Ragu alla Napoletana

Mushroom Tagliatelle

Sunchoke and Artichoke crostini

Interior

Hamachi crudo

**** (4 stars)

This boisterous and popular restaurant certainly serves amazingly fresh pasta, and there are some other notable dishes as well.

Our favorite item of the meal was the hamachi crudo, a tasty dish of marinated raw hamachi with onions and peppers, offered at a very reasonable price.

The artichoke and sunchoke crostini was another nice starter, with very crusty bread topped with fontina cheese, chokes and truffle.

Both pastas we tried were perfectly al dente, one with mushrooms, the other pumpkin stuffed.

Ragu alla Napoletana was HUGE. The al dente fusilli was topped with three delicious sausages, three giant meatballs, and a giant pork shank. This dish would serve at least four people.

The only weakness is the winelist, which has a large selection of fairly pedestrian Italian wines, without a lot of depth or variety. There are no Amarones and no Super Tuscans, except for one priced in the stratosphere. So the list really has no middle, just low end selections in the two digit range, and a handful at many times that price.

Service was excellent.

Monteverde
1020 W Madison St
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 888-3041
https://www.yelp.com/biz/monteverde-chicago