Vera

I honestly don’t know how this place has so many stars. I would go into full detail but I won’t even bother
I cook at home often and dine out in Chicago 3 times a week. This is probably the most awful food I’ve ever tried.
If It was not for the group I was with, I would have left this place after 2 dishes.
Every single dish item would be given a ZERO!!! Learn how to season and when!
The place is very nice, staff was sweet but service was slooooow.

Been wanting to go to this place for a while. Finally we went her with a group of four. We came to a consensus that this place was good, not great and a bit overpriced. I do think it has an interesting menu, but nothing stood out as being incredible. On the plus side service was good.

Tapas style Spanish food. Small menu, dark, romantic, and good food. We especially LOVED the tongue.

The best advice I can give you… Just don’t go.
Olives — fine
Tomato bread — eh
Mussels — I get that they’re canned, but I couldn’t eat them
Octopus — So burnt it was inedible
Cauliflower — Bland, watery and very little texture
Meatballs — Better than the rest of what we ordered

Holy moly Vera!!! This place is amazing. I came here for to celebrate my gf’s birthday on Sunday night, and though we were only one of two couples there, I wouldn’t let the quietness fool you. Lacking knowledge, I can’t comment too much on the wines, only that their white Giachino was excellent and went well with our dishes.
For food we just got three dishes which included the cauliflower, grilled octopus, and mushrooms. If you let the server handle how your dishes are served, they’ll serve the mildest first and the heaviest for last. We started with the cauliflower which was prepared with raisins and pine nuts. Nice natural flavor accompanied with the olive oil romesco. Next was the grilled octopus which was awesome! Though the quantity of octopus is pretty small, it’s got a good char and was tender. Last came the river valley ranch mushrooms– and wow– I did not know mushrooms could taste so good, but somehow they can. The mushrooms are arranged around a soft egg and I swear it was like the king of all mushrooms– that good!
Service here is fantastic! It certainly helped that there weren’t too many people here but our server was super knowledgeable and even helped prepare a dessert chocolate mousse on bread with a candle on top. The whole spot is fantastic for a date night so come hungry for mushrooms and thirsty for wine!

Food and service great. This place is our go to.

Our waiter was attentive and nice. My espresso and lemon was phenomenal. Wine list was great too. Awesome location on top of it all.

Food was only ok. Would have been more tasty had it been hotter — we did not order any cold plates. Brussel sprouts was the tastiest but it was way overcooked. The kitchen was very slow! The chicken thighs that was ordered more than 30 minutes prior to the seabass came way after the sea bass. Overcooked resulted in chewy chicken thighs. My friend’s wine glass had hair in it! Clearly neither one from our heads cause we both have black hair not blonde. They replaced no problem though.
Regarding the bill: total was $ 70+. Provided a card and $ 20. Requested $ 65 be placed on the card and the remaining balance towards the $ 20. Only the card was returned! No change from the $ 20! Admittedly, the tip was going to come out of the $ 20, but was it not presumptuous of the server to assume all of it was going to be the tip and just kept it? I expected the remainder of the cash to be returned to us and we leave the tip (whatever amount we chose) to be left at the table.
Not a repeat stop for me.

Vera is my favourite Spanish restaurant in Chicago! we tried potatoes, lamb meat balls, Brussel sprouts, shrimp, paella, crème brûlée and salted caramel mouse.
Of above times, the paella was the best item but I’m a sucker for seafood. Brussel sprouts was a great side dish. The Syrah bottle we selected was very smooth and a perfect pairing. I don’t like sweets much but both desserts finished quickly. We all had a good time on a Sunday night.
Sadly though service was very slow. Luckily we were among good company so it didn’t notice it too much.
I remember visiting this place a year along and still recall their spring onion dish — break it back please!

Amazing wine bar! The staff is super knowledgable and the food is delicious. Lovely hidden gem in the west loop!

