Sandy's [Serbian] Restaurant in Norwood Park

Last night, at the urging of a Serbian colleague, a friend and I dined at Sandy's (Serbian) Restaurant in the Norwood Park neighborhood. Sandy's restaurant is owned by the Danjanvic family who are also the proprietors of Sandy's Bakery and Deli on Lawrence. Sandy's deli is known for its bread, bureks, smoked meats and sausages. I believe it has been mentioned in a couple of threads about cevapcici.


Sandy's Restaurant was a large but surprisingly warm and attractive room with folds of purple velvet draped from the ceiling, maroon and gold table linens and reddish faux textured walls with architectural accents.


Throughout the space were folk art renderings of Serbian domestic scenes painted directly on the walls. Some of the paintings were in recessed panels that our lovely and charming waitress, Ivana, called "windows on our Serbian life". After dinner, Ivana saw me eying the pictures and insisted on walking me around the restaurant describing the activities depicted in each picture, supplemented with stories about her childhood in Serbia.


Soon after our arrival, I realized my camera batteries were dead, so I ran out to get some more. When I returned, Ivana smiled and said "I also like to photograph my food" (my friend has a big mouth). I have to tell you, we felt so welcome at this place, we would go back even if the food was no good. Luckily, that was not the case.


While Serbian cuisine is not terribly creative, and the spicing is far from earth shaking, the home-style dishes at Sandy's were tasty, fresh, well prepared, and very hearty (the portions were huge). The menu was fairly extensive, and written in both Serbian and English.

The meal started out with wonderfully fresh and soft bread, from Sandy's bakery. It was served with a trio of spreads. One seemed to be egg yolk with paprika, another was a slightly sweet and fluffy cream cheese(Kajmak?), and the third was a sort of potato salad. We also enjoyed bowls of a hot beef soup, which was a flavorful thin chowder made with too much butter. It was tasty but quite rich.


I decided to order a mixed grill platter (mešano meso), so I could sample a variety of items. The mixed grill was a massive platter of meat (for $15) consisting of three Ćevapi (lamb, pork, beef and garlic sausage), a Ražnjića (skewered kebab), a marinated chicken cutlet, Vešalica (smoked pork strip) , Pljeskavica (meat patty of beef and lamb) and kobasice (smoked sausage),some chopped onions, and fried potato wedges. All of the meat items were made by Sandy's Deli.

The Ćevapi were flavorful and moist with a wonderful coarse grind and a charcoal charred outside. The other sausage, was very similar to a Georgian Kupat, with a crispy parchment-like skin and a finer ground fatty filling that tasted of garlic, pepper and smoke. Very nice. I didn't ask what meat was in the sausage, but like its Georgian cousin (which contains chicken, lamb and pork), I am sure it was a variety mix. The waitress explained that Serbs love to mix different meats (I suspect it may have a little to do with the Serbian Orthodox flaunting their lack of dietary restrictions).

Although I am not a fan of chicken breast, the marinated and grilled chicken medallion was very good. I was not so fond of the kebab skewer, which was rather dry, but still had a nice char-grilled flavor. The ground beef/lamb patty was OK for what it was, a Serbian version of a fast-food burger. It was nicely spiced, but a little chewy and a little well-done. I guess you can get it stuffed with cheese, which may have been better.

For me, the absolute star of the platter was the smoked pork (naturally). It was perfectly seasoned and well smoked.


At Ivana's suggestion, my friend got a dish called Karadjordjeva šnicla, which she explained was named after Serbia's most famous prince. The Karadjordjeva šnicla was a thinly cut pork steak (or was it veal?), which was stuffed with kajmak (a buttery fermented cream cheese) seasoned with paprika, then rolled up, breaded and baked. Traditionally, this dish is topped with a tartar sauce. Sandy's version had a sauce more like a Mexican crema. The contrasting textures of the tender pork, creamy smooth filling and the crispy coating made the dish special. The meat roll is a big meal, measuring about 10 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter. According to Wikipedia, there are jokes about what part of Prince Karadjordje's anatomy the dish was modeled on (of course, something so crude would never cross our minds ). In actuality, the dish was named after the prince because the garnish made the dish look like the royal badge.


The beverage menu contained a variety of Serbian soft-drinks, several Serbian beers, Balkan wines, Šljivovica and other fruit brandies. I opted for a half liter bottle of Nikšičko Pivo, while my dining partner had a very nice red Montenegrin wine suggested by our server. We passed on the traditional after dinner brandies. I wish I could comment on the desserts but we were so stuffed, we couldn't even consider it. We ended up taking about half our meal home with us.


