Jack Rabbit

A-​OK sums it up. Service is fine. Interior is cute and bright. Outdoor seating area is small. I’ve been here twice. Dinner and brunch.
Dinner was a long time ago. I distinctly remember being a tad grossed out by the pork nachos. And I got sick the next morning. So maybe it was that?
Brunch was much better. very simple menu. But I like the portions. A healthy amount of food with a good balance of fruit. You won’t feel guilty after eating brunch here, that’s for sure.
I’d come back if someone wanted to, and it’s a nice different restaurant for the ‘hood. But I don’t think I’d recommend it for dinner.

THIS BUSINESS IS CLOSED! The furniture is all gone, and there is a big «for rent» sign in the window.

I’ve probably walked past this place a hundred times and it has NEVER been open. Weeknights, weekend nights, weekend afternoons… literally, I’ve never once seen it operating. So I was extremely apprehensive to go in last Saturday night when I finally did find it open. However, every single item on the menu looked great, and my dining companion made the decisive call, so in we went.
First were some so-​so chips with a very good smooth, smoky salsa. I gluttonously ordered two starters, but I just couldn’t choose between two favorites. The beet salad was pretty standard, with greens and goat cheese; the menu indicated pumpkin seeds but the chef must have substituted some other kind. In any case, if unadventurous, it still worked very well. The calamari was also simple but very, very good – lightly breaded and gently fried and served with an absolutely perfect cocktail sauce and half a grilled lime (nice touch).
My entrée was the crispy shrimp tacos – another big success. The filling was chopped shrimp, not whole ones, but it tasted great. There was a simple creamy cabbage slaw on top, which complemented the tacos very well, plus some unnecessary chihuahua cheese. On the side was a corn and roasted red pepper succotash: the peppers were delicious but the corn was a bit chewy and bland, so I just ate the peppers and left the corn.
I forgot my sunglasses here, and, when I came back to seek them the following afternoon, a lady inside unlocked the door and helped me even though the restaurant was closed. We enjoyed the two-​top to the right of the front door by the window, and service was pretty much perfect. Prices were good for the quality and quantity of food. No doubt about it – this was a great dining experience.

YES, i am a food snob.
This place is the restaurant my aunt would open after her kids went to college and she decided to go into the restaurant business after reading some Barefoot Contessa books.
They are trying VERY hard. Service is great and with a smile. Great place for kids (lovely dinosaur chicken!). All good and full of love, BUT!, if you are going for a dinning experience, this is NOT your place.
(Although if you are used to mac and cheese at home, this is your French Laundry)
As I said before, I am a food snob. I can watch ½ hour of Iron Chef and come up with better tasting food. This place is WAY too basic.

Went to Jack Rabbit’s last night for dinner with another couple and their 9 month old child.
We arrived pretty early in the evening and service was great. The waiter was very attentive and made suggestions as requested.
For appetizers, we ordered a salsa dish which included 3 different kinds of salsa. Two of the three salsas might be considered on the spicy side, and the third one had corn and raw onions. For $ 1.95, it wasn’t a bad deal at all.
For main course, my friend and I ordered the bacon wrapped pork which included a side of sweet potato’s and spinach. I’m a sucker for anything with bacon.
My wife ordered a taco dish and requested a soft shell instead of the hard shell that was on the menu. The restaurant was very accommodating to that request. My friends wife ordered a fajita dish.
Overall, our food was great. Service was great, and the price was very reasonable.
We will be returning.

I love this little place. I’ve never not been satisfied with the food, drinks, or the service. Kind of a small dining area but that’s cool with me because I’ve never really felt cramped or anything there.
I notice the few negative reviews below are all complaining about their burger not being cooked right. What in the hell are you doing ordering a burger at a Tex-​Mex joint? You know there’s The Daily right across the street which sort of specializes in burgers.

This is perhaps my favorite texmex place in Chicago. It is small, quaint, comfy, and the staff is very friendly.
The Gulf Shrimp Ceviche is a must have, A+. Their Margaritas are also very good and have some punch to them which is always a good thing.
I’ve also enjoyed their Fajitas.
I’ve never seen the Jack Rabbit packed with people so I want to pass the message that this place needs to stay open, GO GO GO, you won’t be disappointed if you enjoy homemade Tex-​mex with a flair.

