Smak-Tak Restaurant

Went here using a Groupon. This place is a small and cozy, mom and pop’s place. It’s very cute and family ran. The Polish food here is fantastic! It reminds me of my moms… sooooo good!!! This was our first time and we will definitely be back, again and again. If you love Polish food, you have to give this place a try! You won’t regret!

The best true home style Polish food in town! When I still lived in Chicago I would go there every few weeks. The food was always made fresh and to order! Heaven in mouth! Generous portions. Very friendly and professional service.

Had the Hungarian pan cakes, potato pancakes and perogies it was all delicious! Would definitely come back.

This place is one of the best European restaurants I ever been. The place itself is amazing. I feel truly in European heaven. Food is gorgeous. I went there with my boyfriend after DMV, we had the restaurant to ourselves as nobody there in a slow service hour. Food came quick and nest. Chicken river was amazing which I really enjoy. Deep fried chicken with mushrooms and cheese was awesome. Not to mention that mashed potato was really tasty. I would really recommend this restaurant.

Great store-​front Polish restaurant. Went there with my wife, and was very surprised at the excellent food quality. We both had a delicious Mushroom soup, with very good rye bread. This was followed by the goulash wrapped in a potato pancake, with pickled beets, and cucumber salad. We both thought the entrée first rate and will gladly reorder next time we go. Btw, we were both completely stuffed and had no room for desert.

Truly an amazing, authentic Polish place. It’s so delicious… it’s worth trying, you won’t regret it!

Had a variety of food from here, every last bit of it was terrific. Definitely will be back here.

Had tried to have dinner with my family here before and it was busy and the waiter didn’t really seem interested in seating is so we left. I heard good things about this place so I ordered a take out order. Well the take out order they told me it would take about an hour so I drive around an went to Mariano’s. I got there a little over an hour later and they told me another 20 minutes. Well I took a walk around the neighborhood with my wife and came back. Well the food was still not ready. It took another 20 minutes, so an hour and 40 minutes to get my order. We got home and I was going to let the food decide if it was worth it. Not even close. The pierogis were good but not great. We had 3 types, cheese, potato and mushroom. The polish stew was pretty bad. I don’t think I will try this place a 3^rd time. I can actually laugh about it now after I tried it. I’ll be back if I have a few hours of down time waiting to eat some food. Atleast while waiting I can double think about having some mediocre polish food.

Pierogi heaven — we usually stick with an order of meat and another of potato. The cutlets are must try. My only issue with them are the potato pancakes — they insist on serving them little burnt — might be their signature.

This was my first experience with Polish food and I was not disappointed. Came here for a nice Sunday lunch before leaving Chicago. I loved this little place!
I had the Borscht with dumplings to start which was very nice and flavourful. As my main I got the breaded chicken breast and I have to say their sauerkraut is the best I have ever tasted. It went so well with the chicken. My boyfriend got the Hungarian Pancake which looked delicious! I loved the presentation of it too.
Overall big portions and good food in a cozy place. I will definitely come back if I am in the area again.

Found this cozy family restaurant randomly, I was stuck in traffic and decided to get lunch here first. Best decision ever! Absolutely delicious and comforting food. I ordered the cabbage rolls that also came with mashed potatoes and beet salad. It was so good I stopped by again 5 hours later again for dinner. Highly recommend!
But have to warn you the wait might be long. There was only one person working in the front and it took a while for him to get around to give you menus, bring you water and take orders from you.

If you LOVE sauerkraut, then this is the place for you! I’m not giving this a bad rating because of that, but the place is just really «Meh». The decór was very old-​school and dated, and the service was meh — they only checked on us maybe once, and didn’t really offer any insight or suggestions of the food.
We ended up ordering a mix of pierogis which were OK. The «meat» ones were good. My friend had the «stew» which is OK. Perhaps Polish food isn’t really our thing, so apologies for the low-​rating, but the service didn’t make up for it. Maybe I will try something else next time.

Cute small restaurant where the polish menu is on one side with an English translation on the other. Cheese and potato pierogi were quite good, although the mushroom and kraut had much more kraut that mushroom. The Hungarian pancake was a delight — my friend declared it her new favorite food. I’ve had better pierogi elsewhere, but these are cheap and quite good if you’re in the neighborhood.

