Belmont Cragin

I don't want to use the term "phoned-in"...but Megan and I didn't exactly explore every nook and cranny of Belmont Cragin. On our way home from a vigorous Bockfest celebration in Madison over the weekend, we decided to swing by the far west side neighborhood for lunch. After skipping ahead to Bridgeport several weeks ago and with the St. Paddy's Day Parade in Beverly coming up, we needed to get Belmont Cragin out of the way. Our apologies for the shoddy job, Belmont Craginites.

That said, I think we chose the right restaurant. We came across Staropolska Restaurant by scanning for restaurants in the area on the GPS on our way back into the city. We knew that Belmont Cragin was a historically Polish neighborhood, so Staropolska ("Old Poland") seemed like a fitting choice. The bland storefront with the faded sign was surrounded by hardware stores, dollar stores, and other nondescript or closed businesses. The only place that caught my eye was a homemade sausage store. Had it not been for the indulgent weekend of brats and beers with the cheeseheads, we probably would have stopped in after our meal.

Inside the restaurant Megan and I plopped down in a cozy booth on the opposite side of the restaurant from the buffet. There were also seats on the buffet side and a private party room in the back. Most of the signs we saw were in Polish and everyone else we overheard talking in the restaurant was speaking Polish. The buffet ("smorgasbord", I should say) had all of the classic Polish staples: pierogies, sausages, stews, stuffed cabbage, and of course, lots of sauerkraut. There was also a salad bar (more sauerkraut) and a dessert bar with pudding, jello, and traditional Polish pastries and cakes.

We filled our plates with pierogies, chicken, sausages, stuffed cabbage, dumplings, and a few random mystery dishes that just looked appetizing (there were no labels at the buffet). The food was outstanding. This is the second Polish restaurant we've visited during the Challenge and I've loved both of them. Who knew I liked stuffed cabbage so much?

For lunch, it ended up being a little more expensive than we expected (~$10 each). But according to a sign at the cash register, we just came on the wrong day of the week. Sunday is more expensive than Saturday, which is more expensive than weekdays. That's what we think it said anyway. The sign was in Polish, but Megan assured me that the days of the week were close enough to Czech that she could make it out.

So if you find yourself on the west side of Chicago (especially on a weekday) we highly recommend stopping in Staropolska for an authentic Polish smorgasbord experience. As for the rest of Belmont Cragin...maybe try the sausage place?