ParkView Restaurant review. Made reservations in April for right before a July show. Hostess and server were great and provided good service. Try to get table by window to overlook the park. Enjoy the air conditioning. Ambiance is great...especially for people watching. Charcuterie board was ok, have had better ones from local grocery store. Drinks were good and strong. Overall food was meh. Burger was a salt bomb and not what I had envisioned. Only ate half. Culver's has a better cheeseburger. Husband ordered short rib and not a speck left on the plate. Brother in law ordered lemon chicken and ate it all. My sister-in-law ordered salmon and it was over cooked. She wasn't happy. Dessert was good. Worth splurging for the Almond Butter Cake. A local TV food reporter was eating dinner with friends a few tables over and I am curious to see what he orders. The part that is disappointing is you have to arrive early to get parking, so when you have pavilion seats you have the time to get dinner. I just wish that it's worth the money they charge. When you walk away paying over $300 for 4 drinks, one appetizer and 4 entrees and 2 desserts you want to feel good about it. Ultimately we stopped on the way home for late night cheeseburgers. read more

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We have dined a few times before or after CSO concerts at Park View now. At best, the experience is mixed. Our most recent visit this weekend as a real disappointment. We had friends joining us and were excited to share the great CSO experience with them. We started with Park View which is nicely appointed and clean. Sadly, that is where it ends on good things to say. The service was quite poor. Our server was nice but inept. Drinks took 20 minutes to arrive and often were wrong. The meals selected were just ok and most certainly overpriced. Service was simply just inattentive and lackadaisical. With Park View as Ravinia's signature venue for dining, all very disappointing and likely our last visit. read more

Park View restaurant at Riviana. Good service, good drinks (w the exception of running out of Blu cheese olives for martinis at 6p) Food mediocre. The short ribs are okay, the burger can't be ordered at anything but med-well as (according to our waitress, "the burgers have been warming for hours"!!). Dry and med well and NO STEAK SAUCE on the premises. MARTINIS are pretty good. Don't order the burger! Med well and dried out. Short rib barely acceptable. Come to Park view for.the drinks and then LEAVE for the concert!!! read more

We arrived at our 5:15 reservation and were promptly seated. That was the high point. We ordered drinks including a Margarita. There was a "special " Margarita on the menu but that's not what I ordered. After about 25" and a reminder to the waitress, our drinks finally arrived. I was served the "special" and it tasted like a sip of straight Tabasco sauce. We ordered our meals, one wedge salad and salmon and 3 burgers. The waitress gladly replaced the drink with a regular Margarita which took another 20" and was not good at all. Time passed, the salad arrived but no entrees or even bread refill. After several inquiries to the waitress and a complaint to the manager, there was still no food. With only 20" before show time across the park to our pavilion seats we had no choice but to leave. In the ladies room several other groups were complaining about also getting no dinner after being seated for 2 hours. Several others commented that they weren't so lucky--their food arrived and was terrible. My advice: eat elsewhere or bring a picnic before entering the pavilion. On the positive side, Taj Mo performance was great! read more

We had a reservation at the Park View restaurant at 4:15. At 5:45, having not yet received our main course, we left as the concert was about to start. The setting is very beautiful, but that is about all it has going for it. We never received bread, and had to ask repeatedly for water and a refill on a $7 iced tea. The server never checked in even though we were there for an hour and a half, and still had not received our food. It took over 20 minutes to get a manager to the table, and then they offered us a refund of only the food which we of course had never received. We asked for our tiny $19 salads to also be removed and they did do that. They offered to box up the food, but seemed unaware that you are not allowed to eat in the Pavilion. Free wine was offered, but never brought to us so we gave up and left. My recommendation is to either bring your own food or to purchase from the food court downstairs and eat at the tables or on the lawn. Unfortunately it seems like the food service has not improved after many similar reviews. :( read more

Terrible service. Tried to eat dinner here before a concert. Were there for over an hour and only got our salad. We had them cancel our meal and left. Whoever is managing this place needs to be fired. read more

