Magic Jug

Great to see this place reopen. They have really good authentic Ukranian food. The prices are really good compared to the quantity you get. The food comes out as ready. The décor definitely suits the place too.

Ukrainian restaurant with real Ukrainian food selection. On busy intersection but Parking conveniently located on back of building .
Will recommend to my friends

One of my favorite places in Chicago. Its so authentic and remind me home for 100%.
I know the taste of food from early childhood and it exactly the same like I remember. Isn’t the highest level of satisfaction…

On a recent trip to Chicago, my (part Ukrainian) boyfriend wanted to get some authentic Ukrainian food. I’ve never had the cuisine before, so we decided on the Magic Jug because the menu looked the most authentic. A small space with an unassuming brick and glass store front, you might miss it if you weren’t looking closely. But the moment you step inside, you’re magically transported through time and space to a Ukrainian grandma’s house! You can see her in the kitchen, rolling out dough, as you sit down amidst the wood-​covered walls and traditional woven tablecloths. All around you are traditional paintings of smiling Ukrainian girls, poppies, and mermaids, and a little wooden Ukrainian bear greets you from the napkin holder on the table.
The server brought a basket of bread and butter right to our table when we ordered. There were two kinds of bread, one looked plain white, the other was hearty sunflower seed. It had a crust of crunchy sunflowers and what tasted like anise sprinkled across the top. Then came our golubtsi – what my boyfriend calls Ukrainian egg rolls. They are cabbage leaves stuffed with warm meat, rice, and spices and served with fresh dill sprinkled on top and a side of sour cream. The golubtsi were cooked to perfection; the cabbage leaves were soft enough so that you could easily cut through them, making me think they had maybe been boiled, but there was a perfect golden crispness on top. When I get a dish colored in shades of beige and wrapped in cabbage leaves, I expect it will be pretty bland. So I was happily surprised when these unassuming cabbage rolls were bursting with meaty, spicy, herby flavor. The fresh dill and sour cream lightly counterbalanced the savory, warm filling.
Next, our pelmeny were served in an earthenware jug, and it really was magical. Pelmeny are small, buttery, chewy dumplings filled with ground meat and onion. They came to us piping hot with a hearty sprinkle of dill on top. When I cut one in half, the buttery, golden sauce it was cooked in came oozing out and made everything else on my plate that much happier. About the size of a golf ball, I could have eaten at least 30 of these. I imagined myself sitting in a wooden Ukrainian hut on a frozen January day, warmed inside and out with a steaming little jug of pelmeny.
Last in our tour of savory dishes was the cheburek, a fried meat pie. It was a pocket of dough about the size of a dinner plate folded in half, again filled with spicy ground meat. The meat mixture was similar to the others, spicy, hot, oniony and dilly, and similarly delicious. The dough was freshly made, with a delightful flaky texture fried to golden brown perfection.
To finish off the meal, we ordered what was labeled simply as «sweet» in the English menu translation. It turned out to be two thin crêpe-​like pastries filled with a sweet cheese filling, fairly similar to cheese blintzes. The sweets were sprinkled with powdered sugar, drizzled with fruit sauce and served with whipped cream and chocolate sauce on the side. Even though we finished the meal feeling as stuffed as the golubtsi, the bill was surprisingly small!
Come to the Magic Jug if you want to be whisked away to delightful Ukrainian flavors, charm, and hospitality.

I am used to Russian/​Ukrainian cuisine so I’m biased as far as judging about the food. I’m just gonna say it’s as good as I could expect. And having tried various dishes from many cuisines around the world, some of which were super delicious, I would still say Russian/​Ukrainian cuisine is the best in the world. By variety of dishes and their unique taste. If you never tried anything on the menu you can’t go wrong with the Chanahi soup. Not to diminish the goodness of other items, they’re all deli. It’s a small place and on the weekdays I never saw more than three people in there. However, it can get pretty crowded on the weekends so you may not find free tables. And that’s where the missing star kicks in the action. their staff is shorthanded and they were having hard time delivering my order in a timely fashion even though I called 20 minutes ahead.

Hidden, tiny place with no indication of what kind of food. Pleasantly surprised by Ukrainian food. Beet salad, pea salad were delicious! Potato pancakes crispy and delicious! Potato dumplings were great too. but kind of a lot of oil… overall great value and great food

You should try this place, it’s a small family owned place, ascetically pleasing atmosphere, with Ukrainian/​pop music playing in the background, but let’s talk about the food. Home made, delicious and rich flavored food is what you can expect here. Chanakhy is the reason i drive here from Skokie, but everything else tasted good too, they take no shortcuts in the food making.

Ewww they got shut down for having hundreds of rat droppings and for storing the food in a freezer that wouldn’t get any colder then 55 degrees

went today for lunch and it has a license suspended sign on door. Wonder what happen, was good a couple of weeks ago.