For Smak-​Tak being the small establishment it is their food is big and explosive in flavor! I’m talking raise-​the-​roof type of explosive flavor. It’s not as if this Polish restaurant puts an excess of spices in their food like other cuisines, but there’s no need for spices when you come to get this hardy food. This authentic Polish food is perfect as is and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The German in me likes some hardy, fulfilling food and you will get nothing less than that here. In fact, I shared an entrée with my fiancé and it was plenty for both of us, primarily because the entrée was huge and we both enjoyed a nice bowl of mushroom barley beforehand.
Let’s back up a little bit, though, to when we walked into this charming little restaurant which looked like a cozy cabin. We sat ourselves at one of the few (and I mean few) tables and although no one came out eight away the owner of the restaurant came and greeted us and took our orders shortly afterwards. The owner was short with his words, but still very kind and generous enough to insist on giving my fiancé and I each a mushroom barley after hearing us say that we’d split one. The mushroom barley came with an excess of rye bread and butter — I had to actively stop my hand from reaching for the bread and butter, knowing that I’d be getting a filling entrée any moment… and then that moment came when the Hungarian Pancake was laid out in front of us, in all of its glory.
Although I wanted to savor the Hungarian Pancake, it was so good that I couldn’t keep myself from inhaling it all while saying «mmmm, soooooo good». If you’re wondering what I’m raving about its this crispy-​like pancake with goulash stuffed inside of it… it may not sound like much but it will rock your world. I do believe that this dish is their most popular so you won’t go wrong with ordering it. It’s a fair price too, considering the quantity and quality — around $ 15 I believe.
As I mentioned, it is a very small restaurant but that doesn’t detract from anything, in fact it may add to their charm. It’s also cool in there with the paintings and photography hanging on the wall — all of which is done by the owner and is for sale. Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I’d enjoy coming back again to enjoy everything all over again!!!

I would have to agree with another fellow Unilocaler. This restaurant is not one of those corporate run establishments where you can’t expect your food to be microwaved.
It is family owned, so with that being said you should have already come up with the conclusion that the food is not going to be prepared to your dissatisfaction. It has that home style taste.
The other amazing thing about the owners of this establishment. Is that both husband and wife have some other talents up their sleeves when it comes to photography and painting. Which they have posted on the walls. So if you do stop by, check them out I’m sure you would agree.
So for home style cooking, stop here. I’m sure that I will be again sometime soon when I am in the area :)

It’s a 6 STARS establishment !!!
I’m lucky to live 5min away and over a year and a half I’ve been in this place 50+ times !
Incredible Polish cuisine made with a real home made touch served really affordable with outrageous generosity!
Always something to take home. Way too many favorites on the menu to mention them one by one but if you are in the area you have to stop by ! Food is by far better than in any other Polish restaurant in the city. ALWAYS prepared fresh just for you when you order and not microwaved from precooked before meals like in some other unfortunate places I visited.
Tiny place which is always packed with a lucky few food connoisseurs who know this gem of Polish culinary extravaganza!
Highly recommended !!!

Loved it.
We had:
1. Pork cutlet dinner– perfection.
2. Polish Sausage dinner– reminded me of Busia’s house.
3.BBQ ribs– good but not my fave
4. Pierogi combination plate– sauerkraut/​mushroom was just like Busia’s.
5. Potato Dumplings– Little pillows of heaven.
Enjoy.

This is a cozy little place with a homey and rustic dining room. It’s also quite small with only 5 tables and a little bar table in the center. The Polish food offerings are quite good as well as generous. We tried on this evening:
— breaded pork cutlet dinner which came with nice little sides of a potato and cucumber salad, and a sauerkraut-​like mix
— potato pancakes
— plate of a variety of pierogis
Service was fine and efficient, though we did have to seat ourselves when we entered as the one server was back in the kitchen for a few minutes. It’s well worth a try if you want a quiet and authentic Polish dinner. It appeared we were the only non-​Polish there tonight. The breaded pork cutlet also came with mushrooms and a fried egg, and was by far the best dish, and possibly their signature dish. I tried pierogis yet again, and while they are ok for what they are, I’m going to stop trying to make myself like them (I can’t help comparing them to dim sum dumplings). We came at an opportune time, but I would recommend making a reservation to avoid a possible wait in this tiny place. It’s also BYOB, and there is easy and free street parking on Elston right outside the door.

I had the chicken livers with onion. It was so good that I rolled on my bed around like a happy monkey while consuming this food from heaven. God bless Poland! Thank you fellow Polish for making such delicious, flavorful, and comforting food that I always love!
I know some people mentioned about the service. Can you people just enjoy the food? They are all nice people, and if you don’t want to dine in, do take out! I never, ever have any problem with their attitude!

I’ve recently been on a quest to try more cuisines that I’ve never had before and so my friends and I chose Smak-​Tak (I was told this translates to Taste, Yes!) for a Polish night dinner. This is one of those restaurants that you can drive by a million times and not realize it exists even though it says Polish American Restaurant in bold letters on top. The interior of the small restaurant is super cozy with cute pictures hanging along the walls and for the first time, I watched a little bit of Polish television.
We started off with the borscht soup with mushroom dumplings (really good, sweeter than expected, never had a soup like this) and an order of pierogis which comes in a plate of 12 that you can mix and match. We decided on the potato & cheese, sauerkraut & mushroom (my favorite!), and a sweet blueberry. All were spectacular though! Then we had a couple of entrees including the hungarian pancake (huge, like a giant taco with a golden crispy crust reminiscent of a calzone crust), the potato pancakes (3 big slices fried to perfection, comes with applesauce!), and the potato dumplings (a plate with at least 30 small pieces overlying warm melted butter and reminded me of gnocchi).
Taste-​wise everything was delicious and new to me but it was also very authentic according to my Polish buddy. Although it was mentioned that the potato dumplings would taste better if it came with gravy… but alas, we all loved it and were stuffed by the end of the meal!