Capri in Naperville

Well, so I went to one of my favorite places again, and for once I am not going to shill about it. It's not that I had a bad experience, just not one that I have become accustomed to.

Apparently, the owner Phillipo, his wife, and son Andy are on vacation in Florida. This left one of their older sons there to take care of the business. I am not sure if it was Johnny, who normally can be found at the North avenue location, or if it was one of the others.

For Starters we enjoyed the Calamari Di Capri. This dish, as always, was sublime. Tender bites of calamari, lightly breaded and fried, then tossed in a lemon chile oil. YUM

I must have been in a mood because for my entree I ordered the stuffed calamari. The entrees come with either a soup or house salad. I chose the salad with the house dressing. This is where Capri was not up to their usual. The dressing, usually a sweet tangy vinagrette, was a salt bath for lettuce. Not to mention that there was enough of it to dress a salad made for 20 people. Then came our entrees the sauce served with the stuffed calamari was very acidic, not the nice tang of fresh lemon, but the chemical pang of lemon juice concentrate. The calamari itself was pleasantly overstuffed with a good combination of bread crumbs, herbs, and chopped calamari. Unfortunately one of the spines was not removed and I only realized after chewing for a while. The pasta served on the side with a simple tomato sauce did not disappoint.

My dining companion did enjoy her penne lightly sauced with fresh tomatos, garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil.

Neither of us were in the mood for dessert or coffee, but in the past have thoroughly enjoyed the cannoli, and the bananas foster made to order(they have this cool little cart with a burner on it).

Overall, I would say that , though not perfect Capri is still on my list. Though, I might wait for Phillipo and Andy to return.

Flip

Capri also has the charm of being about as "old school Italian" as you can get, with families and couples who usually look like they stepped right out of a 50's sitcom, or some such. This is a very different crowd than most places in Naperville, and is a real attraction for me.

And the waiters have this wise guy approach to service that is a hoot.

All of which makes me want to love Capri and go there all the time, but I really do not think it is the best Italian in N'ville. La Sorella di Francesca and Angelis are at least as good. Still, Capri is a great place to go, eat and have fun.

I thought I would revive this post based on another recent visit.

Capri Restaurant Italiano
1238 W Ogden Ave, Naperville

After enjoying Beefathon II on Saturday I made my way over to Capri with friends for dinner. We were a group of 5 with 8:00 reservations. This is my only gripe with Capri this evening. They seem to forget about their reservations when they get a large walk-in crowd. After a couple glasses of wine (yes, Dickson, I tried the one you suggested, but I forget its name) and some complimentary bruschetta, passed by the owner, we were seated at 9:00.

We started our meal with the Calamari alla Capri. Tender pieces of lightly breaded and fried calamari tossed in a sauce of lemon, red pepper and white wine. As usual this was an exceptional start to the meal. Following the calamari were some complimentary salads dressed with red wine vinaigrette. I personally have always found their dressing a little overly salted, but it was passable this night.

Main Courses:

Being close friends we had no problem asking for extra plates to share our tasty tidbits.

I ordered one of the pasta specials for the night; Homemade Fusilli in four cheese cream sauce with porcini and spinach. Rich and wonderful the pasta was cooked perfectly and held the silky sauce to perfection. Our group even mentioned to our server Andy that he should talk with his parents about putting this dish on the menu. Exquisite!

As a standby for any time visit Capri there is always the rigatoni with vodka sauce. One companion ordered this, but added sauteed shrimp and scallops. Though, not an addition I would usually make, this made a quite wonderful dish of pasta tubes draped in a rich tomato cream sauce with succulent shrimp and scallops.

Another friend ordered from the specials menu. Dover sole, deboned tableside, served in a light lemon-butter Caper sauce. I state light, not as in calories, but a rather thin sauce of lightly browned butter with lemon juice and capers. Wonderfully, flaky and quite tasty this fish was prepared perfectly. My friend ordered this with a side of Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and scallops, but was presented with a full order. Having ordered a heavy cream sauce myself, I did not partake in this, but it received favorable reviews.

The last two members of the group decided to order together and have the kitchen split the plates. First was the eggplant parm. Delicate slices of eggplant, tossed in bread crumbs and baked with a fresh tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella. Better than average, but nothing to write home about. The final entree orderd was the Pollo Francese. Basically a chicken paillard made in an Italian restaurant. Pounded pieces of Chicken breast, floured and sauteed, in a lemon butter sauce. Fairly basic, but completely satisfying. These dishes were accompanied by small plates of angel hair with marinara.

