Category Archives: Italian

George’s Gourmet Pizzeria

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Mediterranean pizza (veggie)

Pepperoni and basil

Caesar salad

Patio

*** (3 stars)

George’s pizza serves a lot more than pizza, including pasta and other Italian standards. In fact the best item we had was the chicken Caesar salad, although I say that with qualifications. The chicken was actually quite tough, and the salad would have been better without it. But the bacon-like meat was good, the dressing was excellent, and the lettuce was nice and crisp.

I’m a fan of many styles of pizza, from thin crust to deep dish, New York style to Chicago style. George’s pizza isn’t really any of those. The crust is thicker than thin, and is a bit too tough and chewy. The result varies depending upon the pizza you order. In the case of pepperoni, it seemed like it was a frozen pizza, and was really not very good. But on the generously topped Mediterranean pizza (a veggie option) it worked fine, because the whole thing seemed more like a vegetable tart than a pizza.

It’s a quick serve concept where you order at a counter and they deliver to your table, but even so the water and menu service was friendly and attentive.

George’s Gourmet Pizzeria
15/1 Circa Boulevarde
Baulkham Hills, New South Wales 2153
+61 2 9836 2711
https://www.yelp.com/biz/georges-gourmet-pizzeria-baulkham-hills

Intermezzo Ristorante

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Snapper and scampi

Pappardelle

Green olives, tomato, sourdough

Rocket, pear and reggiano

Front room

Exterior

Interior

**** (4 stars)

I think a lot of the reviews here are out of date, as they have changed chef and staff in the past two years. We had a great experience here.

The ambiance is upscale genuine Italian as you would find in Italy. There’s an extensive menu and an excellent wine list with a focus on Italian wines (of course) but plenty of other selections as well.

We enjoyed our green olives, tomato and sourdough bread starter, and the rocket, pear and reggiano salad was a nice palate cleanser.

The pappardelle with mushrooms was a lovely, light pasta dish, and the crispy skin snapper with prawns was perfectly cooked. I could have licked the plate to get off the last of the pureed peas!

Service was attentive, and they brought nice glassware and decanted our Amarone without being asked.

Pricing is not cheap, but not unreasonable for the expensive location.

Intermezzo Ristorante
1 Martin Pl
Sydney, New South Wales 2000
+61 2 9229 7788
https://www.yelp.com/biz/intermezzo-ristorante-sydney-3

Nonnina

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Interior

Roasted cauliflower

Caesar salad

Meatballs

Shrimp fra Diavolo

Neopiltan

**** (4 stars)

Named after grandmothers’ cooking, Nonnina delivers traditional home-made Italian cuisine. The highlight here is the wide variety of house-made pasta. We started by sharing a special ravioli stuffed with cheese and served in a mushroom truffle sauce. It was excellent, the highlight of our meal.

Roasted cauliflower was a good, spicy dish that would work better as a side than a starter. Another good starter is the meatballs, which are large and savory. An appetizer portion is plenty, or you can have them on pasta as an entree.

The Caesar salad was traditional and good.

As an entree I had the Shrimp Fra Diavolo, which was not as spicy as some versions I’ve had. The shrimp had too much of a saffron flavor for my taste, but that’s just me. The pasta was squid ink infused, heavier than typical spaghetti, and appropriately al dente.

There’s a decent wine list with a nice selection of Italian reds, perhaps priced a bit better than other Chicago lists.

Service was pleasant and efficient, even though the place was full. Despite the crowd, it was easy to converse. And there’s a really nice outside seating area on the side of the building away from the traffic on Clark.

Nonnina
340 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 822-0077
http://www.yelp.com/biz/nonnina-chicago

Pizzeria Via Stato

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Exterior

Bar

Interior

Caesar salad

Pepperoni pizza

**** (4 stars)

Opening another pizza restaurant in Chicago is only slightly less redundant than opening another steakhouse. But Lettuce Entertain You rarely miscalculates, and this place is another winner.

If you like thin crust–and by thin, I mean wafer thin–pizza, then Pizzeria Via Stato is the place to go. This relatively small, casual but nice restaurant is making some of the best pizza in River North.

The crispy pepperoni with fresh basil was excellent, with a cracker crisp crust, and an excellent tomato sauce, and lots of (not actually all that crispy) pepperoni, and generous fresh basil.

I also really liked the “celery” Caesar salad, which was a normal Caesar with lots of tasty croutons and an extra crunch imparted by celery. Although served on a small plate, it was a deceptively large mound, ample for sharing.

Service was professional, and there are interesting beer and cocktail selections.

Pizzeria Via Stato
620 N State St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 642-8450
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pizzeria-via-stato-chicago

Francesca’s On Chestnut

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Exterior

Interior

Caesar Salad

Anchovy and onion pizza (don’t judge me)

***** (5 stars)

This is the third Francesca’s I’ve been to, and it’s my favorite. I like the fact that, although it is a chain, it doesn’t feel like one. This space is light and airy, and feels like a European bistro.

The menu offers Italian standards, prepared in classical ways, some with a slight twist. For example, the Caesar salad is topped with a large pimiento.

Warm bread and a bowl of grated parmesan are presented at the start of the meal. I used the parmesan and olive oil to make myself cheese bread while I waited for my meal.

I created my own pizza, with anchovies and onions (don’t judge me) and really enjoyed it. The crust is thin (my preference), but has a bit of that cracker flavor I associate with Chicago style pizza.

My server, Linda, was truly excellent, as was the bussing service. Both really elevated this meal to a five-star experience.

