Local Root

Alright, so I appreciate the whole «farm to table» concept. I’m all for it. In my experience these types of places are quick, have a robust food menu, and stellar customer service. Things I liked: the ambiance, and their in-​house sodas. Spunky. Now let’s get into my grievances with this spot:
We opted for this place today after learning they had a Restaurant Week Lunch Menu. For $ 22, the selection was pretty bleak. My butternut squash soup was good and portabella mushroom sandwich was tasty (goat cheese made it flavorful, otherwise it would’ve just been «meh»). Service was so ridiculously slow– we were sitting around idly for 40 minutes during our lunch hour, waiting for the third course. I had selected an Apple Fritter but asked for it to be packed. When I opened it up to eat just now, it looked half eaten. Regardless of whether or not it was, the portion size was meager, at best. Really lame deal for $ 22.
Especially upset by our experience here today because one of my friends is gluten-​free, and she had specified her restriction to the waiter upon ordering. Lo and behold, her plate came out with potatoes touching her omelette (potatoes shouldn’t have even been on the plate, it’s all gluten!). Sure, they corrected their mistake… but it took over 15 minutes. In principle, it should have been deducted from the bill, but I won’t get into that.
All in all, was hoping for a better experience… but won’t bother going back.

I like that there’s finally an organic focused restaurant downtown. There could be some improvements and some things made me hesitant trust the place. For example, I called and asked what oil they cook with and they said an olive oil canola blend. Then I asked if the canola was certified organic. They looked for a certification and said «yes, it says non-​GMO» not realizing that non-​GMO and certified organic are not the same. I was concerned about why an organic focused restaurant wouldn’t know the difference.
When I went into eat, the waitress told me the meats were all organic. But, I brought up that some of the farms I recognized and those weren’t certified organic. She clarified they weren’t all certified organic but that the farms do followed organic practices. I wish she was more upfront about how they were defining organic, it just seemed a little sneaky. I was left wondering if the farms really did follow ALL organic practices. I understand that verification costs money and like the idea of supporting non-​certified but organic practicing farms, but the way the waitress said it made it seem like she didn’t know what certified organic meant which made me wonder if she knew what organic practices were. The restaurant seemed to focus more on the local aspect than the organic aspect.
I enjoyed my steak. The bread pudding was great. I’d like to support more organic focused places. I wish this one was more upfront about how they were defining organic.

Wow!
I’m really glad that I didn’t check the reviews before going to Local Root!
I was driving my son to the airport and we were trying to find a lunch place that served clean, tasty organic options (besides the café in Whole Foods).
My son ordered a mocha coffee drink which was rich & delicious and I started with some Jasmine Tea which you get at least 2 full cups of in the pot.
I’m self admittedly a tea snob and a stickler for organic tea. The selection was fun and my choice was soooo good — like a warm hug — very satisfying!
He ordered a burger — after the first bite he was interrupted from inhaling it only to say how amazing it was. Edzo’s (Burgers) in Evanston is an excellent option for grass fed and organic beef burgers, truffle fries etc, and finding this place was a real treat.
He said the burger tasted like it had truffle in it. It was served with home made chips as well.
I ordered the beet/​arugula/​goat cheese salad with candied walnuts and a piece of salmon on the side.
The salad was fresh, the dressing was perfect and the salmon was moist and extremely tasty (I’m craving it right now).
This place will definitely be a «go to» place when in the area.
I’m not sure about these other mixed reviews, I just know we had excellent meals as well as friendly attentive service.
BTW — I rarely write reviews on Unilocal but this restaurant deserved my recognition.

I wanted to love this place, as it’s in my neighborhood, but it’s just not my jam. I respect what they’re trying to do with local, organic food — but for me, the taste just wasn’t there. I ordered apple cinnamon french toast for brunch, and it just wasn’t good — the apple compote was good, but there wasn’t much of it, and the french toast itself was very dry and flavorless. I added a lot of whipped cream (which was fantastic) to make it work. My side of bacon was quite tasty, but my friend was also underwhelmed with her breakfast burrito — it needed something to liven it up. She asked for sour cream (they didn’t have any) and settled for salsa, which helped but didn’t redeem the dish.
I understand why the prices are higher, and I know that, in theory, the quality of ingredients is probably higher. But it didn’t translate into a more enjoyable dish, and I don’t feel passionately enough about eating local to return.

