Monastero's

I went to about the 20th banquet at Monastero's (3935 West Devon) in the last 10 years yesterday and was wondering if anyone has ever eaten there in the regular dining room? My uncle is a very long time family friend of Joe Monastero and always gets special treatment for any of his events ( Joe's wife who is an opera singer always comes and sings for us) held in their Garden room. Over the years, it seems to me, we always have the same appetizers and the food is average at best. So, I'm curious, that if this is their best, served for a close friend, what is the rest like. We always have huge portions and excellant service but my uncle also spends major dollars there.

Note: for the sake of the search function, I corrected the spelling of the restaurant's name in your post.

I've eaten in their dining room twice in the past year, against my will. Their food is average at best, just as you said. I generally felt like I was eating hotel banquet food when I've eaten there.

Their pizza is halfway-decent and, in my opinion, the only safe choice on the menu.

I've never eaten there because I've heard only average reviews of the food and Myron & Phil's is right across the street, so it's a no brainer when I am looking for chow in the area. I've always been curious about the annual grape stomping contest they hold, though. Has anyone been?

They do a few things really well. The arancini and pumpkin ravioli come to mind. And they treat their customers like family friends (which many of them are), so they have a loyal customer base.

Offhand, I can't think of too many other places that even serve arancini (meat- or cheese-filled risotto balls).

Monastero's Ristorante
3935 W. Devon, Chicago
773/588-2515

I don't know about restaurants that serve arancini, but almost all italian delis and grocery stores i've been to sell them, including caputo's, freddy's, and pasta fresh.

I've always thought of arancini as more of a snack food than dinner, which is perhaps part of the reason they don't show up on dinner menus often. When you do see them on a menu in italy, it's usually at a carry-out pizzerie or rosticcerie, the two types of places that seem to have a corner on the arancini market.

-ed

Bella Domani made a specialty out of them.

Yes, Bella Domani made a specialty of arancini, but past tense is important. They closed in May.

Thank you for posting their website, I have never seen their regular menu. As I said, my uncle has been a patron there many years and does parties there at least twice a year, they are always open bar for 2 hours, appetizers passed around during that time are always rumaki, stuffed mushrooms and rice balls which I guess are what you called arancina. Then we have a sit down dinner, unlimited wine, this time the dinner was a first course of rigitoni with a light tomato sauce, then a caprizzi salad which is fresh mozeralla and tomatoes, the entree was rack of veal and dessert was chocolate cups filled with a chocolate mousse. He always lets them decide the menu so I was surprised to see that none of what we had was on the menu. I didn't mention that my uncles parties are usually for 50-60 people, hey he is 80 and has nothing else to spend his money on!

eatchicago wrote:Their pizza is halfway-decent and, in my opinion, the only safe choice on the menu.

After my first experience with their pizza in a handful of years, I would like my previous statement stricken from the record.

As my petit pois said of the pizza tonight, "Close your eyes and take a bite. It's Pizza Hut."

In my most recent estimation, there's no reason to eat at Monastero's.

Best,
Michael

I never thought of Monastero's as a place to get pizza, I didn't even know they had it on the menu. As I said before, I have only been for very elaborate banquets that my uncle hosted. He was a close friend of Joe and in the past we had some great ossobucco, steak, eggplant parma and ravioli there.

Monastero's to close in November.
http://monasteros.com/after-55-years-th ... 18th-2017/

Dave148 wrote:Monastero's to close in November.
http://monasteros.com/after-55-years-th ... 18th-2017/

I won't miss the rubber banquet chicken (I've been attending lots of business luncheons there over the past few years), but it will be sad to see them go. Between them and Myron & Phil's, that was once a pretty good block for chow.

Hadn't been to Monastero's in many years, and the news of it closing in a few months brought back memories of various dinners there over time, starting with a high school Homecoming date in 1974. As an adult, I had thought Monastero's was okay but would almost always default to Myron & Phil if deciding to have a meal in the vicinity.

Last night, with the not-so-imminent demise in diners' minds, the dining room was packed, the opera singer belting tunes out at full volume over the din of happy patrons. Monastero's actually had a buzz going--for a minute I thought I was in the West Loop, albeit with a +25 on the average diner age in comparison.

My health-conscious buddy loves the place, and it is the only restaurant he will order beef, so I followed suit. After a good house salad with a combination of homemade French and ranch dressing, the marinated filet mignon flecked with rosemary was tender, juicy and a great value at $26, salad & sides included. Downtown this same meal would be forty bucks, easy, and probably a la carte to boot.

Plan to be back at least once before the bitter end. For better or worse, it's another Chicago icon that won't be replaced.