Schwa

What an amazing anniversary experience! We tried their tasting menu and it was absolutely delicious! I mentioned before going that my wife is gluten sensitive and they went above and beyond to make every dish gluten free! Some of them even tasted better than the original! It's also cool that it is BYOB so you can bring whatever you like and make your own cocktails if you choose to! The atmosphere at Schwa was vibrant and energetic, the chefs brought out the dishes themselves and explained everything very well. We had some good laughs with them and overall a good time! I can't wait to go back

Easy to miss storefront in Wicker Park, but upon entrance you quickly realize why their reservations go quickly, as the minute you pass the threshold you're in the small dining room. The executive chef seats you and introduces himself and the staff, and then you're left to your table with a background of slightly louder music, to the effect of speaking loudly to your table mates and also being able to hear the table next to yours doing the same. The meal progresses well with timing. The food is innovative, technical, and overall tasty but gone is the ceremony, formality and high end service you may be expecting for fine dining. Rather, the chef and staff create a rapport with each dining table, introducing the dishes and even sending you off with a whiskey shot. My absolute favorite dishes of the night were the truffle raviolo and the sable fish course. The apple cider and donut were also a very unique, refreshing, and fun dessert. It's easy to see why this restaurant has thrived for over 20 years and survived the COVID pandemic. Although it may not be my favorite tasting menu ever, it was a fun evening with my sister and the food and ambiance definitely contributed.

I wasn't prepared for this and it wasn't for me. I was put off upon entering and being in the middle of a room with people seated all around. The immediate discomfort wasn't soothed by the loud music and in turn, ingredients being yelled upon dish delivery. It was overwhelming. The food was very creative but somehow its fussiness didn't match the rebellious vibe of the ambiance (minus not being offered utensils for some dishes). And you can't "shoot" ravioli like an oyster. Too salty, too firm, too big.

I made reservations for a midweek dinner here. Upon entry you're face the kitchen, with no hostess stand for foyer. They ask for your first name and sit you down immediately. I will say this place is like no other Michelin star restaurant I've ever been to. No white table cloth here. They're actually black haha. They do blast the music but the music was great. They were bumping NY State of Mind by Nas and some Tech N9ne music. It made it difficult to hear the staff sometimes when they were describing the courses. You can definitely come in this place and be yourself. It's very casual and most importantly the entire staff was great. Very friendly and on point through our entire meal. It's also BYOB and they don't charge a corkage fee since it's includes in the service fee when you prepay. As for the food, it's a 14 course tasting menu with some dishes being served at the same time each counting as one of the courses. I'll describe some of the dishes but I don't want to spoil any special presentations to anyone. They start you off with "float" and served with "Uni." I'm not big on ginger, especially ginger beer but this paired together this was a delicious way to start your dinner. Raviolo-quail egg, truffle and ricotta. This one was delicious. A little salty but amazing flavor. Crab-a gumbo with hoja santa. A little bit of heat, but not too over powering. Sturgeon-perfecltly cooked, texture was great. Caviar-served on top of an apricot. This was one of my favorite dishes. I love apricot and caviar paired perfectly with it. It also had amazing texture. Foie-This was my favorite dish. It was served on top of a mole and very delicious. It was also served with "quail" and was pretty tasty well. Wagyu-served with matsutake, and battera. The wagyu was very tender and juicy. Perfectly cooked medium rare. Ramen-probably one of my least favorite of the night. The broth is made out of tea. Cheese-Ice cream made out of cheese, and served in a waffle coneTea-banana kefir, amaro and chocolate served with "nilla," this was good. You dip the cookie just like you would with milk and cookies. And the last one was "fluff." My wife loved this one. It was too sweet for me. Cotton candy served with white chocolate and tonka at the bottom And then we took shots of whiskey at the very end of our meal with the staff. Overall I was really impressed with their service and the food presentation. So far every Michelin star restaurant has been a try once type of place. Schwa is the first one I've been to that I can definitely say I'm willing to return.

Great service, experience, and thought-out food. Loved ending the evening with a complimentary shot!