Went for dinner. Great shared plates — the cheese and toast board was our fave of the 3 we tried as appetizers. The pretzel with cheese was good but the pretzel is more like pretzel bread and cheese sauce is mild.
We actually ordered 4 different apps, but the waiter forgot one of them. We didn’t say anything bc we had plenty of food. And we were not charged for it at the end, so no corrections were necessary.
Then we had 4 different entrees. I had the pork loin, others had sandwiches and salad. Everyone seem satisfied with their food. I thought the pork loin was good but just a little dry. I almost expected that when I ordered since stuffed pork is hard to do perfectly.
Really likes the atmosphere of the place. I would come back to try their brunch if I was in the area. Don’t think I would for dinner since it is a smallish bistro menu and my group of 4 probably ate half the menu in one sitting.
I give it 3.5 stars because we had a few mistakes but I think the group had an overall satisfactory /​good experience. Nice quiet place for dinner.

The food itself was good, so no complaints there. The service on the other hand was a bit lacking. Had a very unenthusiastic waiter and looked as if he was hungover. Look, I get it, we’ve all somewhat been there, but I couldn’t overcome the slow, awkward service.

Confusion and side talk encompassed the host process. Sure we walked in without a reservation but the hostess appeared confused as what to do and then carried on a 5 minute conversation with what appeared to be the bus boy without speaking one word to us.
The food was boring and bordering on bad.
The service was good.

I was expecting a lot more, and being the one of 3 – 4 people having lunch outside on a Wednesday afternoon… I expected some service. I specifically asked that my crabcakes be served with salad, they said «of course» and I got no salad. In that time, my waiter disappeared forrrrrrrrrrever so I just dropped it. Pretty spendy for what you actually get.

They have a dog friendly patio! We come here on summer nights with our puppy and he loves to people watch.
The food is pretty good. I pretty much have only ordered the burger. It’s always huge so I end up taking off half the bun and eating the rest with my fork and knife.
They usually have drink specials too. Nicely poured drinks that aren’t too pricey are always good, right?
The servers are really nice and attentive!

My friends and I needed a place to have some good breakfast food that didn’t require a 45 minute wait and this was something that I stumbled upon. I was pleasantly surprised because I enjoyed this place much more than I thought I would. The atmosphere was much more inviting and relaxing as compared to your regular Sunday brunch crowd.
The staff was very friendly, from the hostess to our server. We also ordered bottomless mimosas ($ 19) and they were truly bottomless because I wait or made sure we had a pitcher ready for us to refill our drink at all times.
I ordered the eggs Benedict with pulled pork and it was very tasty. The potatoes on the side were also very delicious. Another review described the ketchup being underwhelming, but it was very fresh and made in house, literally, all the ingredients were natural and non processed (tomato paste, tomato purée, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, etc.) which may be why someone comparing to ordinary ketchup was not pleased.

We went for brunch– it was not busy… I have figured why! Our server was great, the iced tea and orange juice was delicious, the rest of the meal, however– was not. The Mac and cheese was bland and flavorless– we added salt and hot sauce to eat it. The crab cake Benedict was burnt and inedible. The chicken and waffles was terrible. The waffle was flat and the flavor was sub par– had an odd taste. I had the pork Benedict. It was awful. The pork was not good– all I could eat was the eggs. Also need to mention that it took forever to be served our meals. Not sure what was going on in the kitchen. The pain of it? 3 people was $ 90.00 including tip. No alcohol. We left and took an über to go eat– we were hungry!

