lonesome rose review
Well, what can you really expect from a trendy, uber-instagrammable spot (with nearly 15k followers, mind you) near Wicker Park/Logan Square? I guess maybe good food if it’s sometimes hard to book a table on Resy and has a 4/5 stars on yelp. Honestly though, my roommate and I agreed that the food was really nothing to come back for.
We visited Lonesome Rose on a sunny Sunday morning for brunch around 1pm- we were 5 minutes late because parking was impossible on California, and we were a bit nervous since we had a reservation and guessed the restaurant would be bustling as most Chicago restaurants are around 1pm on a weekend afternoon. When we finally walked in, it wasn’t bustling as we thought it would be- instead we walked into a large open space full of hanging plants and small wooden tables filled with a few large groups as well as some smaller parties. I would guess there were about 10 tables seated inside and outside. It honestly didn’t seem like we really needed a reservation even though when I had reserved a table the night before, only two time slots were available.
I ordered my food off of the Brunch menu- a breakfast bowl including Rice, Black Beans, Queso Fresco, Pico de Gallo, Salsa Roja and a Fried Egg for $9 and added avocado for $2. Not terrible pricing for Chicago.
I took my first bite and was not impressed. If you zoom in on that picture above, you can see there’s literally no seasoning. Like... not even cilantro or salt. The only speckles of possible seasoning is in the Salsa Roja but I can assure you it just brought some heat, no flavor. Like just look at the avocado. She’s bare. My roommate got 3 different varieties of the breakfast taco and was not impressed either. It is possible that the breakfast simply isn't as good as the main menu- a lot of the reviews seem to be gassing the food up. If you want a second opinion, I’ve linked a video at the bottom of the post.
While looking at reviews, it seems like a lot of the hype surrounds the patio and drink menu- neither of which we experienced- but I do think it’s important to focus on the food since it is listed as a Mexican restaurant and isn’t really a bar by my definition since they close at 11pm, meaning they probably stop serving alcohol around 10:30pm. I will, however, humor the bar idea here and tell you about their pricing. It seems like most of their cocktails go for around $11 which is pretty standard for this area of Chicago and most of them are pretty creative and photogenic if you’re into that kind of thing.
Another review that I read on The Infatuation confirmed our suspicions that there’s not much seasoning in the food, but they had a few tips for Lonesome Rose new-comers. They did say it’s a great place to eat only if you know what to order.
So, all in all, I would go back to try a drink since that seems like a huge pull for Lonesome Rose, and maybe I’d go back to try some food off of their regular menu, I just hope they have a little bit of salt in the food next time.
If you’re interested in more reviews of Lonesome Rose, here’s what I’ve found!
number six with cheese (YouTube review/mukbang/vlog)
The Infatuation (blog review)