Balkan Taste

Did a search, and all that came up for Balkan Taste was "due to open soon." That was a couple of years ago. I had been to the strip mall the restaurant is in because of Istanbul Market, but long ago. I rarely was in that area -- until recently, and they closed my Sam's club, and the one on Oakton in Des Plaines was suddenly my best option. After having seen it with some regularity, I decided to stop there yesterday on my way home from a Chicago Foodways program -- mostly because I saw on their website that they have cevapcici, which I'd never tried before but had read about in lengthy discussions on LTH.

It's hard to judge when a cuisine is unfamiliar, but everything was fresh and tasty, and the charming waitress was very eager to make sure I knew things were homemade. (When I got home, I was happy to see that it had lots of stars on review sites -- so at least I'm not alone in liking it.)

I started with a bright and surprisingly tasty salad of thinly shredded cabbage dressed with oil, vinegar and herbs. So simple and yet so good. They brought a large chunk of bread with that -- looked like it might have been half a round loaf. Very fresh and, despite being white, quite flavorful. Enough so that I didn't need butter.

Of course, having read about cevapcici here, I had to order that -- and, thanks to LTH, I pronounced it correctly. I've heard that it can be lamb, beef and lamb, or beef -- and here it was beef. It was rich and redolent of charcoal smoke. It was served on a bed of diced onions, which helped cut the richness. However, it was topped with what I learned was kajmak -- a Serbian topper made by blending butter and sour cream. ("It is homemade and very traditional," I was assured.) Butter and sour cream on top of the juicy beef made it too rich to finish, so I took the second half home. I also ordered, at their encouragement, a side of mashed potatoes, which were lovely and perfect for sopping up meat juice and melting kajmak.

Worth noting, this place is clearly a hangout for Serbs. The patio was filled with groups of men drinking tea and coffee and talking -- there when I arrived, there when I left.

Also worth noting is that they do not have ice tea or decaf coffee. They do have a wide variety of beverage offerings, just not these very American options.

So worth a try. And then afterwards, you can explore the rest of the astonishing little strip mall: 2 Japanese places, Indian, Thai, and Balkan restaurants, Turkish grocery store with cafe, Asian grocer (Ambica Foods), and a Bulgarian/Balkan Deli (Serdika).

Nice little vacation.

Balkan Taste
2354 S Elmhurst Rd
Mt Prospect, IL 60056
https://www.balkantaste.net/