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Critics
Haro: Bringing Basque Flavor To The South Side
"The décor inside is a mix of historic and modern Spain, anchored by a giant hanging arch that starts behind the bar, representing the inside of a wine barrel. The bar and waitstaff is gracious, accommodating, and efficient; an impressive feat considering that the place filled to capacity within five minutes of our arrival."
-- Chicagoist.com
Haro
2436 S. Oakley St.
773-847-2400
Javier Haro has finally opened this new restaurant in the Heart of Italy in Chicago's Lower West Side, featuring pintxos--the Basque Country's version of tapas.
The intimate room blends old-world and modern Spain with ceramic tiles, rustic woods and original artwork. There is an emphasis on entertainment, with flamenco music and dance shows, film screenings and Spanish poetry readings. The menu features Spanish tapas, pinxtos and a handful of large plates. Entrees include a rib-eye steak with a Cabrales cheese demi-glace and roasted chicken topped with serrano ham, goat cheese and a chorizo-pimiento demi-glace. kalimotxo, which is similar to Sangria but with a dash of Coca Cola is a specialty cocktail. Although Haro is the owner's last name, it's also a city in the La Rioja region of Spain -- the eatery's wine list favors wines from that region.
Hours: 5-11 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 5 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday; closed Sunday-Monday
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By Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby
Hound of Basquerville
An FOD raved about a recent meal at the brand-new Haro ( 2436 S. Oakley St.; 773-847-2400), a Basque-focused restaurant that specializes in pintxos (basically Basque tapas) in the Heart of Italy neighborhood. “These were not like the basic tapas you get at Ba-Ba-Reeba! or Ibérico. These were complex: lots of tuna, anchovies, blood sausage, and incredibly thin sliced serrano ham with red wine that was too good for words. For dessert we had crusty but chewy cinnamon and raisin bread with a smear of mascarpone cheese and a dollop of raspberry preserve.”
What's in a name?
Javier Haro is simply heeding his calling: His last name just happens to be the name of a city in Spain. Not just any city, but the capital of Spain's celebrated wine region, Rioja. It's only natural that he would open a Spanish restaurant and name it Haro. Aiming for authenticity—and hoping to distinguish itself from every other tapas joint in the city—the restaurant will serve its wine in porrõns, a traditional glass bottle used to pour wine into your mouth, and chef Greg Cannon will focus on pinxtos, shareable small plates that are as common in Basque bars as peanuts are here .—David Tamarkin
Best reinvention of a dying trend
It started innocently enough: A few small-plates spots popped up here and there, aiming to nudge American diners toward Euro-style noshing. But after Avec hit the nail on the head, the small-plates wine-bar trend spread like the bird flu. Some succeeded, others didn't, though impressive new spots like Francesca's Forno (shared dish, above right), Del Toro, bin wine cafe, Haro, Extra Virgin and Quartino prove that the wave shows no sign of slowing.
Patrons
January 13, 2006
This place officially opened on january 11, 2006 and i was lucky enough to be there opening night to try their incredible tapas and pinxtos (pronounced pinchos). the place is cozy and offers a nice relaxing atmosphere in the heart of italy area (not to be confused with little italy-taylor st). this is the only spanish tapas place among a group of italian restaurants and the cuisine is excellent as well as the service. the food , wine and service make you feel like you are in a small restaurant in spain. this is a must try!!! be one of the first!!! try the ribeye tapa with the blue cheese demi-gace sauce...out of this world. another of my favorites is the the sea scallops wrapped in aged serrrano ham...delicious!!"
-http://www.yelp.com
January 20, 2006
*"House cured" olives, which were nice. Two kinds (arbequina and a fatter one), with cornichons and pickled garlic. Could they possibly be house cured when they've only been open a week? Semantics, maybe, but something I pondered.
*Jamon serrano, which I was not impressed with. Seven dollars for two stale-ish pieces of bread and about a total of two slices of jamon. No olive oil. I will not order this again.
*Baby eels on bread. These were great, fresh, fishy taste. I could eat many of these, and it was nice to see something a bit out of the ordinary. They didn't seem exactly sauteed, as the menu described, but they were good anyway.
*Snails with mushrooms in a cazuela. This was pretty darn good. My complaint was the addition of truffle oil, which I though was superfluous and distracting. My dining companion found it unobjectionable and couldn't eat these fast enough.
*Morcilla! This was fantastic, both bombastic and subtle at the same time. Four good sized sausages served on fennel sauteed with mandarin oranges. This was also a good deal price-wise. Companion found the texture to be a bit mushy, but I didn't have any problem with these.
