Suda's

-Grubbing in Chicago  
Lebanese in Lincoln Park

There’s a new Lebanese restaurant in Lincoln Park. Suda’s opened about a month ago on Fullerton and I was quick to visit them since it’s close to my parents home and we needed a nearby place to grab some dinner recently. It’s a woman owned restaurant in a space that’s housed a couple other Mediterranean and or Middle Eastern spots previous to this. The inside was redone and it’s a very nice space that should attract some of the locals to a lesser visited part of Lincoln Park as far as dining out goes. There were a few groups of people dining in on my visit. I don’t know if they plan to expand the hours or not not but for now it’s dinner only (4-10p closed Tuesdays). 

Recently Opened in Lincoln Park 

The menu is a mix of traditional Lebanese dishes in the form of cold and hot mezze plus soups, salads, and kebabs. We started out with the labneh spread which comes up to five different ways including pistachio, mint, spicy sumac, zaatar, black currant. Little falafel sized balls of drained goat milk yogurt are preserved in evoo and rolled around in the seasonings of your choosing. You can choose any three or all five and it comes served with housemade pita chips. I thought these were pretty good but the seasonings didn’t come off very strong so they all had a pretty similar taste. I’d only get it if you have a big group, as it’s a big order. We decided to try the Sambusas from the selection of hot mezze on offer thanks to a tip from our waitress. They came out piping hot from a trip to the fryer and were nice and crisp on the outside while the ground beef on the inside was warm, soft, and really well seasoned. I thought these were the best bite of the night. We also got the Adis bil hamod which is a Lebanese lentil soup with swiss chard, onions, potatoes, and cilantro and they comped a traditional soup made with red lentils. Both of them were pretty good but I thought they could’ve used the same aggressive seasoning that the sambusas were given.

Hot and Cold Mezze at Suda's

The grilled items all sit in the $20-$26 range but can be split among your group depending on the number of poeple. I decided to try the lamb skewer since that’s my gold standard for a good kebab, lamb takes on that grilled flavor so well. The meat was tender and quality from what I could tell but I just wish it was a bit more seasoned. It would’ve been much better had it been grilled over charcoal but that’s not a fair criticism since so few places are actually able to do it that way. Don’t get me wrong I ate everything on the plate including some fabulously fluffy rice but it felt like something was missing be it a dip in some fat before grilling or some extra dry spices. The service was courteous and they have a fully stocked bar including Lebanese wines and also the distilled Levantine spirit known as Arak. Suda’s should make for a nice option in apart of Lincoln Park with less options than elsewhere.

Lamb Kebab

Suda's
1524 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60614 
(773) 687-8413

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