Sandy's is a fairly large but attractive restaurant that feels warm and inviting. It is, by far, the most upscale Serbian restaurant I have seen outside of Milwaukee; nevertheless the prices are extremely reasonable (our dinner with drinks cost $43 incl. tax). When we were there, the room was pretty sparsely occupied, however on weekends they feature Serbian entertainment, which I assume draws a much bigger crowd. Sandy's also serves a Sunday buffet ($11.95). I get the impression that on the weekends, like the local Russian venues, customers come for dinner, then stay for entertainment and drinks. Like most Balkan and Eastern European restaurants, most of the room is designated for smoking, but it is large and well ventilated enough, that it did not bother us. Saturday nights are probably a different story.


Overall, the authentic Serbian home-style food was very good, and some of it was exceptional. Naturally, the emphasis was on grilled and smoked meat dishes. The sides were mostly an afterthought (like the canned peas with the pork roll). Most vegetables came in the form of relishes, although there were a few decent looking salads on the menu. I look forward to returning to Sandy's and exploring the menu further. I would also love to hit the Sunday after-church buffet sometime, and I will definitely be going to Sandy's deli to get some of the delicious sausage and smoked pork loin that were included in the mixed grill platter.

--dave

Sandy's Restaurant
7021 W Higgins Ave
Chicago, IL 60656
(773) 467-4700

Sandy's Bakery & Deli
5857 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 794-1129

Dave,

Sandy's Restaurant sounds a place to visit as much for the Folk Art and folks running the place as food. It's been a while since I've had Ćevapi, Sandy's sounds a nice evening out.

Enjoy,
Gary

Thanks for posting about this place. My husband is Serbian and we will definitely check it out soon.

Hey!

This is a good place.

Like to say I remembered this long ago post, but it was a bit of fate that got us here tonight. We were going to Halina, but perhaps from not checking that either, I did not know Halina was gone, gone, gone. I walked down the street to look at the Sandy deli. It looked fun for burgers & gribenes (& the bun they gave me to try was excellent), but they were about to close. Go to our other place, they handed me a card. Shortly, we were there.

I cannot think of a better deal here than the family platter for 4. I'll edit later with a pic. Needless to say this was one big plate o' meats. My only complaint, the fries with it were battered-blah's. The ones above looked a lot better.

Besides meat, there was delicious, heavy on the chicken, chicken soup & roasted peppers with an inordinate amount of garlic.

There's a buffets on Sundays that sounds good too. Even better, they told us there will be an even better spread two weeks from now, come Orthodox Easter. We'll be there. Let me know if you want to make it an event.

I have been looking on where to get Nikšičko Pivo around here. I knew someone in the city would have it. If I can find Sarajevski Pivo, I knew Niksic had to be around here somewhere. I love that stuff. The Karadjordjeva šnicla looks devine. Now I have two reasons to put this place on my list.

Here's a little more about our happy meal the other night

I reviewed this place favorably ages ago. I'm glad to see it's doing well and getting some love.

this looks great and is right in my neighborhood i will have to try it

d4v3 wrote:Sandy's Bakery & Deli
5857 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 794-1129

I had passed by Sandy's Bakery & Deli a couple of months ago and noticed one window screaming at me that they have lamb or pork charcoal grilled, of course that got my interest, so I went in. I was there on a weekday and the counter person stated that they only serve the charcoal grilled lamb & pork on weekends, so I made a mental note to stop by on a weekend day.

I did so today, picked up a number of items, a large biscuit like item that was mentioned has the pork cracklings in it, some marinated peppers (both red & banana), a large raw beef patty w/bulger in it, some smoked chicken (which I was told I'd have to finish cooking), and of course some of the charcoal grilled lamb & pork.

The biscuit is to die for, it is no wonder those ahead of me were ordering 4-8 of these, every person (4) ahead of me all got this item. Mine was gone on the short drive back to Des Plaines.

Of course I've also already tasted the pork & lamb. Lamb was dry, salted heavily, I will still enjoy it but I do much better various grilled lamb recipes so won't get this again at Sandy's. The pork held out much more potential, still salted heavy but the skin was delicious & the pork isn't dry. (to be fair I'm guessing they grilled all yesterday and I'm getting pieces that have dried out a bit). I wish the pork would have been rendered a bit more but it still will be delicious.

I'm going to grill out later today so will report back on the chicken & large beef/bulger patty.