Plein Air Cafe — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

Ambiance: when this place is busy, which is pretty much all the time ;) it gets loud inside from all the people speaking. I overheard people studying for their bio final, and thought I would never be able to study having to speak so loudly to get my partner to hear me. But…. The outside is where it’s at! They have a beautiful outdoor area with tons of seating options. Today, I chose to sit at the communal long table with the planter in the middle. When it’s nice out, I will always sit here.

Staff: the staff here are nice and go out of their way to help you. I asked one of the good runners a question that he didn’t know the answer to, and I said that’s okay, don’t worry about it, I’ll check when I go back inside. Little did I know, he found someone inside that came out and answered my question. Now that’s “Disney quality” customer service! (When you don’t know the answer to something, you find out for the customer)

Food: I was craving soup, so I called ahead and asked what the soup of the day was. I was told chicken with rice. I asked the person on the phone if they liked it, to which they responded that they did. I then asked if I could order it for pickup over the phone and they said I’d have to use one of the online ordering systems because they don’t do phone orders. Instead, I just walked over and ordered in person. Unfortunately, it fortunately (depending on how you look at it), coming in to order led me to spend more than I had intended- haha. I ordered the chicken and rice soup of the day ($5.95) as well as the Avocado and tomato salad ($11.95).

The chicken soup was tasty. It had just the right amount of veggies and chicken to broth ratio. And it came with three small slices of baguette.

The avocado and tomato salad is an arugula base (my favorite kind of green), and in addition to perfectly ripened avocados and tomatoes, has cotija cheese sprinkled on top and a cilantro dressing. The only let down was the cilantro dressing. I expected something vinegary and more cilantro flavored, but this was sweet. That was definitely not what I had in mind, but I know better now and will ask if the dressings are sweet or not in the future for other salads. Apart from the surprise sweetness, the arugula was wonderfully fresh, without any wilting!

So, long story short, I would not get the salad again, unless I got a different dressing, but I would get the soup. And while I was seated, I saw several other things I want to try in the future… specifically their sandwiches. Those baguettes look so good!

Also, the question I had asked was what came on the goat cheese sandwich because online said paprika and I was like it can’t just be paprika and goat cheese. I think it was an autocorrect because the staff told me it’s peppers! Hahaha. That is something I actually make at home all the time! Roasted red peppers, with goat cheese, and arugula on a baguette. So, that is something I will try...

1 check-in We stopped by Plein Air for brunch on our final day in Chicago before heading to the airport. It's super convenient to the University of Chicago, so the vibe is very young and airy.

There's plentiful outdoor seating and the inside of the restaurant is beautiful - lots of bright, clean whites and modern furnishings. They were very busy when we got there, with no signs of letting up. You get in line to place your order at the counter. We arrived at around 11:20 and didn't get up to place our order until 11:55. It was a pretty slow moving line.

The specific time only stands out because they serve breakfast items until 12. That's what I wanted to eat. Mercifully, even though we cut it super close, the employee agreed to put in my breakfast order. Unfortunately, they were out of breakfast potatoes and they asked if they could substitute with a salad. That really wasn't what I wanted at all, but not much to be done about it, so I accepted. We all placed our orders to go.

To-go orders are shouted out through a window into the outdoor dining area. We tried our best to sit and enjoy our drinks while we waited, but they had a serious influx of yellow jackets that day that simply would not leave us alone, so that dampened things some. My two friends' orders came out a lot quicker than mine, perhaps because they ordered from the lunch menu, but eventually we got it and walked onto the U Chicago campus to escape the yellow jackets.

My food was alright. I ordered the two egg plate, with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast with jam and breakfast potatoes (which were substituted with a side salad). The eggs were beautiful and overall decent but cooked a little hard for my preference - I prefer runnier scrambled eggs. I didn't like my salad because it was mostly arugula and I just straight up don't like arugula. The bread for the toast and jam was nice and crusty, but the jam (I'm guessing blackberry?) wasn't sweet at all. I was really hoping for some fresh, sweet, preserve-type jam, but this wasn't it. The bacon was definitely the best thing; very crispy, as is my preference, with a great balance of saltiness and subtle sweetness. Awesome bacon!

Plein Air is a beautiful place to study and they have an attractive menu with lots of tasty sounding options. If I lived here, I would consider trying it again, just maybe ordering something different to see if I liked...

I normally don’t like to write/give bad reviews, but my experience today really hit the nail on the coffin.

There is no wifi here, unless you have a hotspot or are affiliated with UChicago and can access the school internet.

I ordered the tuna salad sandwich. You can see in the picture that there is a big chunk of bread missing on one of the sides. How do you miss that and think it’s acceptable to serve? The tuna salad itself was not flavorful and had a very fishy taste.

I originally asked for soup, to which I was told that they were out of soup for the day. Okay, no problem. But TELL ME WHY the couple that sits next to me (who came in & ordered way after I did) has soup brought out to them. I immediately looked over to the person at the register to see if it was someone different and if there was a misunderstanding or miscommunication — it was the same person who had taken my order.

I really want to give the benefit of the doubt on this situation, but I just can’t wrap my mind around it.

I had an iced vanilla latte in the morning, it was average — nothing impressive. In the afternoon I had an iced oat strawberry matcha, which was delicious!

Bakery items are not bad. The hazelnut beignet was tasty, regular croissant was flaky and made well. The macarons tasted like they had been out for a while.

Overall, it’s a very busy environment which is expected since it’s one of the few coffeeshops nearby and it’s on campus. They have outdoor seating which is nice in warm weather. They do not accept cash. Prices are on the higher end & not ideal.

I do not recommend this place if there are other options. But, if there are no other options nearby, I would not oppose anyone...