Rose Mary — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

SUMMARY: promising menu, catastrophic execution, with food that is both poorly prepared, misleadingly described, and mispronounced; all of it showing the team’s relationship to Croatia is tangential (at best).

I am writing this as a Croat who has spent the past 10y in the States, and have been very excited about this restaurant. I am also not one of those traditionalists who react poorly to food which deviates from “how we do it back home.” First the positives. Several ideas/interventions into traditional recipes sounded interesting – kajmak w/ pistachio, fritule w/ rosewater, and the đuveč-stuffed tortellini, to name a few. These could really go places. However, nothing could save the execution of the dishes. I am so sorry to write this, because I want to be supportive, but 6/8 dishes in our party were poorly done, 2 bordering on inedible.

1. Salt. Chicago is a salt-forward city, sure, but every dish was so oversalted, we needed to sip water between bites. The Skradin risotto was the worst offender, w the tagliatelle a close second.
2. Pasta. Croatia is not particularly fussy when it comes to al dente. It is certainly not extremist in that regard, which is how I would describe some of the pasta. The tortellini were so underdone, that, cut through, a thin white line of still-raw pasta was visible in the middle. Like w the salt, hard to find excuses for this, no matter how charitable you feel.
3. Misleading terms. Now, I know that it’s impossible to mimic true lepinja in an indoor urban kitchen. But the lepinja was just white bread dipped in oil. None of the characteristics of the lepinja/somun spectrum (flour-y outside, char-marks, air pockets inside) were present. The kajmak was borderline outrageous. All four of us independently thought it tasted like bland fluffy whipped cream (!?) and, ironically, it lacked salt to the point of unrecognizability. Finally, perhaps the worst offender (maybe bc it came last, and bc I needed to beg my party to stay for dessert, hoping for a last-minute surprise), the alleged fritule. My understanding is that 3 main things distinguish fritule from other fried dough such as beignets or krafne: small size (at MOST golf-ball sized), a “deep” fried taste resulting in a crunchy exterior, and (optionally) a shape with little crunchy “tails” of dough that come from scooping the balls into the oil. What Rose Mary served as fritule were fist-sized (!) beignets, cold (!), chewy beyond belief, and filled to the brim (!) with a thick, gooey fig paste. Nothing would warrant that much fig paste – it tasted like someone shoved one of those protein fig bars into a donut. From our table, I could see the pastry chef stuffing the hollowed out fritule – which sat pre-cooked on the kitchen surface – with enormous amounts of paste. (Also, while I can’t say if this was more than a momentary lapse, she was doing this with her mask fully pushed below her chin, face uncovered).

The service was kind & friendly. I hate when people come to restaurants where the servers aren’t from that culture & then grill them on details of the cuisine; I'd never do that. However, I was shocked to find out that 3 different servers – our table and 2 adjacent ones – didn't know how to pronounce the dishes in Croatian. I heard kajmak (KYE-mak) pronounced as “kazh-mak”; lepinja (LE-pin-ya) as “le-PINGE-a”. These will not win the Rose Mary team any points with the local crowd.

Finally, through our 3h dinner, I saw chef Flamm come to 5-6 tables around us to check in. He did not stop at our table: perhaps this was because we were not as dressed-up as the West Loop crowd. If he had come to our table, I would speak to him about all these issues in person, perhaps thus avoiding having to write such a negative review. Overall, despite such a promising idea, I cannot recommend anyone – Croatian or not – to have dinner here. As the Croat in our group, I felt guilty that I made my friends (grad students w limited income) spend $300 on what was, without exaggeration, the poorest quality food I have had in a Chicago sit-down...

My partner and I tried Rose Mary for the first time tonight, and for what it's worth, we won't be returning.

Service: We honestly were 20 minutes late for our 4:30pm reservations due to Taylor Swift eras tour traffic, but before we could apologize the host said "If you sit inside you have to be gone by 6:30. We only reserve 2 hour windows so you only have from 4:30 to 6:30. Or you can sit outside." We said we understood, but would prefer to sit inside. The host acknowledged this and told us again that we "had to be gone" by 6:30.

We were presented with water immediately and then waited another 15 minutes for our server to arrive. I know people have differing opinions on menus, but there's something detrimental to the experience for me about using a QR code and pulling it up on your phone. When our server did arrive she was absolutely lovely, advised us that the food was designed to share and she'd put the whole order in at the same time so the kitchen could time out our order, and took our drink orders which came out promptly. My partner got the strawberry basil spritz and I got the imported Croatian pilsner, Zlatni medvjed.

