The food as always was spot on and so delicious - that never fails to amaze us. The only reason we gave it a 4 was the waitress we had treated us badly and I know she is a long-time waitress but we feel because we only ordered a meal no appetizers or drinks or desert we were not worth her time - this was Mother's Day and was trying to give my wife a nice meal for that day since both out daughters live out of town. We still made the best of it but her attitude could have ruined the day. We don't understand this treatment
Deborah Sutliff
Lovely, small, old-school family-owned Italian restaurant with generous portions. This is near my folks and it is obvious why it is one of their favorites. Quality of the food is excellent, pasta appears to be house-made as is everything. Garlic dressing for the salad is excellent. I recommend you get a flight of cannoli to take home -- because you will be stuffed. I would advise reservations - and expect to have a relaxing long meal as hand made foodie quality shouldn't, and isn't, rushed.You can fully expect to have leftovers for another two meals from a serving of most pasta dishes unless you're a gourmand instead of a gourmet.
Kenya 75
My boyfriend and I had dinner here and everything was so good and FRESH!Great service and intimate setting.I highly recommend the grilled Salmon w/ asparagus.?? I'm looking forward to going back very soon!!
Mel Harth
If you are in a hurry, do not come here. You have been warned. It's a very slow dining experience. If you want to try it and you are time constrained, order ahead and make a reservation, walk in and eat.We ate here last night. The food was excellent across the board. Filet mignon served italian style with marinara over pasta, Lobster ravioli, Braciola, and Spicy calamari and shrimp over linguine. Fried calamari appetizer. Soups were excellent. Portions were mammoth. Two meals easy. Bread was also very good. Drinks were poured strong and very good, as you would expect at a nice sit down restaurant.The Tiramisu was disappointing. Way too much whipped cream, nearly no flavor, no ladyfingers, no coffee/chocolate. I hope they read this review, because this needs to be addressed. Simple fix, get a better recipe or just order from a vendor. The flight of cannoli's was very good though.Last point, and it's important. This is an Italian family joint. The value for the money is excellent. Paper table cloths like any good Italian family joint. A few Italian women as hostess and server. Some of the reviews complain about the service. This is a small family restaurant, the service will be slow. You can't afford to have servers sitting around for a dinner hour that's unpredictable with a small seating area. And it's an Italian place, so sit down and shut up! Ha ha ha......If you are looking for five star service don't go here. If you are looking for a solid Italian family joint, with good food and huge portions, where sometimes the meal comes with an attitude and you are not a snowflake that melts when the wind blows, give it a try. We loved it.
Dayna Kramer
Where to start, as soon as we didn't order alcohol the waitress had an attitude. We were going to a concert after and decided it best not to drink early. We ordered some calamari and their "risotto". As soon as the calamari showed up and I saw the color of the pasta sauce I knew we went to the wrong place. It was acidic and super salty and I have sadly had better canned/jarred sauces. Calamari was okay. We got a soup and salad, it was a red pepper soup and salad with their house dressing. Those decent. Next comes the seafood risotto. Seafood was extreamly overcooked. The most rubbery octupus I have ever had. And the risotto was a mix of overdone and underdone weird cruncy mushiness. Pretty much unedible. Our waitress never came back to check on us. The girl bussing tables was really sweet but, we didn't even have the chance to tell our server about the bad dish becuase she never came back to the table. We then waited for thirty mins before deciding we would go to the front and just ask for the check. No point in explaining our dissatifacation at this point because we will never return. For the first time in my entire life I said "do not tip her 20%" and frankly the only reason we left a tip at all was on the off chance that our waitress tipped out the busser. Would give negative stars if I could. Worst food and service I ever had in my life. Save yourself the trouble and order a stoffers becuase that will be more edible than this trash food.
