Icosium Kafe - Algerian Crepes

Icosium Kafe, located in the front half of the old Mom's/Mon's Bakery space on the corner of Foster & Clark has been open for a couple of years and it's taken me that long to get around to trying it. There have been a couple of mentions of this place on LTH Forum, several of which were about a different location further down on Clark in the Lincoln Park area, but I couldn't find a dedicated thread so I'll start one.

Lunch started out with a nice cup of mint tea, served in a nice tea service including a small, delicate cup that included a sprig of mint, hot water & teabag in a hammered brass(?) teapot and a honey container.

Icosium Kafe Tea Service


My crepe order came with a choice of soup. I chose the chicken, which was excellent Algerian grandmother style soup. It was made with real chicken and came with big chunks of both dark and white meat as well as some nicely diced fresh veggies. There is no doubt that this soup is home made.

Icosium Kafe Chicken Soup


I followed that up with a Crepe Marrakech[sic], which was a slightly thicker than normal crepe surrounding almonds, raisins, spinach, caramelized onions, mint, cream cheese and tapanade. For a slight upcharge, I added house made merguez, and I'm glad I did. The merguez added depth and was excellently prepared.

Icosium Kafe Crepe Marrakech


The crepe was served with some excellent spicy Algerian (actually I think it was really Tunisian) harissa that packed a nice amount of heat and some great flavor.

There was a full menu of dessert crepes. I didn't have room for dessert, so I left those to try another day.

Icosium Kafe
5200 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640
773-271-5233

Great pics! - that Zataar bread just got me hungry

gocubs88 wrote:Great pics! - that Zataar bread just got me hungry

It was actually a little stale, but worked really well when dipped into the soup.

The Lincoln Park outpost recently moved up the street a little bit into a larger space (formerly the awful Mamacita's). For whatever reason, ever since the move the food has gotten even better. In addition to the fantastic chicken soup they will sometimes have a lamb soup available (ask if they don't mention it when they ask you what kind of soup you want with the crepe). Icosium is certainly one of the better dining options on the stretch of Clark.

Icosium has been a great staple of the NoFo scene in A'ville since it opened. That veggie soup with harissa is like CRACK! As for those on stale bread - it is ALWAYS tough, hard and chewy - I think the Zatar 'bread' is really meant to be a a 'finger crouton' (is that a word) for the soup...

Friends are big fans and we all had dinner at Icosium about three weeks ago. It was really sweet - the food was delicious and fun, a nice shift with interesting flavors. Definitely going back!

Jessewolfe1 wrote:'finger crouton' (is that a word)...

It is now...or, a term, at least

Some friends of ours love this place, though, we've never been. Between them and Steve's report, I feel like checking it out.

=R=

Steve's post is the first really nice thing I've heard about Icosuim in a very long time. I've always found the food quite mediocre and way over-priced, and the service very slow. The soup looks good, but every soup I've had there has been bland. At some point I'll give it another try.

We were there last week after a long absence. Thought it was pretty good. Can't really agree with "mediocre and overpriced." $10 for crepe/salad and soup for a table service restaurant is a decent value.

re: overpriced.

I've always thought of most of the ingredients as basically what you'd find at a salad bar. You can get salads or wraps at Mista down the street with many of the same ingredients for about $5. In any case, I wouldn't complain the prices if I thought the food was better. I'll try it again soon and hopefully have a better meal.

The meal I posted about was from my one and only visit. I thought it was very good, especially with the addition of the house made merguez and judicious use of the harissa, which was different from, and much more complex than, the red seedy kind you typically encounter in Mideastern restaurants in Albany Park, for example. I don't know if I just got lucky, but it was a good lunch. I plan on visiting again.

I thought I posted about this last year, but darned if I can find it. We had a good meal there, and I considered it to be much better than the short-lived crepe place in Evanston, where the crepes were about the same price. I particularly remembered the soup from our meal, which was on an oddly chilly evening.

Sparky's all over the Nutella crepe idea.

Mista wraps / salads are good true dat and are around 5 to 6 bucks. But the fresh made gallette / crepe and larger selection of choices (nuts, aformentioned merguez, multiple cheeses, lots of veggie options) seem to justify four or five dollars more IMO

We haven't been back for longer than we should. My recollection is that both the merguez (house-made, if I recall, but perhaps not; I remember asking at the time but my memory is shot these days) and the harissa were excellent. We should have returned long since but...so many places, so little time. Maybe this will be the little push we need.

Mr. X and I had dinner at Icosium Kafe last night. This was my second visit, his first. For the soup, he had the lamb soup and I had the pureed vegetable. We thought both were flavorful. The lamb soup had couscous (I think) in it, which gave it a nice texture. I went with the lamb tajine; he had the Icosium crepe, which consists of roasted peppers, arugula, goat cheese, caramelized onion, fresh roma tomatoes, roasted garlic and baby spinach. I really enjoyed the tagine -- it had peas, artichoke hearts, potatoes in a tasty broth with a good amount of lamb. I was lucky to get a bite of Mr. X's crepe. He wanted dessert and it would have been rude of me to not help him eat it. The Crepe D'Amour (fresh raspberries and Belgian chocolate) hit the sweet spot.

I think it's a nice option for a BYO in the neighborhood. With tip, we were right around $50 for the two of us and I took home at least half my food for a good lunch today. They were busy all night, but service didn't seem slow to me. We'll be back.