My wife and I went out for my birthday last night and I picked a small Italian place not for from us called Riccardo Trattoria. It had good review on Chicago Reader and seemed to be a legit place. Not extremely high-end, but definitely nice and surprisingly reasonably priced.
The ambiance was very warm, nice wood trim, off-white walls and Audubon bird prints -- homey but elegant. We were greeted with a "Buona sera," which seemed more habit than pretense, which was nice. The wait staff were excellent -- very professional, but friendly and more than willing to offer suggestions.
About 1/3 of the menu was temporary -- printed for the day and affixed to the inside cover of the menu. Not sure how often they rotate their menu.
They brought out a couple bruschetta as an amuse bouche, and served nice, home-made bread (the relatively bland house bread that we ate in most of the restaurants we went to in Tuscany) and onion focaccia.
We were limited by keeping kosher (we're pretty strict, but will eat out within reason), so we didn't have the tripe, for which they are apparently known. I started with the zucchini and eggplant timbale with parmiggiano, which was delicious, and my wife had a beet and endive salad with shaved parmiggiano. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary -- well-prepared and quite good.
I was in the mood for fish and had dover sole, a special recommended by the waitress, lightly floured and sauteed in a brown butter-lemon sauce with capers, etc. The kind of dish that rises and falls on how well cooked the fish is, and it was outstanding. Really flavorful and perfectly cooked. My wife had the tortelloni, filled with spinach and ricotta in a sage-butter sauce. Also excellent.
The kicker was the dessert -- one of the special items -- castagnaccio. It is a chestnut-flour cake (about 1.5-2" thick), with pine nuts, raisins and rosemary (in the batter). It is somewhere in between savory and sweet and went perfectly with the hazelnut gelato. It strikes me as one of those things that you can't get at your average Italian restaurant, and it was a perfect touch to end a really wonderful meal.
I'm sure that if you eat meat out (unlike us), there is even more to choose from. We'll definitely go back. Moving back from NY, I'm still getting over how inexpensive comparable restaurants are. All in all a wonderful way to end my birthday.
Anyone else been? Thoughts?
The ambiance was very warm, nice wood trim, off-white walls and Audubon bird prints -- homey but elegant. We were greeted with a "Buona sera," which seemed more habit than pretense, which was nice. The wait staff were excellent -- very professional, but friendly and more than willing to offer suggestions.
About 1/3 of the menu was temporary -- printed for the day and affixed to the inside cover of the menu. Not sure how often they rotate their menu.
They brought out a couple bruschetta as an amuse bouche, and served nice, home-made bread (the relatively bland house bread that we ate in most of the restaurants we went to in Tuscany) and onion focaccia.
We were limited by keeping kosher (we're pretty strict, but will eat out within reason), so we didn't have the tripe, for which they are apparently known. I started with the zucchini and eggplant timbale with parmiggiano, which was delicious, and my wife had a beet and endive salad with shaved parmiggiano. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary -- well-prepared and quite good.
I was in the mood for fish and had dover sole, a special recommended by the waitress, lightly floured and sauteed in a brown butter-lemon sauce with capers, etc. The kind of dish that rises and falls on how well cooked the fish is, and it was outstanding. Really flavorful and perfectly cooked. My wife had the tortelloni, filled with spinach and ricotta in a sage-butter sauce. Also excellent.
The kicker was the dessert -- one of the special items -- castagnaccio. It is a chestnut-flour cake (about 1.5-2" thick), with pine nuts, raisins and rosemary (in the batter). It is somewhere in between savory and sweet and went perfectly with the hazelnut gelato. It strikes me as one of those things that you can't get at your average Italian restaurant, and it was a perfect touch to end a really wonderful meal.
I'm sure that if you eat meat out (unlike us), there is even more to choose from. We'll definitely go back. Moving back from NY, I'm still getting over how inexpensive comparable restaurants are. All in all a wonderful way to end my birthday.
Anyone else been? Thoughts?
