Libertad — Restaurant in Niles Township

Glad we finally made it here. The food was very good--Will go back.

Pros:

Great dishes with a substantial amount of heat, which was a lovely surprise.

They brought an amuse bouche of a squash soup in a little cup. It had a substantial kick! We were both surprised, but we LOVE spicy food. Not crazy heat, but seemed more than avg...No complaints here.

The scallops were incredible. The preparation was divine. So complimentary with the red cabbage slaw and chile de arbol beurre blanc--wow! Best dish of the night.

The grilled shrimp were lovely. They were grilled semi Jumbo shrimp served with very yummy little yucca gnocchi and serrano-pea puree. Though I couldn't taste a drop of heat in the puree.

The beer battered pablano stuffed with chevre & habanero jack cheese was awesome! The actual pablano was Super spicy hot--right up our alleys!

We also enjoyed the arugula salad with pear, sunflower seeds (aka pepitas) grapes, and two wads of yummy fried goat cheese.

Cons:

Would not recommend the Banana Tres Leches, unless you enjoy carrot cAke. It was basically 3 small pieces of carrot--tasting cake and a yummy caramalized banana ice cream. NOT at all anything close to slice of traditional tres leches cake. Very disappointing and misleading if that's what you're expecting. Need to change the name on that or tell people--set expectations. It was fine as a dessert.

Overall it was excellent minus the dessert snafu. Though this isn't a place to sit and linger or apparently drink. They weren't very keen on asking about drinks. The waitress was going to leave after taking our food order. I had to STOP her and ask if we could order drinks. Not a usual experience to be sure. Normally your drink order is taken straight away and then the server comes back for apps and entrees orders. And very difficult to get another drink. May be that this place is located in the sleepy suburb of Skokie and not in Chicago? We drink in Chicago! We live on the Northside and it was still worth the quick Lyft trip over. Also quite loud even though they had ceiling sound tiles installed. Difficult to have a conversation unless oddly enough, if you were a bigger party and had more space. The tables are very close together.

But...

With heavy hart I give them two stars as the food is excellent, however the atmosphere and the entire experience was plain negative.

I wanted to visit that restaurant for a while as I heard exceptional things about the food and it didn't disappoint on the food quality side. My wife and I came here on Valentine's day(big mistake), they had a pre fixed menu (expensive, but again worth it quality wise). Here are the problems. They obviously wanted people in and out as fast as possible, and I understand it that it is their business, however they completely ignore the fact that people come to the restaurant not only for food, but also to enjoy their time/experience. The moment we would finish our food, someone from behind me grab the empty plate and put the next dish. We weren't in a hurry, but they had as out in 1 hour! And that's for the 5 course meal! The second problem was that the reason I never saw who was taking and bringing dishes is because they put tables so close to each other that the servers couldn't even come to the side of the table. My wife's plates who sat across from me we had to give them ourselves. As they packed so many people in, it was very loud and obviously I heard much clearer what was my neighbor saying to her date than what my wife was telling me across the small table.

Later I asked people and they told me that it's a normal atmosphere here on a busy night.

To sum it up. Great food, bad experience. If you want to try the food then go on off peak hours on a weekday. If you want a romantic evening, go to a coffee shop next door and enjoy some excellent tea (not...

We went here on a friend's recommendation. I am not at all familiar with Skokie and admit I was a bit skeptical about this being good, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The service was absolutely impeccable. The space; s super cute inside and on their covered patio. You wouldn't know it from the outside how charming this place is. The dishes are a bit like tapas and varied. One thing to note is that they use soy in many of the dishes- they should mention that and ask about allergies or sensitivities. The ceviche was just drenched in soy sauce, which was a huge disappointment for me. The tuna used was very high quality but the ceviche to me was not recognizable as ceviche and was more like sushi. The rest of the dishes we tried were good- shrimp was excellent, the chicken flautas were superb, too. I know other reviewers have mentioned things being bland, but they definitely were not for this gringa! Thankfully, I had their delicious margarita to cool down my throat at certain points. The bread and butter were overpriced for four small pieces of toasted bread and a huge serving of butter. I wouldn't get that or the sushi again. I was tempted by the hummus, but bizarrely, they use edamame instead of chickpeas, so we didn't order it. The yuca fries are amazing! And the wine selection is very interesting. Tres leches cake was big enough to share for three people. Will definitely return for the fun vibe, great cocktails and...