Every now and again, Oak Parker and Local Beet publisher Rob Gardener organizes a group of us to go in search of local deliciousness. Recently, we went to Dunav, a Serbian restaurant in Brookfield.
I would not recommend that a vegetarian come within fifty yards of this place.
Not that there aren’t vegetables on the menu, specifically fantastic grilled chile peppers topped with garlic, but Dunav is really all about the meat.
Five of us ordered the “Meat for Four” and there was easily enough on the platter to fill all of us and still have lots left for over for doggy bags. The mound of meat – probably about four pounds worth, maybe more – consisted of sausages, chops, chicken breasts, and hamburgers. There were also dense clusters of incredibly rich cream cheese (called kajmak) and lettuce…though as my friend and bourbon aficionado Chuck Cowdery commented, “In the Balkans, lettuce is used ironically.”
This meal, with two beers for each of us, came in well under a hundred dollars, and each of us added a good tip and put in twenty bucks a piece, kind of an amazing deal.
Whenever I eat at a place like this, I frequently think I’d love the place more if I were an eighteen-year old male with a limitless capacity for eating. Honestly, this might be an unhealthy amount of meat for any normal person, but for a younger man, Dunav serves satisfying quantities of animal protein, most of it quite delicious, for a very reasonable price…which is perhaps why, when we visited, the tables were filled with young men, chowing down enthusiastically.
You would not go to Dunav for atmosphere: it has the charm of an office break room. But Dunav is a friendly place, the food is good, and it’s a heck of a value. Plus, it’s Serbian, a type of food many of us may never before have experienced.
Dunav
1801 Ogden Avenue
Brookfield, IL
708.255.5218
