Via Carducci

My girl and I ventured here, Groupon in hand, prepared to celebrate her new promotion. Thankfully, Via Carducci was up to the task.

The meal began with fresh, hot bread. This is the threshold of any Italian restaurant. Failure to bring hot bread to the table is the kiss of death. Via Carducci passed this most important task.

My girl ordered the burrata. Tasted fairly flavorless to me, but she loved it.

For my entree, I went with the chicken marsala. That was great. The sauce was delicious and the mushrooms were a perfect compliment.

We skipped dessert in favor of some martinis. Our server recommended a chocolate mousse martini (that's no longer on the menu), so I took him up on the offer. It was strong and ridiculously sweet. I'd pass on that if I return.

Service was solid.

I wish the atmosphere were a bit cozier. The main dining room is pretty crammed full of tables and chairs. I would have preferred a little privacy, or a booth.

But the important thing is that Via Carducci had some very good food. It's worth another visit.

We ordered lasagna on Christmas Eve, the food arrived one hour later and they didn't even call to let us know. Moreover, they did not have containers have enough to hold the lasagna and they cut it horizontally, it did not even look like lasagna. The food was cold but the time it arrived. Very disappointing experience

Conveniently located in my neck of the woods, this place has not changed - it's still terrific. I had not been here in a while and was happy my neighbor invited me out. The ambiance is warm and inviting - perfect not only for dates, but for spending time with friends and family.

My friend and I started with a glass of chianti. They gave us some bread which we dipped in olive oil. They were a bit stingy with the parmesan cheese. I'm accustomed to restaurants leaving a bowl of it on the table to go with the bread. We had to ask our server, who then gave a little bit on our plates. It was like they were rationing the parm or something. Strange... So one star off for that!

For an appetizer, we enjoyed the grilled calamari. My main entrée was orchiette with sausage and vegetables. Both were delicious.

Overall, I like this place - proximity to my place, ambience, and food.

Went here because of a friend's restaurant.com coupon and come to realize I probably won't come back without one. It's a bit pricey and the food is decent.

We started off with grill calamari, which was all the bland side there was some sauce, but very little.

My friend had pasta with clams, which were average it a light sauce, not much to it.

I had one of their pizza specialty that had fresh tomatoes and mozzarella (can't think of the name) and wow was that thing big! I was thinking a personal pizza, but was quite glad it was bigger than that. The pizza topping was quite delicious, however, the crust is not my favorite and I absolutely love pizza crust. It was a overcooked and rough.

Our bill was around $35 (with coupon and without tip) so it would of been a bit pricey without the coupon for 2 especially for average food.

I came here with my date on a groupon deal. This place was pretty friendly. The service is pretty quick, which may have something to do with the fact that it was nearing closing time. The drinks on their list seems pretty interesting and it definitely hit the spot for me.

Their soup was exceptional along with the dishes that came. Their salad looked so well decorated that I felt kind of bad eating it. It tasted refreshing.

The waiter checked up on us several times and made sure our dishes were taken away (though this took a bit for them to clear it away).

The bill took forever to clear though. It was kind of a long wait... I might've gotten so impatient that I left without taking my leftovers even though it was packed!

To take a riff off of the latest Taylor Swift song.....we are NEVER EVER going back to this restaurant ever again. I just got home from our dining experience where I have to say I have not been this humiliated in a LONG time. Total time from getting sat, served, eat, leave=25 min.

Today was the last day for me to use a Groupon I had purchased so I know it might get crowded with other procrastinators. My husband was on his way back into the city and told him I would bring our 2yr old and meet him at the restaurant.

I arrived at 5:47 pm - the restaurant seemed cozy and while there were people there, there were quite a few open tables. I also observed quite a few families there. When I approached the hostess center with my toddler in my arms, I could see the look of dread come on the hostess' face when I asked to be seated for "2 & 1/2".

She asked if I had a reservation and I told her no - I could tell that she really didn't want to give us a table but because there were open tables galore, it would look pretty bad if she refused us. When I asked if there was anyway I could get sat without a reservation, she told me that she would give me a table that was already reserved for another party but I have to leave @ 6:30 pm and if the people came early I would have to give up the table (aka-get my meal packed to go).

I felt that I could either abide by her rules or forgo the money I spent on a Groupon so I sucked it up, ordered food once I was sat and as soon as the food came (the kitchen was quite fast since the food arrived before my husband did) I settled up the bill. I quickly fed my daughter with what she was willing to eat, scarfed my meal, my husband arrived and he ate for a bit and then we got the rest of the food packed to go since we only had 6 min left on the clock.

To the credit of the waiter (which we tipped well - and on the original bill amount), after I explained to him that the hostess told us we couldn't stay past 6:30 was sympathetic saying "don't worry about it" but I did not want to make a scene with the b#$%y hostess who treated me like a second class citizen and felt we did not deserve to be there - NOT a great feeling! Especially since she would walk by on occasion as if to remind us that our time was ticking!