Though they clearly try very hard to promote the «local», «organic» and «homemade» brand, this is nothing more than a pricey, average brunch place with very standard at best food.
The waiters are not really accommodating of special requests and customizations and try to charge extra for any changes to the menu, which is fair, however they also don’t seem to put that much thought into what I ordered, bringing me regular coffee when I asked for iced. It wasn’t a big deal, but that was just an added annoyance on top of the others.
I would probably opt for something different next time, but it was overall just a fairly average dining experience.

The breakfast was absolutely delicious! The ingredients they use are all one’s looking for in a healthy meal. The kids shared pancakes. We had poached veggie ciabatta something which was a hearty meal and very delicious. The service could’ve been better as they didn’t remember little details like whip cream on those pancakes. Yet the servers were very nice, apologized profusely and blamed it on not been used to so many customers on a Monday. Overall good breakfast!

I really wanted to love this place. For the concept. For the what I assumed would be unique dishes. For someone who works there who I thought was pretty cute.
But, sadly, I don’t love it.
The place: Our server was nice, courteous. We sat outside, so I didn’t get a great read on the interior, but nothing stood out really as terrible or amazing. I think it’s probably nice enough inside, but my friends and I appreciated sitting outside, on one of the 12 Chicago days that we’re able to.
The taste: We got some breakfast skillets… and they weren’t bad, but they were overpriced for what they were, and they weren’t amazing. This place obviously prides itself on highlighting local products. My New Yorker friend hated the ketchup. It lacks high fructose corn syrup, and to him, any flavor that he could tolerate. We suggested that he walk around with his own bottle of heinz going forward, but in this moment, he had to, in his opinion suffer through the less than palatable midwestern ketchup. I didn’t think it was as terrible, but it was a flavor I wasn’t used to and didn’t particularly enjoy.
The mushrooms in the veggie skillet — those stood out as juicy, flavorful, delicious. But the main «vegetable?» in the skillet was potatoes. I guess when I’m going to a place to experience local cuisine, I don’t get that excited about local potatoes. Maybe that’s just me, but there were so many potatoes, and I would have rather had a skillet highlighting other veggies.
My face: A little let down. I think we each paid around $ 25 for our respective dishes, with coffee, which was almost worth the $ 4. I get it, intelligensia, that’s what it costs, and it’s good, so okay. Still $ 25 seemed steep for this brunch. I think you pay a little for the locavore aspect, and a lot for the location. Not sure I’d go back again… if someone was in a bind, I might recommend it.

I went to local root with a large crazy group. My group wanted bottomless mimosas ($ 19/​person).
I was a little bit disappointed with the service. I ordered coffee when I got there, and I did not get it until everyone had already gotten their food. I had to ask two people about it. They also forgot the juice I ordered.
Everyone else’s food came out. They brought out an omelet for me, but it wasn’t what I ordered. I had to tell two people the my food was missing. The server eventually stopped by and stated that it was forgotten and needed to be finished (not her fault). They brought out the omelet I ordered, but I had subbed out for fruit which they forgot. It was dropped off very quickly and I couldn’t get the servers attention before she walked away. No one came back very quickly so I was unable to ask them to fix it. I also had toast and was not brought any jam or butter.
It was just a dry piece of bread (can I not have jelly with my $ 15 omelet?)
Food was okay. It wasn’t the best I had. Not sure it was worth all of the hassle. They need more servers. The one we had was friendly but so busy that it was hard to get what I ordered. Tracking down a server was hard. They need to hire more people. I’ve had better in Chicago.

We came by on a weekday for brunch. Service was decent although you could tell that our waitress was really trying (sometimes a little too hard) to connect with us. It was too slow though but I think it was because she was pretty much the only one covering the other tables, but sometimes she was simply nowhere in sight.
You can tell that food here is supposed to be healthy and locally sourced — it actually reminds me of certain places out in the West where this is a pretty big deal. I got the Champagne chicken sandwich — chicken was pretty dry but I enjoyed the tomato jam and the brioche bread. My sister got the pulled pork benedict which we both expected to taste better given that it’s supposed to be one of their most frequently ordered items. I didn’t get the smoky, pulled pork flavor I wanted. Overall the flavors of their dishes are pretty toned down compared to the average American food which is fine if that’s what you’re expecting. Then again, I was not expecting the ketchup to taste like pasta sauce. There was no thickness to it at all!
I do think that prices are on the higher end and it would be better to drop it down by about two dollars. My chicken sandwich was simply not worth the $ 12, even if you throw in the quality of the ingredients (and well, the chicken was dry).

