Mint Julep Bistro - Palatine

I only recently learned about this newish restaurant in downtown Palatine. I was really excited since the menu looked good, and there really aren't that many restaurants that I like in the area. I met a friend for lunch today. I had trouble deciding, but went with the Southern BLT with sweet potato fries. The BLT was served on a nice crusty, Italian roll with garlic aioli, thickly sliced, applewood smoked bacon, and fried green tomatoes. It was delicious! The garlic aioli had just the right amount of garlic to it. The sweet potato fries were thin, but not quite shoestring and coated with sugar and a touch of cinnamon. It was a huge portion, and even though I was so full, I could not stop eating these - it was like crack. I liked that these were sweet, whenever I made them at home, I always used salt & a dash of cayenne. My friend ordered the po'boy sandwich with blackend catfish, which he enjoyed. For drinks, I went with the sweet tea, and he went with the Southern Lemonade. Being from the Midwest, we had never had Southern Lemonade, which was made with lemons, lime and vanilla. He really liked it. I love sweet tea, so I could not resist, but next time I will have to try the Southern Lemonade. I look forward to trying their dinner and brunch menu. The staff is very nice and attentive. They had a decent showing of customers for a Saturday lunch.

Mint Julep Bistro
53 W. Slade St.
Palatine IL
847-934-3000
Lunch Tues-Sat 11am-2pm
Dinner T, W, Th 5-9pm; F, Sat 5-10pm
Bistro Breakfast Sun 9:30am-2pm
Afternoon tea service Tues-Sun 1-4pm Reservation only

I made it back for dinner sooner than I expected as I was too tired to cook dinner after co-hosting a bridal shower earlier in the day. We were seated in one of the front rooms again, but this time, there was a boisterous table of 8. We really couldn't handle the noise level as I was *thisclose* to a splitting headache already. We requested a different table, but all that was available was a bistro table in the bar area. Fine by us!

I finally tried the Southern Lemonade, but I was disappointed - too sweet for my tastes. My b/f had the drink special, which was ice tea infused vodka mixed with lemonade. We inquired about the vodka later to learn that it was made by Firefly. Good stuff for me given that I do not really drink.

Seeing that their entrees are quite generous for our appetites, we skipped appetizers. He had the country fried steak with mashed potatoes and green beans. His green beans were seasoned very nicely, cooked perfectly and topped with bacon. I was glad to have tasted a couple as they were delicious. The country fried steak was great. The batter reminded me of my mom's fried porkchops. I ordered the jambalaya with shrimp, crawfish, and andouille. There was 3 large pieces of andouille. The jambalaya had a really nice kick and a deep flavor to it. Still no room for dessert, but the choices look good.

I had lunch there with a friend last week. We ordered stuffed dates and fried green tomatoes for apps. They were both amazing! I really enjoyed that the FGTs weren't traditional with a cornmeal crust and actually were chicken-fried. Mmmmm... I had the blackened catfish po' boy with extra remoulade. It was served with sweet potato fries. My friend had the chicken crepes which were phenomenal. Definitely can't wait to go back. I would like to check out their brunch too. It looks really GOOD!

Almost forgot to post about a recent dinner here after a rare trip by my wife to meet me in Arlington Heights after work and grab dinner nearby. We shared an order of the bacon-wrapped stuffed dates, which were quite good - the best dish of the night, actually. Mint julep shrimp were fine though not particularly memorable. When it came to entrees, my wife thought her catfish seemed just a little bit off, but she was hard-pressed to define exactly how. I want to be clear that she didn't think it had spoiled, and she ate most of it, but something about it was a little bit off-putting to her.

The pulled pork was smothered in a sweet barbecue sauce that I could have done either entirely without or at least with much less of. Menu claims the meat is smoked on site, but only the occasional bite contained any smokey flavor at all, and not much when it did. The grit cakes that came with it were very bland; probably not something I would order a second time. I preferred the rather large hush puppies that came with my wife's catfish.

Where Pucca's Southern Lemonade was too sweet, I found the drink brought to my wife to be pleasantly tart and low on sugar; it was actually not sweet enough for her taste. My sweet tea was a little sweeter than I would have liked, but perfect for the wife, and a trade was happily made. A piece of magnolia pie shared for dessert was more agreeable than the entrees, but not really worthy of note or praise.

All in all it was a rather average meal, and we found ourselves a bit disappointed compared to our expectations after reading the original write-ups. They might be going through some newer restaurant growing pains though, and I'll consider returning for lunch at some point in the future for a comparison.

I posted this in the openings/closed thread as well. Looks like Mint Julep Bistro in downtown Palatine has closed. I tried going there for dinner last month after purchasing my restaurant.com g/c. When I walked up to their door, it was locked up and empty at dinner time. I later learned from calling them that they were only open for lunch during the summer. Seems odd to me. A couple of days later, I received an email from restaurant.com offering me an exchange b/c MJB was no longer participating in the program.

I drove by more recently, and all the windows have been covered w/paper. Their phone number has been disconnected. I thought they were doing brisk business. They were even featured on Check Please, FWIW. Upon reading more recent reviews on Yelp, looks like the restaurant made a lot of changes to the menu recently.

It seems they were not doing too well on weekdays and the Check Please effect didn't last long - http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=392601


The location will soon house Hotshots, another bar....
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=398240