Cafe Mirage

Slow service. The menu is very limited. The parking lot looks busy, but it is not from restaurant customers. It is used for airport parking. Prices are not a bargain either. A good place to seat and chat with a friend. Good seating and quiet.

Food is okay, at best, but the service is pretty awful. Every time I come here, it’s the same story; wait an eternity to get your food, and then you’re ignored the rest of your time here. It has a potential to be a nice chill place, but they need to hire some better personnel.

The clientele at this restaurant is a site to behold and the service is absolutely atrocious. This place is full of Bulgarian gold chain wearing, beer guzzling, cigarette smoking mobsters wearing sunglasses and track suits. If you order a meal, make sure you leave the premises, get all of your shopping and laundry done, and then come back and you’ll be lucky if they served you by then. There are slot machines on the inside of the place, which I guarantee have something to do with the Bulgarian mob. They look like the type of shady slot machines that skew the payouts. I ordered a meal and it took over a half hour before the waitress happened to walk by and I said please cancel my order it’s taking too long, and she said no we can’t do that. Lady, I know that’s probably something you’re accustomed to telling people by now since your boss is probably a Bulgarian mobster but at least have the decency to tell someone it’s going to take awhile. I was contemplating posting this review anonymously for fear of being gunned down by the Bulgarian mafia but then i realized that the type of idiots that run this joint are incapable of using the internet so they won’t see it anyway. If you want to know what it feels like to live in a nondescript Eastern European ghetto, please come visit. Make sure you check out the bordello next door too. Great neighborhood.

Ate outside and was joined by bees. I had the turkey ham crêpe. Was good. But, when going to pay, rude staff members decided to speak in their language while I was in front of them. They were a little snooty I would say. Was it me you were speaking of? Also, Chicken wrap looked great but the chicken was hard. Fresh veggies it seemed. Nice environment but I doubt I’d go again. Customer service is extremely important.

Don’t recommend this place to anyone. Food very mediocre and service was terrible. Ignored by 6 waitresses. Everyone smoking on the patio.

Great outside patio, this café has a nice european feel to it. Service was ok, foos was pretty good, however i do want to point out that the airplane noise can be a bit too much at times since they are flying literarly on top of you head

Very nice place, we enjoyed the food and drinks, and the aquarium drink was the best!!!

I don’t like leaving a poor review, but this was not a good meal. Ambiance and setting is fine, just not great food.

Went there with my gal and her friend. She had seen it many times to work, yadda, yadda, yadda… Bulgarian based cuisine. Very original items on their menu. The service, that’s where things went down hill. Rude and despot were the waitresses. No welcoming of any kind and no social conversation of any kind. Straight to the point on what we wanted. And that we were served faster by having direct attendance, no. It took forever too. And honestly no flavor. We ordered the shrimp… $ 9 and the chicken sesame… $ 9. Not worthy of going back. Aesthetically very nice, service not so.

Very cool restaurant you can sit out side enjoy the weather when is nice out. The noise is a little to loud because of the planes but what do you expect it is by the airport. Yes when is a lot of people you need to wait a little longer to get service but if you have nothing else to do you can wait. Beer and drinks very good didn’t eat here so don’t know about the food hope is good. Other than that pretty cool spot to hang out.

I would not suggest eating at this restaurant. Service is terrible. Food is poor at best. Chicken was dry. Vegetable rice was rice with canned peas. Waited 15 min for check.

Service disaster. We were a group of eight. It was early on a Sunday evening. We ordered two each of three kinds of appetizers. Someone else in the group did that ordering and I have no idea what the names of the dishes were. But the taste was great and fortunately the quantity was more than adequate. At the end of the evening that was all I had for dinner.
I had eaten here before as a couple of others had. So, without reservation I recommended the «Spindle». For this dish they take a piece of chicken or pork and wrap it around other stuff including a pickle and deep fry it. It sounds bizarre but was very tasty in previous visits. A lot of people — but not all — in our group ordered this.
Dinners came out in a few spurts — two or three now and two or three later. Of course we who were waiting (and waiting and waiting) encouraged those who had been served to start eating. And they did. Five out of eight had been served (over a period of twenty minutes or so) and the woman to my right got her food — a pork spindle with mashed potatoes. I saw the waitress and said, «Two of us are still waiting.» She looked our way. The woman to my left said, «I ordered the Shish-​KaBob.» The waitress said, «Oh, I forgot.» and ran toward the kitchen. Later the waitress came to our table with a plate with a spindle and rice. And looked around. I said I ordered mashed potatoes. She turned away from me and I shouted, «But I will take it with rice!» She said, «No, I will get mashed potatoes.» and she left.
A little later the waitress brought the Shish-​Ka-​Bob to the woman on my left. Everyone else at the table was finished with their food. In five minutes the waitress brought out my plate. The spindle was looking very tired. It had spent an hour under the heat lamp. But the mashed potatoes were looking really fresh and hot.
I took one of the take-​home boxes that were going around the table and asked the waitress to get the manager. When the manager arrived and I explained the problem she asked, «Can I get you something else?» Sure!
I did take the spindle home. What is the fix for a deep fried spindle that spent an hour under a heat lamp? Do you suppose a steam bath might make it edible? I hate to waste food and I will try.

