Retro Bistro

Cozy, friendly service, great specials and good drinks. We typically sit at or in the bar area since we feel no pressure to order several courses. Not many tables in the bar and just about 10 seats at the bar so at peak times it’s tough to sit down. They start things off with warm, crusty french bread served with cold butter and a delicious tapenade. They have THE best crab cake I’ve ever had and I’m pretty picky. Great, hidden gem in the suburbs.

Four of us went there on New Years Eve. Although packed with people and noisy, service was excellent and the food was even better. Would heartily recommend this restaurant no matter what the occasion.

Came here tonight for dinner. Ordered the crabcake/​shrimpcake app and it was pretty tasty. I ordered the NY strip and my wife ordered the chicken dijonnaise. I had to send mine back as it came out lukewarm.
The waiter was pleasant enough but the food in our opinion was a little better than average. The Malbec and Pino Grigio were really good.
All in all I am not sure it was worth the $ 110 price!

Love Retro! The owners are the best and the food is amazing! I have tried food here that I normally do not like but they prepare it perfectly. Only downfall is it is a little pricey but that just makes going here a treat! Great for a date… My sister had her wedding shower here and it was perfect! The brunch selections and just the inside is perfect. LOVE!!! Recommend. So happy they will be opening up a location in Crystal Lake.

Got seated right away. I sat in the bar on wine Wednesday. ½ price on all bottles. Awesome! Had crab cake appetizer, came out quick, hot and delicious. Beef tenderloin with real wild chicken and hen mushrooms. So good!
I forgot to mention that the owner/​chef/​busboy came to my table to greet me and wish me a Merry Christmas. This was my first time here. I felt welcome. My server/​bartender was so personable. Everyone visiting enjoyed themselves. Says a lot about the dining experience! I paid attention to customers.
Nice dinner setting. Service is very prompt and friendly, upbeat. I like that.
Attention to detail. Don’t find that very often in my travels. Nice!
I really enjoyed the experience. I wish we had a restaurant like this in my home town. I would dine there all the time.
Finished with an apple tart. Had to wheel me out to my car.
You gotta try this place. Love it!

Quite a place. I was there on a Monday evening and the place was fairly busy as Monday’s go. Perusing the menu, I spot a Cream of Pheasant soup — how often is THAT on a menu — a must try. Wonderful flavor, plenty of pheasant — hold the feathers of course. Could have been a tad warmer, but overall a good choice.
Onto the entrée — Mahi Mahi. Yummy Yummy — nice flavor and over some homemade mashed potatoes that were very good. To finish the evening, I ordered a Crème Brulee — that too was very pleasing.
Well, I had wanted to try this place for years — and I finally did it — thanks to an almost expired Groupon! But I will be beck — worth another visit.

My favorite restaurant. French cuisine. Excellent food, great value for your money. You won’t be disappointed… Very nice atmosphere, friendly staff; always greeted at the door with a smile. I wished there were more restaurants like this! — Claude, Rolling Meadows, IL

I just came out of retro bistro and I would have to say I wasn’t too impressed. I met a friend there had some drinks an and hors d’œuvre. The drinks were far too overpriced and the worst part about it was the service nonstop came over aggressively selling. It was a major turnoff about every 5 minutes late interrupt our conversation to ask her that would like another drink. We ordered 4 drinks and with tip it was 50 dollars, and the drinks were not big at all.
The atmosphere seem very strip mallish so it doesn’t feel high class and with the aggressive selling it just seemed like a place that was just a bar. I think they wanted the place to seem French but there’s nothing French like at retro Bistro
The owners seem very caring and that shows the place is probably very well run and will give you great service.

We liked the decorations and the look of the restaurant. We came in and they didn’t have any tables except at the bar which was understandable since it was Saturday at 530pm. At the bar we started out with a blonde woman who had an accent as a server. We did not like her due to being pushy, rushing us, and yelling orders into the kitchen window like it was a 50’s diner. Very unprofessional and obnoxious. The other server helping us was a male with a beard and he was much more pleasant.
As for the food we really liked the taste of the sauce they put on the peppercorn steak, but the quality of the meat was poor.
As much as we wanted to like this restaurant unfortunately we were not pleased with our experience especially the blonde bartender/​waitress.