I really like this place! I came here once with my cousin and have since been back.
It’s a tiny place, but we haven’t had much problem getting a seat, especially if we make a reservation a little bit ahead of time. (I don’t think we’ve ever had to wait though… and I’ve usually been there during the week.)
I’ve ordered and loved the steak and chicken fajitas, the chopped chicken salad, and the guacamole. All very good.
Oh, and once my boyfriend and I ordered the chipotle chocolate cake, which was really good.
I’d like to add that the red wine sangria is especially nice. One of my favorite sangrias in the city!

We hit up the Jackrabbit at about 9pm on a Friday before we saw a movie at the Davis Theatre.
The gulf shrimp ceviche was great. The shrimp pieces were bigger than ceviche I’ve had before (at places like Carnivale) so this was a good surprise.
I had the pomegranate-​tangerine margarita. I don’t usually like margaritas because the tequila is so overpowering, but this was very good, not too sweet but a good balance.
For entrees, I got the goat cheese enchiladas which were AMAZING! My boyfriend had the pork tacos which seemed plain to me after my wonderfully awesome enchiladas. He thought they were pretty good. Overall, it was reasonably priced, good food and really kind service. I think our server was named Sarah. Anyway, she was very friendly and service was fast.

When this place was first mentioned to me I thought it was a sex themed restaurant. My imagination concocted something awful in my mind and I knew there was no way I was eating at that concoction! Thankfully, I looked up Jack Rabbit and found out it was a quaint Tex-​Mex eatery in Lincoln Square.
Instead of trying to fit in amongst the more established restaurants on the two block strip of Lincoln Ave, this place said, «I’m gonna do mah own thang!» and its own thing it is doing. Once you enter you notice the dining space is rather small, much like the other restaurants on that side of the block, but the space is used well. Being seated by the window or the door is actually a pleasant experience here. I love how the décor is colorful in an understated way. No feeling like you entered the wrong end of Alice’s Wonderland in here.
Food, oh glorious food. I was hungry, yet, I wasn’t famished. So I thought I’d stick with an appetizer. I also wanted to try two different things instead of a big plate of one entrée. I opted for the roasted pork nachos and the chicken quesadilla appetizers. Eeeeee, it was a lot of food! The nachos could easily be a meal on it’s own. I only got a quarter of the way into either of them. The quesadilla was.. . meh. However, the roasted pork nachos — I’ve never had nachos w/​pork before — were the bee’s knees. Yummy chihuahua cheese and flavorful pork on freshly made tortilla chips that don’t taste lard-​ish. You ever get excited when you can’t finish something and can take it home to eat the next day? Yea, I was elated. It was great reheated, too. Extra cool pts for that!
Our waitress was so sweet. I hope she’s there when I go back. One would think I should just be SOL if I go to a place like that and can’t eat spicy foods, but she was very helpful in advising me on what was mild. She also put the rest of one of my sauces in a little cup for my doggie bag and thought I would be able to carry my stuff better in a paper bag w/​handles. She even happily split the check. Sigh, I heart her.
I was just getting over being sick, so I was unable to partake in their libations. I will definitely be trying their mojitos when I go back. I like this misleading named restaurant. I think it’s a great relaxed place to meet up for some inexpensive good food.