Love this place! Everything is delicious here! We keep coming back and trying something new every time and it’s always a hit!

after living in the neighborhood for 12 yrs, we never noticed this restaurant because there is no real signage or anything to indicate it’s a restaurant, especially with the name Magic Jug. It was a pleasant surprise. the pierogi reminded me of my mother-​in-​laws as well as the borsch soup.
There’s not much of a selection, but what they do have is quite tasty and delicious, very hardy. I was disappointed there was no Chicken Kiev, but maybe that’s an american dish, just like the burrito is not a mexican dish.
the waitress are friendly but service was slow. Which i don’t mind, because i never felt pressured to leave. they also didn’t speak the best english and at times it was hard to communicate, but it was no big deal.
we will definitely go back for the stuff cabbage, pierogis, and soup

Nothing fancy and it’s a very small place. They only accept cash. They do not speak much English but the menu is in English, so all you have to do is point. If you are looking for Ukrainian /​Russian food, this is the place to go. Very inexpensive. My favorite is the stuffed cabbage and potato pancakes (with mushroom sauce). They do not serve alcohol. Oh and I had a soup (can’t remember the name) they say it’s spicy, it not spicy but it was very good.

Last night, my husband and I stopped in for dinner at Magic Jug at around 7 at night. At first, we almost didn’t enter the restaurant because the windows looked dark (we thought they might be closed), but when we saw the hours of operation on the door and the neon «open» sign in the window, we decided to go ahead.
Upon entering the restaurant, we noticed that it was dark from the outside because it was actually quite dark inside. There were maybe 2 lights for the whole 8 table dining room, which gave the restaurant a very intimate feeling. The fact that we were the only customers there the whole time we had dinner only increased that feeling.
The food we ordered was *super* delicious. I ordered the cheburek, and Adam ordered a large serving of meat pyrogy. We also had some drink that was like a fruit tea, served cold in mugs. It was tasty, and the bill at the end only came to $ 13! I wish I had ordered a little more because I was still a little hungry when we left, but now I know for next time.
The only things that made me slightly uncomfortable was that there was no music (dining in silence is a little awkward) and our waitress *barely* spoke English (though she was very friendly). I think she may have been new to the restaurant, because when we asked for a carry-​out menu, another member of staff had to show her what we were talking about.
Overall, it was a good experience. I would recommend this place because of the quality of the food and the value for the price. My only suggestion would be to either come during daylight hours so that you can see your food better or order their amazing food for carry-​out.

This is my favorite place that serves Ukrainian/​Russian food. Everything is just so delicious… Would recommend it to everyone!!! And the price is reasonable, you can have an amazing dinner for just $ 15!

Caterina is a boss lady. She is clearly the brains behind this place – in appearance, it’s just a cedar-​walled room about the size of a sauna, with some traditional folk art on the walls (it’s painted on glass, with gold accents – I bought one for my parents of a couple posing next to a pig. Caterina looked at and proudly laughed, «Hmph! These are Ukrainian people.»)
I found this place as a total fluke before my second semester of Chemistry on a blustery, wintery night at Wright College… I wanted something that wasn’t instant ramen, and wasn’t from the cafeteria vending machine. I ended up here, just happy I was somewhere inside and warm! I ordered something called Deruny, which is like potato latkes-​type pancakes, with a salty stew on top. It was phenomenal. I also got their signature, a flaky cheburek – a really wide, flat fried dough with seasoned meat inside. It had a bunch of dill and parsley seasoning it, it was perfection! I’m not sure if it’s an appetizer, because it’s only $ 3, but it was substantially filling.
I ended up going every other week, and my go-​to was the half-​order of pelmeny, a dumpling with seasoned pork folded inside, and either a cheburek or one of their beet salads. If it was a really good day, I got one of their cakes and their coffee (a hint of raspberry flavor, not too obvious) for dessert. It was always up in the air what kind of cake would show up, but they had superfine sugar decorating the plate, and some syrup on top. The flourless chocolate cake was phenomenal, but – hold the phones – a couple of times I had an all-​out Pavlova-​style cake, with cream filling and flakey crust. I DIED! So good.
For some reason, it took me a whole year to try their borscht – why? They ruined me for other borscht, before or after.
I sadly don’t live anywhere near Magic Jug anymore, but if I ever got to trip the light fantastic on Check Please, it would be a no brainer – I’d be all about this place.

This place is special. The cabbage rolls (stuffed with rice/​beef) were pillowy soft and exploding with comfort food flavor and tecture. The borscht was also delicious but I’ve got to try their version of the all-​in-​one soup (don’t recall the name), I’m told. Everything was delicious, made with care. Small kitchy storefront, some parking in rear. Worth the trip, ½ mile west of 90 on Irving Park…

My latest «friend» told me about this restaurant across from Merrimac Park. It is small (10 tables) but very inviting and cozy. Well, I am not here for décor but to try Ukranian food made from scratch. The first thing I noticed is the kitchen which you cannot avoid seeing. The «lady» cooks are busy preparing the days fare. It does help to know an Eastern European language. My friend knows Belarus, Russian, Polish, and German. All of our bases were covered.
She suggested we start with Pickle Soup/​Solianka. Made in a beef broth are the pickles, chopped smoked beef and finely cut carrots. The bowl was substantial and delicious. We also ordered cucumber and tomato salade. Our entrees differed. My lady ordered the Pechenia, roasted prok with potato pancakes. Pork is the most popular meet in most of eastern Europe. Pigs are more abundant than other meats. I had the Shashlyc which is seasoned pork in a rich sauce with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and green peppers. Great! We passed on the Golubtsi (Golombki or stuffed cabbage rolls) and Nalysnyaky (I call them crepes) with varied fillings.
At reasonable prices, we will be back to try other items on their menu.
It is that great out of the way hideaway that you don’t want the multitudes to know about. We will return.
JohnnyChitown