Caffe Florian
1450 E 57th St
(between Blackstone Ave & Harper Ave)
Chicago, IL 60637 (773) 752-4100
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sat 10:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sun 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
315 reviews
Neighborhood: Near North Side
"Wonderful lovely place with great food, awesome atmosphere. Probably this is as Italian as it gets. I am so sad that there is not such a…" read more »
22 Reviews for Caffe Florian
I went for lunch. Amazing spaghetti (with large salad and bread) that came to $8.70 with tax. The meatballs were spectacular and it was a big enough portion for two meals.
Service was attentive and excellent. Not too busy. A wonderful little cafe.
I've been to Caffe Florian a couple of times and both times was really pleased with the service and food. I agree with a reviewer below in that I find it to be a bit romantic in a very vintage artsy small cozy way.
It's a long narrow space with exposed brick wall and high ceilings, large paintings on the wall are quite nice. No window views but nice booths around the perimeter to cozy up in.
I've been in both times on mid Saturdays and the place is always packed! I can't specifically recall what I ate, but I know that the food has always been well prepared and timely. The service has never given me anything to complain about perhaps, we've gotten the good waiter each time.
I enjoy the atmosphere and location of this local spot. Powell's book store is across the street which is a treasure in itself and the street is lined with trees, beautiful in the summer time.
I give Florian 4 stars for being a nice affordable spot, perfect for laid back afternoons.
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If you live in Hyde Park there isn't a whole heck of a lot to choose from and, for that reason, Florian isn't a bad choice. The thin pizza is OK as well as some of their sandwiches and wraps. Their Mexican stuff is too heavy!I haven't tried many of the straight up entrees yet, so I can't say too much about them. Service can be anywhere from decent to terrible, and I tend to experience more on the bad side. It's not unfriendly, just slow and inefficient. Their iced tea is better than most in Chicago. Tea is one of those things that is nearly impossible to screw up... especially Lipton black. None the less, Chicago area restaurants seem to have difficulty making it, but Florian knows how to dip their bags just fine. 2.5 stars.
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$6 for a wrap and side on Mondays makes me love the Florian.
It's a good place for normal, reliable food (wraps, sandwiches, burgers), yummy (though typical) desserts (cheesecake, shakes, cakes), and warm drinks that are simply amazing in -10 degree weather (mint hot chocolate, honeyccino, oh yeah and coffee).
It doesn't blow me away, but it's consistently good, which is not something that can be said of everything in HP. The waitstaff has on occassion left a lot to be desired, but the employees who have been there long enough to know the menu more than make up for the drifters.
We lived in Hyde park when my wife was in med school, and this was my favorite pizza place. Great deep dish pizza. Ask for the wheat crust. Mmmm
Caffe Florian is a good option. I got a cheeseburger (it was ok) and my boyfriend got pasta (which was overcooked). Not great, but not a bad option. We like looking for books at Powell's (which is across the street) and then eating here.
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I've been to Florian many times, mainly because it's easy to get takeout from there on my way home. Their grilled chicken sandwich was not good at all. I barely ate half of it because I felt it should have been grilled longer. However, they do serve brunch on weekends until about 3pm, which is great b/c brunch is my favorite meal! Brunch is pretty good- their Belgian waffles and sides aren't half bad...plus it's cheap!
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Best Pizza in Hyde Park. Hands Down. The deep dish is phenomenally delicious.
I only stopped in here to quench my thirst on a hot Saturday afternoon. Once I sat down, I also ordered a slice of cheesecake. Wow... this was some cheesecake. What a nice surprise!
I have never really been blown away by this place, but they have good coffee and it's never too crowded - so head to a corner table with a good book (from the spectacular Powell's across the street perhaps?) and just kick back. The veggie burrito meal is good and gets you a ton of food for the price. It's BYOB too.
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While the food is pretty standard the service is very, very unreliable. On one occasion, the waitress didn't know how the brunch worked and I got two servings of hash browns instead of sausages. On another, I ordered the curry chicken salad, and somehow ended up with something which could only be called a Waldorf Salad, except a Waldorf salad was never on the menu?!?
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Great food in a romantic, artsy setting. The desserts are worth the calories, and the brick adds a little home to everyone who enters. I loved the pizza and the apps are also good. Nice wait staff as well.
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Love this place! Great coffee and cocoa drinks and some of the finest burgers in the city. Pastries are iffy, though, so I tend to avoid them.
Florian is totally hit or miss. Even though my friends and I love going there for brunch on the weekends, you might get cold eggs or no coffee depending on who is working that day. The food is also hit or miss, sometimes fantastic, somtimes not...but that's not really why you go there--it's more of just a "spot" to catch up with people, socialize and take some time out of the fast paced University of Chicago life.
I go here strictly for the vegetarian wraps with mashed potatoes. Delicious. The service on the other hand...well sometimes it's really really bad. Sometimes it's good but sometimes your server will totally ignore you and eat a piece of pie right in front of you while you're waiting for him or her to refill your water for like twenty minutes. Don't expect much but the wraps keep me coming back.
The first time I went here when I had a cold and the food really made me feel better, hot soup and bread. Great place to go alone or with friends
I'm really surprised by the other reviews here.... Sure, service isn't the best, but it's friendly and the pizza at Caffe Florian is one of my favorites in Chicago. Try the florian spinach pizza and you won't be disappointed (it has garlic and goat cheese and they give it a unique flavor).
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Pizza is great, everything else is pretty terrible. Even pie. (how can pie be terrible?). I do like just sitting in there. Artsy yet simple and unpretentious.
i have good memories of my TIMES at florian, but none of them really involve the food. the homeboy and i stayed ordering their buffalo chicken wrap and it was good, but eveuntally ran its course.
the delivery service is a joke. even if you beg to have your rice and beans accompianed with onions and tomatoes, they'll never remember. for some reason IN the cafe, the tomatoes and onions come automatically. not so for home delivery. and they MAKE the dish! add some hot sauce and you're in heaven. but without the mentioned ingredients? no go.
brunch is okay. generally takes forever. and another reviewer is dead on about the servers. i've watched them have entire meals before coming to check on tables. drove me crazy.
all in all, its a quaint place with average food and slow, absent minded service. somewhat of an institution in my relationship, though, so i'll always remember it somewhat fondly.
sidenote: bathroom hallway? someone needs to clean that damn place up!
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Just *thinking* about this place makes my stomach turn. Consider yourself warned.
Have taken out twice from this restaurant and both times were horrible (unfortunately it was not my choice to order from them on both occasions). I have never eaten such tasteless, non-aromatic, crumbly and dry bread in my life. The entrees were amateur in preparation and poor in quality. First time dining involved a watery "supposedly curry" chicken wrap. It was overly sweet, much-diluted curry mayo and the vegetables in the wrap were too prosaic and did not go well at all. My second dining experience involved a cold, overly chewy, much beaten (um I mean marinated and tenderized) skirt-steak that had bits of fascia and blood vessel still clinging to the underside. The accompanying steamed vegetables were soggy, boiled and tasteless. This restaurant severely overcharges for the amount of food they serve you, and it is certainly not restaurant-quality food. Additionally, the person who took our phone order swore repeatedly during our conversation and was extremely rude when taking down information; I heard the F-word at least 3 times. Although it was not directed at me, what the @#$%! is that? Looking at the other posters' reviews, I wonder why anyone would want to gamble at dining at this place, unless they were "stuck" here as a U of Chicago student.
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Fairly good alternative to the Medici.
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