Ended up here when the Ethiopian up the street was closed due to a water leak. I'm glad I tried. We had a relaxing evening. The proprietor was patient with us and gave us recommendations on what to order and what are the popular dishes in his establishment.
The entree came with a soup (beans based which was really good), pita bread, rice and a plate of feta, cilantro, parsley.
The main dishes (we had one beef and one chicken) were stew like and the spices blend were good. For $12 per entree, this place has a good price to quality ratio.
A good place to grab a good tasting meal at a reasonable price and have a low key evening.
I love this place. Â Every time I have been for either dine-in or take-out, the service and food have been phenomenal. Â Prices are very reasonable, portions are large, and the food is delicious. Â Plus, it's BYOB with no corkage fee. Â It's great for weeknight or weekend dinners; the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly.
Review Source:I am Iranian and my family is originally from Northern Iran.
We had fesenjun, Mirza Ghasemi, and Kabob.
The Mirza Ghasemi was not authentic and good at all. It did not have enough garlic in it.
Fesenjun tasted like anything other than fesenjun. I think it was because of the quality of their pomegranate paste.
I was very excited before going to Masoole, but got really disappointed after trying the food.
The kabob was good though.
Went here for the first time for dinner with a big party. It's BYOB so we brought wine - appreciated their lack of a cork fee! The service here was wonderful. Our younger server was gracious, helpful, and always smiling. We had three other friendly workers come out to help serve all of the appetizers and soup, pass out wine glasses, and cut our cake.
Despite the great service, I didn't find the food amazing, unfortunately. Had four appetizers; I liked the olivieh and pita with feta cheese the best. Next up was my entree: joujeh kabob, which is grilled marinated chicken served with rice. When I finally got it, just looking at it was a bit disappointing, because it literally was a big plate of white rice with 7 small pieces of chicken on the side. It looked and tasted lackluster - like it was missing something else.
I also tried my friend's dish - shishandaz, ground walnut and pomegranate sauce with eggplants served with rice. Neither of us liked it too much.
I think maybe my tastes just don't fall in line with Persian cuisine, as it seems people like it a lot here. As I said, though, the service was great and welcoming. The interior is cozy and dark and could be a good place to bring a date.
This is a great place to eat, I've been here 3 times and every time it's delicious. I usually get the kabob, but have had the chicken with the pomegranate sauce. They are all very good, BUT also very similar in flavor, so as far as the breadth of tastes offered I would say it is limited.
I love the BYOB restaurants and this one ranks up there with the rest. It's small and cozy but also good for groups of 6 -10. The staff is also wonderful, they are very attentive.
Firts of all i never tried persian food which it was different from my regualr choices,but from the way i seen ,its a authentic food.i tried the soup  and the chicken sandwhich i think thats what it meant,the soup had beans and other spices ,it was tasty and the rest was ok.the service was great. its a little restaurant ,i tried looking for a parking space which was a little hard to find.not sure of going back.
Review Source:I love this place. Â It's so small and quaint and the staff is always friendly. Â The food is Persian/Iranian and really the eggplant dishes make me very happy. Â Anything they make with eggplant is delish and the specials are usually some mix of herbs and crushed things like pomegranite and walnuts with chicken. Â Soooo good!
Review Source:My good yelp friend Mehran, recommended this place and I can't believe how close it was to me. I have been missing out for years. Â It was like walking into a family's home with open arms. As soon as you walk in, there are many many trays of all types of cookies surrounding the place just to welcome you. The wife is so wondering and charming and you can see her husband cooking thru the order window, with the biggest smile. They are very sincere. Â The food was something I never had before and I love it. We tried different things like the Fesenjan, Mirza Ghasemi and the Masouleh Kabob. I can't wait to go back when I am in town to try more.
Review Source:Best Persian food I've had in Chicago. Â Extremely friendly staff, BYOB, always have different specials and a casual yet classy atmosphere.
Definitely a hidden little gem on Clark. Â
They have all the staples you would expect at a Persian spot and a few things I was unfamiliar with. Â My lady is Persian and I can say without question this place is the closest Chicago comes to what we get from her family's home cooking. Â
Prices are resonable and service is great.
Masouleh is a small town in northern Iran, I assume the proprietors are from this beautiful mountain village. The normal menu and specialties are both good representations of Persian food.
The beef tenderloin in crushed walnut and pomegranate sauce was delicious. Served with white rice and herbs on the side, it was a perfect sized meal. The lentil soup is good and a nice way to warm up in the winter. I've had the ground beef kabobs too, very good. Too much food for one meal, well, for one meal for me at least.
The service is nice. The staff doesn't seem to speak a lot of English, but a lot of pleasant smiles and nods of understanding get the job done. You definitely won't feel rushed at Masouleh, it's a comfortable place for a relaxed dinner.
