Il Poggiolo

Last night, we ate at IL Poggiolo (The Balcony). It is a new restaurant that opened two weeks ago by Peter Burdi, the attorney I work for, and Jerry Kleiner.

It is housed in an old silent movie theatre (thus, the name) on the main drag in Hinsdale. The balcony has additional tables for more privacy. It has been completely redone and is an absolutely beautiful, inviting space.

We started out with a pizza from the woodfire oven and it was a thin, cracker crust with some char on the bottom, fresh mozzarella, sausage and peppers. The flavors were spot on.

Moving on to our entrees, Evil Ronnie had linguine with white claim sauce which was good but could have used a bit more garlic and clam liquor. The pasta was cooked perfectly.

Daughter Marisa had the salmon with artichokes, tomatoes and herbs which was moist and flavorful. (we all tasted everything)

I had the pan roasted branzino with rapini and a terrific anchovy sauce. The skin was crisp, however, the fish was a bit too well done for me which required a bit more sauce. The rapini was cooked perfectly and the subtle garlic flavor did not overpower.

The desserts were a warm fig tart with a port wine cream sauce topped with vanilla gelato. The crust was tender and buttery. This was an outstanding bit.

The second dessert was cassata cake. It was a a rich, creamy ricotta confection laden with candied fruit. Very good.

The last dessert was an Italian Campari cheesecake with a lemon/melon sauce. This, too, was
a good way to end the meal.

Prices are moderate. It is not a huge menu..a nice cross section of pastas, meats and fish. It is simple Italian in a lovely setting.

Reservations are welcome

IL Poggiolo
8 E. First Street
Hinsdale, IL
630-734-9400

Here's the restaurant's website:

http://www.ilpoggiolohinsdale.com

My hat's off to them for the menu being in good ol' HTML and displaying within the site itself instead of in a separate PDF...man I hate the PDF menus.

Khaopaat wrote:man I hate the PDF menus.

Or unlinkable scrolling flash menus which keep the URL the same for all content on the site.