Worst experience ever. My parents love french food when we travel, so I was excited to hear that this place is authentic and delicious. Their 30^th anniversary was coming up and I wanted to plan a special night for them.
I called and spoke with the manager two weeks in advance. I asked if it would be possible to make reservations and preorder our meal. He checked with the chef and confirmed that this was possible. I proceeded to place my order. I ordered a variety of dishes and requested that they be brought out in a timely manner. This was essentially the primary reason that I was interested in ordering ahead. I also requested that the check be handed to me. The manager sounded optimistic and happy to provide these accommodations for my parents anniversary.
Our reservations were for 6:30 and we arrived at 6:25. We were told to wait by the hostess. We ended up waiting 10 minutes in the lobby before we were even sat at our table, which was not set up in advance. After being seating, they clumsily brought over place settings and menus. At this time, I informed the staff that I had already made arrangements.
After another 10 minutes, our server finally showed up. I again had to remind this person that I had already ordered everything: appetizers, salads, entrees, and desserts. At this point, I’m starting to shake my head. And we should have just left. It took 35 minutes from the time we were seated to begin receiving any food.
To make a long story short, the service was terrible. There was so much time in between food arriving that my parents were just tired. We were practically falling asleep. Nothing was really that memorable. We had tartare, escargot, fish, several duck dishes… It wasn’t bad, but not great either. Perhaps partially due to incredibly slow service that leaves you falling asleep at the table.
Then came the grand finale. After finishing our main courses, the idiot server just brought the check over and handed it to my dad!!! WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? I had ordered three desserts, which of course never came. And then my dad has the check for a dinner that I planned as a surprise. Outstanding. And besides, what business wants to sell less? What a joke.
The disorganization of this place caused me a huge embarrassment. So overall, this was a horrible experience that practically ruined the entire evening. I just want to thank the owner and/​or manager for falsely building up my hope and then tearing it down with a lazy, lackadaisical attitude.

My first experience at Retro Bistro was for lunch. Food and service was excellent. I enjoyed my lunch and just last week went to give dinner a try. I did make a reservation which I suggest, was greeted warmly and seated promptly. Very difficult to decide on what to eat as the menu has many wonderful choices. Went with the Pre-​fix. The Port Poached Pear salad was out of this world, the skate fish melted in mouth, perfectly prepared. Dessert choice — warm
French apple tart with ice cream. From ease of making a reservation to walking it the door — a wonderful
Experience

Great food, great bread +spread and delicious desserts. Many gluten free options too :)

As good as it gets for sure. Serious great food as well at dedicated service!
Will be back.

Owner /​Chris is very welcoming and warm. Service was great — helpful/​knowledgable of the awesome menu. Food was so great and delicious… nice sized portions (not small potions on large plates). ½ off select wine bottles was a treat as was the Happy Anniversary dessert we enjoyed. We’ll be back soon.

This is a nice upbeat place with good French-​themed food and friendly attentive servers. I’d say about 4.5 stars overall. They’ve been here 25 years, but you wouldn’t guess it from the look of the modernized strip mall they are located in. In addition to their regular menu, we learned they have a daily $ 35 three course prix fixe menu, so I went with that. Wife had a roasted chicken salad and samplings from my 3 courses. I ordered a nice chilled cucumber soup, pork tenderloin medallions, and chocolate profiteroles. I enjoyed all the courses and which all had great taste, flavor, and presentation. The profiteroles were the nicest and most flavorful presentation I’ve had for such and came with delectable white chocolate, raspberrry, and chocolate sauces. They had a nice vibrant weekday crowd, and everyone here except possibly for us were wine drinkers. Overall, a very nice French-​themed dinner spot in this part of Chicagoland.

For myself, family and friends, Retro Bistro has been a regular dining destination whether celebrating a special occasion or just wanting a drink at the bar for years. The service is consistently great and you can almost always get a table or a seat at the small bar (reservations recommended on weekend evenings). Recently (May 2015) they changed their menu (heavily meat based) and on my most recent visit the food was not up to their usual excellent standards. I usually order from their changing special menu, however both the dishes I ordered were over-​cooked and over-​salted. I will continue to dine at Retro Bistro and hope that whatever is happening in the kitchen will improve as this restaurant is a gem in the northwest suburbs.
** It would be nice to know if food is sourced from local farmers.