Francesca’s On Chestnut
200 E Chestnut St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 482-8800
http://www.yelp.com/biz/francescas-on-chestnut-chicago

RPM Italian

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Interior

Garlic bread

Kale

Artichoke

Ravioli special

***** (5 stars)

Lettuce Entertain You has done a really brilliant job with this restaurant. It is stylish, comfortable, noise levels are reasonable, and the food is superb. It also avoids a lot of the Italian restaurant cliches, with interesting twists on everything from appetizers to pastas.

We started with the truffle garlic bread, which was perfectly toasted, and not overladen with truffle or oil, and nicely toasted, with crisp edges. The serving size was plenty for two to four people, depending on how much you like bread. In other words, I could have eaten the whole loaf myself.

The kale salad was very refreshing, with a dressing composed mostly of lemon juice, but plenty of other complexity.

The artichokes were unlike any I’ve seen before, more like the blossoms they truly are, with long skinny stems. They were fried to a crispy consistency, but not oily at all.

I had the day’s special pasta, a wonderful cheese ravioli that incorporated a whole egg yolk. When broken open it perfectly blended with the accompanying, asparagus, peas and mushrooms.

The only disappointment was dessert. We kept it simple with gelato, Although they were very creamy, neither had much of the supposed pistachio and creamsicle flavors.

This is definitely my favorite of the Italian restaurants I’ve tried in River North, and I’ll be back soon.

RPM Italian
52 W Illinois St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 222-1888
http://www.yelp.com/biz/rpm-italian-chicago

Jellyfish

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Interior

Tuna tartare

Spicy crab mini tacos

Banging sweet Thai chili chicken

Spicy salmon, kiss of fire, black diamond

*** (3 stars)

Jellyfish is divided into two distinct spaces. The inside is a long bar with facing booths. The bar is backlit with a spectacular wall of sliced geodes, and the blue lightning is very cool. Then there’s a sort of outside space that is like a solarium, with a glass ceiling that lets in the sun. It’s like sidewalk dining, but indoors.

The highlights here are the small plates, both cold and hot.

Our favorite was the tuna tartare, which was served on very tasty guacamole, accompanied by wonton chips.

The mini crab tacos were also very good.

We also tried the “bangin'” chicken with a sweet Thai chili sauce, which was fine but not remarkable.

Much of the menu consists of sushi, of course. Prices seem very high, with each individual piece of fish costing about $5. There was nothing we observed about the quality of the fish that seemed to justify the premium.

We opted for three rolls: spicy tuna, kiss of fire, and black diamond. All were fine, but none were that magic combination of flavors that would qualify them as “signature” rolls, as listed.

Service was good, as it should have been, since we were alone during Sunday at lunch. I suppose this is due to the second floor location, which makes it a bit non-obvious to the casual traffic on the busy street below.

Jellyfish
1009 N Rush St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 660-3111
https://www.yelp.com/biz/jellyfish-chicago-2

Davanti Enoteca

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Interior

Chicken liver

Tuna sandwich and mushroom soup

Cauliflower steak

***** (5 stars)

I’ve walked past this place for two years, associating it with hotel coffee shops and the donut shop that shares its entrance. I just assumed it wasn’t noteworthy. Wrong!

We had a great lunch here. First, the decor is among the nicest of Italian restaurants in Chicago, with rich brick and wood finishes and pleasant lighting.

The lunch menu offers a variety of starters and a few pizzas and sandwiches. But the deal is the half sandwich special which includes a salad or the soup of the day, and is currently a mere $10.

My wife selected the tuna sandwich and cream of mushroom soup. Both were flat-out amazing. It was one of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve ever tasted! It’s unusual, because the tuna is topped with giardiniera, a pickled mixture of peppers, carrots, cauliflower and other vegetables. And it’s served in what looks like pita bread, but is a light consistency like focaccia. The soup was great too, but very rich.

Speaking of rich, I asked for the Pate Vasi off the dinner menu, which they graciously made for us. It’s a jar filled with a delightfully creamy chicken liver pate, served with perfectly grilled slices of bread. The two of us shared half of this, and took the rest home because it was too good to get away.

As my entree I had the cauliflower steak appetizer, a large slab of cauliflower nicely browned, served atop an olive tapenade and covered in a slightly sweet white sauce. I didn’t care for the crispy garbanzo beans on top, but the rest was good, the primary flavor being the tapenade.

Service was attentive and friendly. As the name enoteca implies, the wine list is extensive, both by bottle and glass.

Overall this was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a while, and I won’t walk past this place the next time I’m in the mood for Italian food!

Davanti Enoteca
30 E Hubbard St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 605-5900
https://www.yelp.com/biz/davanti-enoteca-chicago-3

Petterino’s

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Almond encrusted white fish

Grilled trout

Cannelloni

Interior

**** (4 stars)

This restaurant is connected to the Goodman Theatre and just a few steps from the Oriental, so it’s a great place for a pre-show meal.

The interior is decorated like Sardi’s in New York, with red velvet booths and walls covered with caricatures of famous personalities.

The menu offers pastas, fish and meats. The food is better than one might expect for a restaurant that is capitalizing on its location. I particularly like the Caesar salad, which is a classical style without any of the odd deconstruction that is in vogue. My grilled trout was excellent, as was my companion’s almond-crusted whitefish.

Service is friendly and extremely efficient, because the place is geared to filling up and getting patrons out in time for their show.

This is a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, and participates in their rewards program, which is a nice perk.

Petterino’s
150 N Dearborn St
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 422-0150
https://www.yelp.com/biz/petterinos-chicago

Monteverde

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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