Ethnic Wedding Reception

I recently got engaged and my fiance and I have decided tha we would love to have our reception in a nice, ethnic restaurant instead of the run of the mill banquet facility. I'm having a hard time finding ethnic (Indian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Mexican, etc) restaurants that have space big enough for 50 people as well as parking. I would like to find a place that is still fancy enough for a wedding but with great food. Thank you for the help in advance!

Hot Wok Village in Hoffman Estates has a really large banquet room and excellent Chinese/Indian food. They were actually having a reception last time I was there.

I'm surprised that you haven't had luck with Indian and Mexican in particular. If you are willing to look outside the city, I know that there's a huge Indian banquet hall in Darien off of 75th. Also, I know that the larger places on Devon often cater weddings at other venues. If "ethnic" can include Polish, Bohemian, Russian, or Italian, I think your choices expand greatly. Klas, White Nights and similar could be a blast. Then, there's the answer to so many questions, with parking and the wedding food of my dreams:

http://www.sabatinoschicago.com/private.htm

Reza's on Ontario has a private room. never been in the private room, but I like the way the restaurant looks. Nice bar area, very "airy" lots of wood. Kind of in-between as far as adventurous food. (Persian- plenty for kids to like if they are not very adventurous) Reza's has pretty good food that I could see done well in a mass production setting. Their Vegetarian stew type dishes is where I find them lacking. Kebabs, whitefish, cornish hens, falafel, dips all are decent, and in a nicer setting than most places to get the same.

First thing that came to my mind.

Not sure if this is what you had in mind but Frontera Grill has a private room that's very nice but I'm not sure how many people it holds.

According to the Frontera website, the upper limit in their Morales room is 40.

How about taking over the whole restaurant at Sol de Mexico?

Amata wrote:How about taking over the whole restaurant at Sol de Mexico?

Funny you should mention that; Sol de Mexico came to my mind, too, though I'm not sure it qualifies as "fancy." We had actually considered having our LTH holiday party there, but decided not to because we feared we might over-tax the kitchen (note: this was a fear that was never substantiated...but still, a fear).

JeffB wrote:I'm surprised that you haven't had luck with Indian and Mexican in particular. If you are willing to look outside the city, I know that there's a huge Indian banquet hall in Darien off of 75th. Also, I know that the larger places on Devon often cater weddings at other venues. If "ethnic" can include Polish, Bohemian, Russian, or Italian, I think your choices expand greatly. Klas, White Nights and similar could be a blast. Then, there's the answer to so many questions, with parking and the wedding food of my dreams:

http://www.sabatinoschicago.com/private.htm

There's India House in Schaumburg, which could hold full Indian wedding (300+) people.

India House
1500 W. Schaumburg Road
Schaumburg, IL 60193

If Italian is ethnic enough, I've shot a wedding at Spiaggia that held about 50-60 people. Very classy and unbelievable food, although expensive:

Spiaggia
980 N. Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 280-2750

try modernbride.com

Hi,

New Furama in Chinatown has a Chinese banquet hall, which can accomodate several hundred. I went to a reception in November which closely paralleled a Chinese wedding feast less two dishes: soup and a lobster course,

New Furama Restaurant
2828 S Wentworth Ave # 2
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 225-6888

For LTHforum's first anniversary party, we had 81 people for Korean BBQ for $25 per person including cakes we purchased at BomBom. We were allowed to bring our own booze and take over their reception hall.

Garden Buffet Restaurant
5347 N Lincoln Ave (at Balmoral)
Chicago, IL 60625

I see Klas has been already mentioned. They have several banquet halls, though I just love their Zhivago Room.

For a Russian Wedding, there is the White Nights restaurant and banquet hall at Higgins and Mannheim Roads.

I really do hope you report back on the outcome.

Regards,

What about Tiffin on Devon? Not sure about parking, but their room can certainly fit 50 people.

2536 W Devon Ave, Chicago, 60659 - (773) 338-2143

Midori Japanese restaurant has an attached bar which is very nicely decorated, holds about 50 people, and is used solely for private functions. The Japanese staff and Mexican sushi chef are talented and accomodating. Street parking is not too difficult. I believe they even have in-house DJ and karaoke equipment, if that's your thing.

Midori Japanese Restaurant
3310 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
773-267-9733

Hot Wok Village in Hoffman Estates has a really large banquet room and excellent Chinese/Indian food

has anyone eaten here lately? a coworker and I were going to have lunch there today but changed our minds when we saw there was literally no one there at 12:15...

I ate at Hot Wok VIllage not that long ago and at first I was put off that no one else was really there at 6 PM on a Saturday... but we stuck it out anyways... our service was spotty (if that) but the food was really, really good.