Opera House Steak & Seafood — Restaurant in Plainfield

My wife and I ate here for our anniversary dinner this year. Months earlier we had visited the Irish bar downstairs that shares the same owner with Opera House. We decided it would be a nice place to try for our anniversary dinner this year. I made a reservation through their website with Open Table. I would highly suggest making a reservation beforehand and getting there early to eat because they ran out of some of their specials and entrees. Our reservation was for 6:30pm, but I would suggest maybe 5 or 5:30pm if you want a choice of all their menu items for dinner.

The dining area is very nice and most of the tables are all in one area for the dining hall and there is a bar just off the dining hall. It’s a nice quaint place to dine. The server placed us at a table right by a window that overlooks downtown Plainfield Lockport Street. I assumed this happened because when making the reservation I said we were celebrating our anniversary.

There were a few things that happened during our dining experience that were not great and I could ding the restaurant for those things in this review, but most of them were not their fault and they did the best they could to make things work for the best. We were enjoying ourselves so we just let it go. They were horribly short-staffed the night we ate there so things took a little longer than normal and they ran out of a lot of the menu items. I had ordered the Coconut Encrusted Mahi Mahi for my main dish and after about 40 minutes to an hour later they told me they ran out of it and I could order something else for the same price. That’s the only thing that could’ve been better in my opinion. They should’ve told me earlier, but they made it right for me by letting me order the filet at the same price as the Mahi Mahi and comping most if not all of our drinks that evening. The restaurant was super crowded and the short-staffed workers were doing the best they could. We really felt sorry for them so instead of complaining we just rolled with it and enjoyed our night out.

Down to the food. We ordered the crab cakes for an appetizer and they were excellent. They give you complementary bread to dip into rosemary infused olive oil. The bread and olive oil were outstanding. We had two servings of the complementary bread before our meal. My wife had for her dinner the appetizer of the Sweet Thai Chili sauce Brussel sprouts along with loaded mash potatoes. Both were excellent. Especially the Brussel sprouts which she let me taste both. I had the filet with a side of vegetables. Both were great. I had asked for the filet to be cooked medium rare and it came a little rarer than I would’ve liked, but it tasted great. Medium would have been a better call.

Overall the meal, service and evening worked out great. After we paid for our meal, we stopped by their bar for a drink and then went downstairs to the Irish bar for a few more drinks. Excellent night out and we will be back to try again. Very much...

The challenge I have personally found in high-end suburban restaurants is that they typically charge big city prices for food, atmosphere and service that are substantially inferior to their Urban counterparts For me, I usually regret not having driven to the city, Oakbrook, etc. after such a meal; my expectation and intent are for an experience that simply wasn't received. We are very pleased to state that the numerous times we have had the pleasure of going to Opera House, I have never felt that way. On New Years Eve, our entire table raved about the entrees which included the Lamb Shank, Scallops, Mahi Mahi, Filet and New York Strip, as well as the Oysters Rockefeller and Calamari appetizers. The Old Fashioned and Sazerac cocktails were also excellent.

The Opera House did a very nice job creating the atmosphere and accenting the history of the building, while also keeping the unique old prairie building feeling you get less and less often outside of this location and a few other establishments in downtown Lockport. It definitely has a great vibe and could be easily overlooked if one didn't know it was there. If you're in downtown Plainfield, they have a quaint bar, as well, which makes it very nice to checkout the building and have a drink.

From my direct experience, one is not going to get anything close to the service you’d expect in a world class city, such as Chicago used to be, out in the suburbs. I’m ok with that as long the restaurant doesn’t decide to charge as if I am receiving that level of service and subsequent experience, I just won’t have the team of service men and women standing-in-waiting for our every need, as one would expect at a steak house in Chicago. Notwithstanding, you’ll get extremely friendly service from someone who actually cares that you enjoy your meal and genuinely wants to provide you with a pleasant experience.

The food and its execution at Opera House is very good, the unique and interesting atmosphere is remarkable and inviting and the service from “real people” is so welcome that I can truly state that Opera House is excellent and worth every penny at a time when, from my direct experience, there are very few high-end suburban restaurants about which that can be said. Thank you, Opera House staff for making our New Year’s Eve and every meal so enjoyable. Your restaurant and Capri Sogno are true culinary gems of Downtown Plainfield, the Southwest Suburbs and anywhere one would like an excellent high-end dining experience and feel as though they actually received one. I never intended this review to be about value, as a high-end steak and seafood house restaurant wouldn't typically be thought of in this regard. Notwithstanding, I am just so pleased with the quality and execution at Opera House as compared to similarly priced establishments, that this point just naturally developed. Thank you again, Opera...

Very disappointing. We used to visit there about once every month or two with another couple, and it used to be excellent. We were excited to go for dinner with our friends this past Wednesday and use the groupon that I had purchased during quarantine to support the restaurant. I have to say that the meal itself was a bit disappointing. The ribeye I ordered which is usually wonderful was just meh, slightly overcooked and not a great cut of meat. The skirt steak my husband ordered was also overcooked, although the flavor of the sauce was very nice. My friend said the prime rib was good but not great this time and the asparagus was mushy rather than crisp tender. All in all the our meals were not nearly the quality we were expecting, but I shrugged it off thinking that it wasn't that big of a deal since we were getting a bargain with the groupon anyway. Well come to find out the would not let us use the groupon because we were dining on their patio and not "in" the restaurant, therefore not "dining in". Note that the groupon did not say anything about not being able to be used on the patio. Absolutely ridiculous. We were there, at the restaurant, being served our meals by a server, we were most certainly "dining in", even though we weren't under the roof. I asked to speak with a manager but there wasn't one available. The server apologized profusely and took my name and number, assuring me that management would call me to discus. Well that never happened. I wasn't going to post a negative review, but they don't even have the courtesy to call me to discuss the fact that they wouldn't take the groupon. We will most likely not be dining there again, neither inside or outside of the building, or at any of the other places they own, Hopscotch and Vine, and Blu to name just a few. Darn shame, we really like supporting local businesses, but this one has lost some...