Local Root is one of the few brunch places in my neighborhood, and while the food is decent, the service is amongst the worst I’ve experienced.
My friend and I were there this morning and were quoted a reasonable half an hour wait during peak brunch hours. We went to the bar where it took the bartender 20 minutes to serve our Blood Mary’s (which were very tasty). Meanwhile about a quarter the tables in the restaurant were open with no one being seated — perhaps the kitchen needed to catch up. Fifteen minutes after being seated, we still hadn’t seen our server. The neighboring table told us to plan on waiting forever or to talk to the host/​manager. Finally I went and asked the manager to send a server to our table and got zero apology. It took 20 more minutes to get our coffee and soda (both were sitting on the counter waiting 10 minutes before we asked the bus boy to bring them over). Our food came out separate — my friend was nearly done eating before my skimpy omelette arrived.
Meanwhile the table on our other side received superb service — apologies for the wait and were served 10 minutes before us despite being seated 10 minutes after us.
Not sure how Local Root gets four stars with the service we experienced this morning.

What a great concept! Local Root serves up locally sourced food and tells you exactly where it comes from. I have done the farm to table experience before, but I have not seen full disclosure of the farm and location of where the food is coming from before.
They are also eco friendly and sustainable and in my book that is awesome!
I stopped in for breakfast yesterday before a spa appointment. I was literally blown away by the freshness of my breakfast. The eggs were so light and fluffy, it was like eating a cloud, or at least that is what I imagine the consistency of a cloud would be. The fruit was super fresh and delicious; berries were ripe and pineapple was sweet. It was a great combination of summer fruit. The bread was warm and chewy, and the outer crust was perfect. The inside was light and airy. This meal, for being so simple, was literally the best thing I have eaten since arriving in Chicagoland!
The interior of the restaurant is rustic. There are wooden tables and chairs and hardwood floor. It is keenly decorated to look like the inside of a modern farm house and the art is very outdoorsy.
The staff is super friendly and inviting, and I had no problem dining alone. Such is life on an extended business trip. I would definitely return and highly recommend. Great experience from beginning to end.

I will start this review by saying that my food was pretty good. However, most of my table had issues with their food (there were 8 of us). Many people complained of under or overcooked food and/​or missing food (items that were ordered and never came).
The concept of the restaurant is nice. We went there for a friend’s birthday who is very into farm-​to-​table restaurants. When we got there, we ordered cocktails. The service from the start was extremely slow (and the restaurant wasn’t even half full). We had to ask for things multiple times because the waiter would forget to bring someone’s drink or appetizer. The food came out and my sandwich was great (I had the pulled pork). I was a little bummed because the mac and cheese never mentioned that it had mustard on top — that kind of ruined it for me. There were a few things on the menu like that where not all the dominant flavors were listed and in my example with the mac and cheese, it made it so I didn’t want to eat it.
All in all, we had pretty bad service and the food was just average. Probably not a place that I would frequent again.

Was staying at the W around the corner and had literally just checked in before I found this place. Figured it was just going to be a simple, nothing special meal. Quite the opposite. Food was great, had live music going on and seated at the nice quiet table tucked in the corner. Had the cheese plate, truffle mac/​chz, kale salad and pork sandwich.
Per the recommendation of our waitress Ruby, I tried Koval Rye which is a local whiskey made with honey. I’m from SF and we don’t have the stuff here. I’ll probably begin scouring online to order some. Kudos for my being my first meal in Chicago since I was 7 and not disappointing me.