We placed our order for the the zucchini fritter, tuna crudo, piselli (pea risotto), and pork ribs pampanella,

The tuna crudo came out almost immediately, which makes sense since it is a raw preparation. We waited another 15 or so minutes after the crudo was cleared for the next dish, which I think was actually timed well. It happened to be the pampanella, however, which seemed odd as my expectation is to progress from lighter fare to heavier in these kinds of situations, but maybe there was a reason. When we were halfway through the pampanella, the fritters appeared and due to the size of the table, we ended up playing tetris with the glassware, plates, and dishes.

A waitperson that was not our waitress asked us how everything was, and it was fairly decent which we shared with him. Once the two dishes were completed, the staff replaced our plates and utensils, and then we waited again - long enough to be asked twice if we had any other food coming, probably 20 minutes, after which the pisella showed up. In between, my partner ordered another drink, the blind rhubarber, which she said was 'excellent.'

We finished the risotto and contemplated dessert, but ultimately decided against it. We didn't want to be rushed and it was already 6pm, and the fact was that we might wait another 15 minutes or more to have the dessert show up and not have time to enjoy it.

Food: The tuna crudo was excellent. The crispy capers were little indulgences that offset the tuna and the veal aoli nicely. The menu mentions a shallot beef-fat vinaigrette but if the vinaigrette was there, it was subsumed by the fattiness of the aoli and the richness of the tuna. It did not suffer for this, though without the capers to cut through the richness, it would certainly be necessary to balance the dish.

The pampanella was good, but not great. The pork was fall-off the-bone tender, which I certainly appreciate, but the pork itself was overly salty and the agrodolce was unbalanced towards the sour side, although this was likely because the sweetness was offset by the saltiness of the pork.The cabbage and yogurt relish was very nice, and the whole thing reminded me of Italian bbq pork ribs - and I suspect that's the intention.

The zucchini fritters were ok, but overly greasy. The breading on it was thick and as such had soaked up a fair amount of oil. The pesto aoli was good, but to add aoli on top of the already heavy fritter was too much.

Finally the piselli - solid, but unexciting. The preparation was nice, but it was risotto and peas, snap peas, and pea shoots. Exactly as described, no more and no less.

Overall: aside from our interaction with the host, the staff was pleasant and competent, but the kitchen rhythm seemed off and that affected the timing and overall service. The food was ok, but not amazing. If you're already nearby, it's worth checking out, but it's not something I'd recommend going out of...

My boyfriend and I dined at Rose Mary for restaurant week. After scouring the numerous restaurant week options, we decided on Rose Mary because the three course menu offered seemed like a great option for $60 a person. Neither of us had been before, either, so we were excited to splurge and try it out. Not only was it an absolute disappointment, but it was misleading and deceptive, and left me feeling snubbed as a patron. Upon being seated our server informed us that if we did the restaurant week menu, we would not be allowed to each pick what we wanted but instead would be served one of each menu item included—i.e. one order of sweet potatoes and one tuna crudo for the first course, one order of caccio pepe and one order of steak for our shared entree, and a SINGLE dessert. How does that constitute $60 per person? I told our server we both wanted the tuna crudo as our appetizer to which they handed us a regular menu and said we would have to order an extra. First of all, the monetary worth of what is offered I estimate to be $127, so you’re saving $7 and forcing yourself to pick from a limited selection. Second, what about single diners? Or perhaps a party of 3 or 5? How can you advertise a menu of $60 per person when in fact what you are offering requires sharing between 2 people for $120? Now for the optional $30/person wine pairing. This constitutes half pours of wines that are actually cheaper if purchased as full glasses directly from the menu—however, had we not asked if they were full or half pours we certainly would not have known since it’s not stated anywhere on the menu. We opted to just buy a full bottle for $68 instead of getting a total of 3 glasses of wine (the last of which was just a dessert wine anyway) for $60. A total rip off. It’s deceptive and intentionally misleading to draw customers in under the misguided notion of an actual restaurant week deal only to then inform them upon being seated that it’s not what they think it is. Restaurant week reservations are hard to come by so it’s not like you can just go elsewhere without a reservation, especially on a weekend. And not to mention how UNFAIR to fellow participating restaurants who truly offer what they advertise—a prix fixe menu where each individual person selects what they want. I have dined at many restaurants for restaurant week and never felt snubbed like I do after dining at Rose Mary. I feel angry as a patron and angry that they’re even allowed to participate in restaurant week, not when other restaurants are upholding what restaurant week SHOULD be, an individual prix fixe dining experience. And aside from the deception, the food was nothing special. You can get better pasta and better steak (which btw was pre cut, who wants to pay $120 for a steak that they don’t even get to cut themselves?) at other restaurants in the city. The ambiance is subpar with an interior that looks like a cafe. The table next to us was less than a foot away, so close we actually had to scoot one of our plates over a bit when the lady next to us was getting up to leave. And lastly, they slap on a 4% surcharge to the final bill (this is stated at the bottom of the menu) with zero explanation. If restaurant week is an opportunity to draw in new customers, this was an epic fail. We do not feel inclined to...