People Lounge

Food has lots of great flavor but I can’t help but feel some dishes are a bit too salty for my taste but for a small nosh and drinks in an inviting atmosphere it fits the bill.

I didn’t really get to explore the menu. I came for mostly drinks and had some light bites. The red pepper aioli really made the potato dish and sauteed mushrooms with blue choose really hit the spot. Both the red and white sangria are solid, and I love that they have a djs on the weekends.

I’ve been to a lot of tapas restaurants and this… is one of them.
Seriously, this is fine, and you’ll find all the tapas standards on their menu, but nothing really stood out in any way, +/​-​. There was plenty of room in early afternoon on a week-​end.
A serviceable option on Milwaukee near the Six Corners.

I spent 3 years of my life living above and then around the corner from Café Ba Ba Reba and all its Lettuce Entertain You craziness. Constantly busy, advertised on the El, a major destination tapas place. Now I live in Bucktown, right down the street from People and I very regularly forget that it exists. In fact, the only reason we ended up there is that Big Star had an hour wait and we passed by it walking to Santullo’s and decided to give it a whirl. And you know what, for a place that was only half full at 7:30 on a Friday night and gets roughly zero hype… it was pretty darn good!
We started with the cheese platter which comes with a generous quantity of 4 different cheeses plus a jam and candied walnuts. The large portions continued with the HUGE serving of perfectly crispy potatoes bravas atop an awesome red pepper aioli. The flat bread we ordered was a little surprising since it was a do-​it-​yourself assembly, but it was definitely tasty. The pork empanadas were great, very crispy and deep fried, stuffed with lots of well seasoned shredded pork. Next time I’d love to try the goat cheese and mushroom ones. And last but not least we had the shrimp over polenta and corn — different, great texture, very flavorful. We also had a few specialty drinks that were on special for $ 7, and their beer list was pretty good as well. All and all a very good experience, although the atmosphere is a little strange since it was so dead. It might have been because it was 4 days till Christmas though, so we’ll have to try it again on a normal night.

WOW. We were blown away by this place! Everything here was delicious! We came here as a group of about 20 for a set menu meal. The chef here came and talked with us. It was a great Chef’s table event!
Here is what we had from the menu:
plato de queso — artisanal Spanish cheeses, house made fig jam, candied walnuts
ensalada de avocado– bibb lettuce, avocado, cucumber, crispy serano, avocado vinaigrette
People’s skirtsteak: braised wagyu, tomatoes, cornichons, capers, aged manchego cheese
Patatas Bravas: crispy russet potatoes, spicy red pepper aioli
mushroom & goat cheese empanadas — oyster, porcini, portobello & button mushrooms, goat cheese, chive aioli
empanada de cerdo — sweet chili pork empanadas, belgian beer aioli, apple salsa
dátiles con bacon– goat cheese stuffed dates, applewood smoked bacon, apple cider reduction
scallops — pan seared scallops, carrot-​cumin quinoa purée, edamame, crisy serrano ham, wasabi greens
meal came with :
House made red or white wine sangria
Red wine: La Vendimia Garnacha/​Tempranillo from Spain
White Wine: Basa Blanco Rueda Verdejo/​Viura from Spain
dessert: mint ice cream (real fresh mint) with mexican chocolate cake.
I can’t even say which one was my favorite because they were all so good. But if I had to choose, it would be the stuffed dates and our dessert. Loved it here!!!

The empanada de cerdo was really good. It’s got a thick, flaky crust and the sweet chili pork was very nicely done. They’re fairly heavy tasting and pretty big for tapas, so as nice as they are, if you’re going to get a plate for yourself, I wouldn’t get more than the 2 empanada portion. And don’t neglect the apple relish that comes on the side.
The pollo diablo was very interesting. I was suspicious of how mojito’y it could really taste and wasn’t disappointed. Not as good as the empanadas though for sure. The orzo was creamy and complimented the spiciness of the spicy paste (which comes on the side) pretty well, I thought. Gotta go easy on the spicy paste though. It can easily cover up the rest of the dish and is more hot than tasty.
The waitress recommended 4 to 5 plates per person. Not sure what she was thinking but I could never eat that much if the portions I saw (including some other veggie ones I didn’t mention here) were any indication. I’d say 2 or 3 per person is probably fair. Their portions were larger than I expected.

