Coobah on Southport

Went to Coobah for the first time last Friday night after catching March of the Penguins at the Music Box (recommended!); while there was nothing bad about our meal (grilled vegetables with an aioli dip, spicy pork skewers with a mound of jasmine rice, vegetarian and steak tamales), there was nothing fabulous about it, either. Portions were small to moderate, prices were moderate to expensive, the music was extremely loud, and my mojito tasted medicinal.

I don’t think we’ll be back.

Coobah
3423 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 528-2220

I really want to see that penguin movie, probably will this weekend.


I've been to Coobah twice for dinner and both times fit your description to a tee. Moderately good but far from great, and overpriced.

We're off to see the penguin flick in a couple hours, in fact.

I generally won't go to Coobah for more than drinks and apps, and I prefer Twisted Spoke's bloody marys to theirs. (I'm not a big cold shrimp fan.)

We're going to try our luck at getting into Tango Sur beforehand, instead. Hopefully with it being a weeknight, it won't be too bad.

I've been to Coobah a handful of times and like their duck fundido quite a bit. Their tamales are nothing to write home about, but I think their pork tenderloin (bico, IIRC?) entree is quite tasty. Most other things I've tried have been neither bad nor outstanding.

I didn't see any other dedicated threads for this restaurant and since this one is old, I am dusting it off! 3.5 years is a long time and from these other posts it looks like things may be much different now. I popped in for dinner solo tonight. Got there about 6:30 and decent biz, but by the time I left around 8 it was at capacity.

I sat at the bar and ordered a Caipirinha and pondered the menu. After I parked in the back lot (they have room for 10ish cars in their lot behind the restaurant) a cook was taking a smoke break. I asked him what he recommended and he said the duck breast special...so I ordered that and their caesar salad, which is called "Sugarcane Caesar" and it was delicious. I needed some leafy greens, but what sold me was the flash-grilled radicchio. Great flavors of charred greens, sugarcane (instead of anchoy I learned), and grated Manchego along with a sliced baguette crouton. For $7 it was solid.

I mentioned that I am going to Chile and the manager said that they are working on a Pisco Sour (not yet on the menu) and would I like to try one? Well sure!


Complete with egg white, and dashes of bitters on top (he recommended stirring before drinking). good stuff.

The duck breast was one of the specials and is described thusly on the menu: pan roasted duck breast served with seared parsnip-chive polenta, braised fennel, chile pasilla BBQ sauce. Here's the dish:



The breast was perfectly mid-rare/medium (I answered "chef's preference" when the bartender asked me how I would like it) and the polenta & fennel on the side was almost like a sandwich. 2 "pucks" of polenta, with some egg to bind I'm guessing, infused with the chives and parsnip slivers. the braised fennel was carmelized-sweet but not overly-cloying. Very flavorful and filling, as I couldn't finish all the polenta. For $20 I would definitely order it again. I'm not a fan of overly-large portions and this was just about right.

No dessert tonight, but I will be back (it was my first visit).

http://www.coobah.com

A few years ago, a friend and I made a habit of going to Coobah every couple of weeks to take advantage of their Tuesday deal: $6 pitchers of Sangria. It's quite good (this from someone who doesn't care for sweets or wine) and I appreciate their attention to detail with regard to the fruit garnish: Apples and not-quite-ripe pears uniformly diced really soak up the the vino for a tiny snack at the bottom of every glass.

I was at Coobah this past summer and dined outside in the warm summer evening. I tried a bunch of dishes:; chile-spiced edamame, vegetarian and pork tamales, jibarito, and crab and asparagus lumpia. The food was all very good, relatively affordable, and beautifully presented. However, nothing was too "wow!"
The highlight of the evening were the desserts. We got the rich, dense chocolate pot de creme and the pina colada bread pudding. Now those were "wow!"

$25 for $50 Groupon deal - http://www.groupon.com/deals/coobah?utm ... newsletter

I think Coobah is a fantastic joint for brunch. I always get their Eggs Benedicto, and I honestly haven't found a better Eggs Benedict in the city. The sweet bread they use instead of a muffin makes a world of difference. I think they do a great job here and the staff is always super friendly.