First time at Retro Bistro on a weekday eve. Good bread and tapenade was brought out to us first. The lighting is uneven inside so some tables are lit and some super dark…
We started with the Ravioli (they call them wontons???) stuffed with goat cheese in a tomato sauce with polenta. It was very good but IMO overloaded with cheese which throws the balance of the dish off. The wonton was super thin (and good) and the tomato sauce was mild (and good) so the cheese powered right thru it. The polenta was also really good, buttery but not overly so.
Next had the shrimp and crab cake. It is basically a hockey puck of ground seafood meat. This sounds bad but it really sums it up. If you’ve ever had shumi from an asian place you will be right at home with this. The flavors of the cake and sauce are good but it’s dense because they do not add bread etc as a binder to it. It’s all shrimp and crab! A good item to share.
I had a salad lyonnaise to follow. Nice greens, bacon, etc but it had 2−3x the amount of dressing needed for my small, pooling at the bottom of the bowl… otherwise it would have been perfect.
Had the Duck & Sausage. The duck was good, the sausage was not my style, possibly made with some liver or blood to I’ve it a slight irony flavor. I just assume this is how certain sausages are made more so in Europe etc but I just don’t eat them often.
Steak Parisian was next. A nice strip steak cooked just about medium and some nice thin frites. They call them home fries on the menu which makes me think of thicker steak fries. Regardless this was a pretty solid dish.
I can see returning to sample a few other things…

I have been driving past this strip mall for about 10 years, and never even noticed this place. A few days ago, my dad told our family that he wanted to go to Retro Bistro for his birthday. «Where??» I asked him. «Retro Bistro. It’s in that strip mall on Gold and Busse.» I still had no idea what he was talking about it. So when I drove by the next day on my way to work, I looked, and sure enough, there it was! I have to admit I was VERY skeptical… Normally strip mall restaurants are a recipe for food poisoning. But we went anyway. And I WAS NOT disappointed. The interior may be a little cheesy, but it had a very homie feel, which I liked. I had the beef tenderloin au poivre, and it was incredible. The beef was perfectly cooked, and the poivre (pepper) sauce that was over it had a lot of flavor. It had a great «zing» to it and added a lot to the beef. It was served over incredible garlic mashed potatoes and with carrots and green beans on the side. It was a delicious meal and I was not disappointed. Had the caramel chocolate cake for dessert and it was incredible, and I don’t like caramel. I was impressed to say the least and I will be back.
Retro Bistro is definitely a hidden gem of the Chicago suburbs. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Retro Bistro is a very solid pick for food, value, service, and free/​plentiful parking.
Lamb Shank and Skate Wing entrees were excellent. The Prix Fixe offerings are a great deal if you’re the type that eats everything.
If I had to nit pick, I’d say their mussels are a little on the small side (seems like bad mussels crop everywhere in the last 2 years) and their steaks are a little underwhelming in presentation.

I don’t want to say I over-​ate or anything, but I came here with a pregnant person and tried to hold my own against someone who was eating for two and I sorely (SORELY) paid the price.
(See also: Hysterical pregnancy. Then cut to my making loud exhaling noises while waddling out of here… then cut to 30-​minutes later with me at home massaging cocoa butter and Vaseline into my stomach skin to avoid getting stretch marks from this truly gut-​busting meal)
The thing is, I think were doing pretty good right up until the point we decided to order TWO desserts. We had no regrets about it until a good 10 minutes had passed since our last sweet bite… then the itis started to set in and that’s when it became pretty obvious that while she was the only one pregnant with a baby, we were both pretty pregnant with one course too many of some of the finest French fair I’ve ever had.
The atmosphere is relaxing and adorable. There’s a cute bar that you walk in to, but we sat at a table in the regular dining area which was just as cute and had lots of natural lighting. The menu had numerous options but I was drawn to their full page of specials, the Grilled Hawaiian Escolar (which the internet now tells me *may* have some kinda gross side-​effects, but I haven’t experienced any yet and I’ve eaten at Hooters enough times to not really be effected by it anyway.)
I have no regrets about the Escolar whatsoever. It was some of the best and well-​cooked fish I’ve ever had. The grill taste was superb and as my prego-​friend would be quick to remind, came with some seriously bitchin’ mashed potatoes. Almost life-​changing. When I go back, if Escolar is on the menu I’ll 100% order that again and again.
For dessert with split both the pineapple tart and flour-​less chocolate cake a la mode. I don’t regret getting either, but I do regret the amount of it that I let myself eat. We polished them off like we were eating for a dozen and took to nursing out Republic of Tea Pomegranate and Ginger-​Peach iced teas.
The staff here are really on top of their game. If you drop a crumb, they’ll be there to sweep it away and a split second after you’re done licking your plate they’ll be there to clear it for you. Really nice people and beared with us through our laptops-​open lunch and making what seemed like a Sophie’s choice of a decision when it came to dessert.