Los Niches in Rogers Park

Yesterday I finally made it to Los Niches, a relatively new Colombian Restaurant on North Clark in Rogers Park. It had been on the itinerary for the recent Clark-A-Thon. However, we never quite made it that far, and decided to save it for Clark-a-thon part 2.

Los Niches occupies a storefront near Clark and Albion that was formerly the home of Los Molcajetes. Upon entering, the first thing I noticed is that the restaurant is spotlessly clean and bright. The room is rather spartan, with a few decorative touches, like some brightly colored clay nick-nacks dotting the walls and some kind of fountain in the corner. However, compared to El LLano, the rather cluttered Colombian restauarant up the street, it looks almost sterile. The tables had some pleasant touches such as votive candles and little sprigs of Bamboo growing in glass vases, as well as (plastic covered) tablecloths and cloth napkins.

The menu consists of the usual grilled Colombian specialties like Churrasco (sirloin), Sobre Barriga (skirt steak), Sausage and Chicken. Los Niches also serves a fair selection of seafood and fish, including Red Snapper, Porgie, Catfish as well as various Shrimp dishes and Ceviche. Each day of the week, they feature a different soup or stew. Thursday's soup was Mondongo (tripe soup), which I really wanted to try. Unfortunately, they were out of it (actually, I suspect they never made it). Tuesday's soup is Sanocho de Costillas or Rib Stew, which also sounds interesting. Besides the dinner menu, they also serve breakfast and 4 reasonably priced lunch specials.

For beverages, they offer Colombian fruit juices and licuados including Guanabana, Mora, Maracuya, Mango and Lulo, as well as a selection of Colombian soft drinks. Although they don't serve liquor, the menu listed pitchers of Refajo (beer and coca-cola mixed together). BYOB is allowed.

Los Niches is a friendly family run operation. Our young waitress was very sweet and attentive, but service was a tad slow. Since this was our first visit to the restaurant, we decided to play it pretty safe and stick with the standards. For starters we had a couple of empanadas that were very good (especially for $1 each). The shells were crisp yet crumbly, and the filling of potatoes and meat was moist and tasty (seemed like there was some mustard in there?). I also had a generous glass of Lulo, which was wonderfully refreshing. For entrees, we ordered the two most expensive dishes on the menu (12.95 apiece). My dining partner had a dish called Matrimonio, and I had the Bandeja Paisa.

The Matrimonio was an impossibly huge platter of charcoal grilled sirloin and flattened chicken breast accompanied by a potato, plantain, yuca and a fresh and garlicky salsa chimichurri. As is usual in Colombian restaurants, the meat was pretty well charred and a touch dry. Nevertheless, it was relatively tender and very flavorful.


My Bandeja Paisa consisted of a huge platter of rice, beans, grilled steak, fried pork belly, sausage, avocado, plantain, a mini arepa and a fried egg.


It was all pretty tasty, particularily the sausage. I especially enjoyed the beans that were in a mustard sauce. The mini Arepa was sort of worthless for sopping up the beans and egg. If I order this dish again, I will get a full-size arepa on the side.

Needless to say, we did not have room for any deserts. However, the desert selection looked interesting. Aside from flan and cheesecake, Los Niches offers Brevas con Arequipe (figs in caramel) and Aborrajado (plantains and guava with cheese).

It is difficult to judge a restaurant after just one visit, but all in all, we were very pleased with our meal. The food at Los Niches is nothing extraordinary, but it is fresh and well-made home-style Colombian cuisine at very affordable prices. Moreover, the family that runs the place could not be more welcoming.

Los Niches does not offer the variety of charcoal grilled meats that are available at El Llano, up the street (no rabbit or lamb). Other than that, the menu at Los Niches is very similar to El Llano (in selections and prices), with the addition of the aforementioned daily soup specials and some of the seafood entrees. I think the quality and quantity of the food is favorably comparable. I did find the atmosphere at Los Niches to be more pleasant, as well as brighter and cleaner than El Llano, but without as much character (I like El Llano, but sometimes it smells a little funky). I think I will continue to get the wonderful whole grilled chickens to go at El LLano, but I will definitely return to Los Niches soon for another sit-down meal.


---dave

Los Niches
6619 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60626
773 338-1529

We also ate luch recently at Los Niches. We had the arepa con queso to start, a kind of corn flat bread (considerablty thicker than a tortilla, though) stuffed with melted cheese; one of the lunch specials, the costillas de puerco asada, succulently grilled pork ribs; and the daily soup for Saturday, the sancocho de gallina, a rich chicken soup with loads of vegetables -- carrots, corn, yucca, greens .... When I overtaxed the limits of my Spanish to try to ask exactly ow the ribs were cooked (baked first and then cooked on a grill), the waitress gently let me know that she spoke English too (which she did fluently), adding that she appreciated my atempts to speak her language. For drinks, we had their fruit preparations (you can order them with water -- our preference -- or milk): passion fruit, guanabana, and blackberry. The passion fruit was particularly good. We had the natilla for dessert, the only disappointment on the menu. We heartily agree that the service is extremely friendly and the food is good. I should add that we have had sancocho at the home of a friend who is from Colombia, and this kind of soup is quite typical. I don't know other restaurants that serve it (though there must be some, given the number of Colombians in Chicago); they have an assortment of versions, with beef, chicken, and trip (mondongo). The seafood also seems very tempting, and we want to go back to try it. Except for the grilled cuts of beef, the range of options is significantly different from El Llano. This is a wlecome addition to North Clark,

rgl201 wrote: The seafood also seems very tempting, and we want to go back to try it. Except for the grilled cuts of beef, the range of options is significantly different from El Llano. This is a wlecome addition to North Clark,

I am happy that you also had a good experience at Los Niches. It is the kind of place I really want to succeed, and sometimes that clouds my judgement. It is good to have our impressions validated.

Yeah, the soups and stews and some of the seafood dishes that are not offered at El Llano and elsewhere are intriguing. Unfortunately, having never been to Los Niches before, we went with the lowest common denominator and stuck to the grilled dishes, which were very good, but not so unusual. The food did have an authentic "home-cooked" feel to it. The next time we go there, we will be a little more adventurous. I am hoping the place lives up to first impressions and becomes a regular neighborhood destination.

Thanks for the pics and review. I hope to hit this place tomorrow for lunch... I'll let you know how it goes.