Pars Cove Restaurant

Not sure I really understand the hype for this place, especially as there is better Persian food in Chicago (albeit not as close as Lincoln Park). I purchased the LivingSocial deal for $49, includes dinner for two, an appetizer platter, soup/salad, a bottle of wine and dessert; this was supposedly an $85 value. Once at the restaurant, you can see that it's actually available for $60. Still savings, but not as great.

I had originally called ahead for a reservation, and was given one; but once we arrived at the reservation, the owner/host had no idea about it and we still had to wait for about 20 minutes. As soon as we sat down, he first asked if we were there on a voucher, so I handed him our coupon and we got started. We started with the appetizer platter, which at its regular price of $16 is a complete rip off. It's all very mediocre except for the hummus, which is good. In addition, we asked him to leave the cheese on the side, as I have a dairy allergy; to this he simply mumbled and walked off. Low and behold, still cheese.

Next, we both got the lentil soup; we were pretty confident it came out of a can. Enough said.

We ordered Barg for our entrees, one skewer of beef tenderloin and one of lamb koubideh (Ground, seasoned lamb). He didn't ask how we wanted the beef cooked, which was suspicious. Once the food came out, the lamb koubideh was very good, tender and tasty. The beef tenderloin was a struggle to finish, it was dry and chewy, despite coming out medium rare. My next gripe with the entree was the rice. Normally at a Persian restaurant, you get a huge plate full of rice; here it was hardly a cup, not enough for my meal at all.

Lastly was dessert, I assumed we would have choice of dessert based on the LivingSocial deal description, but it was just ice cream. My girlfriend told me it was sub-par.

Perhaps the worst part of the experience was when the owner came for the bill. He once again asked if we had a promotion, after already taking our coupon. Fortunately, I was able to access it on my phone. He then comes out with a very shady bill and tells us we owe $6 for tax and $12 for a tip. I'm not sure how he came up with either of these numbers but at this point I was ready to leave. We didn't have enough cash for the tab so I had to pay with my card. Turns out they only charged $6, needless to say they did not earn a $12 tip and were not tipped so.

If you want real Persian food, skip this sub-par establishment and go to Noon-O-Kabab.

This is a sad place as far as persian restaurants go.

An embarrassment to persian cuisine. If it was cheaper and it was marketed as a fast food version of persian food then maybe I would understand. I ordered the chicken kebab - it was expressionless just like the rice. No soul to it. The eggplant appetizer was nast.

I gave them an extra star because they threw in some free ice cream.

So far in chicago I have would rank the following persian restaurants as:

#1 Noon o Kebab
#2 Reza's
#3 Pars Cove

There is a huge jump in quality from #1-3.  Noon o Kebab is peerless.

I give them credit for creativity in how they get people in the door. The credit stops there.

As most reviewers mentioned, we were drawn to Pars Cove from a Living Social offer that my parents had purchased for us (they are not from Chicago). The voucher was $49 and included an appetizer sample, soup or salad, two entrees, two dessert, and a bottle of wine. The deal is supposed to be worth up to $104.

Almost immediately after being seated, the waiter came up to us and asked if we were here on a promotion. Since we were he asked for the voucher number right away and disappeared with my phone for a while to write down the number.  It was a very transactional welcome and pretty much set the tone for the rest of the meal.

Looking at the menu we noticed that the very same "daily deal" that had brought us here was also featured on the regular menu.  This seems like a bait and switch in my opinion, but I can see why the restaurant does this.

Anyway, without us asking, the server brings our appetizer platter (worth $16) and asks if we want any wine. Keep in mind, there aren't prices for the wine bottles on the menu itself so you're left with vague descriptions of what to order. We opt for the Malbec and the server comes back with two bottles of wine, the 2nd of which we can upgrade to for $5 more. He tells us the 2nd bottle is "better" and it also happens to be bigger than the 1st. Of course we upgrade, why wouldn't we? I'm sure this makes the server smile every time because the 2nd wine was clearly not a "better" wine by any standards and came to our table already open.

As for the food, I will say that the appetizer sample and lentil soup were decent. The soup/salad option came with each entree so I will complain again that the "deal" is a little misleading. For our entrees, I ordered the chicken ($16) and my man ordered the lamb ($19). In my words: "Did this chicken come out of a frozen Tyson bag?". In his words: "This is gamy and gross".

Yes, we received the ice cream and rose at the end of our meal and this would have been a nice touch had we not felt so taken advantage of by the "deal" we thought we were getting.

Since we visited, I searched for their menu online and found that they've greatly increased their prices. The appetizer platter that is $16 on the dinner menu is $8 on their website and my chicken entree is priced at $14 and the lamb at $15.

I can guarantee you we will never go back and I'd warn anybody from thinking this is a good deal. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I'd rather take the $50 and pick up a great inexpensive bottle of wine and head to a BYO where I don't feel like I'm eating last night's leftovers.