South Side Cheap Eats: C'est Si Bon's Sunday Brunch Buffet
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 24, 2006 3:00PM
A few weeks ago Gaper's Block asked its readers to name their most overrated restaurants. Wishbone garnered a lot of votes, which this particular member of the Chicagoist staff didn't find surprising. You see, some weeks before Gaper's polled their readers there was a bit of a row among us here regarding Wishbone. The opening statement of our argument was that Wishbone "sucked" a certain part of the human body really hard. While we were admittedly overstating our case, Chicagoist does contend that when we crave good southern cooking or soul food, Wishbone ain't even on our radar.
The restaurants in Hyde Park/Kenwood's Harper Court Shopping Center are a veritable gold mine of sure gourmand gambles. Fans of southern cooking can dive in here and not come up for hours. The last time we ate at Renee Bradford's C'est Si Bon, we had a chicken-and-waffles dinner that lasted us three days (a plate recommended to us by our friend, trumpet player Corey Wilkes). So it was with that in mind that we biked down yesterday to get another bite of that goodness. Instead, we were faced with the reality of a buffet-style brunch that we could not refuse for $13.95, all you can eat.
That's ... ALL ... YOU ... CAN ... EAT!!!
As you can plainly see in the photo to your right, that's all we picked up on plate one. You have your collard greens and grits next to the tossed salad, the grilled squash in the center, mostacolli with meat next to the red beans and rice, broiled catfish and chicken legs to the right, and bacon on top of all that. It was so gluttonous and tacky we felt guilty using the cloth napkins on the table. We went back for the shrimp gumbo, quiche, roast beef, and peach cobbler, and read our paper in peace with Dexter Gordon and Anita O'Day on the sound system. The decor at C'est Si Bon is elegant but cozy. Yellow tablecloths drape each table, large windows give diners a birds-eye view of passers-by, and Binny's Express is conveniently located so you can pick up a bottle of sparkling wine for mimosas. Yesterday the dining area was fairly empty, which made getting in and out a cinch.
C'est Si Bon - for that matter, any of the restaurants in Harper Court - is worth making a trip to Hyde Park (by bike, leave the car at home), especially if you don't want to wait in line at more popular establishments. C'est Si Bon is located at 5225-F S. Harper. Their brunch buffet is every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Their phone number is (773) 363-4123.