MCC Tartan Bistro

01/30/2026

Last semester was a whirlwind, and I didn’t get a chance to post much, but no worries- YES we are back this semester! New students, new Chef in back of house, great new menu. And…..we are very proud to be hosting the chili cook-off this Sunday, February 1st. That also happens to be the first day to email reservation requests to Tartan Bistro. www.mchenry.edu/tartanbistro for details on the restaurant. Get tickets for the chili cook-off via https://woodstockgroundhog.org

05/18/2025

Congratulations class of 2025! Very proud of all of you. Have a great weekend celebrating!

05/16/2025

And that’s a wrap for this year’s Tartan Bistro class. Thank you for your support of this program! We were able to have our final exam/dinner at in Algonquin on Wednesday night. Fantastic menu, outstanding service, and they were excited to have a few students apply to the restaurant. So many of these students are graduating this Saturday, and I can’t wait to see where they all go. I was also able to help judge the CLM 102 class finals, and recruited a few to intern in in the Fall. Keep watching our instagram and FB pages for Sweet Scots opening date information. See you all in the fall, have a great summer!

04/22/2025

The culinary program hosted the annual HS cooking challenge today. Thanks to Chef Joyce’s CLM 102 class for providing students to mentor each team. 5 teams competed, each had a different mystery box to use. Every school did a fantastic job and made some truly good food. Congratulations to for the winning dish! Pasta with pork belly meatballs, Spinach salad and fried mushrooms. Great job all!

04/22/2025

The culinary program hosted the annual HS cooking challenge today. Thanks to Chef Joyce’s CLM 102 class for providing students to mentor each team. 5 teams competed, each had a different mystery box to use. Every school did a fantastic job and made some truly good food. Congratulations to for the winning dish! Pasta with pork belly meatballs, Spinach salad and fried mushrooms. Great job all!

04/22/2025

Spring flowers mean Tartan is starting to wrap things up. We are only open 5 more nights and have had a few cancellations. If you asked to be on a waitlist- PLEASE check your email. I’m waiting on a few responses for this Thursday, 4/24. I will move down the list if I don’t get a response later today. Thanks!

03/19/2025

Attention! If you hold a reservation for Wednesday, April 9th, please note that we will no longer be open that night. Please check your email, we will do what we can to reaccommodate those reservations. Thanks for your patience and understanding while we work through this change!
-Chef Tina

03/11/2025

St.Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. We are almost sold out for semester, but some lucky person can grab a table for 4 at 6:15pm tomorrow- 3/12. Only tables of 2 remain for the rest of the semester. First person to email [email protected] can score the reservation!

02/18/2025

Tartan Bistro still has tables available in March, April and May. We even have a few 2-tops open in February if you are flexible on seating time. Make a reservation and enjoy our signature MCC Agrarian Pale Ale from Holzlager Brewery. The hops were grown on our student farm, and an MCC student designed the label. This is a limited production as the next round of hops will be used for a new brew, so get it while we still have it!

02/06/2025

Hello everyone! We are all very excited to welcome everyone back to Tartan Bistro. I (Chef Tina) am still working through the 100+ emails for reservation requests. I’m taking them in order of dates first, so if you don’t see a response yet, or you are waiting for confirmation of Mar/Apr/May dates, thank you for your patience!
1) PLEASE remember to include your preferred time and number of people in your request. Also indicate if you are flexible on time. This saves a lot of back and forth email where you may lose the date you were hoping for.
2) Please remember to email us ASAP if you need to cancel and/or the size of your party is less than the original reservation. It really does help us.
3) Thank you to anyone who has suggestions on reservation systems. I am aware of what’s out there, and I am also aware of the cost. Since we are only open 18-20 times any given semester, it’s just not cost-effective. (I’m a tax payer in McHenry County as well, and I’d rather put that money into the food).
4) Please remember- this is an actual class, and these are students. This year we only have 3 servers, and only 1 has serving experience. While any large tables are already reserved, I am happy to keep you on a waitlist. Things change every week (as long as you all remember to email any changes :).
Thank you for supporting our program!

02/01/2025

Tartan Bistro reservation requests are now open. Please read the page and don’t forget details such as date/time and how many people in your party. Yes, people forget this all the time. 😉 Menu will be posted next week. We look forward to seeing everyone again!

Tartan Bistro is MCC's student-run restaurant, open during the spring semester.