Review: Café Bolero

By Caitlin Klein in Food on Jan 4, 2011 8:00PM

What is your favorite Cuban restaurant in Chicago? We hit up Café Bolero for some mojitos and apps and now we’re hungry for more. Café Bolero sits just south of the Fullerton/Western intersection in Bucktown, and if we had one word to describe it, it would be: easy. Easy to find parking, easy to get in (on a weekday), easy to order. With only a few drawbacks, we give Café Bolero a generally positive recommendation, but we think we can do even better. We want to know: Where do you get your Cuban food fix?

The Restaurant. The restaurant itself is somewhat dark, and would make a good date place if you want to make eyes at someone over a candlelit table. If that’s not your style, you could wait until the summertime when there is cozy sidewalk-adjacent patio seating. Then you can sit under the canopy and imagine that you are in sunny Havana. The tables inside are draped with white tablecloths, giving Café Bolero an air of sophistication that surprises you, given the location. As pointed out by a few Yelp reviewers, there is a strange dichotomy at Café Bolero; the restaurant uses nice cloth tablecloths and votive candles, but paper napkins and plastic ramekins for sauce. It’s as if it can’t decide whether to be an upscale restaurant or a fast food joint. Overall, the ambiance is pleasant and the staff is helpful and knowledgeable.

The Food. The food at Café Bolero is quite good, but we have a sneaking suspicion that there is better Cuban food to be had elsewhere in the city. We tried the Ensalada Bolero ($12), which was light-tasting with feta cheese, very fresh vegetables, and great dressing (is that fresh lime juice we taste?). From the Tapas section of the menu we also tried the Bolero Combo Platter ($9), which included stuffed potato balls, ham croquettes, one tamal, and plantains stuffed with chicken. The standout was the tamal, which was moist and excellent. Also from the tapas menu we tried the Camarones Empanizados (1/2 pound of breaded butterfly shrimp for $11). It was too heavily deep-fried and left us feeling a little greasy. The mojitos ($7) were the highlight of the drink-and-app session, and we are curious about the “Killer Mojitos” ($14). We failed to ask what made them killer, but we plan to find out the next time we stop in. In the summertime, a pig spins on a spit over an open fire, skin crackling in the sun. We can't wait to try that either.

Let us know where we should stop next on our Cuban Food tour…

Cafe Bolero is located at 2252 North Western Ave.