I am giving one star after trying them out 3 times. Â All three visits we were the only table in the place. Â I was pregnant during one of the visits and asked if their cheese was pasteurized. Â The waitress/hostess/bartender/manager laughed at me and after giggling about my question with her cook/manager/bus boy she informed me that the cheese was fine she thinks. Â It was an honest question and I didn't appreciate being laughed at. Â All three visits were awkward and the food took a really long time. Â We were the only table in the place and service was very slow. Â Strange experience and I will never go back...ever. Â Food was so so.
Review Source:For the past few weeks, I have been house-sitting for my sister in Humboldt Park. Â The most troubling part for me, being a unadulterated cat person, is walking her dog. Â In general, this animal is a good bitch (and it gives me such pleasure to use that word correctly in a review) but she's got a barking problem. Â She doesn't bark at most things that come into her path - just other dogs and Ukrainians. Â Now, the second creates a problem as my sister lives on the stretch of Chicago which the Ukrainians forced out of their Village by rising prices now inhabit en masse. Â This limits where I can walk her. Â Were I to, say, walk her by Cabalo, her clarion call of "attention, Ukrainians" would be deafening to the entire neighborhood!
In fact, the first time I went into Cabalo, I was half asleep and actually thought it was a Ukrainian restaurant. Â It's not. Â But the only other people in the bar, which gave me this impression, spoke with a familiar accent as they drank $6 beer (seriously, almost every beer on the menu - which has some impressive Eastern European imports - is $6) and listened to the metal songs they had chosen on the jukebox. Â It turns out it's a German place but like short skirts (thankfully!) and blasting Euro pop from car windows (not so thankfully!), it's just a thing that the Ukrainians are ahead of the game on in south Humboldt Park.
With the quality and price of the food, however, as soon as the weather warms up (they're scheduled to open a patio) this place will be overrun with the accentless residents of the HP (and other people who don't want to go all the way up to Lincoln Square for low maintenance, high quality German cuisine).
This cheap food would keep me coming back if I lived closer. Â The Cabalo Fries, smothered in onions, ketchup, and mayonnaise (it really is an authentically European place) were an unhealthy delight; and the flatbread (pizza?) with blue cheese and tomato was a teeth numbingly tasty steal at only $4.
As a vegetarian, there isn't even that much for me to eat on the menu. Â For meat eaters, though, I can imagine this place would be the wurst (in a good way). Â They have all different kinds of Eastern European encased meats (including that word that I know is magical to some - cevapcici). Â One of the dishes I could eat (and probably my favorite), however, is the spaetzel. Â It's simply noodles with spices and pepper, but it's simply divine (and simply $3.00 for a meal sized portion)!
I want to go back at least one more time to try some of their deserts - especially the apple strudel - but I'm always full from the meal. Â This place isn't much from the outside (and honestly, it looks half done on the inside too), but it's a lot when it's put inside a belly! Â Even my sister's Ukrainian hating dog would have to give it that!
I get what they're trying to go for here with the posh decor, homemade sausage and good selection of German beer, but I guess it's just sort of a weird location and doesn't make sense for the neighborhood. Â They also were playing WGCI or some related Top 40s pop-schlock station, which was kind of tacky (don't mind the music so much as having to talk to my friend over radio commercials). Â The sausage wasn't bad, and I was grateful that the kitchen was open late (around 11PM), but it will take a lot more than what I experienced late last night to make me choose this place over, say, Resi's Bierstuba. Â Still so strange to find a place like this existing in Humboldt Park...
I also just realized that the review below me was just written the day before mine. Â They've been open since "before Christmas," the waitress pointed out. Â I hope they can find a way to bring in more business so that they get their fair share of reviews.
Stopped into Cabalo tonight with the missus. At first I was a little taken aback by the decor (I'm kind of a blue collar dude on a limited budget, thought maybe I stumbled into an uber-expensive hoity-toity gourmet resturaunt), then I noticed the euro-techno-dance-music and wanted to turn tail and leave . But my girl is into trying new things (and had been eyeballing the place for weeks) so I gave the joint the benefit of the doubt. And I'm so glad I/we did. The service was impeccable (turns out our server is the owner and quite friendly and informative with a patience for sausage newbies like myself). On to the food, Never in my life have I had such a variety of such fresh sausage! There were homemade knackwurst, and bratwurst, Hungarian sausage and some wicked good skinless sausage that I couldn't for the life of me pronounce. Had some sauerkraut and German style potatoes as sides and really liked both (fresh real sauerkraut is righteous). A huge piece of some great German chocolate cake finished our meal on a rather high note.
Oh yeah, as for the techno, after a few minutes I tuned it out, and ended up making a comment to the effect of "I wish all bars played music at this volume, few and far between are the bars where you can hear yourself think over the music".
Cool place, nice experience. This place is now in our rotation of good neighborhood restaurants!
So I live in the neighborhood near Cabalo and I have to say that it is NOT a pleasant environment for your typical bargoer. First off, they brand themselves as a restaurant with a great bar and dancing downstairs. Well, they might as well have a dance floor upstairs because the house music is bumping from the second you walk in. I only had drinks but I cannot imagine trying to have a nice dinner with all of that Eurotech bass. There weren't any people in there while I was in and the service was still slow. I would expect to be fawned over given that this is a brand new bar and that just wasn't the case. The manager (or owner I suppose), seemed more interested in looking out the window to see who wasn't in there instead of a paying customer. The good news is that the bar set up and selection is great and if you can sit through being ignored and thumping bass, this is the place for you.
Review Source:I live down the street from Cabalo, and have been eagerly awaiting it's opening for what seemed like an eternity, and it did not disappoint.
I went there the first Saturday it was open, even though I don't really think it was open. Â The crowed appeared to be friends and family of the staff, but they took us in. Â I was later told to come back the following weekend for the grand opening. Â
The food was excellent, we all ordered Chevapi (my wife and I just got back from our honeymoon in Croatia, and this was as good as any I had over there). Â Spatzel was first rate. Â Prices were more than fare. Â Bar has everything you would expect (we were even given complimentary champagne).
The only thing holding me back from a 5th star was my waitress was a little slow, and seemed like she did not know the menu. Â Which is excusable because I don't even think the restaurant was actually open.
I'm going back. Â Hope they put chairs and tables outside come spring.
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