Haro

Has anyone made it to this new basque tapas/pintxos place in the Heart of Italy? It's been open for a couple weeks. We're considering making it out there tomorrow, but would love to hear early reviews.

Haro at Metromix
Haro at Centerstage


Haro
(773) 847-2400
2436 S Oakley Ave
Chicago, IL 60608
http://www.harotapas.com/

Weird. A friend just this morning emailed me a blurb about Haro. Piqued my interest, for sure.

Yeah. We're actually going to go at 5 today, so, uh, I'll post later tonight!

Funny you should ask, I was there last night.

We had:

*"House cured" olives, which were nice. Two kinds (arbequina and a fatter one), with cornichons and pickled garlic. Could they possibly be house cured when they've only been open a week? Semantics, maybe, but something I pondered.
*Jamon serrano, which I was not impressed with. Seven dollars for two stale-ish pieces of bread and about a total of two slices of jamon. No olive oil. I will not order this again.
*Baby eels on bread. These were great, fresh, fishy taste. I could eat many of these, and it was nice to see something a bit out of the ordinary. They didn't seem exactly sauteed, as the menu described, but they were good anyway.
*Snails with mushrooms in a cazuela. This was pretty darn good. My complaint was the addition of truffle oil, which I though was superfluous and distracting. My dining companion found it unobjectionable and couldn't eat these fast enough.
*Morcilla! This was fantastic, both bombastic and subtle at the same time. Four good sized sausages served on fennel sauteed with mandarin oranges. This was also a good deal price-wise. Companion found the texture to be a bit mushy, but I didn't have any problem with these.
*Scallops wrapped in jamon. Hard to argue with this. Very good.
*And finally, after a chat with the chef, we got a cazuela absolutely full of braised lamb with a kind of minty yogurt sauce, which was not on the menu. The chef said the lamb was braised for fifteen hours. It was fantastic. He had it because they were serving a pinxto (open faced sandwich) with the lamb. We told him it would be a crime to not put this on the menu, and he said he thought he would. This was the best lamb I've ever had and will be back just for this.

The atmosphere is nice, big Basque and Spanish flags hanging. Lot's of light wood, blocky benches. Bar is neat, room to eat there if no tables are available. Staff is very friendly, if a little frantic at times. We got free sangria while we waited for a table. We were upgraded to a better bottle of wine (a nice Crianza) than we ordered (a Priorat), because they were sold out of that bottle. However, I saw someone at the bar with the bottle and it was a 200* (couldn't see that well), rather than the 1999 that was on the menu. Something to watch for. They had live music, which was a bit loud for that small space in the winter. I think this will be especially nice in the summer, when they'll open up the windows and have tables outside.

I will definitely be back and would love to hear about other experiences.

Kristen

Report:

Pretty crowded at 6pm on a very rainy friday. All the seats at the bar were full, and there were 3 or 4 tables (out of 8 ) occupied besides ours. Nice decor, good service.

Now to the food:

house cured olives - pretty good. Not much variation in the type of olive, but a fine assortment of olives, cornichons, pickled garlic, pickled onions, pickled peppers. ($3)

white asparagus with a paprika aioli? and something else. beth liked this a lot, I was mixed on it, largely because the asparagus was a bit watery. ($5)

patatas bravas. Not quite what I'm used to in patatas bravas, but the variant was nice. paprika aioli and a nice tomato base sandwiching perfectly roasted red and purple potatoes. ($4)

scallops wrapped in jamon serrano, with lemon aioli. I thought these were very nicely done. the scallops were big and meaty and flavorful and the serrano was lightly crispy. ($10)

chorizo with melon. this was bilbao chorizo cut into small discs, about 1/4" thick, served with chunks of honeydew and canteloupe. I'm a huge fan of bilbao chorizo compared to standard spanish chorizo found in every other tapas joint in town. It's juicier, to me, more flavorful. This was a really nice dish, and I'd come back just for this one. very, very simple. ($8 )

prime ribeye with saffron rice and three sauces. these were nice-sized cubes (probably 7-8oz total) of really tasty prime ribeye, skewered with some peppers and perfectly grilled. the sauces were the same paprika cream, a "mojo" sauce, and the cabrales sauce mentioned by kl5 above. The cabrales was VERY blue-cheesy, and quite good. Another very well done dish. The chef is from one of the loop/river north steakhouses, which I think explains a lot. There's an entree version on the menu, with patatas bravas as well, for $28. ($10)


For only being open 10 days, they seem to be running pretty smoothly. As noted above, the service was friendly and mostly efficient, although I think our waiter forgot about us for 20 minutes or so. The food wasn't earth shattering, and it's not going to convince anyone that Chicago's tapas scene is better than, say, the New York/New Jersey area. But it's good.