Joe Mak
The food was okay for the most part.One of the meals was so overly salted, the person who ordered it couldn't eat it. When it was brought to the servers attention, she didn't seem to care.So another in our party attempted to eat it, but requested more bread to help cleanse the pallette. The server denied the request, insinuating that we only wanted to take bread home, but she happily allow us to purchase another roll.Then after suffering through the overly salted dish without bread, the bill comes with a bread roll wrapped to go, and an extra charge on the bill. And, no one wanted bread to go.So, of the opinions in or party. One thought the food was awful and another thought it would have more enjoyable with bread or alot less salt. And the whole table found the server to be relatively rude & presumptuous, with more interest in insinuating the bill than actually caring for her customers meal needs.Two of us won't be going back. The other members, who didn't experience the overly salted dish, would be will to give it another try, theyd just be hoping for a server who actually cares about the experience the guests have at the restaurant.
Andrew Giovenco
Came here to eat for my nieces birthday and I knew the moment I walked in that it wasn’t going to be a good experience but i stayed because she wanted to try it. The restaurant was pretty dead for being around dinner time. Atmosphere was very dark and the cleanliness of the place was subpar. So was the decor. We were seated and waited for about 20 minutes or more before the waitress even came over to say hello or take a drink order. Luckily the bus girl came by with a cask of water and loaf of bread or we would t have had anything. Waitress finally comes by and takes drink and appetizer order and then doesn’t bring our sodas over for another 20 minutes. She finally returns with drinks and our appetizers and then takes our order. We ate our soups, salads and appetizers and they were all awful. Cold and bland. My son took one bite of his soup and pushed it away. I took one bite of my salad and pushed it away. Same with my mother. Bruschetta was soggy and over seasoned. Another 20 min goes by before waitress returns and we ask for refills on our drinks. I think you see the pattern here. Brings out drinks with food. Every few min while we were eating the bud girl kept trying to take our plates while we were still eating off them. Had to tell her to stop and go away because it was rude and intrusive. Our dinners were just as awful as appetizers. My veal dish was just breading and no seasoning at all. Just flour and it was drowned in a watery sauce that was pretty much soup. They also put on about a pound of garlic on it that it was overpowering and pretty much inedible. We all pretty much just picked at it and asked for to go boxes. $150 for low grade food. I could have gone to the local diner and paid a quarter of the price and had better food. We will never be returning again. I expected more from an “authentic establishment” for shame.
Cali Marie
Love this place! Food is incredible. Obsessed with the mussels. However it’s says your open til 9pm, came one day and closed by 7:30pm :(
Lauren Goselin
Had a Horrible Experience from the moment we step into the door. Waitress was very rude and argumentative. We asked to move tables due to lack of room to be comfortable eating and one of the waitresses told us to pick another table. When we sat down and waited to be served our waitress came over and rudely stated that we should not just move table without asking or without talking to a waitress and that she's not suppose to be our waitress. Mind you this is even before she Greeted us or took any order. BUT WE DID ASK TO BE MOVED and she still had an attitude and was aggressive about it. When we were served our food it was Terrible lacking flavor. Over cooked chicken parm and undercooked pasta. We approached the waitress about the issue she made a huge deal about it with another waitress (more argumentative) infront of the entire Restaurant. Terrible service and food. DO NOT GO HERE.
Joe M
Very good italian faire. Could use a little more seasoning for my taste. Had lasagna and chicken parmesan. Calamari appetizer was one of the best ive ever had, light and crispy..
The food and the service here is always phenomenal. I brought my parents here for my birthday and they fell in love with it too. One of the most underrated places to eat in McHenry!
Jack L.
After reading some of the reviews we decided to give it a try. When we arrived , there was were only a couple of tables being served, then they quickly filled up. To me this is a good sign. But as it turns out the wait time just got longer. When we finally were asked for our selections we chose to order drinks and calamari as well as lasanga for my wife and Zuppa de Pesche ( which is seafood soup) for myself. After long period of time we were told that the last order of calamari was sent out for pick-up. Okay, now we wait some more and order more bread because we came here to eat(hungry). The food finally comes out and to my surprise the so called zuppa is a pasta dish not soup. being hungry and open-minded I decided to eat, not being able to wait any longer. In hind-sight I wish that I had insisted on a different entree. Zuppa De Pesche is my acid test of the quality of the restaurant and they failed miserably. If you are Italian you know zuppa is soup!
John Nelson
Did not have reservations on Saturday night. but they gave us a table in the corner. Amazing service and meal (special was ravioli lobster with shrimp)Salad with the best garlic dressing I ever had. Naturally warm homemade bread, oil and parmesan
Jan M.
