Rosh Hashanah Noshes Around Chicago Restaurants

With Rosh Hashanah a mere few days away, Chicago restaurants are amping up their food specials to honor the Jewish New Year. If you're seeing visions of challah and matzo balls running through your head, you're on the right track. Here are some tips for places to go to satiate your Rosh Hashanah cravings next week.


Publican Quality Meats is offering round raisin challah bread special for the holiday. The haute delicatessen also carries a large selection of honeys, including Ames Farm, Mieli Thun, and PQM's own house brand honey. That's a lot of honey. Brisket can be specially ordered, so you should get on that. And to drink, the shop sports a nifty selection of wines.


Nothing could be more apropos on Rosh Hashanah than a Jewish deli and diner. Hence, Eleven City Diner and Eleven Lincoln Park are where it's at. Both restaurants will be accepting reservations for the holiday, offering white tablecloth service and a variety of a la carte specials in conjunction with their regular menus. Holiday recipes come courtesy of owner Brad Rubin's family. Pause for heartwarming sighs. Guests can expect dishes such as brisket with carrots and potatoes, chopped liver, round challah, and whitefish salad.


Consider The Goddess and Grocer a must-visit for pretty much any Rosh Hashanah craving you could possibly imagine. The cafe's Rosh Hashanah catering menu is quite expansive, covering soups, appetizers, salads, entrees, sides, and desserts. All the requisites are present and accounted for — latkes, tzimmes, honey-roasted carrots, honey apple cake — plus some more novel ideas, such as tuna cakes, apple-parsnip soup, sweet & sour meatballs, and sweet potato kugel.


Get your Rosh Hashanah dessert fix courtesy of Angel Food Bakery. The darling Ravenswood bake shop is now accepting pre-orders for challah bread and honey cake. Order by September 1 at 2:00 p.m. and pick up your wares by September 4 at 4:00 p.m. Oh and Angel Food always has a steady supply of their own custom honey.


Matzo ball soup at Rockit Bar & Grill
(Matzo ball soup at Rockit Bar & Grill)


Matzo balls roll into the spotlight at Rockit Bar & Grill. Matzo ball soup made with housemade matzo balls, chicken, vegetables, and chicken consomme will be served September 4 through September 6 at the bustling bar. Feeling fishy? Of course you. Dive into barbecue-glazed salmon, blackened tilapia, almond-crusted tilapia, or cornmeal-crusted whitefish, all specially available. Wash it all down with the pomegranate-splashed Cure cocktail, featuring Belvedere, Pama Liqueur, pomegranate juice, lime, simple syrup, and blueberries.


A fun, atypical idea for the holiday is Foodease, everyone's favorite gourmet food court. The hot bar at the subterranean culinary Mecca will be brimming with Rosh Hashanah specials September 4 and 5 all day long. Meander around and scoop up noodle kugel, potato pancakes, matzo ball soup, and more.


If you're in the suburbs for the holiday and don't feel like grappling in your family's kitchen, head to L. Woods. The restaurant offers a family-style Rosh Hashanah menu September 4 and September 5 with all the comforts of family, minus the drama and angst. The smorgasbord includes challah, chopped liver, gefilte fish, beef brisket, garlic-crusted whitefish, and apple crostada. Food is served family-style (aka free-for-all), and costs $34.95 per person, or $15.95 for children 12 and younger.

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