Salaam Restaurant and Bakery

I cannot say enough good things about the cuisine at this restaurant. It was a wonderful experience for my brother and I to take our mother there for a Special Mothers Day Brunch. Where in the world can you go for a $ 20.00 per person price, and receive all you can eat Lamb, eggplant, Chicken, Mac & Cheese, various Vegetables, Carrot Fluff (a healthy version of Sweet Potatoe Soufflé) an omelet station, Punch and Bean Pie? The Food was Delicious and The upstairs ballroom was opulent. A perfect venue for wedding receptions. You can tell the chefs love their work by the many smiles on everyone’s faces.

This review isn’t about the food but about the ethics of Salaam as a business. Today was the second time my husband and I tried to eat here but were turned away. The first time we arrived at 11a on Sunday which apparently is when we read they open. When we got there they said the new time is 12:30. Though we thought this was crazy we agreed to come another time and rec they update their times on the website and Unilocal.So today we arrived at 12:30 only to be told they are running late and wouldn’t open for another 45 mins. The irony is there were several cars waiting in the lot. So I say this to say, they’ve lost any opportunity for future business with us and maybe others due to the the lack of ability to run a business in a timely fashion. Time is money and there are too many other restaurants with great food that are able to open on time to wait to sit and wait in a parking lot!

Sunday buffet is delicious! Soup, salad, chicken, fish, and so much more! It’s the best Sunday meal! It’s a beautiful restaurant and very clean. Also good for private events.

The food here is off the charts. Its was a grouo of five. I had lamb burgers, two others had fish, another had chicken and marinated in a sauce that jumped off the plate. The fifth was a vegan, so the chef made a stuffed pepper dish that looked and taste delicious. Coming from N.Y.C. we wanted to try something unique and different. Couldnt of ask for a better experience. P. S. Be careful when you order a slice of bean pie. Cause you will order a whole one to go. We bought five. Lol!!!

Right now it is open for Speacial events and weekend Brunch Buffett.
Excellent Buffett Sundays all you can eat 14.95.

More like an undercover drug dealer joint then an actual restaurant, most of everybody there wearing $ 500 $ 1000 suits probably don’t even have a job. The food is garbage and it’s rarely open at all very bad service and hospitality. Don’t waste your time nor money in this mickey mouse cover up joint!!!

Simply the best you will find in the area, great service, a little slow compared to fast food, but very much worth the wait. The care they use to prepare and handle your food is unmatched even compared to the downtown expensive spots. Everyone in this place is very respectful which is hard to find now a days. Excellent place to go eat with the family, friends or alone.

Salaam Restaurant
706 W. 79^th St.
Chicago, Illinois 60 620
Being on my Health & Fitness Transformation track, I am ecstatic that I’ll be able to continue eating and enjoying their foods! Absolutely AMAZING!!! I WILL NOT be frequenting any more restaurants or buffets that do NOT measure up to the QUALITY, CLEANLINESS, and HEALTHY cuisines offered by this establishment! I can’t say enough about my experience here today! 5 STARS and an A+

My choice of food is fried chicken macaroni and cheese and carrot fluff. They have some vegetarian choices. My hubby had the fried chicken Parmesan sandwich. I tasted his and it was so tasty. His fries were the best fries from a (fast food) restaurant. The Mac n cheese was real Mac n cheese. Not like the kind u find typically In restaurants. We ordered our food and sat down. They gave us a number and then we received our foods on real dishes as if we were in a sit down restraint and not fast food. Our food is mostly made to order but some is already ready. Only thing given to us that was paper products was the drinks. They had the usual fountain drinks. It is truly worth stopping buy. All the children enjoy all the food. N love trying out new foods. When I visit. MB I will try out the eggplant sandwich. So many choices. I ate way too much. It was so good. I have no room for desert. They also sell fresh baked wheat bread by the loaf. This bread is really tasty.

Excellent food and service. Most foods are made to order. Please be patient… it will be hot and fresh.

