Reviews for Black & Caspian Mediterranean Wine Bistro in Chicago, IL

I'll start by saying that the food was fine. No real complaints there, but what really ruined the experience was the... service. My girlfriend and I were one of about 5 tables there, so not a very busy night. We didn't see a waiter until about 35minutes of waiting, and only then, it was because we had to flag one down! This was after various subtle attempts too, like justtrying to make eye contact with a waiter. When we did that, they just simply looked right past us. After we did place and gotour food came, we never saw our waiter again. No checkup, nothing! However, there was a table next to us with about 4 women, andthey saw a waiter about every 5 minutes. Once we had finished, we simply flagged down a separate waiter to bring our check. AsI said before, the food was fine, but the service really ruined the entire meal. Read more

I will start by saying that I’m one of those people that don’t like to bad review places, but this time it was really... toooooo much, I really don’t think they also deserve to get this one star, or really to be called a restaurant! On Saturdayevening I decided to take my mom (that came to visit from France, to do an article on small restaurant in Chicago area) to try arestaurant that we pass by our neighbourhood. Let’s start by saying that my Mom will never recommend this place in herarticle. We started the evening with a basket of dry bread that was better not to serve. Then we ordered for appetisers a cheesetray and Salmon tartar, the cheese plate was supposed to arrive with fresh fruits, Fresh marmalade, greens and crackers. We got3 small pieces of cheese a few (very very few) greens with no dressing, 3 grapes, one dry apricot and a few raisins and walnuts,with very bland crackers. For the Salomon tartare, we were served with an awkward looking tartar that was made from smokedsalmon, when we asked the waitress why the tartar are being made from smoked salmon and not fresh salmon, she answered “peopledon’t like raw fish”???? For mane course we ordered sole fish on rice and Artichoke hearts (need to be said that we askedthe waitress before if the fish is fresh) The fish that we got was for sure not fresh, it was served on top of a mash potato andcanned artichoke hearts, after one bite we stopped eating. The second main course was seafood risotto, let’s start by sayingrisotto was not there ???? it was an overcooked rice mixed with canned carrots and peas topped with a few re-cooked frozen shellfish that had a rubbery texture, and unclean shells. Needless to say say that we didn’t eat anything that evening, and wedidn’t think on trying the desserts. When we said that we want the check, the waitress came and ask why we didn’t Touch ourfood, we told her it was really awful. We thought she’s going to take all the courses from the check and charge us only for Read more

We visited Chicago in November to meet friends and our first stop was this restaurant. In general the food is really nice. ... Decent size and tasty good, despite it is on pricey side. I don’t give 5 stars because of the dessert we had. I asked forbaklava and tea, and they gave us two microscopic pieces of baklava in a big and nicely decorated plate. If I wasn’tAzerbaijani who knows how should be baklava, I’d still accept it. But paying $8 for the tiny pieces of baklava, is too much.Otherwise I would definitely go back again for the food. Read more

Food was just ok but this price should deserve much better service, the patio seats are really too crowded and both of our... plates are chipped, which is not just tiny chipped and kinda dangerous, it's the most unacceptable flaw to me, why should we payso much to have dinner on broken plates??? Read more

The breakfast branch has newly opened here so we gave it a try. I ordered ego eggs with tea, it was amazing. Nice service, great... food, will be back Read more

Decidedly mediocre for the price point. We had 3 appetizers and 2 entrees. Spicy Ezme - A rather unremarkable dish with minimal... flavor. Tasted like shelf salsa mixed with extra tomato sauce. Gnocchi - Very odd texture, it couldn't decide if it wanted tobe crispy or chewy. Basil and tomato lacked flavor and depth Salmon Tartar - This was quite tasty, but the menu dies not stateit is smoked. Should be thought of as a deconstructed lox with capers. Bread it comes with was stale. Beef tangine - Menu notesfilet Mignon and that it will be cooked well done. This was charred and borderline inedible. The sauce it came in with theveggies was bland. The whole dish tasted like a $23 Lean Cuisine. Lamb Shank - Perfectly cooked, very tasty, mashed potatoesand veggies were undercooked. Our server was decidedly unfriendly and inattentive on a slow night. We were never able to getwater refills, the bread to start the meal was also stale. The butter it came with was ice old and unable to be cut orspread. At thus price point I do not understand the hype at all, especially considering the enormous range of great restaurantsin the city. Perhaps it was an off-night, but for $200 including drinks, not nearly worth it. Read more

Second time is a charm. First visit here was during the covid hype. Our server Ali was amazing and very attentive. Second visit... last week was great as well. Unfortunately, no Ali although our server was nice. The food is always good and they come in fast.No long waiting. Wine list is also great. Oh that lamb shank is to die for. Read more

There are a few reasons that I think 2 is a fair score: 1. We ordered 5 different dishes, and all of them were salty. My friends... had the same opinion. Adding too much salt is not healthy at all - although food will be tastier. 2. I strongly believe thatdrinks and dishes/foods are highly overpriced. I have had better quality food in the same neighborhood with half of the price. Asimple bottle of Corona beer was $10 and an OK glass of wine is around $15. 3. Service could be better. Our waitress could smileand act more professionally when we asked questions. 4. They are cheap! When they brought on the house bread and butter for us(four people), they brought four small pieces of bread and a very very small cut of butter. Then when we when we asked for morebread, they brought even smaller pieces. The whole bread and butter cost them less that a buck, although my friends and I spentaround $220 that day. They should at least pretend that they are generous when it comes to these cheap items. Read more