My friend and I went here Saturday night and loved it. We were going to try and get a reservation at Café Ba Ba Reeba, but had no luck, so we opted for the People’s Lounge after I looked it up and noticed the good reviews. They are well deserved! We both decided this was our new favorite place. The whole experience was great… the food, the service, the drinks — all for pretty good prices.
A few of the highlights: ahi tuna, pork empanadas, people’s skirtsteak, croquetas. I also recommend the white sangria with champagne to drink. Very good!

The food, service, and experience at People is superb. The only drawback that I see is that customers receive relatively little food for the price.
In my most recent visit with a group of three people, we ordered 6 tapas dishes and a bottle of wine. On Monday nights, most bottles of wine are half price, and despite that we still spent over $ 30 each. All things we tried were spectacular, especially the Mushroom and Goat Cheese Empanadas.
Overall, I recommend the restaurant, but would only suggest going if you are taking advantage of some type of special.

Was here a couple of years ago and am finally getting around to reviewing this place, so my review isn’t the most up to date nor will it be the most detailed. But… We came here with another couple for a double date and remember being a lil crammed almost sitting on top of our neighbors also creating for a lil bit of a too loud for my liking restaurant.
The décor was cute though and trendy and the service was up to par so that made us happy. However, all the tapas were just so so, nothing stood out and from looking at all the meat pics we got, they don’t look super appetizing. We did have the tuna tar tar which had a nice presentation but I’m not the biggest fan. The sangria was yummy and did get us all a lil tipsy. Would I go again? Probably not. Is it worth trying? yes. I just know some other tapas places like baba reeba or even the new modernized tavernita which we def like more.

Dear People,
You are my favorite tapas place in Chicago. I love your rotating dishes, your knowledgeable staff, your reasonable prices and that I can make reservations to eat with you.
I recently cheated on you to eat at the new tapas place in the neighborhood and I went home and cried. I wasted my money and a perfectly good chance to eat with you instead. They treated me like dirt and their food was not as good. They even charged me for refills of my iced-​tea and didnt tell me until my bill came!

I decided that even though I know you are the most unique and incredible tapas bar in all of Chicago, maybe it was time I write you a Unilocal review for the rest of the world to see that, especially in Wicker Park, the public have options! And that newer places might be fun and exciting, but places like you that have been around for years are trustworthy and reliable.
I wont ever cheat on you again.
IN WICKER PARK… People who know tapas should eat at People.
Not at some place named after an animal that wants to charge after you and quite possibly kill you.

If you’re still stuck at the frat boy /​sorority girl college scene, by all means, come here. The food is ok, some dishes may even be considered good, but the service just plain sucks and the place is really loud.
I don’t expect 5-​star service, but I also don’t want to be served by argumentative, slow, clueless servers (granted they are all sort of pretty, but that’s the only thing they have going for them…).
When I’m being told the Wagyu beef is Kobe beef by the server, I just question their knowledge level. You just simply cannot get Kobe beef here. Period. Read Forbe’s article if you don’t believe me:
And btw, save your money, their beef is no good. Low quality, bad cut, too much fat, and overcooked. Embarrassing.
Next, we told our server that we didn’t love the lamb sliders, the server became argumentative and basically spoke down to us by saying that everyone loves it and can’t understand why we don’t like it. This went on for about 30 seconds.
In summary, if you are a frat guy /​sorority girl, or a recent grad, this is probably your scene. For those of us who are a bit refined, we’ll pass on this type of amateur joint.

This place is delicious! We started off with the squash cakes which was full of flavor and had a nice crunch to it from being lightly fried. The potatoes bravas and pork empanadas were tasty too. The empanadas were so good that we ordered a second round. The sangria is a must! We opted for the white sangria with passion fruit. The perfect ending was the apple tart.
The service was very good, everyone was very attentive. The atmosphere was perfect for a tapas restaurant. The only thing I don’t like is that there are televisions behind the bar which is open to the dining room. It’d be nice to take those out of the equation to prevent distractions from conversation!

Went there about a week ago and, granted it was NYE weekend, but the place was dead on a Friday night at 7:30. The wait staff was very nice and the place was nice as well.
This is a tapas places. We found that the food was average but we would not go back. My date loved the scallops but the other dishes were average,
They did have very interesting tequila flights which were great. A very casual place but not worth a special trip.