The food is horrible. The service beyond terrible. The restaurants at Ravinia need to be taken over by someone else or closed. The worst in every way read more

Ravinia is a great outdoor environment for seeing a concert, whether on the lawn with your own picnic or under the pavilion. We enjoy both. When we eat on the lawn we bring a picnic and rent chairs and tables to avoid the hassle of carrying them on the Metra. It costs less than $20 for the whole deal. If we run low on food or wine we pick some up at RAVINIA MARKET, which has a nice selection of prepared foods and some pretty darn good wines--although nothing cheap. Last summer we ate many times in MIRABELLE, the downstairs buffet. There are quite a few good items--and a few misses--but it's fairly expensive for what it is. Sometimes there is a bundled deal that includes pavilion concert seats and dinner. That's a good deal. The nicest restaurant is PARK VIEW, which is upstairs. It's certainly a stunning setting, with a glass wall that overlooks the dazzling green of Ravinia Park. Best of all is being high above the sea of colorful people blanketing the lawn. Some of the food is rather pedestrian (guacamole with a lump of crab meat on top was a recent featured appetizer), but a few items are quite good. All the restaurants are run by Levy Restaurants, which is not my favorite chain. To staff Ravinia, they borrow chefs from Spiaggia and other places within their organization. It must be weird to run a restaurant that is only open a few months a year, and the slightly amateurish service is a telling detail. But for the most part things run efficiently, and the food is good if not great. Three stars for food, 5 stars for location. read more

Ravinia Park Restaurants - Park View, overlooking Ravinia. - American Near Me - Highland Park, Illinois

Why eat before the venue when you can eat right here! The food was delicious, pricey, but delicious and convenient!!!!! Sit outside and enjoy the show! read more

First Floor buffet dining at Mirabelle is great. Good food. Decent price. Pleasant, warm, welcoming environment. Comfy chairs. Quick refill on food. Veggie Pasta -- Perfect in every way. Tangy tomato sauce, crunchy bite sized tomato sauce, perfect pasta texture. Great as-is. Fried Chicken -- don't let the itty bitty wings fool you. No breading. Just chicken with perfect simple seasoning. Addictive. Cookies -- take one, take all. Drink Carts -- reasonable per glass prices that is less than $10. Go Ravinia for evening out the price gap of beer and wine. In some ways, stay away from beers. Ice Cream cart -- price is high but it's the same pricing from a vending machine. Good selections. read more

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The food is ok but enough wrong with everything we bought that I should have brought my own. Avoid the tacos Oversee the burger. The lettuce was sparse but that was the good part because it was nasty. Pizza was good Guacamole was mediocre Corn elote was good Of course Snarky Puppy was amazing read more

Gosh, where to begin? Our experience here was similar to pre-pandemic, so last night can not rest on the shoulders of Covid-related short staffing. We ordered dinner a mere few minutes after arriving. 2+ hours later, our food arrived. During this time our waiter came over (about 1-1/2 hours into our wait) to say that there was "a mix up in the kitchen and a manager would be out to see us soon." No one showed up and our food still took another half hour. Portions are miniscule and we felt as if we were in an igloo . . . it was tortuously cold inside the restaurant (and not particularly hot outside). Why on earth can't Ravinia get a hospitality group that knows how to run a restaurant, serving a $38 piece of chicken, efficiently? We are longstanding supporters of Ravinia, but sadly will never return to this restaurant until we hear of material change. read more

We went to the Ravinia Market. We ordered one cheese pizza and one single cheeseburger. Here's my review. Awful. The pizza was tasteless. The pizzas that they served in previous years were far better. The cheeseburger was worse. Barely cooked, it was at best medium rare. And greasy. The bun wasn't toasted. Nothing comes with the burger - no lettuce or tomato. You pay for a plain hamburger with cheese only. We were further disappointed to see that there was no fruit or vegetables available for purchase. My rating: D. Awful. Sorry Ravinia. You can do better than that. read more

