Looking for Nice Resutrant in Roscoe Village/Lakeview Area

My husband and I went to Volo Friday night for the first time in a long time and it reminded us of why we need to go more often. We used to frequent it when we lived in Roscoe Village but now that we're further north we just don't think of it as often.

The wine: We each did a flight and shared them. Washington State reds and Italian reds. The mid-priced choice from each flight was our fave, so we followed up the flights with a glass of each.

Steak tartare - a very fun first taste and a good amount for $4. As mentioned by another poster, it's pretty spicy, which we loved but given that there's no mention of heat on the menu, kind of a surprise.
Bone marrow - delish as always.
Duck & Blue Cheese Pizza (which they now call "rustic flatbreads" - they used to call them pizzas, right?) - very good. Duck was tasty, although the blue cheese, oddly, did not really show up.
Curried butternut squash fritters - whoa. yum. creamy & soft on the inside, incredibly flavorful, with a delicately crunchy batter on the outside. Go to Volo. Get these.
Braised Kobe Beef w/ Egg noodles - this was the wild card of the night. We asked what cut of meat this was, we were told petite filet (which, confusing to me, doesn't really have anything to do with a regular filet, so the waiter brought me a drawing of a cow with the cuts outlined and showed me what we were workin' with) This was a lot like upscale stroganoff. Beef was very tender small chunks in a complex, delicious sauce, but nothing about it screamed "I am Kobe!"

No room for dessert in food form, so we split a glass of a Sauternes-like dessert wine and a port.

Service was very attentive. And because it's the little things in life that make all the difference, I have to point out that they (without any prompting) gave the two of us a 4 top to eat at rather than a small two person table, despite the fact that the restaurant was more or less full when we arrived at 7:30. I'm not sure why they did it, but having all that extra room and table space (and distance from other diners - it's loud in there) was a huge bonus.

grahamhh wrote: Also, though it's "three dollar signs" for dinner, lunch and especially brunch are in your range and fantastic at Sola, at Byron and Lincoln. I have evangelized the crap out of their chilaquiles

ecs wrote:One warning to the original poster, Terragusto and Sola may both be out of your price parameters. I love Sola, especially for brunch, but I belief the dinner entrees are in the $20s. If you want to keep the price down, I highly recommend it for brunch. I recall that Terragusto is also a bit pricey and I (like many others) found it a bit overrated. One place I really enjoy that has entrees ranging from about $12-$20 is Red Rooster on Dickens off of Halsted. I realize this is outside of the poster's location, but I think it is a fabulous option for a romantic dinner that is quite reasonably priced.