Wow, this place was definitely not what I was expecting in Wicker Park, in a good way. I went here Saturday night for a friend’s birthday, and had a great time.
My friend originally booked her party here thinking we would be having a DJ, you know, Top 40 and crowd-​pleasing tunes. It turned out that they had booked a Spanish instrumental band instead. My friend was a little peeved because it was a complete surprise, and not what she had planned for. However, after speaking a few words with the manager and a good amount of drinks later, everything turned out fine. We ended up loving the band! They were amazing, and the guitarist was phenomenal. They really encouraged people to dance, and our party took advantage of it. It was a nice change from the normal Saturday night bar/​restaurant routine.
Since I had a little too much to drink the night before, I didn’t want anything too wild. I decided to stick with their various Sangrias. My personal favorite was their Red Sangria-​light and simple. We didn’t order much food, but we did get some Calamari, and it was delicious. I did take a peek at their menu and by their descriptions alone, I would love to come back for their Tapas. The prices were pretty moderate, too.
All in all, People is a nice place to come for a more quiet and intimate night out with friends or a dinner date! I will definitely be back.

Wandered in here during my first outing in Wicker Park. The ambiance was contemporary, trendy, comfortable – great place to have a sit-​down dinner with some amigos. Their raspberry vodka special was good and only $ 5. Their food however, came in microscopic portions. Duh I know that tapas are supposed to be small, but these were fetus portions. My 2 year old nephew probably would’ve downed a hamburger after eating here.
The pastel de vegetales (basically a vegetable cake) was delicious – melt in your mouth consistency, and a perfectly seasoned sauce – but I finished it in like 2 nanoseconds. My friend liked her potato croquettes, but again the ‘croquettes’ were the size of her thumbs. If you come here hungry, you won’t leave happy.

My husband and I went here during the week last May. It was pretty quiet and we had an excellent waitress. Naturally, we started off with the Sangria. The waitress allowed us to taste two kinds of sangria before we ordered the carafe. We ordered a decent amount of tapas throughout the evening:
*** [see my photos] ***
Goat cheese — I loved this, but wished there was more of the garlic crusted bread. My husband wasn’t all that in to the goat cheese.
Pan seared scallops — This is usually my husbands favorite dish; however, these were some of the worst scallops he ever ordered. There were soggy and did not taste fresh at all.
Lamp lollipops — This is my favorite dish at People Lounge. The dish came with three lollipops… my husband took one and left two for me. Deee lish!
Skirtsteak — This was the second time I’ve had this dish and both times were quite disappointing to me. I warned my husband that it was a tiny portion, but he really wanted to taste it. We agreed that the steak was good and very tender, but not worth the price… especially because of the portion size.
Patata Brava — Perhaps I’m biased since it was my husbands’ selection, but I did not care for this dish at all. He said it was just okay and it was the only dish we did not finish. Overpriced fries with drizzles of sauce.
Pork Empanadas — These were okay, not really my thing. My husband loved them and wanted a second order.
Chocolate cake — This was so rich and good (and I’m not a huge chocolate lover). It went perfectly with the vanilla ice cream and plated with some sort of thin crunchy brule’ sauce. Very good!
We spent about $ 80 (including tax and tip) even with the
discount.
Note:
On my earlier visit I ordered 4 or 5 dishes with my friend, but I can only remember a couple of them at the moment. I highly recommend the bacon-​wrapped dates and the ceviche. Don’t forget the sangria!