Parkview restaurant at Ravinia has made a quantum leap. We go to many concerts there and have always supported the pretty, spacious and elegant restaurant but have been sadly disappointed in the food and painfully slow service every time. TONIGHT we had an outstanding meal for the first time in years! Four excellent and large salads all fresh and very interesting. Mussels and shrimp in a beautiful red broth. Huge diver scallops presented charmingly. Pea shoot risotto with coconut and lovely flavors. Creative, colorful, delicious and filling. The dessert menu was fascinating but we didnt have any this time. The service was nearly perfect. Only the martinis were disappointing because they didnt have enough vodka. And of course it isnt cheap! read more

No matter which restaurant or carry out -- they can't seem to get it right. And it's all overpriced. You'd think they want to do better. Was at one of the new restaurants. Chicken sandwich. Lukewarm and soggy. Frustrating. read more

I wanted the park know that some of the employees cooking the food in the food court area are not the most personal and they need to have a chat with them about attitude and work on the food keeping it consistent Three weeks ago I had the Cuban sandwich not bad for food bought at a venue like this. This week ordered the same sandwich. I had to throw it in the trash it was just that bad I wasted my money $$$ And my time!!! my time standing in the" no line and being ignored." I should have known. The sandwich was dry no meat looked as if it had been from the previous night and they tried to warm it up but didn't quite get it warm. Nevertheless will not buy from this place save your money I also rented chairs. I didn't want to travel from the western suburbs carrying a chair so why not rent? The kids here need to be taught how to hand a chair to a lady and say Thank you! Come on people where is the customer service? Highland Park...! Let's work on this I mean Ravinia. Thank God for the entertainment!!! Thank you for your time. read more

This review is for Mirabelle, the one thing I love about Ravina is that you have a couple of options, either lug a cooler and create your own picnic or go to one of the restaurants. I know some people consider Mirabelle, pricey, I get it. However, if you plan a gourmet picnic that stuff isn't cheap and if you're like me you don't have all that specially stuff sitting at home. I've done the picnic thing, for me it's over rated. As I said, buy the stuff, prepare, lug it, cleanup and lug it back home. Or, arrive early get seated and enjoy a gourmet spread, ding ding. The later for me, I admit I'm lazy at times. The food was superb, a selection of salads and cheeses to start, asparagus done just right, roasted garlic potatoes, and roasted jack and poblano pepper bread-pudding (never heard of this) which was really scrumptious. For your proteins, there was brisket, medallions of beef, turkey, mahi mahi and salmon with field greens which my husband loved. My 1/2 star deduction, well our server seemed to disappear for long stretches at a time, not the biggest deal since it is buffet. However, she did say she'd be back to bring us clean plates and pick up our discards, then she pointed to the table at the side saying that "just in case" we get done sooner we can grab a clean plate from there. Well good thing for that table because that is what we did for the night. Luck would have it that we had a 4 top and we pushed the used plated off to the side, I do have to give credit to the bus staff that kept the plates cleared and our water filled, I hope she does a appropriate tip share. The other 1/2 is an honorable mention that my husband caught, our server asked us if we wanted to see the wine list, I piped up immediately and said yes, and I picked out the wine. Upon her arrival with the glasses and bottle, she poured the sample in my husband's glass and said, would you like to try it? My husband indicating that I ordered it to her and then said, "I know nothing about wine" handed the glass to me. Okay, so to me this wasn't a big thing, I mean she has to pour the sample in one of the glasses. But I guess my husband had a point, a good idea to pour it in the glass of who orders. Overall, very minor issues the bottom line is the food is prepared excellently, you can eat as much as you want (I assume within reason) and the plates are easy to find. read more

Are you kidding ? Mirabelle sucks ! We went to Steely Dan @ Ravinia and dined at Mirabelle beforehand. Salads and cheese, ok. Carnitas ? No, actually chunks of chewy fat. Inedible! Beef Bourguignon was from a can. Terrible ! And people were queued up because there was so little else to eat. Only other entree was sliced turkey from a boneless breast. At least it was edible. Only hot vegetable was salty asparagus. No pasta, potatoes, rice, bread or other starch. For dessert there was pie filling from a can and whipped non-dairy topping, cookies, lemon bars and fudge. I waited 15 minutes for a cup of coffee, no refill. 3 buffets, 2 glasses of wine, 1 coffee = $135 . They should be ashamed of themselves. Chicago has too many great restaurants to waste your money here. read more

