Euro Grill - Des Plaines

So I've passed by this tiny tiny (1 table and a 6 stool counter) place many times, it is always filled with eastern European cab drivers. Tonight it was not, so I went in.

An older woman, who barely could say hello greeted me and slid a paper menu towards me. Just then a younger gentleman entered who could speak more English. I was glad as the short menu had some items that I could not recognize. I asked him what each item was that I did not recognize, he was more than helpful.

I ended up ordering Burek, which another broken English gentleman at the counter described as Albanian Pizza.

Turns out it is the younger guy's mother in the kitchen which is fully visible from the counter doing the cooking.

For 40 minutes I watched the mom make the burek from scratch, dough and all. Essentially it is thin dough stretched out on a 2'x4' table, a line of pinched spiced beef (or ricotta like cheese, or spinach or potato) is placed down either side of the dough. The dough is then pushed towards the center of the table creating two rolls of filled dough. A knife separates the dough and then it is laid in an ever widening circular roll that fits in a round 10" pizza pan. The dough is then put in the oven to bake.

While it was baking, we spoke of the other items on the menu; English did not come easy to them so forgive the weak descriptions:

Cevapi (small sausages), Gulash, Bosanske Sudzukice (larger sausages w/different spicing), Pljeskavica (homemade burger like item), Punjena Pljeskavica (same with cheese), Mijesana Meso (a combination platter of items), Grosh-Pasuli (beans), Shish-Kabob, Jagnjece Pecenje (a lamb dish he only prepares when it is cold out), Supa (soup).

I took the cheese (ricotta like) and a meat Burek home for dinner. The results, both were good, but lacked enough filling, I guess for only $5 what can one expect. They were somewhat bland; putting some of my homemade tomato sauce on top of them increased our enjoyment quite a bit to where we devoured the remainder. We both thought that next time we'll get a beef / spinach combo burek to go, then put tomato sauce on when we get home.

As he was very proud to state that everything he tries to make fresh, I am anxious to try some of the other dishes that the Euro Grill offers.

Euro Grill
566 Algonquin Road
Des Plaines, IL
847.759.9103
Open 9am-10pm everyday

I finally stopped in this week with a few coworkers and found it to be a pleasant surprise. We ate at the front bar. As mentioned above, the burek is made from scratch. I tried the cheese burek and the others each tried the meat burek. It was served piping hot right out of the oven and had a nice mix of a crispy, flaky, and slightly chewy texture. The owner was very friendly and mentioned he could do a spinach/cheese mix as well. We're planning to return to share a few items including the cevapi and more burek.

A coworker and I sat in front of Euro Grill a few weeks ago after we parked for lunch at the thai place next door. We remarked at how fake it looked. I'll try have had a closer look next time.

Do you know where from Europe they are? I'm Croatian and some of those dishes sound very familiar. My family makes excellent
Cevapi(che-va-pee) and would be interested in trying theirs.