My only complaint is that it's a small place and when the door opens in the winter they entire place is filled with an icy chill for a few minutes. The hot Persian tea helped offset the cold, but maybe an enclosure around the door for the winter would be a better idea.
Love this place for the following reasons:
1. Vegetarian dish (Shishandaz) with eggplant with walnut & pomegranate sauce ($10; their website doesn't have up-to-date prices).
2. Entrees come with their amazing soup (lentil & bean with a dab of yogurt, oil & spices)
3. A special appetizer (which appears often) with fava beans (I think...or a similar white bean), potatoes, and tomatoes. Â Nice and tangy (maybe some citrus in there?)
4. The "tadiq" (crunchy rice at the bottom of a pot)
5. Persian tea & sugar (can you drink it with the sugar cube between your teeth the Persian way?)
6. Persian ice cream (rose and pistachio with fresh chunks of pistachio sprinkled on top)
7. The waitress (seems like there's generally one main waitress), who is *unbelievably* friendly, just love her! (she's not persian, btw...if I remember correctly she's Dominican...so don't expect her to bust out in Farsi or something!).
8. I've seen many families having big dinners here, it's clean and welcoming and has a nice ambiance.
Very much worth a visit!! Â Just be sure to BYO wine. :)
Finally, decent restaurants in Rogers Park.
I can't say enough about this place. The service is a little spotty at times and parking in the street here is an experience, but the food is absolutely great.
Very well priced and good portions.
Sit away from the door as it leads right outside and the cold comes rushing in.
The staff is fantastic and will accomodate you, but you sometimes need to grab their attention. Take it with a grain of salt, most people I see here are having a great time and eat slowly. They may not be used to my shovel approach to food consumption.
Their ice cream is really excellent and it is often snatched out of my hands by my wife.
Oh so good!!! Â I'm half Persian and have had lots of amazing Persian food....and hadn't had any at a restaurant in a long time. Â Their aash (soup) is BETTER than my grandmother's....amazing! Â
(I used to go to Reza's, but they have just gotten too big and the quality isn't what it was when they were that cute little hole in the wall on Clark 20+ years ago.) Â
This place is the REAL deal! Â The owner is from Tabriz, like my dad, and the menu items are ones I grew up eating and they are DELICIOUS!!!!!! Â
They have a great selection of vegetarian entrees....try the shishandaz (vegetarian fesenjan) and the ghormeh sabzi...usually made with meat, but you don't miss it here! Â The kebabs are fabulous and just everything here is so yummy. Â It's AMAZINGLY AFFORDABLE as well....I was there with my husband and with soup, entrees and doogh it came out to around $25...which is pretty amazing!!! Â
Plus, being a mom and pop type restaurant, the service is wonderful and homey...the owner cooks in the kitchen and his wife is the server and they are so sweet. Â :) Â Can't wait to go back soon!!!
Very gracious service, relaxed atmosphere, delicious food, and a BYO baby! Fan-freaking-tastic!
I have to apologize for not knowing the Persian names of what I ate but the server recommended this excellent eggplant appetizer that was dynamite. I also had the chicken and steak kebabs. Very tasty. One friend ordered the whitefish and wasn't as happy as we who ordered the kebabs. N'yah--that's what you get for trying to be all heart healthy. (Kidding--kinda.)
I'll be back.
We were invited to dinner with friends to Masouleh Restaurant on Clark Street in Rogers Park, Chicago and never having had Persian food before, we did not know what to expect. Â This restaurant, local to my neighborhood, is such a gem. Â The service was spectacular, the food was outstanding and the ambiance delightful. Â We started by sharing an appetizer made with herbs and eggs. Â It looked interesting on the menu. Â It tasted wonderful - akin to a parsely omelette - just delicious. Â And with the warm pita served with it - yum!!!! I had the Fesenjan for my main course - a chicaken dish with ground walnut and Pomegranate sauce over rice. I highly recommned it - the flavor sensation bursts in your mouth and makes me want to go back for more. Â This is a must-eat-at restaurant. Â I congratulate the owners. Â BYOB
Review Source:Persian Food at it's best!
My absoute favorite thing is never listed on the menu and I am too shy to ask for it directly. Â It is called "Tadik" and it is the rice from the bottom of the kettle, that has a crunchy crust. Â It is especially good served with a spoonful of Sabzi on top.