We'll be back, but we're probably going to do a circuit of some of the other tapas joints in town, first.

gleam wrote:We'll be back, but we're probably going to do a circuit of some of the other tapas joints in town, first.

For the time being, I think that you would be well advised to pass over People Lounge.

It's a night club (poorly) disguised as a tapas bar.


Haro sounds interesting, Ed. Thanks for the review.

E.M.

Erik, from the Center Stage description it actually sounds pretty good. Obviously you feel otherwise, why's that?

Mike G wrote:Erik, from the Center Stage description it actually sounds pretty good. Obviously you feel otherwise, why's that?

My head is more cloudy than usual, this morning. My apologies. Yes, I suppose that some further commentary would be useful:

I tried the tortilla, the cured salmon, the "steak," the chicken skewers, the sauteed mushrooms, the patatas bravas, and the queso de cabra.

I was only impressed with the tortilla. With the exception of the "steak," the remaining items were thoroughly mediocre.* Amatuerish, even.

The menu is very, very limited. The items listed above actually constitute a significant portion of it.

I was very underwhelmed by the wine and beer lists.


As much as I knocked del Toro, its got it all over this place.


E.M.

* The "steak" was hugely disappointing. It was actually a braised skirt steak, seasoned and treated in a manner reminiscent of my grandmother's Sunday roast. And, hey, that is no compliment.

Oh, yes, Mike, you specifically asked about the sangria. Sorry.

It was terrible.

People Lounge
1560 N. Milwaukee Ave.
773.227.9339


E.M.

Post edited to include restaurant link and address.

That's me, Mister Sangria!

I went to Haro on the official opening night, which was probably a bad idea. But I've been reading about this place for months before it opened, and it's close to home, and, well, I was curious.

Gotta say, it was a let down. The band playing on our arrival--bless, their hearts--was good, but far, FAR too loud for the size of the restaurant. We spent a good 15 minutes screaming at each other, over the music, before they packed up for the night.

We ordered the cheese plate, but the cheeses were "eh" at best (not a whole lotta flavor), and we had to ask for bread. And we got stale bread. The jamon was as someone else described...a teeny portion of two kinda dry slivers for a whopping $7. We ordered two pinxtos that tasted remarkably similar: the tuna and crab. Don't know what part of Spain chicken of the sea and mayo on stale bread qualifies as a pinxto, but whatev.

We also tried the eel pinxto and LOVED it, though I fear this item will probably disappear for lack of adventurous diners willing to try it. Tasted noodly and garlicky. But again, on stale bread. What gives?

Oddly enough, we also sampled Van Gogh espresso vodka, at the bartender's request. Surprisingly tasty. Oh, and some authentic Spanish after-drink drink that was pinkish and sweet, but not terrible. It started with an "X", I think? Forgot to write it down.

I will definitely give this place another shot b/c it's relatively closeby, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had a better follow-up experience.

crrush wrote:Oh, and some authentic Spanish after-drink drink that was pinkish and sweet, but not terrible. It started with an "X", I think? Forgot to write it down.

Txakolina. I meant to try a glass after our meal, but neglected to. There is some info. about it here.

Thanks Ed and crrush for the reports.

crrrush wrote:The band playing on our arrival--bless, their hearts--was good, but far, FAR too loud for the size of the restaurant. We spent a good 15 minutes screaming at each other, over the music, before they packed up for the night.

We had the same experience last night. Pig mentioned it to our waiter who said, “If you think this is loud, wait until all of my other reservations get here.” A valid, if snarky point. The only thing was no one else ever showed up…not a soul in there even hours later when we were walking back from our second dinner at Tayahua.