This three star is a no brainer because there are both five and one star experiences to be had here. Mirabelle is a gourmet farm to table buffet experience. This is probably my favorite dining option here. Mostly they get it right. Once in a while they can have an off menu. Not sure if they still do this or not but they used to invited guest chefs to come for a week or two at time. Sometimes my tastes wouldn't align with the guest chef and finding appealing items would be difficult. Honestly though, this hasn't happened often and most of my experiences have been five star! I love the big selection that is offered and you can pace yourself. I also love that there is patio seating available here. When we make a reservation here, we always make it early enough to finish before the start of the performance. As an FYI these restaurants are not made to sit for the performance. The best sound is on the lawn or in the pavilion. Don't plan on sitting here for the performance. The Park View is okay but not my favorite. Food is okay but not quite the level that the prices would indicate. Although the view of the lawn is spectacular, it is all in doors. The Ravinia Market is awful!!! One star. Prices are way too high. Service is way too slow. They close whenever they feel like it. We went just before intermission and only pizza or pre-made foods were available. The grill was closed. We asked what the policy was and were told that it was totally up to the chef that day. How can you not have a standard policy on closing. We ended up getting a sandwich that was labeled turkey cranberry and swiss. Not a speck of cranberry could be found. I looked at all the sandwiches and none had any cranberry visible so I thought it was just hidden in there. Nope, I thin they ran out of the cranberry and just shoved the sandwiches out anyway. A very disappointing dinner indeed. Don't do this, just pack your own picnic instead! read more

Tree top restaurant- $92 check including tip-$34.95 per person No liquor consumed Very disappointed and over priced Levy rest's May be good at stadium feeding but this was terrible Embarrassing for Ravinia Park read more

$12 experience for let's just say, $35 per head, I would have thought that the "chef" would have known that he'll always get better mac n cheese if he uses Kraft Macaroni and Cheese rather than the store kind. That said, I never know whether to believe reviews for sure. The ratings vary so much sometimes as in this case. But seeing so many "ones and twos" should have been the convincing factor. We've learned and won't go again. read more

We made reservations a week before for dinner at the Park View Restaurant for a family birthday. We arrived a few minutes late after calling at 6:20 pm. The "Hostess" who took us to the table next to the kitchen (you could hear all the dishes clatter, etc.) would not sit us at any of the empty tables by the windows - they were for "opus members" she told us. Also a couple of other tables were empty and she would not sit us there either "they were reserved" she said. I watched to see if anyone came - nobody did, they all sat empty, what a waste of the view!! Yesterday evening the weather was cold - in the low 60's and the Bach Goldberg Variations performance in the Martin Theater was for 1 hour only - very few people in the park and elsewhere. Our server Michaela was a delight and we enjoyed our meals and Greek bottle of wine, but the "Hostess" obviously has no training, asking if "we had the Dining Package" which has limited choices. Too bad, since we'll never go back to the Park View Levy Restaurant for dinner again. The front staff "Hostess" is untrained and did a poor job!! Stay away from the Park View at Ravinia unless you get the $75/Dining Package - we spent a lot more than that!! read more

The Park View restaurant was horrible. Waaaay over priced. Terrible selection. Stale bread. The bottle of wine was 4 times the price at Binny's. I will never go back. The saving grace was that my wife thought the croutons on the salad were good. I tried to give zero stars. read more

We took my 14 year old granddaughter for dinner prior to the Bonnie Koloc concert. Food was great American Food. Friendly attentive service. Even though the restaurant was fully booked the team of waiters were always available and graciously available. I had the grilled Salmon and it was prepared perfectly and plated beautifully on a bed of lentils. Bread was brought to the table warm and very tasty. I would hope that during the off season at Ravinia it would be possible to eat at the Park View restaurant. Just a great dining experience. read more

I love the whole park atmosphere. Best concept ever. Affordable, convenient,clean,and decent food.