Catching up on Yelp reviews and I visited Schwa back in August for a celebration dinner. I was able to prepay a reservation on Tock for a Thursday night at 7pm about 2-3 weeks out. Reservations are for 2 or 4 people. This was my first time doing a fine dining tasting menu as it's not really my cup of tea IMO, but I was down to try a new thing instead of going to my typical Chicago steakhouse. As everyone else says with other Yelp reviews, don't arrive too early as it's an extremely small place that seats about 10 people and there is really no place to stand besides outside. We arrived a few minutes before and were seated immediately. Ambiance was dark with black table cloth and they played hip hop music. I thought that acoustics of the restaurant were incredible. Yes it was loud and loud enough where you can't hear the table next to you, which is extremely close. However, it wasn't so loud that you can easily have a conversation with your dining partner. Very cool acoustics overall! Also, Schwa is BYOB and they don't charge a corking fee. This is a great place for a casual sit down and I would not recommend for a business meeting unless everyone in the party is down to go. The tasting menu was 14-courses. Like the Navy Federal Credit Union TV commercial, all of the courses were tiny food. However, everything was extremely flavorful, creative, and fun. My favorites were the Quail and Foie as the sauces were insanely good. The Raviolo was very cheesy so it had amazing flavor. The Wagyu and Ramen was one of the coolest and fun dishes I have ever seen. The Fluff for dessert was amazing as well! I thought all of the dishes were good to great and I definitely had favorites. I will admit that I felt hungry after the meal. I thought the coolest thing was how the chefs were also the servers. So they brought out the food and you can ask them any questions. It's funny that I consider myself a foodie, yet I had no clue what they were saying as I really don't know the food industry. It's like trying to speak to a doctor or lawyer or an industry where they are an expert, but you don't know anything about. The tasting menu took about 2-3 hours. Price was about $265/person after taxes/tip. Expensive, yes. Well worth the money, totally! I thought the laid back atmosphere and the experience was well worth it. I still don't think fine dining is my cup of tea, but it was great to try something new instead of my typical steakhouse celebratory dinner. Would I go back? I would go back if someone I knew really wanted to go, but I would like to try another fine dining restaurant to see how it would compare. Schwa was definitely amazing and I highly recommend it!

Amazing spot for date night and if you want to really experience food with a unique tasting menu this is the spot! It's fun and the chefs here really do an amazing job.

I had a unique and wonderful behind the scenes look at this restaurant and what a wonderful group of people Michael found and put together. Enjoy

Went to Schwa to celebrate birthdays with friends. This is fine dining done like no other. These unique dishes are made approachable by the chill down to earth staff. Don't expect any fluff here, just delicious dishes. Huge perk- it's BYOB and they don't charge a corking fee. Great for a unique date night, special event or celebration.

Schwa was amazing, starting with that. I'll say that there were a few apsects of dining there that I think could have been better, but I'll get there below.I'll go as far as saying that among the coursed (price fixe) dinners - They had the best actual-tasting food. Some places you get a course and think "that was new, unique, and I enjoyed it.. but I'm not really sure I'd have a whole plate of it" .. Schwa was: "this tastes awesome, gimme more!"For service: I mean it was as expected, which is precise and great. They matched the personality of our table (as I observed the differences between other tables), they spaced the courses perfectly. We had several visits from the head chef, and each servers instructions were fun and unique. Food: I won't go 1 by 1, I'll try to be concise (not easy to be short though haha) 1. I loved this - so you get an oyster, but instead of slurping it down its on a fried tortilla of sorts, so you nibble it. BUT THEN, the next course was this incredible ravioli and that was instructed to slurp down (like an oyster). Really creative spin. 2. We had a fried fish that also came with some other type of fish - thinking I'd not like it and the looks were deceiving (no idea what it was called). Yummm it was just the perfect crispy fried texture. 3. Even the caviar was so good, and i don't like caviar. It was mixed with sweet jam. Basically the aspect of sweets they mixed into several courses were new to this type of dining, and again super creative. ..If there was any dish I would put at the bottom, maybe the beef. It was still great, but kind of just standard steak to me.Here is where I'll throw some thoughts:Is it worth $200 a person? To me yes. However the overall meal was (1) just under 2 hours, and seemed somewhat short. (2) Some vibe or character of the experience seemed lacking, can't put a finger on it, but just seemed like it started, ended, and we left. There needed to be more. (3) I wish it was a full restaurant and more of a 'production', as opposed to our quiet and solo table. Again can't put a finger on it, just missing something within the realm of "show" on top of the courses themselves. All in all it was incredible and I'd love to go back. BYOB is a huge factor as well.