the great meal that they missed. As for me? You can bet I’ll be back. That poutine is calling my name!

Leopold bestows you with visual pleasure upon entry, and fills you with gustatory delight upon your departure.
I love the clean design of the room, soft white lighting that is neither too bright nor too low, reflecting against the left white wall against the room length brown bar. It is a roomy shotgun style establishment with clean European lines that perfectly sets up the mood of the food.
And the food is tasty. Among the dishes we ordered included a pretzel, a sausage plate, mussels and the rabbit, the smoked rabbit with spaetzel, my super secret ninja favorite of the worldwide starches. All were good and the rabbit was a standout.
Additionally, the booze selection is quality. The Whistle Pig manhattan was smoky perfection and as decadent as you’d imagine. I’d like to see a few more selections, but there are some affordable options in addition to the specialties, and the Rebel Yell is a nice touch on the lower end. The wine selection is very European, with some excellent earthy selections from the Old World. We had a selection from the South of France and enjoyed it immensely. And the beer selection is simply top notch, with a wide range of styles from some very obscure producers.
We were here in the summer, on a relatively quite weekend evening because Lollapalooza was pulling in crowds from all over Chicago, but I’m really looking forward to coming back in the fall, and escaping a late fall chill to warm up over some booze and food.

Leo and I got off to a rocky start. When my dining companions arrived at the restaurant (before me) they were told that I had canceled the reservation. I did no such thing and even had a confirmation from them on my voice mail. An angry me called them on my way to the restaurant. They insisted that the reservation had been canceled, but did promise to make room for us. They did make up for it by giving my party of 6 the loveliest table in the restaurant.
Leopold is definitely the place to order beer, but I’m more of a wino. I ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc and expected the waitress to gasp that I wasn’t getting beer, but on the contrary she told me I was making a very nice choice.
The food was a bit on the heavy side, but very tasty. We ordered the pretzel oysters, mussels, steak tartare, rabbit and poutine. Everything was delish except the rabbit didn’t really do it for me, but I couldn’t get enough of the rillet that was served with the rabbit. I think I had about 80 too many fries because I had such a bad stomach ache by the end of the meal that I couldn’t accompany my friends to Black Dog Gelato (yum) for dessert.
The stomach ache is no fault of Leo’s though since I tend to have a weak stomach when it comes to rich and fried foods. However, those of you with stomachs of steel will love Leopolds… just make sure to confirm that reservation ahead of time.