I’m really sad to say that my experience at People Lounge left me with a very bad taste in my mouth last night. I’m still kind of bitter about it today, so this may have influenced my decision to change a 3-​star rating to a 2-​star rating. My main beef with the restaurant is that the prices do not reflect the value of their selections. While many of the dishes were good, some were definitely NOT good, and they were supposed to be showcasing the best of the best for Chicago Chef Week! So here is a rundown of what we ordered and why it was or wasn’t worth its salt.
I ordered the Chef’s week menu, which consisted of lobster and shrimp dumplings in a jamon serrano consommé. Basically, I thought the dumplings were a bit rubbery, the consommé was cold, and the whole dish tasted like it came from a frozen box. Not a great way to start the meal. We also ordered dates wrapped in bacon. Those were delicious (although how hard is it to wrap dates in bacon?)
Next, we moved on to the ahi tuna dish, which had avocado, mango, and wasabi cream cheese mashed potatoes. This dish had a lot of potential, and at $ 15 I would have liked for it to live up to its potential! But the tuna was flavorless and the dish just seemed tired. The wontons in the middle were nice, but they couldn’t save the dish.
We were brought a lamb dish with garbonzo beans and pickled asparagus heart as part of the Chef’s Week 2^nd course. That was actually very nice and I usually dislike lamb… a lot (it says so in my Unilocal profile!) So kudos to a warm and flavorful lamb dish. Another positive was the pastel de vegetales (pan seared squash cake, tomato beurre blanc). The patatas bravas were also delicious and plentiful.
The one thing I absolutely hated was the scallop dish. I love scallops. And I expect them to be served well each and every time. If I can make them at home, I should be able to get them at a nice restaurant without problems! But these had sand in them and were served with an overly sweetened side of saffron scalloped sweet potatoes and romesco sauce. I was just not impressed. And they were the most expensive thing we ordered ($ 17).
All 3 of us had a glass of wine to start, and then shared a pitcher of regular red wine sangria. The final bill came to $ 138. With tip, we each ended up paying $ 54. I just thought this was way too expensive for the quality and quantity of food that we ordered. I understand that the prices are listed on the menu. But when something is priced higher and supposedly has a reputation of the «house specialty», such as the scallops, I expect it to be great. And I was diappointed.
The final thing I tasted was the chocolate semifreddo for dessert with candied almonds. It was very yummy so I left on a good finishing note. And at least I got 100 OpenTable points for dining here. But I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon. Was very disappointed in choosing People during Chef’s Week when there are so many other places we could have gone for a gourmet prix fixe menu!

The four of us headed to People Lounge on a Friday night for a post-​Bulls game meal. It was on the late side so getting a table wasn’t a problem (I’ve heard otherwise at regular times). The place has a fun vibe with TVs over a long bar (with lots of people hanging out, getting to know each other a little too much for public consumption, etc) and busy but happy servers. Geoff and Ashley had been before so we let them take care of ordering off of the Spanish influenced tapas menu. Erica requested goat cheese with red sauce, and I love the spicy potatoes. Everything else was a surprise more or less. Our service was great, the food mostly good and the sangria a disappointment. The value isn’t bad, about $ 40 per person all-​in, with two pitchers and lots of food.
I wish I remembered all the details of the food, but unmemorable dishes says something too. The potatoes and goat cheese were great, and the tuna tartare was first rate. I didn’t love the empanada, or the chicken dish, but the scallops were pretty tasty and well cooked. They only served three and with a side of scalloped potatoes in block form. The scalloped potatoes were a little too over the top for the dish and overall scene. Our desserts were tasty — traditional flan and a very rich chocolate lava cake. At that point in the evening we were not eating everything on our plate.
When you’re located at Damen and North, it is not surprising to focus on drinks and atmosphere vs. food experience. People Lounge is a fun spot that serves good food and fits into the neighborhood well. It would not be my first stop for world class tapas, nor do I think they would disagree. I wish they would modify their sangria recipes a bit (actually tone down the alcohol), but I’m probably in the minority. It’s a good choice for a fun night out.

I had actually been avoiding visiting People… I’m not sure why, it’s actually pretty good.
The menu is set up in four sections, so when I visited, I had something from each section. Everything was delicious — bacon wrapped dates, polenta, calamari, empanadas, etc. I did think that portion sizes varied widely — some of the portions were quite large, others were a bit small considering price. However, taken overall, the food was a pretty good value.
Drink prices were reasonable and there was a good selection of beverages.
Atmosphere was nice — and the hostess got us in around some reservations so that we wouldn’t have to wait — which was surprisingly nice.
Service was quick, if a little odd. Our server didn’t really interact with us too much, and when he did, he didn’t really look at us. He did answer questions and came back to check on us, but all in all, service was a bit strange.

Walked by for ages and never thought to stop in. My buddies play some pretty good house music and was able to DJ a gig here this past Saturday. Came in and grabbed a table and was able to hear the sounds of my buddy mixing up some nice joints. I wasn’t too hungry so I decided on something very small, the aceitunas. The Aceitunas is basically spanish manzanilla olives, pickled garlic & cornichons.
It was really good… so good actually we ordered another bowl of it.
For our drinking pleasure, we went with the pitcher of white sangria. It went down pretty smooth, so smooth that it cuased us to order another pitcher which resulted in a drunken evening. Our waitress Nicole was really nice and attentive. Good place to get some good tapas and it looks like a good place to have a nice gathering with a few friends