With a name like Jack Rabbit, I was hoping for an excellent rabbit/​conejo dish… well everything was spectacular which made for the lack of a rabbit option.
Be sure to begin with their cocktails which are sabrosos and super reasonably priced. I enjoyed the Cactus Mojito which is a mojito yet with a guava twist ($ 7). In the future I see myself returning for a few apps and drinks.
Food-​wise, I heard from everyone (including Unilocalers) about their tasty ceviches but I wasn’t hungry enough to order them. For my «Segundo» or main entrée, however, I had the Gulf Shrimp Mojo de Ajo which was declicious. They definitely did not ‘skimp on the shrimp’ with at least 8 large shimp marinated around the plate. Everything served at JR has a bit of a kick, in my instance it was the accompanying crispy jalapeño polenta that was balanced out by their cilantro coleslaw.
As a forewarning, practically every entrée is made with corn and fried, so if that’s not your thing, steer away (and have some sort of spice as previously stated). Also JR serves not Mexican, Tex-​Mex, or New Mexican (darn, no sopaipillas). Instead, it’s just a fusion somewhere between all those categories. I hope that Jack Rabbit will serve the Lincoln Square neighborhood for quite some time, unlike it’s missed precursors Toucan or Brioso. Oh and to try their Sunday brunch.
**This business has closed and is now Homemade Pizza Company:

Somewhere between three and four stars. The service was stellar, the food was pretty good, but I’m just not brimming over with enthusiasm.
We ordered the pork nachos, which were excellent – Jack Rabbit took the simple ‘nacho’ concept and went wild on it, culinarily.
My southwest burger was good. Again, standard fare and a simple concept, but in this case, the jalapeño and (I think) monterey jack cheese werent a huge added value.
There were two things that counted against them somewhat in my overall experience. One was the family to our left, who had a terror child – which, I’ll grant, the staff couldnt do much about. The other was a pervasive ‘wet towel’ smell.

Jack Rabbit offers a little Tex Mex flair that is needed in Lincoln Square. I think the food is quite good, and I highly recommend the fajitas. I don’t really have a solid memory of the staff, so I’m assuming that means the service was just fine.
I like to go here when I need a quick fix for my fajita & chips and salsa cravings. I definiltey recommend checking it out if you’re in the Lincoln Square area.

I’m gonna throw some words at you:
Pulled. Pork. Nachos.
Goat. Cheese. Enchilada.
Blood. Orange. And. Raspberry. Margarita.
If those words don’t make you the happiest drooling-​Pavlov-​style camper ever, I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.

Oh, no.
No, no, no.
Please do not insult my intelligence, you wannabe Tex-​Mex close-​to-​my-​home restaurant. You presented everything beautifully in an atmosphere that kinda made me feel all cool.
Then you brought out your food.
Don’t tell me that that’s the way your burnt hamburger was supposed to be made, paired with those overcooked, tasteless fries. Do not tell me that there is more than enough chicken in the fajitas and it’s just «blackened».
You looked so appealing from the outside and I so wanted to like you… but you knew better… so you gave me a small, but decent margarita and I kinda forgot about your food for a while. The noise level was so high I actually thought you were saying something halfway intelligent.
Jack Rabbit, you can have the 2 stars for trying to outsmart me.

In short, this is Denny’s wrapped in the guise of (faux)chic Northside eatery.
Greasy Calamari appetizer.
Well done cheeseburger that was ordered «not a bit beyond medium», and a pickle on the burger plate that had a bite out of it (which the waitress claimed was simply the result of the pickle having broken in two in the jar).
Overcooked, dry fries.
So damn loud in there it was a sensory assault. I guess it didn’t occur to the «management» or whomever was «in charge» that blaring music wasn’t going to drown out the overhum of the party of 14 that took up about a third of the dining troom.
When asked how things were at the end of the meal, I told the waitress there was nothing they served us that we couldn’t have had at Denny’s.
She comped the burger and the calamari, so for that I add a second star. But hell, it was the least she could have done, since she never did bring back a whole pickle.

