Schwa Restaurant — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

My roommates and I had the pleasure of treating ourselves to Schwa and it blew our minds! I had read a lot of things about Schwa beforehand about how the restaurant had a very untraditional vibe and id seen complaints that the music was too loud, the chefs were drinking and/or smoking, etc… Makes me feel bad for those people for not appreciating how unique Schwa really is. That being said, when I walked in, I almost thought I’d been punk’d. The restaurant is one of the smallest I’ve ever seen filled with 4 spray-painted graffiti art walls and oddly nostalgic informal black dining chairs and tables. The whole restaurant can seat probably 20 in max capacity. The chefs also dress relatively informally and handle most of the serving themselves, which is unique and cool to see! I loved that the chefs came out each time and described the dishes. It definitely added to the experience.

An important thing to note is that the restaurant is BYOB style. We brought 3 reds and 1 white which paired well with the experience, however hard liquor is definitely acceptable too. Also, you pay for the entire meal when you book the reservation, which is great, since you don’t have to deal with the bill after you’re 4 bottles in.

The restaurant’s decor, the BYOB aspect, and the informality of the environment made it clear to me right away that the focus here is on the food. As it should be.

The food itself absolutely blew my mind. I found myself licking many of the dishes clean. Each of the 11 dishes is about the size of a big bite: I recommend breaking them down into tiny pieces to fully enjoy them. There was not one dish that I didn’t utterly savor, but I thought the squab was the weakest of the bunch. Nothing against the preparation, just that the animal tastes rather dirty which is hard to overcome. My favorite dish of the whole night was the truffle raviolo… I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. We asked to have a repeat of that course but they said we’d have to make another reservation. At the end of the night, we took a shot of Jameson with the chefs!

All in all, Schwa was everything I was hoping for and more. The vibe was awesome, the staff was friendly, and most importantly: the food was incredible....

All food snobs should dine once at Schwa, because notions of fine dining get turned upside down the moment you approach this highly acclaimed, Michelin-starred restaurant. It is a spectacular experience—jarring at times—from beginning to end.

Indeed, Chef Michael Carlson is the Jean-Michel Basquiat of haute cuisine. When you drive up to this restaurant, it looks like it is closed. No lights at all. You pull open the blackened door and walk into a tiny, dark space. Just seven tables of lucky diners in a tiny room with blacked walls. You are assaulted with overly-loud rap music. There are no waiters, just the heavily-tattooed chefs who cook your food and bring it to you in person. They serve you with wild, creative combinations of unusual foods, intense flavors, artful presentations.

This restaurant offers no wine list at all. It is BYOB because at Schwa 100 percent of the emphasis is on food prepared at its highest level.

The young chefs that deliver sensational course after course represent the impressive future talent pool of Chicago cuisine. Indeed, many talented chefs’ careers are launched from this creative space.

You shake your head and smile. Who knew eating could be so much fun?! Lots of raw energy paired with the finest culinary ingredients. Totally irreverent and...

This restaurant is just OK. The food is plated just nicely enough to skim the definition of gastronomy. The service was short, unprofessional, and unpleasant. The atmosphere is akin to walking into a stuffy house. For the $150 plate, I expected better service or at least a finer experience. Unfortunately there are a lot of restaurants in Chicago that get a lot of play without being legitimately worth the spend, here being one of them. The servers quickly set dishes down and we could barely hear the description with the blaring music. Tables were so tightly set up that it made for uncomfortably close quarters. Music was good but too loud. Lighting was wayyy too dark. Food was, by Chicago’s high standards, just alright. It was just plated nicely. I don’t get the hype about this place. If it’s supposed to mimic a pretentious/exclusive NYC hole in the wall fine dining type of thing (if that is a “thing”), it worked. It’s not fun. Oh and one of the servers def took a smoke break in the middle of his shift and...