Old Town Restaurant--Great Polish food in Lemont

We were driving around picturesque Lemont when both of us noticed a sign in the window of this downtown restaurant listing pan-fried walleye as one of the day's specials. We were hungry, and that was enough to lure us in.


It's a big lovely room, nicely decorated without being over-the-top.

The menu is fairly compact--a good thing in my opinion. At $15.95 our special was at the top of their price range. Dinners include soup, choice of potato or dumplings, sweet & sour cabbage or pickled beets, and dessert. An interesting looking salad bar (nice cucumber salad, something with a lot of green olives in it) adds another $1.50. A glass of Zyweic on tap is $2.50, a pint is $3.

The bread basket looked promising, with a hearty wheat and rye along with a houska so tasty I picked up another loaf to bring home. But it wasn't until our soup was served that I suddenly found myself thinking that perhaps I was going to have to write this up for lth. Our choices included liver dumpling, chicken noodle, or cabbage. Bill's chicken noodle was excellent, with a very deep homemade broth and thin noodles. My cabbage soup was sweet and tangy and full of hunks of smoked pork--one of the best soups I've had in a long time. .

I really could have been perfectly happy with another bowl of soup and some more of that bread, but the entrees were on their way. Since I wasn't thinking about lth when I ordered, we both ate the same thing (selfish, I know!). But the quality level held. The walleye was fresh and perfectly cooked and the breading was delicious--just enough flavor to notice it but not so much that it drowned out the fish. Bill's french fries were excellent--I suspect double fried. My potato dumplings were surprisingly delicate and came with a boat of excellent gravy. The sweet and sour cabbage had caraway seeds in it and was very good. The beet salad was fine, but not particularly remarkable. .

By this time, as you can imagine, we were appropriately stuffed. But you can't just walk away from a free dessert. The choices are jello(!), kolachky (apricot, cheese, or strawberry), and the pastry of the day, which today was an apple coffee cake. We had a strawberry kolachky and the coffee cake.
. Both more delicate than they looked. Neither at all too sweet.

I am far from an expert in Polish food. I've never been to Smak-Tak or Andrezej Grill. And because I wasn't thinking about LTH, I didn't order any of my favorites from Podhalanka for comparison purposes. But I'd go back for the soup alone and I strongly encourage others in that corner of the burbs to check it out.

Old Town Restaurant
113 Stephen Street
Lemont
630.257.7570
http://www.oldtownrestaurant.com