09/25/09

Le Colonial...Elegant, Sophisticated and Hip! My Favorite!

by David Childs

The ambiance and French Colonial Decor and combination of colored walls, candle light, white tablecloths, heavy silver and elegant china are complimented by old pre-war photgraphs of another erah in Vietnam. Stunning and tasteful!

The food is a fusion of the most delectable exotic sauces and textures topped off with the best of service. An epicurian delight!

The bar and lounge is a wonderful place to relax and perhaps meet new people who enjoy the same wonderful experiences as you! Beautiful people meet at Le Colonial Bar! FIVE STARS!

• Pros: One of the finest restaurants in the USA!
• Cons: None

03/13/09

Incredible food and service

by matthewrolnick

Le Colonial has incredible food and excellent service. This is a great place to celebrate a special occasion.

• Pros: Quality and service

07/22/08

Great for something different

by ajblue

if you are tired of typical restaurants (the endless debate of Italian or Chinese) this is a great alternative. Good vegetable and meat options with Vietnamese influence. Not 'too' authentic if you want to try a safe dish, but there are also some unique options if you want to be adventurous.

great atmosphere - beautiful dining room with casual outdoor dining option in the summer.

07/16/08

Sensational dining experience

by matthewross

Some might say I am crazy, but I enjoyed my dining experience at Le Colonial almost as Charlie Trotters. The food, service and ambiance were all sensational.

05/31/08

The Best Vietnamese restaurant - not only in Chicago - but that I have ever had!

by UtahResident1

When you dine at Le Colonial you truly feel like you have stepped out of the city streets and into French Colonial Vietnam. The food is suberb and quite reasonable for the exceptional dining experience you will receive. It's best to make a reservation on weekend nights and if you do - try sitting outside on the second floor for a truly romatnic evening. This is my favorite place to dine in Chicago and I have taken many of our friends and they always come back.

• Pros: Food, Ambience, and see and be scene place
• Cons: Really needs reservations on weekend to get in - not a stop by spontaneously place.

02/09/08

For people who don't know s*it about s*it - which includes the chef, apparently

by fallingbeam

This place is just more proof that you can't get good, finely prepared asian food in Chicago. I'm Singaporean, and I've eaten Asian cuisine prepared by excellect chefs from Hong Kong, China, Shanghai, Thailand, etc. often in fine dining situations. To me it's blatantly clear that the stuff that we got at Le Colonial is food that any self-respecting Chinese restaurant would be ashamed to serve.

I ordered the Sea Bass - and while I have to admit that the ingredients were of good quality, the execution was just absolutely uninspired, not to mention lackadaisical. The way they deployed the sauce just lacked any kind of fine touch, and so what should have been a clean, happily savoury dish turned out to be just over-salted and overly rich. An absolute waste of a nice piece of fish and some otherwise lovely tomatoes.

My partner ordered a kind of broth with tofu. That was absolutely mystifying. It was basically just a tomato base that tasted like it came from a can, with what seemed to be cooked-from-frozen vegetables (the kind that come pre-cubed etc.), and some otherwise unremarkable tofu. Fine the tofu was egg-ish tofu, so it was smooth and not tough, but the combination of it just made for an over-salted soup that (and I'm not exaggerating) you could have poured out of a can. Whoever let that leave the kitchen, much less get on the menu, must have testicles of pure steel.

My appetizer was barbequed pork ribs, which were okay. She got what were supposed to be "popiah", which, to be fair, we know has many many variations. But these again were nothing that you couldn't get from a half-way decent takeout place. Basically it's just a not-even-that-fancy spring roll.

For dessert I had the fried banana wanton, which to anyone else is a variation on pisang goreng. Not bad, but someone seemed to have found a new toy when it came to the powdered sugar. Still not as good as some of the well made versions back in Singapore.

As a last note, the decor is embarassing.

• Pros: I could get a reservation on a Friday night
• Cons: Mystifying food. Decor put together by a drunken sailor with no taste.

01/06/08

GREAT FOOD! Great for large group!

by ja897

I was very impressed with the service and atmosphere here. They seated our party of 10 on time and the service was great throughout the night. The food was so YUMMY! We all loved it! They really made my birthday last October a meaninful one. Since then I have been back a few times and have continued to be happy with their service level and the food. I highly recommend LC for a nice evening out!

11/30/07

Fast food experience - Very rushed to turn the table

by jjakekayak2

My wife and I just had dinner at Le Colonial. We had a 6:00 PM reservation. Our drinks arrived at 6:05. They insisted on taking our dinner selections at that time. Our appetizer arrived at 6:10. And, our dinner arrived at 6:20, before we had completed our appetizer. While the food was very good, the experience was that of a fast food restaurant. They were obviously more interested in turning the table than making sure we enjoyed our dining experience. We were out of the restaurant by 6:45, never to return again.

• Pros: Good food
• Cons: Very rushed to turn the table

10/16/07

Fantastic french vietnamese fusion

by searchcity

If you are lucky enough to get Saada as your waitperson you will be quite lucky eating here. With her help in selecting drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts we had a memorable meal. We sat upstairs in the enclosed terrace to get away from the smokers in the upstairs lounge. The food was excellent, the evening a complete success.

• Pros: Saada our waitperson food upstairs enclosed room away from smoking in lounge
• Cons: Kelly, the horribly rude manager upstairs with an attitude

08/09/07

Excellent service, great food,extremely professional staff.Excellent.

by isabelle24

Excellent. Words cannot begin to describe my experience at this restaurant. l am a very difficult customer to please and l must say l haven't felt like a princess since i arrived in chicago 2yrs ago until l dined at Le colonial with a friend of mine,the service was impeccable,both waiters were extremely attentive,polite,they served our food on time; and talking about the food,l had the red snapper and steamed rice as my main course,it was soooo good. At the end of dinner,we had a chat with the manager and l could see why he had an excellent staff,he was humble,charming,kind and polite. lf you haven't been to this restaturant, i think you would be missing out on the best of chicagos finest. Le colonial is far superior both in service as well as their menu than most restaurants in the gold coast area.l am definitely going back to celebrate my wedding anniversary this year.

• Pros: Not enough good things to say.Everything was fab.
• Cons: Absolutely nothing.