oh man…
this place is something for sure, but not something i like. The outside patio is big and nice, but not sure how is allowed for the people to smoke at the table. so the guy at the next table made my lunch smell terrible and so did i after eating. i had salmon and it was ok nothing special, vegetables were frozen then steamed, pretty bland also rice that looked like thin spaghetti and it was way overcooked !!!
will not be back
ohh wait… we waited for the menus for about 15 minutes!!! talking about service here! asked for an extra napkin and i never got it!!!
good bye Mirage café! you will not see me there

We come here a couple times a month, usually for coffee and occasionally lunch. The stars are for food which is usually excellent, when it FINALLY comes out.
Operations and wait staff attentiveness are pathetic. Entrée comes out before appetizers and appetizers arrive before drinks and if more than 2 people at the table, rarely will you all get a meal/​drinks at the same time (5 – 10 min apart, per each item)
Getting the check & turning the table must be the lowest concern because you have to ask at least twice to get it.
As said, food is very good & my wife is BG so I’m sure we’ll be back for another 2 hour lunch. Looking forward to the day when ‘under new management’ is on a banner out front & wait staff are trained by someone qualified to run a restaurant.

I went here with a friend.
We ordered some pork cevapcici and a bulgarian dish that reminded me of a stuffed pepper with mushrooms chopped up in a clay pot… yum yum and yum
The outdoor patio is great. Euro dance music plays over the speakers as you dine.
Service is okay, things are just a little slower so don’t expect to be right in and right out… that is not the way it is done. You enjoy the weather, enjoy the stars, enjoy the planes (since it is near a takeoff runway at O’Hare), enjoy the food, and enjoy your company.
If you are looking to get out of the city without getting all suburbia… this is your place.
I will be back.

Café Mirage is my first Bulgarian Restaurant. We purchased the dinner from our local Rotary Club auction, so were dining with several other people.
The name choice may be an effort to be a play on words. Based upon the appearance of the outside, one would not expect to find a Bulgarian restaurant on the inside. I must admit the outside seems a bit playful with tall faux palm trees that light up. However, the inside is semi-​fine dining or at least that could be ones initial impression as you walk up the «inner» stairwell and you walk into soft lighting, curtained windows with sheers, and shiny black tabletops. But then the hostess comes who seems like she inviting a sojourner into her home and makes you feel at ease.
There was a family with a young child, who was quiet and later a few others, but that was it during our visit. The weather was rainy and very foggy, which may be the cause for the slow night. There were at least two large flat screen televisions, (which for me, detract from my dining experience when with others), but the sound was off so, it was all the better.
Gary, our host from our local Rotary Club, ordered four appetizers, which arrived at our table within about 15 minutes. Our hostess was very kind and helpful explaining what was in each item. She provided us with pictured menus to aide in our decision making for our entrees. I didn’t taste everything, but I did sample the Chuska Burek. It was a new experience — a little salty, but tasty.
We learned that the chef was without an assistant, so our meals came out spaced about five to ten minutes apart. Still, there was hearty bread to munch on and we had eaten the appetizers so really, all was well, given the trouble and stress that the chef was under. Still, everyone enjoyed their meal choices and seemed satisfied.
The prices seemed reasonable, there is more than adequate parking, the waitress was charming, and the food was authentic and very satisfying.
If you’re looking for something different or if you’re from Europe and wish to taste something from «the old country» this would indeed be the place to go. Don’t let the outside scare you away — it’s only a «mirage». :-)

Really bad food ! It just does not taste like bulgarian ciusine on first place, but it just taste simply awfull. I am not sure how people gave those ratings with more than one star.
Do not recomend to any one who wants to taste good bulgarian cuisine!

Reasonable prices, HUGE portions, very good food. I would go back!
Other reviewers were right — this place is unmistakenly Bulgarian, and I was the only NON Bulgarian there. However, I was attended to quickly and the waitress was very kind and attentive and helped me choose dishes that I liked. I told her that I was in a rush, and the food was brought quickly.
I am wondering if the treatment that others got may have been due to their own attitudes? Just a thought. ..

The place is a nice idea but it needs work on the decorations, it looks cheap and bought from a holloween store, I like the food there and the waitresses are super nice but there seems to be a confusion on the ownership of the place. The menu is full of Bulgarian dishes and most of the witresses are Bulgarian but the owners are Albanian. It’s not a big deal but it does seem weird…
Regadless their drinks are good and so is their food. I would recommend it but only if you know a Bulgarian person so on and find yourself one ;) or just call me! :D

We came here one day, in hopes of finding a cool new spot in our neighborhood. We walked in and immediately realized…
1) We were the oldest people in the place.
2)We were NOT Bulgarian or even Eastern European.
3)We were not acknowledged for over 5 minutes… so we left.
I am glad that someone bought this old, run down residential property and made it a booming business. I was very skeptical when they first opened, but they have bought the property next door and made a club as well. Great business, just not for the likes of us! I hold no grudges, but they could be more welcoming to the local residents, too!