I had called earlier in the day to inquire about a corkage fee, and the gentlemen who answered the phone, said that I was welcome to bring my own, and that they would waive their corkage fee. I thought the verbiage was a little odd; why not just say, we don’t have a corkage fee. But I was pleased with the answer, so I just said thank you and showed up that evening with a bottle of bourbon.

“I don’t know who you talked to, but we have a full bar, so we clearly aren’t BYO, would you like to talk with our manager?”

This was the response we received when we mentioned that we had called ahead to check the BYO status. After deliberations we were granted the one time privilege.

crrrush wrote:We ordered two pinxtos that tasted remarkably similar: the tuna and crab. Don't know what part of Spain chicken of the sea and mayo on stale bread qualifies as a pinxto, but whatev

When they brought a plate of their featured pinxtos (Basque bread with a bit of something on top) to the table, we were confused. Our waiter explained that they were the featured pinxtos--and asked us to take gander, and he'd be back to explain what they were. Are we allowed to eat these? Are they gratis? Kind of a live menu--except I have to say they looked so unappetizing, and frankly they looked old and sweaty. We didn't order any, although we might have if we would have just read about them instead of getting the chance to see them first. Bringing the "showcase platter" to the table, and leaving them there until well after you have ordered was just another stick of awkward to add the our growing collection.

So it was a rocky start…and we all felt a little uneasy—but in the end, they definitely tried to make things right, which is all you can really ask for. They asked the musicians to lower it just a notch, gave us a very nice after dinner treat, and stated that they didn’t like the fact that we got off on the wrong foot.

It’s too bad the food was…the way it was. The only thing we ate that was great was the Morcilla. As Kristen said, it was “bombastic and subtle at the same time.” I’d love to know where they get it from. But everything else I ate was so beat-- Baby eels tasted like spaghetti on toast. Pickled garlic was ok. Escargot and mushrooms were fine, if a little steamy, and although the white truffle oil may have been a little overkill, at least it was flavor. Patatas bravas (hash browns in tomato sauce with a paprika mayo drizzled on top) were what I imagine patatas bravas would taste like if Denny’s had them on their menu. Seriously. The bread tasted like it was baked at White Hen Pantry—thin little sorry discs of spongy-stale bread. I don’t think that the mediocrity of the food was the result of new restaurant jitters, and it certainly wasn’t caused by an overwhelmed kitchen. But I could be wrong.

I really wanted to love this place.

trixie-pea wrote:... The only thing was no one else ever showed up…not a soul in there even hours later when we were walking back from our second dinner at Tayahua.

How was Tayahua?

I’m spending a lot of time now trying to figure out ways to temper my true feelings about last night’s dinner at Haro but I think I’m about to fail miserably. The only thing I can safely say is that anyone who has been blessed enough to have enjoyed the great food of the Basque country of Spain would be horrified with what Haro pawns off as authentic Basque cuisine. From my recollection, what separates Basque cuisine from many other places is their unique and often times pristine fish and shellfish varieties as well as use of quality ingredients. Haro exhibited virtually none of these virtues.
For starters, if you serve any tapas on grossly inferior bread (like in Haro’s case, spongy), you stand absolutely no chance of having success.
Furthermore, it appeared to me that most of their fish came right out of a can (baby eels, sardines, crab, etc.). I question their overall attention to detail, to put it mildly.
It was clear from the start that our server had absolutely no knowledge or experience with this cuisine. Besides butchering the pronunciations of several dishes as well as ingredients (example: Manchego was pronounced ma-chee-go), I found his pseudo-confidence to be an extreme irritant.
Experiences like this give ETA (Basque separatist movement) further reason to continue their struggle against all enemy forces. This place has absolutely nothing to do with what I experienced culinarily in northern Spain whatsoever. If you have ideas of experiencing a true taste of the Basque country, then Haro might not be for you.
It should be said, though, that my perceptions of Basque food are so lofty that my criticisms might be overstated for somebody who hasn’t had this wonderful cuisine in person. Even so, it’s very hard for me to give Haro any credit since they missed the point on virtually every front.

Amata wrote:How was Tayahua?

