Chicago: Italian Village
Apparently, Italian Village is the oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago. There are 3 floors at the Italian Village, each floor corresponding with a different degree of fanciness and price range. The top floor, The Village, is we're-off-to-the-symphony-after fancy. The main level, Viviere, is trying-to-impress-my-expensive-date fancy. The lower level, la Cantina, is supposed-to-be-casual-but-makes-you-wish-you-weren't-wearing-sneakers fancy. Guess which level we dined at:
Taking the flight of stairs down into la Cantina felt like entering an underground bunker. The interior was quite beautiful, with large, sweeping murals, little torch lights, and a fluorescent aquarium. The overall atmosphere was charming, like an underground tunnel transformed into a quaint little Italian village:
After our crazy lunch at Hot Doug's, I didn't really feel like tackling an entire entree on my own, so I split one with my friend. The waitress brought everything over already divided onto different plates. Here's my portion of the salad:
It was....salad. Not much to report there.
The cannelloni came in a pair, so I got one and my friend got the other:
We couldn't decide on what sauce to get, cream or marinara, so our waitress advised us to get both. Made perfect sense to me. The meat filling was almost creamy in texture and the pasta nice and smooth. Both sauces were good and I wish we had asked for more bread so that I could have sopped them up.
Italian Village (la Cantina) would be a nice place to for a first date. It has mood lighting, soft music...prices to impress your date with your generosity...and tropical fish. Check it out if you have a special occasion and some cash to spare.
Italian Village
71 W Monroe St
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 332-7005
http://www.italianvillage-chicago.com/
Taking the flight of stairs down into la Cantina felt like entering an underground bunker. The interior was quite beautiful, with large, sweeping murals, little torch lights, and a fluorescent aquarium. The overall atmosphere was charming, like an underground tunnel transformed into a quaint little Italian village:
After our crazy lunch at Hot Doug's, I didn't really feel like tackling an entire entree on my own, so I split one with my friend. The waitress brought everything over already divided onto different plates. Here's my portion of the salad:
It was....salad. Not much to report there.
The cannelloni came in a pair, so I got one and my friend got the other:
We couldn't decide on what sauce to get, cream or marinara, so our waitress advised us to get both. Made perfect sense to me. The meat filling was almost creamy in texture and the pasta nice and smooth. Both sauces were good and I wish we had asked for more bread so that I could have sopped them up.
Italian Village (la Cantina) would be a nice place to for a first date. It has mood lighting, soft music...prices to impress your date with your generosity...and tropical fish. Check it out if you have a special occasion and some cash to spare.
Italian Village
71 W Monroe St
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 332-7005
http://www.italianvillage-chicago.com/
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