Orange40 wrote:I think Coobah is a fantastic joint for brunch. I always get their Eggs Benedicto, and I honestly haven't found a better Eggs Benedict in the city. The sweet bread they use instead of a muffin makes a world of difference. I think they do a great job here and the staff is always super friendly.

I just tried brunch there for the first time last week on a friend's recommendation and was lucky enough to choose the Eggs Benedicto. You are right, it's heavenly, and I don't know that I've encountered a better brunch dish in the city.

I hadn't been to Coobah for 7 or 8 years until last night... and now I think I remember why. Friends we were getting together with wanted to go there, we we agreed. The last time my wife and I were there was way back before we were a couple, but just part of a group of friends... but these friends we were seeing last night had been a couple times in recent months.

Last night's meal wasn't god awful or anything, but just the constant little things that miss the mark when there are so many great restaurants across the city won't have me rushing back.

We ordered appetizers, and the fundido I ordered never came. I even called over the waiter at one point (about 20 min. after the rest of the apps arrived) to make sure it was coming, wasn't being held until entrees (our friends had ordered one hot app as an entree) and he assured us it was on its way before the main courses. And then about 2 minutes later the entrees arrived at the table.

For my entree I ordered the pork bicol, which their menu lists as, "Seared pork tenderloin and crispy pork belly with coconut arancini, pineapple-bacon chutney, wilted arugula and adobo glaze." Perhaps it was my not taking that first bit seriously, because my pork came out like you'd expect to see tuna seared. The medallions were cooked about 1/4 deep around the edges and pretty much raw in the middle. I know that the USDA or whoever has relaxed the temperature requirements for cooking pork... but this could not have been anywhere near those safe guidelines. I had to send my entree back to have them cook it further, so the one who didn't get his appetizer was now the one without his entree yet while the rest of the table was eating.

When I did finally get my dish cooked to a proper temperature, it was actually pretty decent. The meat was covered in a sweet and spicy sauce and the combination of port tenderloin and crispy pork belly was a nice contrast. The bacon-pineapple chutney provided tartness and saltiness. Despite all the flavors going on, it worked pretty well. My wife enjoyed her Zarzuela, which was like a Spanish cioppino. Our friends polished off the shrimp app they ordered as an entree but left most of their Chicken Negro Modelo.

After clearing our entrees, the waiter then wiped down the table and proceeded to knock my iPhone off the table, fortunately, it was OK, but I about had a heart attack thinking that this sub-par meal would also end up costing me to fix my phone, too. After all the missteps, the waiter did bring us two desserts on the house... a chocolate cake that the ladies seemed to enjoy and churros that were a big hit with all of us. I made sure not to fill up on the free desserts though, because we'd already planned a walk up Southport to Dairy Queen, and to be quite honest I was more looking forward to more than anything at Coobah. Fortunately, missing out on apps meant room for 2 desserts!

I agree with the comment about missing the little things. We stopped by for brunch today and got there a little after it opened. We were the first people in the place and were seated in the corner. Over the next hour, about half of the room of about 16 tables filled up. When the first party after us came in, they were seated directly to my right. When the next group came in, they were seated directly next to us on the other side. This pattern stayed consistent for the whole time we were there with nearly every party packed into one corner of the large-ish room. I know I have to expect crowds when you go out to brunch on a Sunday, but it was absolutely absurd that we were all placed on top of each when half the room was empty. When we asked about it, we were told that they had a lot of reservations and they clustered all the non-reservation tables in one area. The tables were pretty close. I know everything the parties next to us had, what they liked and where they had gone on vacation. They seemed like nice people.

The food was fine. Nothing was bad. Our waiter was cheerful and provided good service. But I wont be back.

I still love brunch at Coobah. And sadly, it looks as if they'll be closing at the end of this summer: http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2014/06/17/coobah-on-southport-to-shutter-at-summers-end.php