So glad we stopped when we were in the area. It was pretty low-​key laid back on the Tuesday night we stopped in. Very warm, dark and comfortable. Great for an intimate spot. The staff were very nice and helpful. We were seat promptly (we did have a reservation), and our waitress stopped by to welcome us.
It is a tapas style menu so be ready for small portions. Try a few and go back for seconds if your still hungry. This is what we did. Our waitress was very helpful in answering our questions and cluing us in on the items we did not understand. She was also really helpful in helping my fiancé chose a Port wine. He prefers the dessert wines with really a strong flavor right from the get go, no need to wait for the dessert round. She literally went through the port/​sherry list for us to help him chose.
Next up, we were starving and put in an order right away for the shishito peppers. Can’t go wrong there and they would help our eyes and stomachs digest the rest of the menu (without ordering the whole thing). The dish came out quickly and we chose other items while we enjoyed the peppers. We ordered a bit of this and a bit of that, some of the items I’d like to mention:
Mojama — I completely misunderstood this dish and thought I would be getting some sashimi style tuna. I guess I missed the memo on the word «cured». I tried it, not my style. The dish was very fishy, tough and chewy. Sadly, this dish was the only dish we did not finish and set aside.
Other items we tried; Boquerones (fiancé’s choice that he ate all off, too fishy for me but he loved them. Very small plate, four small fish); Mushroom plate (yummy, as a plate of mushrooms can be, it was gone in two seconds); Brussels Sprouts (had to get our veggies); Patatas Bravas (most filling maybe, though still a small plate and a bit spicy for me, the dipping sauce was great); and Burrata (since I do not eat hard/​stinky/​moldy cheese this was my best option. Burrata was good, cannot speak to the rest of the dish because I only wanted the Burrata).
This was a lighter dinner with a lot of small plates. We could have maybe ordered a bit more, but I was doing fine without anything else. From reading some of the other reviews, I cannot stress enough these are small dishes, a bit pricy so just be prepared for what you in for. If you are starving try ordering the more filling dishes or one of the large platted family options (takes a bit longer to cook).

I really wanted to love this place. They make it difficult. First off, whatever you do, don’t order the cheese plate. It’s $ 18 and you get a little bit of three Spanish cheeses that are fairly common. Second, make sure that when you are ordering wine, you have some backups, because there’s a chance that what you want will not be available. There was an aged Portuguese white wine (20 year old Arinto, for real) that I thought was calling my name, but alas, not in stock. Then for my dessert glass, no moscatel in stock, either. Mind you, what I had instead in each situation was solid, even if not quite as inspired (entry level frappato and an oloroso), but having that happen twice was a bit off putting.
We did have some excellent dishes despite those hitches in the evening. The brussel sprouts and the octopus were standouts. Really enjoyed the huevos rotos, also. The caramel pudding was a winner, too. I just don’t think the meal was worth what we paid.

Vast wine selection, including delicious and reasonably priced wines on tap.
SUNDAY NIGHT LOBSTER PAELLA!!! Skip date night on Thursday and wait it out until Sunday night for the lobster paella. Deluxe.
Prompt, knowledgeable servers.
Attractive, warm, simple, comfortable interior.
In addition to the lobster paella, I enjoyed the grilled octopus and the lamb meatballs.
Great date spot in the West Loop.

Had a phenomenal meal with family. I highly recommend the grilled octopus (may be the best preparation I’ve ever had); olives; cheese plate with homemade blueberry preserves; anchovies (if it’s your bag, baby); and blistered shishito peppers. The only thing that was lacking was the salad. My server was very courteous and understanding when I explained I was Muslim. She placed pork items away from me to respect my beliefs, and since I was fasting, told the kitchen to delay items till right before I broke my fast. That kind of customer service these days is rare.

Had heard great things about Vera so took some out-​of-​town visitors on their last night in Chicago, rookie mistake of not pre-​vetting the spot… It was fine but not last night worthy.
For the three of us, we ordered:
— baked bread — fine, best used to mop up sauces from other dishes
— mushrooms — actually quite good, seemed to be in a marsala sauce but could have used a little citrus to cut through the richness
— lamb meatballs — good, could have used a little more seasoning
— octopus– flavor was good but the octopus hadn’t been well prepped and was slightly over cooked
— patatas bravas — hard to mess up fried potatoes :) were probably one of the best items although liberally salted per my fellow diners, I thought it worked well with the sauces
— burrata+pepper medley — great flavor, the veggies were well prepared and we made good use of the bread
— strawberry cake — fresh strawberries + yellow cake, fine, nothing special
Overall the veggie dishes definitely were the highlights of the meal…

It became apparent at one point during the meal that I needed to start taking notes. It was that bad.
1) I’m pregnant, so I ordered an iced tea. It came in a double old-​fashioned glass, full of ice, so you can imagine there were about 5 sips of iced tea. No free refills. On iced tea? At least give me a normal-​sized glass if you’re going to nickel-​and-​dime me.
2) One dining companion ordered a bloody mary. They don’t have that. Another ordered a glass of rose. They were out of that.
3) My water had stuff floating in it (ewww)
4) I found a hair in my tomato bread (ewww). Then I found ANOTHER hair in it. (EWWWWW)
5) Our waitress never told us any specials. How fun when, about halfway through our meal, we heard the other table being told about several wonderful specials, one of which was a braised pork shoulder. When we inquired about the specials, more out of curiosity than anything, our waitress neglected to tell us about the one we had heard being described. And no apology for never telling us about the specials.
If it weren’t for those things, my review would have been something like this: some of the dishes were good, some were very average (lukewarm $ 35 lobster paella being somewhat of a stinging disappointment), but I have no idea why you would go here over a tapas place that is actually good. Or authentic. Overpriced with a weird coffee shop atmosphere.