*Scallops wrapped in jamon. Hard to argue with this. Very good.
*And finally, after a chat with the chef, we got a cazuela absolutely full of braised lamb with a kind of minty yogurt sauce, which was not on the menu. The chef said the lamb was braised for fifteen hours. It was fantastic. He had it because they were serving a pinxto (open faced sandwich) with the lamb. We told him it would be a crime to not put this on the menu, and he said he thought he would. This was the best lamb I've ever had and will be back just for this.
The atmosphere is nice, big Basque and Spanish flags hanging. Lot's of light wood, blocky benches. Bar is neat, room to eat there if no tables are available. Staff is very friendly, if a little frantic at times. We got free sangria while we waited for a table. We were upgraded to a better bottle of wine (a nice Crianza) than we ordered (a Priorat), because they were sold out of that bottle. However, I saw someone at the bar with the bottle and it was a 200* (couldn't see that well), rather than the 1999 that was on the menu. Something to watch for. They had live music, which was a bit loud for that small space in the winter. I think this will be especially nice in the summer, when they'll open up the windows and have tables outside.
I will definitely be back and would love to hear about other experiences.
- Kristen
LTHForum.com
February 06, 2006
We very much enjoyed the meal at your restaurant last Saturday evening. We
were among the six people who tasted all of your wonderful dishes and seemed
to be having such a good time! Well, when we got home we wrote the
following letter to the Reader.
Because of the Reader's February 2nd disparaging review of Haro Tapas y
Pintxos, our group seriously considered cancelling our reservation for the
4th. Yet, to our surprise and good fortune, we ended up loving the place!!
Haro is located on the edge of Pilsen in a long time Italian neighborhood
with venerable and just opened Italian restaurants, many with valet parking
signifying that gentrification is on the way.
We found the Haro dining room cheerful yet intimate, a charming space
defined by large Spanish banners, understated decoration, and a wall of
large windows that brings the locale right inside.
It is a very welcoming place. The servers seemed to go out of their way
to be accomodating and gracious, and were very flexible with arranging our
orders so that we all could taste every dish. The Basque wines were fresh
to us, and were terrific compliments to the experience and to the food.
All the Tapas, and the Basque "Pintxos" brought a group thumbs up
consensus from our group. We especially enjoyed the Caracoles al Jerez
(Escargot with sherry glazed forest mushrooms, truffle oil, and smoked sea
salt) and the Huevos Flamenco (Fried potatoes, chorizo, red peppers, onions,
sherry and mushrooms topped with fried eggs). We did concur with the Reader
critique of the olive/white anchovy dish as too acidic, and tiny. However,
we do hope that the Reader will encore the "dissed" Scallop and Serrano
dish. Next time don't overlook swiping at the bright yellow stripes of Aoli
on the plate. We found that the iodine and sea smoke of the scallop
interfaced very well with the sweetness and earthy smoke of the Serrano.
We love the fresh just made quality of the food at Haro, as well as the
inventive combinations of authentic Spanish ingredients. We think it is a
welcome contrast to the Disney-like approach of other Chicago tapas
restaurants.
Summary: This is not a formulaic and impersonal Tapas bar. It is a little bit of Spain in Chicago.
–Tom and Jan
February 13, 2006
Haro is Little Italy's best kept secret! A few of us dined early at Haro on Saturday night to avoid the dinner rush. We were warmly received by their staff and given a choice table near the window. We were not sure what to anticipate, we had read fantastic reviews from our friends, but read a mediocre one from the Reader. We wanted to try something new and out of the ordinary...Haro completely filled the bill. We decided to try a little bit of everything: we had their Spanish Cheese and Figbread, Braised Lamb, Shrimp(3 kinds of shrimp in garlic and olive oil!!),Aged serrano with cheese and melon, serrano wrapped Sea Scallops(Humongous!!!), Braised Lamb with baby potatoes(did I die and go to heaven?),Escargot with mushrooms(The escargot was tender and flavorful.), potatoes with aioli sauce(OMIGOD!!!!) and baby eels. The protions were huge...much larger than we were accustomed to in most Tapas restaurants. We also splurged on a bottle of their rare wines and it was superb!!!!If I were rich, I'd drink that everyday instead of water. We were also greeted personally by both the owner and the Head Chef of the restaurant..making this truly an unforgettable evening. The critic at the Reader must have had an off night...because he truly missed his mark on this one. We will definitely be returning to Haro ASAP!
- Ana Maria G. says