How is The Balena Popup restaurant rated?

Name: The Balena Popup
Address: 504 N Wells St, Chicago, IL, United States, 60654-7112
Price range: $30 and under
Rating: 3.6

The Balena Popup

3.6 (9)

$30 and under

American

504 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60654-7112

About this restaurant

Good for business meals
Charming
Great for fine wines

Coming Soon!

Not available on OpenTable

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Additional information

Dining style
Casual Dining
Price
$30 and under
Cuisines
American
Dress code
Business Casual

Location
504 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60654-7112
Neighborhood
River North (Chicago)
Parking details
None

What 9 people are saying

The Balena Popup reviews from people who’ve dined at this restaurant. Based on recent rating.

Overall ratings and reviews

3.6

3.6 based on all time ratings

3.5Food
4.2Service
4.6Ambience
3.6Value

Noise • Moderate

9 Reviews

s
sarah VIP
Chicago / Illinois7 reviews
5.0
Dined on January 25, 2025
1. Overall 5
2. Food 5
3. Service 5
4. Ambience 5
BRING BACK BALENA! What a delight to revisit one of our favorite restaurants in the beautiful space that formerly held Le Select. This was just a pop-up but I'm really hoping the Boka Restaurant Group decides to bring back Balena for good!
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OT
OpenTable Diner VIP
Chicago / Illinois2 reviews
2.0
Dined on January 25, 2025
1. Overall 2
2. Food 2
3. Service 4
4. Ambience 4
Food was blah. Not too warm and over salted . Desert was too way frozen. Just not much taste ..service was good always liked room.
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D
Divya VIP
Chicago / Illinois9 reviews
5.0
Dined on January 24, 2025
1. Overall 5
2. Food 5
3. Service 5
4. Ambience 4
Confused by the negative reviews on here, as our experience last night was wonderful! Perhaps they've made some adjustments since opening earlier this week....but it's a pop-up and of course there will be some road bumps...give them some grace! They were running a little behind when we got to our res, but we just grabbed a drink in the lounge while we waited (the bartender was lovely and engaging.) Food was on point (the salad, the pastas, and tiramisu were our faves) and our server Derix was an absolute gem along with everyone else who was filling our water, boxing up our lefties, etc. Speaking of lefties, the amount of food you're getting for the price is insane...we were stuffed by the time we left with plenty to take home. Also, I'm a vegetarian and they accommodated me amazingly. All in all, super pleased that we got to experience Balena one more time. Still holding out hope that it will someday come back :-)
The Balena PopupResponded on January 25, 2025
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful experience! We’re thrilled to hear you loved Balena as much as we did and enjoyed your evening with us, from the food to the service. Denix and the rest of the team will be so pleased to know their efforts made such a great impression. It’s heartening to know you felt accommodated and that the dishes, especially the pastas and tiramisu, hit the mark.
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A
Andy
Chicago / Illinois2 reviews
5.0
Dined on January 24, 2025
1. Overall 5
2. Food 4
3. Service 5
4. Ambience 5
Excellent evening of great food and drink in a very beautiful space. thank you!
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M
Melissa VIP
Chicago / Illinois3 reviews
2.0
Dined on January 24, 2025
1. Overall 2
2. Food 1
3. Service 4
4. Ambience 5
This was such a disappointment. I loved Balena back in the day and went to the last pop-up and it was great. The food tonight was awful-everything was inedibly salty. I took clients and was so embarrassed.
The Balena PopupResponded on January 24, 2025
Hi Melissa, We're really sorry to hear about your experience. We take your feedback seriously and it's disappointing to hear that our food didn't meet your expectations. We're glad to hear that our service was satisfactory, but we're sorry that you felt let down. Best, Balena Pop-Up Management Team
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D
Dominique
Chicago / Illinois10 reviews
4.0
Dined on January 23, 2025
1. Overall 4
2. Food 4
3. Service 5
4. Ambience 5
Great pop up at a beautiful venue! Service was great and each course was timed based on our personal preference. The salad, orecchiette and charred broccolini were our favorites.
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R
Robert VIP
Chicago / Illinois7 reviews
3.0
Dined on January 22, 2025
1. Overall 3
2. Food 3
3. Service 4
4. Ambience 5
I really wish we could say more about this. The service was lovely. The team was lovely. The food was a bit off pace with delivery. Flavors just not all there. There is a lot of food on this prefix. This is not saying it wasn’t worth it. The pastas were fantastic. The kale Caeser was fantastic. The polenta was fantastic. As with all pop-ups, I think it’s hard to pivot and hit a grand slam in the first few days. Boka always does a great job. Sometimes things just don’t click entirely right off the bat.
The Balena PopupResponded on January 22, 2025
Hi Robert, Thanks for your feedback. We're glad to hear you enjoyed our service, team, and flavors, especially the kale Caesar and Pastas. We're sorry to hear about the pace of our food delivery and the flavors not being all there. We're always striving for a grand slam in the first few days. Thank you for being a fan of Boka! Best, Jennifer Thompson Director of Operations Boka Restaurant Group
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B
Brittany VIP
Chicago / Illinois6 reviews
2.0
Dined on January 20, 2025
1. Overall 2
2. Food 1
3. Service 1
4. Ambience 4
This wasn’t the Balena of old for sure. The food was not good and the service was sooooooo slow. Our server was lovely and had no control over food timing but super disappointed
2 people found this helpful
L
Lisa
Chicago / Illinois1 review
1.0
Dined on January 20, 2025
1. Overall 1
2. Food 3
3. Service 1
4. Ambience 4
When I found out that Balena was having a pop up, I was extremely excited to once eat at here again. It was a pre-fixe menu which was prepaid of $132/per person which includes a family style 5 course meal (antipasti, salad, 2 types of pasta, 2 main courses with 2 sides, and dessert), tax, and 20% gratuity. Upon arrival, we were greeted immediately and brought to our table. Our waitress introduced herself and provided water for the table. Everything started out great until our second course: the salad. It took over half an hour for the salad to get to our table. Tables that came after us were getting their salads and even the pastas before us. We asked our waitress to check on it and she just stated it’ll be out shortly. Same thing happened for our third and fourth course. Every time we told our waitress we have been waiting for a while, all we were told was it’ll be out shortly. Finally whom I believe was a manager came up to us after our mains and asked how our experience was and we voiced our concerns, but at the moment there was nothing she could have done. Too little too late if you ask me. Finally when it was time for dessert, we were asked to go into another room to eat it. No one brought us over and there was no where to sit. That whole thing was awkward. The food was overall salty or bland, nothing like the Balena that I have eaten years back. The only thing that I enjoyed was the antipasti (which nothing was really cooked) and the dessert which was a tiramisu. Overall, I was extremely disappointed with the service and the food. With the price tag and Boka’s name, I expected way more. Also we had to pay 20% gratuity beforehand was even more absurd for what we experienced. I will not be participating in any more of Balena’a pop ups and would highly not recommend!
The Balena PopupResponded on January 22, 2025
Hello Lisa, Thank you for sharing your feedback about your recent experience at Balena’s pop-up. I’m truly sorry to hear that your evening did not meet expectations, especially given your excitement to dine with us again. Your concerns about the service and food quality are important to us, and I’d like the opportunity to speak with you directly to better understand what happened and address your concerns. Please let me know a convenient time for me to reach out to you. We value your feedback and hope to make this right sincerely, jennifer thompson boka restaurant group
1 person found this helpful

FAQs

The Balena Popup is rated 3.6 stars by 9 OpenTable diners.