Had Mother’s Day brunch here. Fantastic! The coffee was wonderful and only $ 3 for a bottomless cup. My favorite plates were the octopus and the fried potatoes. We also had the salmon (yummy!), English muffin and blueberry compote, and lamb meatballs.
We ordered all the desserts. The churros were perfect. Our favorite though was a pudding/​custard dish. My partner loved the rhubarb dish, but I’m not a fan of rhubarb. We took a slice of coffee cake home that was the best coffee cake I’ve ever had in my life. If they serve that during their coffee café hours I’ll become a regular and skip La Colombe.
We had our 3 month old in his stroller and forgot to put it on the reservation, but they were very accommodating and removed a chair so his stroller could be pushed up to the table. I’m looking forward to bringing him back in the fall for his first taste of octopus.
Everything was very well executed, plates were continuous cleared and reset. Truly a remarkable experience and we will be back.

Observations:
— most of the customers were female. many groups seems to come here for a girls night for wine and tapas.
–There were other people on a date like myself but mostly women.
— knowledgeable wait staff
— good list of wines and sherry
— the portions are on the small side :(and the prices add up fast.
— Good tapas using local ingredients
Our order from most to least favorite:
–the (magical crack) BREAD??? — We asked for a small order of bread in the middle of our meal so we can dip into the leftover jus or broth in the tapas we ordered. Coming from someone who rarely has bread or cereal in the house (it’s blah and carby caloric), their bread was AWESOME! fresh and warm. not too crispy/​hard and very soft in the middle
–Octopus — is was just cooked to perfection and tender
–Lamb meatballs — only 3 meatballs :(but good dish
–Cauliflower — this was a bit too buttery for us but very tasty with the pine nuts. Dont’ forget to mop is up with the crack bread!
–Salted caramel pudding — they need to double the portion. it was yummy.
–Chicken thigh
–Shrimp — the shrimp was good but just didn’t stand out uniquely

Great for vegetarians!
Tip: On Saturday nights, Vera opens right at five and was practically empty when my roommate and I went. We had a reservation but could’ve just walked in, I’m sure.
Came to Vera for a girls night dinner and had a lovely, delicious evening! The venue is small yet the ambiance of this place is nice and intimate. The staff is incredibly attentive. They also had cost check, if anyone was wondering.
Now, the food!
My roommate is vegetarian so we ordered four vegetarian dishes to share, bread service and I also ordered a fish appetizer for myself.
1. Kale salad: a bed, no, mountain of kale sprinkled heavily with shredded nutty manchego cheese and breadcrumbs. This was pile of heavenly goodness!
2. Burrata cheese with beets, almonds, arugula and a balsamic dressing. This dish did not do it for me. The tang of the balsamic was good but wasn’t enough to make the whole dish come together and we ended up leaving some of this untouched.
3. Boquerone Toast: man, oh man am I glad the waitress recommended this appetizer to me. I couldn’t stop raving how this salty little bite was packed with big flavors. Boquerone is kind of like a meatier anchovy and it played so well with the chive butter. Would order again and again and again!
4. Ranch mushrooms with thyme and garlic jus; thought this was going to be a stuffed mushroom so was disappointed when I saw the dish but when I tasted it, I was so surprised that these little shrooms were so rich and flavorful.
5. Carrots: off the menu. Honey glazed espresso carrots with feta cheese! That feta cheese was money!
6. Bread service: nothing special. Normally, I’d suggest against this but thankfully we did order bread service bc we were able to soak up all the garlicky jus from the mushroom dish!
My roommate and I also ordered wine but it seemed overpriced for the little glass they poured. Even though Vera is a wine bar, the star of the show was clearly the food. The tasty bites turned me into a veggie lover and I wasn’t even remorseful that I ordered mostly vegetarian dishes! (Except for ordering the lackluster burrata)

Psshhhh. Hello beautiful! Last minute reservations got us a quaint little spot at the otro bar :-)
I read on another Unilocalers photo to ask Liz what her favorite wine of the day was… & Liz (who I now know is the owner) did not disappoint! I had a delicious Sauvignon blanc (wish I could remember the name) & was very happy with her choice!
We were on a kind of «food tour» for the night so we didn’t eat much but the two small plates we did have were amazing.
The roasted corn with basil butter & meatballs were absolutely delectable & I highly recommend them. Seriously, go now!
I loved this place! Liz was sweet, introduced herself & made us feel right at home. We will definitely go back, even if it’s just for a quick bite again.