Ravinia offers great summer fare for park visitors: Mirabelle, Park View and food courts, along with food carts within the festival grounds. My favorite is Mirabelle, a reservations-only chef's buffet with excellent gourmet food with fast food convenience, outdoor or indoor seating, and a high but fair price. Best bet: bring your own alcohol and buy one of the fast food options at one of the food courts. read more

Park View (upstairs) and Mirabelle (downstairs) are basically expensive rip-offs! These restaurants wouldn't survive one week if they weren't located inside Ravinia Park, serving a captive audience of concert goers. Mediocre food at downtown Michelin-star prices. Pretentious and awkward service. What a pity given the great location and gorgeous views of the park! read more

Literally inedible. Don't bother eating here. I can't believe anyone would waste their time eating this horrible food. And the service is even worse. Dirty dishes sat on our table for 45 minutes before anyone thought to remove them. So, we stared at our half eaten food without the option to forget how disgusting the food was. read more

I love Ravinia, so it pains me to pan it... but Ravinia Market can be pretty terrible. I ate there on Sunday night, and the whole experience was really lousy. There's only one line for the grill, even though that appears to be the most popular area (two lines for the Latin area and no customers - go figure). After ordering, we got our food relatively quickly and fought our way to the registers. Two burgers, two orders of fries, and two drinks cost a grand total of $36 - yikes, but Ravinia restuarants are notoriously marked up. The food was mediocre, but that's par for the course at Ravinia Market. My blood started to boil when we walked outside to look for a table. About half of the tables were occupied by people who were not patrons of the restaurant (or perhaps they were extreme lingerers - either way, they should relinquish their seats for other customers), and the paying customers were left to scramble for any tables that occasionally opened up. A lot of customers gave up and ate their food on the ground or on the little half-wall that surrounds the seating area. We got lucky and snagged a table after about two passes, and eventually invited two strangers to sit at our table after a number of non-customers refused to allow them to sit at their half-empty tables. We were next to a table full of women who did not buy anything from the restaurant and kept interrupting people who were eating to ask them to take their picture with an iPad (IPAD IS NOT A CAMERA!!!!). These ladies, their iPad, and all of the other non-customers should have been lounging on the lawn or at the picnic tables in the northwest corner of the park (it's actually a really pleasant area, and I highly recommend bringing in take-out from somewhere else and dining over there before the show). There's something seriously wrong when non-customers take up most of the seats at a restaurant while the folks who spent excessive sums of money for their meals are left sitting on the ground. Ravinia has always had shushers on the lawn to quiet the talkers; I think it's time they post some bouncers at the Ravinia Market to evict the table-hogs. A couple of table bouncers would really improve the Ravinia Market experience for paying customers! Also, for the record, my experience on Sunday was not an anomaly - it has been like this for years and years. read more

The Lawn Bar is a terrible disappointment. The service is non-existent, the food is slow in being served and when it arrives, it isn't worth eating. A waste of time and money. read more

At at Park View before the UB40 concert. Service was unacceptably slow, food was room temperature at best, and lacked any seasoning. Had to ask for our coffee twice, and had to ask for water refills. Had to ask three times to get our check. Overpriced and poor quality experience. read more

Food was over priced for what you got. The food was just okay. Not great and it was cold! Yuck. Who wants to eat cool pulled pork?!? The highlight was the ice cream we found at the stand at the other end of the park. But everything in the Park View was insanely expensive and not good. read more

Ate at the Parkview restaurant. Very over priced for the quality of the food. Most all of the food was cold, from the shrimp to the chicken and vegetables. Drinks poured with a heavy hand. Server was good but food was horrible. read more

