Ginkgo Restaurant and Café — Restaurant in Illinois

Delighted to discover that the Gingko Restaurant is open in the evening for Illumination (holiday lights) events. After experiencing the light displays, we stopped for a meal.

So many vegan and vegetarian choices on the menu. Other museums and venues could take a lesson from this! We ordered and enjoyed the Korean Stirfry. It was a little salty for me, but ample portions and reasonable prices. Served piping hot. Hot cider was delicious.

Lots of seating in the clean dining area, including seats by the expansive windows overlooking the lights for the Illumination finale. That was a treat and a fun way to wrap up the evening.

Our only issues were customer service focused. We had to ask for napkins and were given just two for meals that have a fair amount of juice. Also, we paid for my husband to have roasted vegetables added to his entree, but it looked just like mine in portion size. When I asked the server, he said he didn't know. No offer to check or to make it right. We were tired, so didn't press the point. But they will lose customers if this is a pattern.

Note: As with most museums and cultural centers, the food venues are run by a different company, not by...

Not very friendly. As a member, I come here very often and get the usual Mocha Javalanche. It didn’t taste right them and looked completely different. When I told them that it tasted like caramel, she said it doesn’t (without trying it). And all she did was add more chocolate syrup to “fix” it, which didn’t help. The chocolate syrup was on the outside of the lid and spilled all over my clothes. I spoke with Member Services and they said the Gingko cafe is a separate entity (?). I’ll just skip the cafe...

Allergen menus are not available. Even with a sign on the register that said to ask if you have allergens the cashier simply told us "no" when we asked. It's very hard to order food when your child has a dairy allergy! None of the items on the children's menu looked suitable, so I ordered a vegan meal and my child tried it. Not a total loss, but fair warning to other allergy parents that this place is not very Allergy friendly, make sure to pack a lunch instead.

The food was decent, the room...