I visited the Salaam Restaurant with my family and the staff was super friendly, Helpful and courteous and the food was delicous and I tried the eggplant parmasean after having it at other places and Here it melted in my mouth…

They are open and running as of July 6^th, 2012… my husband and I stopped by yesterday and had the fried fish sandwiches and fries… it was delicious and as tasty as I remember. I brought my 4 year old a kid sized macaroni dinner and he loved it… which says a lot because he barely eats macaroni from restaurants… I recommend this place to everyone. they have a bakery, casual dining and upscale dining… the casual dining also has take-​out…
I grew up in this neighborhood and frequented the Salaam back in the 90’s the food was always good and the bakery was amazing and had the best cheesecakes ever. the prices are reasonable… I plan on returning next weekend and hopefully the new bakery will carry cheesecake as well.

I ate at the Salaam restaurant around early 2000, I have been waiting to go back since then. The day that I went the restaurant was very clean and the people were very courteous even though the restaurant was completely pack with a line outside the door. I ordered some fish and it was great. I’ve have check on the Salaam recently and they are closed now due to a massive remodel and should be open before February 2012.

I’m a native New Yorker and I love halal meat. This is one of the few spots in the Englewood area, if not the only, that carries it. But, it’s never open! I’ve never been because every time I’ve gone, it’s closed. I really want my halal! Farrakhan, what’s up with that?!
Would like to comment that today someone called Izzy found the time to let me know via compliments that this restaurant is in Auburn Gresham. FYI Izzy, it’s in Englewood. Auburn Gresham is not until 75^th street. This is on 71^st. I know, since I lived in Englewood for many years, as my Unilocal reviews show, since I’ve been Unilocaling around the area for years. But thanks, Izzy, for showing that even though the layman may not always know the difference, they have the time to correct others and attempt to mock them with insults and put-​downs and block them because the response was against theirs. Tsk. How small.

Well, good luck with making a reservation because the place is out of business.
Poor business model. You cannot make money as a restaurant without being able to sell liquor. Muslims do not drink and did not seel alcohol at this place.
And the area, by the way, is not «downtrodden». You need to stop drinking Mr. Charlie’s Kool-​aid. Just because an area is all black does not make it a «depressed» neighborhood. You should take your «white man’s ice is colder» attitude back to the South.
UPDATE: They have re-​opened, but still no liquor sales.

Without ever visiting this city before, I moved to Chicago in 1992 from the Mississippi Delta, where I was born and raised. I’m quite sure the southern way of life had an immense effect on my dining experience at Salaam Restaurant shortly after it opened in 1995 on the south side Chatham neighborhood. (Salaam Restaurant was a $ 5 million debt-​free project constructed by the Nation of Islam in a very depressed neighborhood.)
Opening such a bold restaurant complex in the core of a national recession in a very downtrodden black neighborhood took a lot of balls, to say the least but let’s talk about the food!
I stopped eating pork in 1991, then all red meats around 1993 so I looked forward to the vegetarian fine dining offerings at Salaam. Keep in mind, this was a period in Chicago dining history where vegetarian menu options were little more than a sloppy Iceberg lettuce salad with a few chips of tasteless hot house tomato thrown on top. I still have nightmares about how many times I’ve had that offered back in the early 90s! Other than travelling up to Devon for some Indo-​Paki food, you were pretty much out of luck. Thank God things have changed dramatically!
So Salaam was forward looking in a number of ways and this was also noticed in the presentation. Our food was served on their very beautiful wine red and white presidential looking plate ware with gold script. I’m quite sure this was one of my first fine dining experiences and a friend and I were almost in tears because sitting in their luxurious dining room felt like something out of a dream that we didn’t want to wake from.
OK the food! I think my friend ordered a chicken entrée but I wanted to see how well the chef would do with vegetarian fine dining. I was new to bean pie back then and was impressed that anyone could make a pie out of white navy beans and make it taste so phenomenal. Our dishes were brought to the table with such grace and care it almost made us want to get up and help them. I’m sure that will be an odd read for a lot of you but, we were sitting on clouds. :)
After many disappointing substitutions for vegetarian food around the city, I’d finally found gold. The blend of perfectly-​cooked greens and sauces were definitely a new experience on my palate. And to finish, we couldn’t leave without devouring their famous bean pie.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve been and writing this will lead to making a reservation soon!
UPDATE: I was just informed that the restaurant will open for dinner during Saviour’s Day in late February, 2011.