Hands down the worst restaurant I've been to in a very long time. Save your money. Came here with two friends to celebrate a belated birthday dinner. One friend ordered the Braciole which turned out to be very fatty. Our server let her order a replacement entree. She ordered chicken parmesan only to find the chicken was more raw than cooked. Other friend ordered the Zuppa de Pesce which was okay, but nothing to write home about - especially when considering the price. I ordered the veal parmesan. The veal was tough and chewy, not tender and tasty. The side of penne pasta was hard - not al dente. The only good food we had was the blue cheese dressing, which tasted homemade, on our salads. Our server had an attitude and was snarky and very judgmental. I asked if they served Pepsi and was told they only had Coke. I said I'd pass because I find the taste of Coke too harsh. She rolled her eyes and made a snide remark. When I commented that was thinking of a glass of wine but was tired and had a long drive home she rolled her eyes again. I was the birthday girl, so unfortunately I didn't see the bill or I would be happy to name the server. It's probably good for her that I didn't see the bill because I would have left her no tip - something I have never done in my life.
Kay E.
My husband and I stopped in on Friday November 4th and had an absolutely fabulous evening. We started off with a couple appetizers... Caprese in balsamic and Mussels in white wine sauce... the sauce was out of this world, needed more bread to sponge up the sauce. That is the 2nd best part of that appetizer. Dinner salad and soup pasta fagioli Main meal selections we selected the specials for the evening. Lobster and shrimp in creamy vodka sauce and Salmon and shrimp in white whine sauce over angel hair pasta. Let's put it this way the plates were clean... We did not have enough room for desert... But next time we will pace the meal so we can enjoy some sweets. The ambience I felt like I was at home during the holidays a little loud, but felt like home... their was a party celebrating an engagement that night. Service: Mary jo was our server and what a treat for us... the bus girl she was also awesome as she was very efficient and always had a smile!!!! Can't wait to bring my dad to try the Braciole...as that is a meal his mom/my grandma made while growing up... Great 1st time and looking for future frequent visits. Thanks for starting our weekend on the right foot.
The food as always was spot on and so delicious - that never fails to amaze us. The only reason we gave it a 4 was the waitress we had treated us badly and I know she is a long-time waitress but we feel because we only ordered a meal no appetizers or drinks or desert we were not worth her time - this was Mother's Day and was trying to give my wife a nice meal for that day since both out daughters live out of town. We still made the best of it but her attitude could have ruined the day. We don't understand this treatment
Lovely, small, old-school family-owned Italian restaurant with generous portions. This is near my folks and it is obvious why it is one of their favorites. Quality of the food is excellent, pasta appears to be house-made as is everything. Garlic dressing for the salad is excellent. I recommend you get a flight of cannoli to take home -- because you will be stuffed. I would advise reservations - and expect to have a relaxing long meal as hand made foodie quality shouldn't, and isn't, rushed.You can fully expect to have leftovers for another two meals from a serving of most pasta dishes unless you're a gourmand instead of a gourmet.
My boyfriend and I had dinner here and everything was so good and FRESH!Great service and intimate setting.I highly recommend the grilled Salmon w/ asparagus.?? I'm looking forward to going back very soon!!
If you are in a hurry, do not come here. You have been warned. It's a very slow dining experience. If you want to try it and you are time constrained, order ahead and make a reservation, walk in and eat.We ate here last night. The food was excellent across the board. Filet mignon served italian style with marinara over pasta, Lobster ravioli, Braciola, and Spicy calamari and shrimp over linguine. Fried calamari appetizer. Soups were excellent. Portions were mammoth. Two meals easy. Bread was also very good. Drinks were poured strong and very good, as you would expect at a nice sit down restaurant.The Tiramisu was disappointing. Way too much whipped cream, nearly no flavor, no ladyfingers, no coffee/chocolate. I hope they read this review, because this needs to be addressed. Simple fix, get a better recipe or just order from a vendor. The flight of cannoli's was very good though.Last point, and it's important. This is an Italian family joint. The value for the money is excellent. Paper table cloths like any good Italian family joint. A few Italian women as hostess and server. Some of the reviews complain about the service. This is a small family restaurant, the service will be slow. You can't afford to have servers sitting around for a dinner hour that's unpredictable with a small seating area. And it's an Italian place, so sit down and shut up! Ha ha ha......If you are looking for five star service don't go here. If you are looking for a solid Italian family joint, with good food and huge portions, where sometimes the meal comes with an attitude and you are not a snowflake that melts when the wind blows, give it a try. We loved it.