Jack Rabbit… what does that title bring to mind? Cartoon characters? Speed? Sexual appetite of a convict just released from prison? Perhaps… Or it could mean a small eatery located in the heart of Lincoln Square that does a very good job of Tex-​Mex dishes.
Though I had been here before, but prior to my Unilocal days, it was time to finally review this establishment. It was Sunday night and even with a healthy dose of Lake effect snow coming down, I was sitting down among an almost full restaurant… recession? What recession? Starting off with drinks and nibbling on chips and a nice dip I, along with my guest, eventually moved onto their well known guacamole. Good… But then again I have a theory about guacamole as it is a lot like sex… even bad guacamole is good guacamole *wink*.
Seriously…ordered were the Goat Cheese Enchiladas and the Pork Tenderloin, which the latter dish was recommended by the server. The pork, which was a very thick cut of meat I eventually found out, took a bit too long to cook in my opinion.
And though I credit the server with noting the wait time would be longer due to the meat and how it was cooked, she did it in a manner that didn’t truly convey the actual amount of time. Needless to say, the place was almost empty by the time dinner arrived, but the company was good, so time flew by.
Both dishes were very good and the overall experience was well above average. This has a great little seating section in warmer months, but in the winter a very cozy little eatery you should try if you haven’t already done so.

Simply delightful. The food, the drinks, the service all came together for a very lovely dinner date.
The Jack Rabbit drink was pleasantly pink and potent… yet not sickingly sweet. Followed by a Bohemia, my thirst was sufficiently sated.
We shared the tortilla soup with gulf shrimp. It was very tasty, just spicy enough, cheesy (love that chihuahua cheese) with chunks of fresh avocado and big shrimp. We also split the guacamole, which was excellent, spicy, creamy and chunky at the same time, served with two helping of salty, crispy, not-​too-​greasy chips. We were kinda full after the appetizer.
The three little pigs prompted a discussion as to how underrated pork is (seriously, bacon wrapped around pork tenderloin? Brilliant). Served with garlicky spinach and a pork taquito, it was fantastic. I had the ribeye… very juicy and flavorful with some garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini, it hit the spot. Well, the spot that wasn’t completely full of guac and gulf shrimp, that is.
I thought the prices were reasonable, especially in light of the food. It was all presented beautifully, and the flavors in each dish were quite inventive and delicious.
Great place for a date, it’s very cozy. They do take reservations, which I’d recommend if you’re on a time crunch as the space is quite small.
Two satisfied thumbs up!

WOW. I’m with Smarty P. — their happy hour special is insane in the membrane. Half price off every food item on their menu between 5 and 6:30; every weekday.
Even though this doesn’t include drinks, the drinks here are awesome. I had a blood orange-​raspberry margarita and it absolutely hit the spot.
Although I loathe to admit what gluttons this place turned me and my bf into, I will let you know that we ordered the following:
–butternut squash soup
–chips and salsa trio (tomatillo salsa, mango salsa, and black bean-​corn salsa)
–3 little pigs (this was some sort of beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon and accompanied by shredded pork flautas)
–goat cheese enchiladas
Of all those food items, I was most impressed with the soup, which was mildly flavored and smooth. I’m exceptionally critical and picky about soup, so for me to give a compliment to anyone’s soup means it’s absolutely phenomenal. I also was a fan of the mango salsa; it was a lot more onion and cilantro-​y than fruity, which I see as a positive. And finally, I could hardly keep my hands off the bacon wrapped tenderloin, even though it was technically the boyfriend’s entrée, not mine. Really tender and delicious tenderloin with nice crispy bacon all around it. Perfecto.
While I probably wouldn’t be as keen on paying full price for the food here, I will most definitely return pending this most excellent happy hour special continues!

I think Robert F hit his review of Jack Rabbit right on the head. The menu is fairly simple but has enough favor to shock you. It is a very small intimate place that has a very warm interior. I would recommend making reservations but three of us just walked in put my name in and headed to the Daily for a drink or two. We only waited about 35 min before they called my cell and said that a table was ready. We walk over to find that they didn’t have a table, the manager seemed very embarrassed and bought us a round while we waited and we were seated 10 min later.
The food is simply but like I said will surprise you. I had the chicken fajitas which were great and they had this smoky/​spicy flare to them. The sides/​appetizers are really something, I highly recommend the guacamole. I know it’s not difficult to make but seriously it’s really good here. The Wine list is mostly Argentinean wines which is not a bad thing at all!!! I guess the desserts are good here also because the two women I was with, eat it all before I could even have a bite.
I think this is another good addition to a great neighborhood. I just hope it does better then all of the previous restaurants on that corner. I know I will visit it again.