Seriously. You have a captive audience. You have a finite number of guests to serve in a specific window that you know for certain. You've been in business for many,many years... And yet you can't get decent management to run this restaurant? Really? Tuesday evening my beau and I went to see Diana Krall at Ravinia ... A civilized group of adults - couples. Park opens at 430. Show is at 8 pm. Our visit to the Park View restaurant and bar was ridiculous. Ok, we didn't have a reservation but there was ample room to stand near the bar for a drink and "wait" for a seat at the bar to open for a snack. The crowd was polite and sensitive to those waiting... Willing to give up their seats, but the staff couldn't get it together to save their lives. One bartender for a room of about 200 diners. And another to serve drinks and food to another 40 guests. Couldn't get a drink, couldn't get a check, couldn't get food and couldn't get the attention of anyone who actually could serve us. Waited 40 minutes for a cocktail, another 20 minutes To place an order after we sat down and got our food 5 minutes before show time. The couple next to us waited 45 minutes for their check... No exaggeration and then it was wrong The manager, nice enough but clearly over her head, was giving food and drinks away like there was no tomorrow to offset the incredibly poor service. I'm sure the Levys can do better than this. Last night I walked into a tavern in Grand Rapids MI during a street music fair - the place was packed with ,any people waiting for tables and bar seats yet the staff was on it and delivered in great form... Like professionals. Made me winder what the big challenge was at Ravinia Clearly the folks at Ravinia need to get some skilled talent to run their restaurants... And while they are at it perhaps they can find someone to reengineer their parking and. "park and ride" system which was designed in 1942. Waited 2 hours for a bus to take us to our car for a different show we recently attended... But that is a different gripe. Ravinia? Beautiful and conceptually terrific, but while I love the artists and venue the traffic, service, attitude and poor manage,ent will keep me from attending in the future. I've had enough... read more

The only reason I gave it 2 stars is that the manager is great but everything else is terrible. Food is absolutely horrible at the Mirabelle, half of as got food poisoning and you can't even hear the preference. With the severe thunder storms that day, we where the only people at the restaurant. read more

DO NOT PURCHASE GIFT VOUCHERS FROM RAVINIA. You are possibly throwing your money away. I purchased 2 of them as gifts and they are supposed to be usable for tickets and food in the restaurants there in the park. When my sisters attempted to use them at the restaurants, the cashiers did not know what to do with them. I sent an email to Ravinia's customer service telling them of the situation and how the vouchers are useless in the restaurants. I received a response that stated no refunds and just try another time. Very unimpressive and disappointing customer service. read more

Was there for Crosby, Stills, and Nash last night. Ate at the Market. Very disorganized, poor order taking and serving system. Actually they don't really have a system. They forgot my wife's order. Had to remind/re-order while my food got cold. Food OK, nothing special. read more

So obviously if you are buying food here, you are not reading a review before you decide where to go, because this place is monopoly. However, I think bad food and limited selection is expected, at a place like this, but what I did not expect and is quite disappointed by is the bad service/very poor customer service. The checkout lady looked like she was ready to get off work, and is sick of seeing people here. The food, well I ordered the loaded quac, that was the only thing I saw that I really actually wanted. After I tried it, I no longer want it. It's a bit weird. Guacomole with pine nuts, sun dried tomato and some shredded cheese, paired with tortilla chips. The whole combo sounded good but tasted bad. Also got some chilled italian lemon ice, tasted bitter, a whooping $6. Loaded guac was $7. I guess this place did not get a 1 star rating from me because they actually have decent outdoor seating, which is god send if you've been seating out on the lawn haha. read more

My friend and I went to see the concert for performance on Henry Mancini music, the concert was great. Since we arrived a bit early to the park, we decided to have an early dinner there and wanted something that would not cost too much so we chose the Ravinia Market. It had rained that day so it was a little wet outside. We got our food and we were shocked to see that all of the tables & chairs were soaking wet. After several trips to get a multitude of napkins so we weren't sitting in wet, I went inside and asked one of the cashiers why the tables and chairs weren't wiped off. She didn't care what I had to say and just about ignored me. I will NEVER eat there again. Best to bring your own food because the food at the market was not good at all! They don't even deserve 1 star! read more

While eating here definitely is conveniet for those attending a concert at the Ravinia Festival, that's about the only reason to eat here. The food quality and service are mediocre, the food offerings limited, prices are too high for what they deliver. read more