Food review insights for Illinois, United States, Restaurants

"Cornbread" was inedible. The block is deep fried and soaks up the fryer oil like a sponge, it was served in a pool of oil in the box. Mac and cheese tasted like it came out of a box. Chicken sandwich was okay.

**** Food: As other diners had reported the uneven volume of salt in many dishes baffled. Add to that round of reports the amount of spirit in at least one drink. Hot toddy was fabulous so long as its temperature stayed hot; then its vermouth strangled the fungi- and filiform. Saltless beef tallow fries let the diner wish for tableside salt and pepper. But escargot paired with apple cider or water was best even though still quite mild. But then again, wonderfully tender yet terribly, terribly, terribly salty beef bourguignon went way past hearty. Was its super salty taste due to too much reduction? Its sauce wasn't thick so I question that afterthought. Moving on, desserts were fine and included a tall French toast and ice creams. ***** Service: Best in ages and also fun. Jared Leto may have greeted us when we entered. Just kidding! The fellow looked like him in a dim entryway which was more _The Matrix_ than _Tron: Ares._ **** Atmosphere: Dim as previously noted and quite comfortable even though loud music carried heavy bass. (Randolph St, Restaurant Row's Muzak/Pandora/Spotify volume levels just didn't suit this much-classier site.) There were diners aplenty at this location in the 130-year-old Chicago landmark Monadnock Building and across from/near the Union League Club. Now if this eatery could make its cuisine more like G Cuisance's former Kiki's Bistro on N Franklin St....

1st meal no fresh orange juice but they charged for fresh OJ, other meals they ran out of one item then another then another … kinda hard to have breakfast without bacon . Beautiful venue and location but the food for me was a miss due to supply issues

Hello Id love some under Cooked pasta with a half glass of wine!! This pretty much summed up my experience at Riccardo Trattoria. Zagat claimed “think-you’re-in-Italy”. Well not so much. I have been to Italia several times and the scam they have fooling people in Lincoln park seems to be working. Small portions with far from superior seafood seamed to be the norm at this establishment. Take my advice if you want authentic Italian food seek else where in Chicago, your money will be better spent.

"*Starting 1/1/24 there’s a 3% surcharge for credit card payments." Piccolo Sogno tonight's meal & drinks is going to be $100+ per person, so I most would have to use credit rather than cash. what a awful policy. plus no mineral water for some reason.

$150 later for a solo dinner and I find myself uninspired. Potatoes were probably the best I ever had, but that's a side dish. And the apple pie was good, but not incredible (which is fine given the dessert price point). Where this restaurant failed was core of it's business model: the steak. It was correctly cooked at medium rare, but I've cooked better steaks on my Weber at home. And this place pales in comparison to the now defunct David Burke's prime house 60 day dry aged steak. Overall, I would have been happy paying $35-45 for this a la carte steak, but $78??? I expected something more. Something to brag about. Instead, I left unimpressed. It had de minimus flavor, no seasoning and despite the desire for some char, it was too aggressively charred. Most of the flavor was buried in the char.

Everything was fine, just need more menu options as well as desserts & non alcoholic drinks. Overall, it was a great dining experience.

Review rating: 4.0

We visit Berghoff on every visit to Chicago when we stay in the Loop. It has been quite a few years. Our visit this week was early afternoon and it wasn’t busy. Everything was mediocre to poor. All the food tasted like it had been held under a heat lamp for hours. The spatzle was the worst. The schnitzel was the quality of a roadside chain 2 star place. Overdone, odd manufactured taste, and none of us ate more than a few bites. What was once a reliably good and enjoyable German restaurant doesn’t exist anymore…how sad.

Review rating: 2.0

"Cornbread" was inedible. The block is deep fried and soaks up the fryer oil like a sponge, it was served in a pool of oil in the box. Mac and cheese tasted like it came out of a box. Chicken sandwich was okay.

Signal: 0.0%

**** Food: As other diners had reported the uneven volume of salt in many dishes baffled. Add to that round of reports the amount of spirit in at least one drink. Hot toddy was fabulous so long as its temperature stayed hot; then its vermouth strangled the fungi- and filiform. Saltless beef tallow fries let the diner wish for tableside salt and pepper. But escargot paired with apple cider or water was best even though still quite mild. But then again, wonderfully tender yet terribly, terribly, terribly salty beef bourguignon went way past hearty. Was its super salty taste due to too much reduction? Its sauce wasn't thick so I question that afterthought. Moving on, desserts were fine and included a tall French toast and ice creams. ***** Service: Best in ages and also fun. Jared Leto may have greeted us when we entered. Just kidding! The fellow looked like him in a dim entryway which was more _The Matrix_ than _Tron: Ares._ **** Atmosphere: Dim as previously noted and quite comfortable even though loud music carried heavy bass. (Randolph St, Restaurant Row's Muzak/Pandora/Spotify volume levels just didn't suit this much-classier site.) There were diners aplenty at this location in the 130-year-old Chicago landmark Monadnock Building and across from/near the Union League Club. Now if this eatery could make its cuisine more like G Cuisance's former Kiki's Bistro on N Franklin St....

Signal: 0.0%

1st meal no fresh orange juice but they charged for fresh OJ, other meals they ran out of one item then another then another … kinda hard to have breakfast without bacon . Beautiful venue and location but the food for me was a miss due to supply issues

Signal: 0.0%