Sopprafina

In the spirit of VI's recent post, I am submitting a review of Sopprafina, a chain lunch place in the loop, with mostly Italian food, i.e. soups, salads, antipasta, pasta and pizza.

I have not sampled much from here (I don't like the pizza, too greasy), but I can enthusiastically recommend the chef's salad. It is a huge salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, red onion, kidney beans, yellow and red peppers, provolone and salami all tossed in a house dressing. At $6 it is a great deal in the loop and actually tastes good as well.

It's been a while since I've been there, but I did once have a wheatberry salad with asparagus tips and some other ingredients that was downright excellent. (The Dearborn location.)

Back when I worked around the corner, I used to hit Sopprafina perhaps weekly for lunch (in the AT&T bldg on Franklin). My favorite option was the trio of salads you could assemble. It allowed for a nice series of contrasts of taste and texture (say, tuna salad, asaparagus and roasted pepers, and wheatberry) and was still reasonably healthy. It's been quite a while since I've been so they may have changed this.

I actually work in the AT&T building, and have for the past 10 years, so perhaps I've eaten too much Sopprafina to enjoy it any longer, if I ever really enjoyed it. Their pizzas, while slightly greasy, are edible as are their salads. The pasta and sandwiches, on the other hand, are horrid. When I'm in the mood for pizza or pasta, I head over to Venice Cafe on Wacker, which is significantly better.

MAG wrote: I head over to Venice Cafe on Wacker, which is significantly better.

This is interesting to hear from a fellow LTHer, as I recall the Crain's review of Venice Cafe when it opened was pretty bad. If it's significantly better than Sopra., it's probably worth a visit.

I like the tortellini and the meat sauce can be quite good. But remember that all of this is measured by a different scale, what I like to call the loop scale. A restaurant that is good by loop standards would likely pale in comparison to a restaurant that is good in any other part of the city.

Back when I worked in the then Amoco Building (now Aon Center), I would eat at Soprafina nearly every-other day. They had a few good salads (namely ceasar), and the half-serving was plenty enough for a complete meal. Pastas were also strong.