For dessert we once again reverted to our standbys; one cannoli to go, and 2 orders of Bananas Foster for here. The unique, at least for the burbs, tableside flambe for the bananas is always a treat. In fact, I'm surprised Joey (Andy's brother) has any eyebrows left after filling countless requests Saturday. The bananas, served warm over vanilla ice cream in a martini glass, were deemed 'orgasmic' by the female attendees, and were quickly hoarded. Even looking at the dessert glasses could have resulted in a police report involving a stabbing with caramel covered spoons.

Overall, as have been most of my experiences with Capri, we had a marvelous time. Items of note: Fusilli with 4-cheese sauce and the Dover Sole. We spoke with Andy, and he mentioned that Joey will soon be leaving the Naperville location to open a new satellite in Burr Ridge in the same shopping plaza as Bobak's. They should open the first or second week of February.

Flip

I have been going to Capri for quite a while and have enjoyed my meals there. But things happen, and places change. As noted elsewhere, they keep opening new, related places, though the brief Capri Pizza experiment fell apart (a lease problem they tell me). I have even considered nominating Capri for a GNR, and dismissed it since only Flip & I seem to have deemed it worth trying, and a couple of friends who are pretty discriminating diners had bad experiences - one at Capri in Burr Ridge, and one in N'ville.

Capri has been doing well, though. We used to be able to show up at 6pm on a Friday and choose a table - now the place is full at 530, and the wait is 30 minutes. No reservations on weekends for parties smaller than 5, or maybe 3, sort of depends on who you speak with (which absolutely infuriates the Bride).

So we went on Friday and waited, then settled in. Ordered a simple meal, Stuffed Artichoke, Pasta Fagiole, and Chicken Vesuvio; the Bride went with the special, Salmon Pepperonata, which she deemed okay. I did not get a taste.

Maybe Mom, who does the cooking was off that night, though Dad was there behind the bar with the rest of the A team in the small dining room. The Artichoke was okay, a little heavy on the breading and not a great rendition, but Stuffed Artichoke is generally not a subtle dish, so I was not disappointed. The soup was also fine, but then came the Chicken.

The menu said it was 1/2 chicken cooked the traditional way, blah, blah, blah. so when it arrived I had to wonder if there was a mistake. Two skinless, boneless chicken breasts sauteed in a wine sauce, topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms and a few sprigs of rosemary. The roasted potatoes were a bit sodden from the sauce, which is not unacceptable. This dish contained no garlic, and no peas.

I should have asked if this was in fact the Vesuvio, but the Bride and I were engaged in a passionate discussion about our son's future, I was hungry, the wine was good and I just wanted to eat.

Halfway through the dish, the desire to eat was gone, and it was clear to me that if this was the Vesuvio it had the dinstinction of being the worst version I had eaten, and was up there with some of the worst dishes I had eaten all year from a supposedly decent restaurant (the qualifier is because I have had worse food, but it was from places that I expected to be bad). In concept it might not have been awful, though chicken cooked without its skin and bones is, let's be honest, not something one eats because of flavor considerations. No, it was just that everything was overcooked and either mushy or rubbery. I suppose you could even admire the fact that they did not rely on salt or garlic to amp up the dish, but that only turned the focus up higher on the texture and ingredients, which did not fare well.

Hopefully it was just a bad night, and not a downward alert. Flip, I look forward to your next update.

Meanwhile, the sister place in south N'ville, Pasta Amore, continues to do well when we eat their food (usually carryout, and about twice a month), so I think I will stick with that. Here is a link on that place, but they also keep expanding their dining rooms (two now) and bar, in addition to the takeout selection. http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=30307#30307

Pasta Amore
2112 Winding River Rd
(@ Rt 59 & 87th St)
Naperville, IL 60564

Thank you both for the informative updates. I've been meaning to make my way to the northwest edge of N'Ville to try Capri -- just haven't made it there yet. We seem to get into an Italian "rut" of sorts, involving the usual suspects such as Angeli's, Buonaro's, La Sorrella, and occasionally Petey Z's. I also wanted to comment on Pasta Amore. While it appears to mainly be carryout, we had an excellent meal a while back in the white tablecloth section of the restaurant. It was very upscale and quite good.