When we left, there were still tons of tables open and there weren't people waiting to get sat - I can only conclude that we were treated the way we were based on either my appearance of being the "wrong type of clientele" - I was wearing jeans and a long sleeved black shirt or that they guessed I was a groupon client and didn't want us to deal with us since we weren't full paying customers. There were other families eating at their leisure and weren't given the "rush" treatment. It even appeared that they were offered children portions while we had to order full orders for everyone. It's another topic for another day but I have found that Groupon restaurants really don't treat their clients with a lot of respect.

As for the food, what I managed to speed eat didn't taste bad but it wasn't good enough to earn additional stars based on the level of treatment we received. Coming from the restaurant industry and having waited tables and hosted, I am ashamed that people still treat patrons this way - it guarantees a lost patron forever! Count this family as one that will never step foot in this establishment again!

It pains me to have to only give this place three stars, because the food was so good. It really was. I had the margherita pizza - cheesy, perfect crust, YUM...

However the service was just AWFUL. I mean really. The waiter only came by to take our order - that's it. Never came back to ask how our food was, or to ask if I wanted another Diet Coke (and I would have liked one!) - or even if we wanted dessert. Nothing. We tried signaling him - or someone - over and it always failed.

In my book, that is pretty unacceptable. The inside of the restaurant is really cute and super comfortable. I felt very "at home" there. I am truly hoping that the quality of the service that evening was not reflective of the entire wait staff.

I will give it another try because I loved the food, but if I get ignored again I'm not so sure I would go again.

I called on Sat. night around 8 to inquire about the wait for a party of 2 arriving in 20 min. The lady said I should be ok,then put me on hold. She returned quickly and said, it would be better if she took my reservation. When I walked in, the place was nearly empty. I didn't bother saying I had reservations,and we sat down. Service was quick.

The food was not the quality I expected. I ordered the grilled calamari. It was decent-my only gripe - it was served with burnt/charred pieces. I mean it tasted like it was in the fire charred. the sauce they used was good and so was the meat.

i am picky about my tomato sauce, so I asked what to expect. Not only did my dish arrive wrong, but the there was way too much sauce, it was too thick and it tasted like it came out of a can. I ordered the orechetti and they served me the bucatelli. My dish was supposed to have crumbled sausage and it was cut in pieces. I know it does not seem like a big deal, except to me it is all about the details. The other dish ordered was the lasagna. It was good, american style compared to authentic southern italian lasagna I am used to eating.

The bathroom, peeee ewwww. Smelled like a sewer. Had I walked in there before I ate dinner, I would have left. Please don't go in there if you do not want to smell the open raw sewer.

A-Ok.

This sums up this joint real well. Went here twice with groupons, and left very happy I had them. Wildly overpriced for what it is, store bought pasta tossed in very possible store bought cream sauces.

I had the orrecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausauge ($15), dining partner had gnocchi with cream sauce ($16). I've previously sampled the rotini santa lucia and the ravioli as well. I think my favorite of all of them by far was the orrecchiette dish. Lots of broccoli rabe and a light tomato olive oil sauce on top. A great mix of slightly bitter flavors from the rabe and sweet acidic flavors from the tomato sauce. Solid dish, and one that I strongly recommend.

The gnocchi, on the other hand, were clearly not made in house and were gummy. As someone who has rolled out his fair share of gnocchi and learned how to do so from an old Italian woman while living in Italy for 3 months, perhaps my gnocchi standards are annoyingly high. That said, if I ran an Italian restaurant in a city fully of fantastic eateries, I'd make fresh pasta everyday. It's really not that hard. You are in the business of MAKING and PREPARING FOOD. So MAKE IT. I go out to experience something that I can't have easily at home. In other words, I don't go to Italian restaurants regularly whose idea of cooking gnocchi is cutting open the package from the store and putting them in water. That's not Italian cooking. And it certainly doesn't warrant a $16 price tag.

Italian food cooked in fast food fashion at Chicago prices. If I didn't live close, I wouldn't go here, but it's serviceable for a date night and worth it if you can snag a coupon.

My girlfriend got a groupon here, so we had to go before it expired. Let's just say that I'm glad I didn't have to chip in for the groupon because this was not the best experience. Let me break it down for ya...

1. Our waiter was not good. He never asked if we wanted another drink, he forgot that we ordered an appetizer, and was generally slow. The bus boys who filled the water, delivered the food, and cleared our dishes were good, so I'm really wondering what this guy was doing...
2. The caesar salad could have been easily made at home. Box croutons, OK dressing, and romaine lettuce.
3. The carbonara tasted like onion. I've never had carbonara with onion before, but the onion got a little burnt and the entire dish tasted like onion. It was not good.

The bread was good, but they didn't have parmesan on the table which is something I LOVE at Italian restaurants. I drank a Heineken which may have been the highlight of the meal. Go Holland!