Good as always.

PIGMON wrote:I’m spending a lot of time now trying to figure out ways to temper my true feelings about last night’s dinner at Haro but I think I’m about to fail miserably. The only thing I can safely say is that anyone who has been blessed enough to have enjoyed the great food of the Basque country of Spain would be horrified with what Haro pawns off as authentic Basque cuisine. From my recollection, what separates Basque cuisine from many other places is their unique and often times pristine fish and shellfish varieties as well as use of quality ingredients. Haro exhibited virtually none of these virtues.
For starters, if you serve any tapas on grossly inferior bread (like in Haro’s case, spongy), you stand absolutely no chance of having success.
Furthermore, it appeared to me that most of their fish came right out of a can (baby eels, sardines, crab, etc.). I question their overall attention to detail, to put it mildly.
It was clear from the start that our server had absolutely no knowledge or experience with this cuisine. Besides butchering the pronunciations of several dishes as well as ingredients (example: Manchego was pronounced ma-chee-go), I found his pseudo-confidence to be an extreme irritant.
Experiences like this give ETA (Basque separatist movement) further reason to continue their struggle against all enemy forces. This place has absolutely nothing to do with what I experienced culinarily in northern Spain whatsoever. If you have ideas of experiencing a true taste of the Basque country, then Haro might not be for you.
It should be said, though, that my perceptions of Basque food are so lofty that my criticisms might be overstated for somebody who hasn’t had this wonderful cuisine in person. Even so, it’s very hard for me to give Haro any credit since they missed the point on virtually every front.

Haven't you heard?

E.M.

P.S. See you at The 'Box. [And, hey, Trix, make sure that he's cooled out. ]

I went to Haro this past Saturday night. I have read mixed reviews about it on this site as well as in some print media. I think that those who tried it when it first opened should give it another chance. We all know that when a place first opens it has to work out the bumps. I personally enjoyed it and would go back. Good decor, nice music (it was not live music when I went), very personable staff and great food and Sangria. The lamb was incredible as was the shrimp with garlic, lemon and pepper flakes in olive oil. After dinner we hung out at the bar and met lots of really nice people. Mixed crowd of young trendy hipsters, to older locals from the neighborhood including other owners of some of the best eating establishments in Chicagoland. That alone is a compliment to Haros.

Very comfortable atmosphere, good food and good people.

Isn't that what dining out is all about?

JoBlahBlah wrote:Very comfortable atmosphere, good food and good people.

Isn't that what dining out is all about?

Welcome to LTHForum.

That's my take as well. And while the food may not measure up to anyone's memories of Spain, they're certainly serving things you can't get elsewhere in Chicago, even if you just drink at the bar.

Was just there for my mother's birthday last weekend.

It was a hot, humid and busy evening. The windows were open and gentle breeze was coming in, but so were many bugs that were attracted by the glaringly bright and atmosphere killing intense white lights under the awnings. These lights shone inward way too much and fishing gnats out of your wine glass also spoils the enjoyment, at least until we hit our 4th bottle anyway.

The bread served was unremarkable as was the olive oil. I apologize for not remembering the dishes' names, but we had some boiled egg stuffed with crab and tuna-stuffed roasted red pepper dishes that didn't seem to work well for me. I think the combinations were interesting but not successful. The serrano ham, as noted in an earlier post, was uninteresting. The patas bravas on the other hand, were quite delicious, very crunchy and flavorful. The aioli was tangy and spicy. The spanish chorizo was very good and dense and the Jerez sauce was sweet and fruity without being syrupy. The morcillas were pretty good too, nice texture, not too dry and not too heavy. The scallops in jamon serrano were very good, however the jamon again wasn't the best and it was a tad tough. I think that particular jamon is too dry for that application. Certainly bacon works well with scallops, so perhaps a different aged ham would be better suited, something fattier more like a parma vechio. (yeah I know, different country, but still). The lamb dish was excellent. Can't remember what was in it or how it was braised, but wow, that was tasty!

On the dessert end we had a cherry creme brulee that was out of this world. Unfortunately our server was not well versed in Spanish brandies and whether they even had any! Eventually they did bring out a nice Conde de Osboune for us which paired quite nicely with the brulee.