Somehow, by the grace of Allah, a plate of delicious Tadik arrived at my table. Â Same with two bowls of delicious ash soup. Â I love surprises like that!!!! Â
We tried the Spinach borani, fessenjan, and chenjeh kebab with fluffy Persian rice, ohhhhhhhh and the tea! Â Persian tea is out of this world. Â
Moc Ay Karam
I went there last night as a quick change of plans. Â I was totally surprised by this place. Â I have lived in Rogers Park for a little over a year, and for the most part the restaurants around the neighborhood have been slightly lackluster. Â Masouleh was quite the exception. Â The atmosphere was very nice and the lighting was great. Â They had a good amount of people but the high ceilings made it not seem overly crowded. Â My server was very sweet and assisted in the ordering of the meal and I was not disappointed. Â We each ordered a separate dish and shared them; we ordered the beef and the special (which was an apricot chicken). Â Both were very tasty and well prepared. Â Afterwards we had the Persian ice cream (a must have).
As a side note, it is BYOB so visit the liquor store next to the restaurant. Â Having a bottle of wine with the good meal made it even better.
This was my first experience with Persian food, so I can't in fairness give it five stars since I have nothing to compare it to.
However! The food was incredible. Lots of the same elements you come to be familiar with if you eat a ton of middle eastern food, but different from anything I've had before.
My companions and I had a variety of dishes and they were all excellent. Of particular note was a chicken dish in a walnut and pomegranate sauce. All the meat dishes were melt in your mouth, cut with a fork tender.
And the service was awesome. The hostess (owner?) was warm and friendly and kept coming over to our table to see if everything was ok. Our water never got below half, we had a constant supply of fresh pita, and our server was attentive and sweet. It felt like eating in a friend's mom's house.
Dinner for four was around sixty bucks for really generous portions of fantastic food.
I'll go back every chance I get!
after a trip to iran last month after 32 years, a great dinner at masouleh tonight, and meeting some other nice customers there, i decided to do a second review on masouleh and up my rating to five stars.
the service is great here. unpretentious, friendly, and sincere. Â the food - delicious. in fact, after dinning in some very good restaurants in iran last month, i want to say i prefer the food at masouleh!
try their northern specialities as much and as often as you can...this is what sets this place apart from other iranian restaurants.
(by the way while in iran, i visited masouleh for the first time...what a gorgeous village).
tonight i had an interesting dish at masouleh...it was some kind of stew of beef, eggplant, herbs, and enough oil to keep the eskimos hot and fat all winter long...
my highest recommendation for iranian food.
This restaurant is like 1/8 of a block from where I live, I can see it out the window (if I walk right up to the glass). In the two and a half months that I've lived here, I've now been three times. The atmosphere is really nice, they have big windows and exposed brick and tables with multiple cutlery options.
I usually don't care that much about service as long as they're not Applebee's friendly or make you feel guilty about eating there mean, but the service is awesome here. I think they only have one waitress and she's really cute and smiley and knows when to make herself sparse and when to be attentive.
Most of the entrees are about $10 and they include pita bread with feta and herbs, soup, and obviously the entree. The food itself is amazing. Though I'm not a vegetarian, I usually order vegetarian entrees here because the sauces are so good you don't want anything else.
A dinner for two without appetizers comes to about $23 with tax and I'm always amazed at how cheap it is, I always feel like the bill should be like $50-60.
Masouleh was a cute surprise. When you walk in you are greeted by wonderful staff and the owner took very good care of my friend who has severe allergies to beef and diary products. The atmosphere is contemporary and modern but still has that small restaurant feel. I ordered the chicken kabobs with dill rice. It was great!!! The bread was nice and hot!!! I added feta cheese on the bread and wow it was really fantastic. The Lentil Soup was OK. We had to add a bit of salt and pepper to it. I have food for tomorrow they give you quite a bit. Its BYOB and good for the price!!! Our waitress Betsy was so sweet and I totally cant wait to go back!!!
Review Source:Went to Masouleh's on a Sat night with a group of 4. The lady who runs the place is so sweet and you feel like you're in her home. BYOB for a lot of amazing food.
Per the menu- the food is "Persian with a Northern Twist." We started with the Mirza Ghasemi- which was like a smoky baba ghanoush and pita we also had the Mast-O-Khiar which is a yogurt, cucumber mint thing you have with pita too. Yum- so fresh tasting. I had the special which was a marinated chicken dish with prunes and a delicious sauce over rice. Others ordered the chicken with a walnut, pomegranate sauce, one of the stews and kabobs. All of it was really good. Tons of food and a great deal. The space is super cute and clean with exposed brick walls and nice tables. Would definitely come back if you are up in that area.
Masouleh what a great surprise this restaurant was I pass this place every other day and finally I stop in with a buddy of mine that knows Persian food very well. The space is nice and small the service was great and the food was flavorful.I had Gheimeh Bademjan and it put a smile on my face.
My friend had Masouleh Kabob it was also tasty. A nice touch was a small portion of the bottom of the pot rice crusted with all of the flavors. Dinner included a small veg/pita bread combo with a lentil bean soup.I can't wait to go here again.