Where to start, as soon as we didn't order alcohol the waitress had an attitude. We were going to a concert after and decided it best not to drink early. We ordered some calamari and their "risotto". As soon as the calamari showed up and I saw the color of the pasta sauce I knew we went to the wrong place. It was acidic and super salty and I have sadly had better canned/jarred sauces. Calamari was okay. We got a soup and salad, it was a red pepper soup and salad with their house dressing. Those decent. Next comes the seafood risotto. Seafood was extreamly overcooked. The most rubbery octupus I have ever had. And the risotto was a mix of overdone and underdone weird cruncy mushiness. Pretty much unedible. Our waitress never came back to check on us. The girl bussing tables was really sweet but, we didn't even have the chance to tell our server about the bad dish becuase she never came back to the table. We then waited for thirty mins before deciding we would go to the front and just ask for the check. No point in explaining our dissatifacation at this point because we will never return. For the first time in my entire life I said "do not tip her 20%" and frankly the only reason we left a tip at all was on the off chance that our waitress tipped out the busser. Would give negative stars if I could. Worst food and service I ever had in my life. Save yourself the trouble and order a stoffers becuase that will be more edible than this trash food.
The food was okay for the most part.One of the meals was so overly salted, the person who ordered it couldn't eat it. When it was brought to the servers attention, she didn't seem to care.So another in our party attempted to eat it, but requested more bread to help cleanse the pallette. The server denied the request, insinuating that we only wanted to take bread home, but she happily allow us to purchase another roll.Then after suffering through the overly salted dish without bread, the bill comes with a bread roll wrapped to go, and an extra charge on the bill. And, no one wanted bread to go.So, of the opinions in or party. One thought the food was awful and another thought it would have more enjoyable with bread or alot less salt. And the whole table found the server to be relatively rude & presumptuous, with more interest in insinuating the bill than actually caring for her customers meal needs.Two of us won't be going back. The other members, who didn't experience the overly salted dish, would be will to give it another try, theyd just be hoping for a server who actually cares about the experience the guests have at the restaurant.
Came here to eat for my nieces birthday and I knew the moment I walked in that it wasn’t going to be a good experience but i stayed because she wanted to try it. The restaurant was pretty dead for being around dinner time. Atmosphere was very dark and the cleanliness of the place was subpar. So was the decor. We were seated and waited for about 20 minutes or more before the waitress even came over to say hello or take a drink order. Luckily the bus girl came by with a cask of water and loaf of bread or we would t have had anything. Waitress finally comes by and takes drink and appetizer order and then doesn’t bring our sodas over for another 20 minutes. She finally returns with drinks and our appetizers and then takes our order. We ate our soups, salads and appetizers and they were all awful. Cold and bland. My son took one bite of his soup and pushed it away. I took one bite of my salad and pushed it away. Same with my mother. Bruschetta was soggy and over seasoned. Another 20 min goes by before waitress returns and we ask for refills on our drinks. I think you see the pattern here. Brings out drinks with food. Every few min while we were eating the bud girl kept trying to take our plates while we were still eating off them. Had to tell her to stop and go away because it was rude and intrusive. Our dinners were just as awful as appetizers. My veal dish was just breading and no seasoning at all. Just flour and it was drowned in a watery sauce that was pretty much soup. They also put on about a pound of garlic on it that it was overpowering and pretty much inedible. We all pretty much just picked at it and asked for to go boxes. $150 for low grade food. I could have gone to the local diner and paid a quarter of the price and had better food. We will never be returning again. I expected more from an “authentic establishment” for shame.