The service, hit or miss. Very friendly staff, but I think perhaps they were understaffed. Erratic is a good description. The entertainment was very good, although a bit loud for the size. Ok, maybe more than a bit. The flamenco dancer and guitarist were excellent, but having her dance on a 2'x3' piece of plywood 2 feet from my ears was harsh. I enjoy flamenco, but usually from a little farther away.

Overall I enjoyed Haro, the food was very good aside from a few unimpressive dishes, but I didn't think anything was bad. They still need to address some service issues and get rid of those annoying parking lot lights that are under the awnings! Maybe we'll try again in the autumn.

Check out the most recent episode of "Check, Please." Fred, the retired attorney, commented that he really liked Haro's food but that the servings were so small. No kidding.

David "With more faith than ever in our legal profession" Hammond

David Hammond wrote:Check out the most recent episode of "Check, Please." Fred, the retired attorney, commented that he really liked Haro's food but that the servings were so small. No kidding.

David "With more faith than ever in our legal profession" Hammond

That may have been the funniest Check Please ever. Fred was great.

In addition to being the funniest 'Check Please' ever, it was probably the most surreal episode ever aired. Granted, the producers attempt to diversify the guests and the restaurants, but this time they really hit a home run.

As pedestrian and uncool as this may sound, I also loved Fred.

Fred may have had the greatest line in the history of Check Please with regard to Karyn's, the Lincoln Park Raw Food Restaurant:

"A few million years ago, we invented fire. They should use it."

. And while the food may not measure up to anyone's memories of Spain, they're certainly serving things you can't get elsewhere in Chicago, even if you just drink at the bar.

I have to agree. We have been there twice, and i really enjoy everything about the place, atmosphere, food, service, entertainment. The creme brulee is fantastic and we really enjoyed the sausage with fava beans, flank steak with potatoes and blue cheese sauce, figs apples apricots wrapped in serrano ham and many more. The only misses were the potatoes in tomato sauce/aioli and the bread.

That Check Please is a classic, we even watched on the second showing saturday afternoon. My favorite was watching Alpana sip way more wine that usual and I think at the end as the music/credits were rolling she said (although it was hard to hear, so I may have misheard) "that wasn't so bad, was it?".

LO wrote:That Check Please is a classic, we even watched on the second showing saturday afternoon. My favorite was watching Alpana sip way more wine that usual and I think at the end as the music/credits were rolling she said (although it was hard to hear, so I may have misheard) "that wasn't so bad, was it?".

I thought I heard Alpana say that, too. I just watched that episode on TiVO last night and was cracking up so hard that I had to rewind certain "scenes" in order to appropriately get the reactions.

Fred, about Haro's portions:

"How are you supposed to split one dish amongst 6 people?"

I thought the "innocently" asked "You didn't try the Green Goddess salad?" with one raised eyebrow was executed pretty well.

I, too, saw the episode...Fred should be nominated for "Check, Pleaser" of the Series. The fire comment SLAYED me. The other guy was almost too much to watch. I've never seen someone communicate so completely and thoroughly in 'up speak'. "The tapas? I thought they were good? And the dessert? Was soooo delicious?"

I admit that the only reason I tuned in was to see who nominated Haro, and find out what other people thought about it. I still don't get this place, or how people can rave about the food. I've been four or five times (including the opening night, which I'm not basing my overall opinion on), and EVERY time, we were served stale bread--and only after asking several times for the bread. What's with the bread? Seriously? A simple answer might be to just avoid the bread, but it's so basic. So fixable. So quintessential to the whole pinxtos thing, wouldn't you say? Which brings me back to those over-rated stale-bread-topped bites. Tuna salad on top of a piece of (stale) bread does not a pinxtos, pinchos or tapas make. Let the hordes of Check, Please sheeple have at this place.

I agree, hands down the craziest Check Please ever. I'm glad several of you echoed the sentiments I felt as I watched alone on a Friday night. I was yelling similar comments back to the TV.

Chicagoist has a good roundup of the episode as well.

I would love to see some of the comments that didn't make it on camera. I'd bet it was much funnier than the stuff we got to see.