Where the Locals Eat Rating
Top 100 Restaurant, Chicago
"Avec opened next door to the always jammed Blackbird, but with a more casual approach than its more serious, affected older sibling. Avec's attitude is communal and lighthearted, and the exuberant party crowd, often ringing the bar, is the perfect complement to chef Koren Grieveson's menu of artisanal cheeses, European wines ... and creative tapas."
– Epicurious.com
"Call it communal dining in a setting that borders on modern-day monastic at tables that seat up to 10 people (it can be very tight, very noisy, and absolutely insane when this place is jamming)."
– Gayot
"The rustic Mediterranean small plates make it easy to try a bit of this and that. The same goes for the wine list, where carafinas of unusual finds flow. Menu mainstays ... are still unbeatable."
– TimeOut Chicago magazine
"The chefs make excellent and varied use of the wood-burning oven, firing up everything from focaccia to roast chicken, escargot, and sturgeon. And it never ceases to amaze me how combining just two or three seasonal ingredients ... can be, in the right hands, a kind of alchemy."
– Mike Sula, Chicago Reader
How others rate Avec
Chicago Tribune
** (Very Good)
Chicago Sun-Times
**1/2 stars (Good to Excellent)
Time Out Chicago
Readers' Poll: Best Small Plates, 2008
Zagat 2008
25 Food Rating (Very Good to Excellent)
Food and Wine
Koren Grieveson, Best New Chefs of 2008