Northwest Side Restaurant Review: Mirabell

By Meghan Clark in Food on Mar 24, 2007 5:00PM

Chicagoist has a new favorite word: spätzle. Say it; it’s fun. We recently gave the spätzle (which is included with almost every dish) and other German wonders a try at the Mirabell. Inconspicuously located across the street from Kmart on Addison near the Kennedy, the long restaurant with its small outdoor garden looks almost out of place between the mostly residential north side of Addison and the mostly mega-chain stores south side of Addison.

Walking into the place is like walking into your local restaurant and bar — in Germany. A long bar adorned with a beautiful collection of German steins behind it greets you as you enter. The cozy booths across from the bar give Mirabell a homey feel which is enhanced by the multitude of knick-knacks occupying most of the open wall space. Chicagoist’s favorite was a small sign stating, “The saddest words ever spoken and heard are ‘The bar is closed.’”

But the cozy bar area is only a small part of this expansive restaurant. To the right of the bar is a large party patio that’s mostly used in warmer weather. To the left is the main dining room. Warm and welcoming, it feels like a German grandmother decided to expand her dining room so her family and the whole neighborhood could enjoy her home-cooked dinners (with spätzle, of course!) every night. This all makes sense, of course, because Mirabell has been owned and operated by Chef Werner Heil and his family for the past 30 years. The sense of family definitely shows. Our bartender, waitress (clad in a German bar maid outfit) and busboy treated us like long-lost family. The waitress happily recommended both dishes and beers from the menu.

Despite a warning that the Hungarian style goulash soup was spicy, Chicagoist gave it a whirl. It was hot and flavorful, and while it definitely had bite, the spiciness was not overpowering. We could have made a whole meal of the goulash and fresh bread, but we still had our main course to look forward to.

We ordered breaded pork tenderloins (with spätzle, of course!), and Chicagoist was not disappointed. The pork was tender, not overly breaded, and well flavored. Chicagoist is new to spätzle and we found it very filling, if a little bland.

We washed our meal down with Spaten beer and retired to the bar for friendly conversation and another look at the knick-knacks from the Old World. Mirabell is located at 3454 W. Addison and always has spätzle on hand (of course!).