Love this place! Food is incredible. Obsessed with the mussels. However it’s says your open til 9pm, came one day and closed by 7:30pm :(
Had a Horrible Experience from the moment we step into the door. Waitress was very rude and argumentative. We asked to move tables due to lack of room to be comfortable eating and one of the waitresses told us to pick another table. When we sat down and waited to be served our waitress came over and rudely stated that we should not just move table without asking or without talking to a waitress and that she's not suppose to be our waitress. Mind you this is even before she Greeted us or took any order. BUT WE DID ASK TO BE MOVED and she still had an attitude and was aggressive about it. When we were served our food it was Terrible lacking flavor. Over cooked chicken parm and undercooked pasta. We approached the waitress about the issue she made a huge deal about it with another waitress (more argumentative) infront of the entire Restaurant. Terrible service and food. DO NOT GO HERE.
Very good italian faire. Could use a little more seasoning for my taste. Had lasagna and chicken parmesan. Calamari appetizer was one of the best ive ever had, light and crispy..
Restaurantji Recommends
The food and the service here is always phenomenal. I brought my parents here for my birthday and they fell in love with it too. One of the most underrated places to eat in McHenry!
After reading some of the reviews we decided to give it a try. When we arrived , there was were only a couple of tables being served, then they quickly filled up. To me this is a good sign. But as it turns out the wait time just got longer. When we finally were asked for our selections we chose to order drinks and calamari as well as lasanga for my wife and Zuppa de Pesche ( which is seafood soup) for myself. After long period of time we were told that the last order of calamari was sent out for pick-up. Okay, now we wait some more and order more bread because we came here to eat(hungry). The food finally comes out and to my surprise the so called zuppa is a pasta dish not soup. being hungry and open-minded I decided to eat, not being able to wait any longer. In hind-sight I wish that I had insisted on a different entree. Zuppa De Pesche is my acid test of the quality of the restaurant and they failed miserably. If you are Italian you know zuppa is soup!
Did not have reservations on Saturday night. but they gave us a table in the corner. Amazing service and meal (special was ravioli lobster with shrimp)Salad with the best garlic dressing I ever had. Naturally warm homemade bread, oil and parmesan
Hands down the worst restaurant I've been to in a very long time. Save your money. Came here with two friends to celebrate a belated birthday dinner. One friend ordered the Braciole which turned out to be very fatty. Our server let her order a replacement entree. She ordered chicken parmesan only to find the chicken was more raw than cooked. Other friend ordered the Zuppa de Pesce which was okay, but nothing to write home about - especially when considering the price. I ordered the veal parmesan. The veal was tough and chewy, not tender and tasty. The side of penne pasta was hard - not al dente. The only good food we had was the blue cheese dressing, which tasted homemade, on our salads. Our server had an attitude and was snarky and very judgmental. I asked if they served Pepsi and was told they only had Coke. I said I'd pass because I find the taste of Coke too harsh. She rolled her eyes and made a snide remark. When I commented that was thinking of a glass of wine but was tired and had a long drive home she rolled her eyes again. I was the birthday girl, so unfortunately I didn't see the bill or I would be happy to name the server. It's probably good for her that I didn't see the bill because I would have left her no tip - something I have never done in my life.
My husband and I stopped in on Friday November 4th and had an absolutely fabulous evening. We started off with a couple appetizers... Caprese in balsamic and Mussels in white wine sauce... the sauce was out of this world, needed more bread to sponge up the sauce. That is the 2nd best part of that appetizer. Dinner salad and soup pasta fagioli Main meal selections we selected the specials for the evening. Lobster and shrimp in creamy vodka sauce and Salmon and shrimp in white whine sauce over angel hair pasta. Let's put it this way the plates were clean... We did not have enough room for desert... But next time we will pace the meal so we can enjoy some sweets. The ambience I felt like I was at home during the holidays a little loud, but felt like home... their was a party celebrating an engagement that night. Service: Mary jo was our server and what a treat for us... the bus girl she was also awesome as she was very efficient and always had a smile!!!! Can't wait to bring my dad to try the Braciole...as that is a meal his mom/my grandma made while growing up... Great 1st time and looking for future frequent visits. Thanks for starting our weekend on the right foot.