Persian Cusine with a northern twist. See their complete but limited menu at <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.masouleh.biz&s=27ad7f11852436debef6234d944da1ea48546d1a7a01fe08db5cd026e7127026" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.masouleh.biz</a>.
Good value for the money, byob place. Nicely decorated. Â Food is excellent, but not outstanding, somewhat bland compared to other Persian restaurants I have visited. Â (The now defunct Teharan in its hayday was better.) Â
Service was attentive. Â The space is not large, so if you don't want to be disappointed you might call ahead to see how busy they are and see it they will take a reservation. Â More food options appear on weekends -- I am sure they will run out of space then.
We will try them again soon.
I was happy to see a new restaurant spring up in my hood. Â I ordered the combination plate which include Jujeh (chicken) kabob and Masouleh (ground beef) kabob for $12. Â It was alright, but there are more restaurants in Chicago that can do kabobs better. Â I would have rather gone next door to Big Buns and Pita get the combo which comes with kefta, chicken, and shawarma for $8. Â But, I'll give it another try and see how the pomegranate chicken goes.
Update:  Went back for the Chicken braised in walnut and pomegranate sauce.  It sounded so interesting but... it didn't deliver the fireworks I was expecting.  I'm no Persian food expert and maybe it's authentic, but I wasn't feeling it.  To me it was the equivalent of sitting in an awesome concept car that never went into production.  Yes, that's how I felt.  On a positive note, the mirza ghasemi (eggplant , tomato, egg) was something I liked.  You can even see how Masouleh makes it  on: <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DRE_QHGDE7Aw&s=26171899f159e4679be15fe30f192cb5b6e524e96a6d88362c0804d70f900077" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://youtube.com/watch…</a>
I really wanted this fresh and interesting place to be my go to restaurant on N. Clark, but I'm afraid I'm gonna stay loyal to Big Buns.
I was excited to see this restaurant open a block from us! We took some friends there to give it a try, and they went out of their way to seat us (a party of 5) even though they were already packed and we volunteered to come back later. Â We had a great eggplant appetizer with a smoky flavor, and we devoured their bread. The wait staff was cheerful and helpful even while the place was hopping, and the hostess jumped in to help as well with making menu recommendations, refilling out water, and getting us extra glasses for our BYOB wine. Â We will definitely go back (maybe after calling first to see how busy they are).
Review Source:This is the kind of place that I wish had existed in this neighborhood when we still lived there. Ah well - we aren't too far now, and at any rate, this place is worth a trip.
We ate there on a Wednesday and enjoyed it so much we returned two days later. We were practically the only people there on both occasions (perhaps because we prefer to eat at the grandma hour of 5:00) and had very friendly, attentive service.
Over the course of our two visits, we had the chicken in walnut and pomegranate sauce, an eggplant and egg dish, a chicken appetizer called olivieh, and small squares of greens coagulated with egg and baked. I enjoyed the olivieh, but it's basically just chicken salad. It's good chicken salad, don't get me wrong, but it's hardly exotic. The chicken with walnut and pomegranate sauce was delicious - rich and subtle. We liked this so much we had it on the second visit, and while it was just as tasty, on the second trip it was quite a bit oilier than the first time. We had to spoon off about a quarter cup of oil before eating. The greens were...strange (I am normally a big fan of strange, but in this case, "strange" denotes a dish that resembles the Stouffer's frozen spinach my mom loved so much, freeze-dried and cut into squares) and the eggplant was tasty.
I am giving this place three stars because while there are some kinks that need ironing, overall the food is good, the people nice, and it's a very pleasant place to eat.
This bright storefront place is a new addition to the restaurant row of Clark St. north of Devon in Rogers Park. Some friends and I tried it for pre-theater dinner on a Saturday evening, having heard of its recent opening.
At 6:00 PM, the place was fairly busy. A mix of clientel to mirror the neighborhood. A couple of couples with very young unruly and noisy toddlers. We were seated immediately at the one last table. The hostess was very gracious, but it soon became obvious that they weren't really ready for the crowds, or I should say the kitchen was not ready. Our orders were mixed up, not submitted timely. The food came out in no special order. I will say they were very conciliatory about this, but they did not offer a free appetizer or dessert, nor was the bill reduced.
I ordered the kebab combo, which was colorful, delicious and a very generous portion. I believe it was $9.95. Â A couple of my fellow diners were not happy with their other Persian specialties (a stew and a lamb dish.) Â But again, looking at the overall value, our entire dinner for four was about $48.00 (less tip), so you can't go wrong with the prices. And of course, if you want to drink, it is BYOB. The ambiance is very pleasant, inviting and bright.
So I might return if I am in the neighborhood (and because I love those  combo kebab platters.)  I will give them some time to work out the kinks in staffing and service, though. It does make a good inexpensive pre-theater choice if you're going to one of those little equally inexpensive off-Loop theaters in  the neighborhood.
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