Ambrogio's Italian Resturant & Lounge

The family and I had dinner at a resturant last night that came highly recommended to us by a few of our Chicago Police Officer friends.

Ambrogio's Italian Restaurant has been at its location on 6706 W. Belmont for nearly 40 years. They are open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. It is a small place, seats under 100 people and I would bet that the decor hasn't changed much since they opened in the 70s.

They have a rather extensive menu for such a small place, and the waitress told me they make almost everything in house. When we sat down, she presented us with 4 baseball sized, warm from the oven, freshly made in house bread rolls, and olive oil for dipping. I ordered a glass of merlot ($4.50) that came in a wine glass that had a snowflake pattern on it and was clearly an old glass, also probably from the 70s, but the wine was tasty. We were the only ones in the place except for (no surprise since it was highly recommended to us by our cop friends) a couple of cops having dinner.

The menu includes, appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas, and larger italian entrees of chicken, portk seafood and veal dishes. They also have daily specials (like chicken cacciatore for $9.95 on Thursdays) and "people" specials named after their staff and regulars (example: Betty's Special: Mostaccioli with spinach and ricotta or Vince's Special: Cauliflower with tomatoes and onions over linguine)

The entrees come with soup or salad so we opted not to order an appetizer to share. The salads were okay, standard lettuce, a few slices of tomato and a few pcs of green pepper. We ordered the following: the fried calamari appetizer ($10.95 only offered as a full order) as a entree for my daughter, linguine with clams in a red sauce for my son ($6.95 as a half order), veal parm for the hubs ($13.50) and I ordered chicken marsala ($13.95). Every entree we received was great. The calamari pcs were lightly breaded in a more flaky bread coating and was not greasy in the least. We ordered a half/portion of pasta for my son (a nice option..every entree can be ordered as a half-order for half the price) and the sauce was thick and the clams, while I am sure came from a can, were plentiful. The hubs was a little put off that his veal parm didn't come with a side of pasta and didn't think that it would fill him up, but it was such a large order that he wound up taking home almost 1/2 of his dinner. My chicken marasala was also great with large pcs of lightly battered chicken and plenty of fresh (not canned) mushrooms. After a few bites each of dinner, we were all full--I really think that is was the house made bread that filled us up. But I am looking forward to warming up the leftovers today for lunch.

We usually save room for dessert, but opted out this time around since we were too full. The waitress was very kind and she wrapped up a few house made cookies for us and told me to warm them in the microwave for 15 secs. I haven't tried this yet, but will today.

It actually surprised me to come here today and search for Ambrogio's and find no results. To me, this is everything that a classic GNR is. Great food, loyal customers at fair prices. If you are in the area try it out.

Ambrogio's
6706 W. Belmont
Chicago, IL 60634
773 736 6131

I just checked Goole maps and this plave is about 10 min away from my house - I'm there as soon as I can find a good night.
I'll let you know how it goes - thanks for the reccomendation!

Just got back
calarmari - excellent
fried mushrooms - same
salad was simple but the vinagrette is magic
soups are above board
chicken marsala and vesuvio both exceptional
veal parm was the star - kids could not stop eating
don't be fooled - it looks like a dump but the food is some of the best I've had
Hard to type, just stuffed - going to sleep - more later...

I remember going to Ambrogio's quite often when I was younger, at least 30 years ago. IIRC, they had a great meatball sandwich, which was huge.

I have fond memories of this restaurant. I think a return visit is due.

I've been eating at Ambrogio's for over 30 years, and it's one of my favorite go-to Italian restaurants in the city. I always thought it was more of a mob hangout than cops though; I saw Sam G there once, tucked away behind their area that is enclosed by about a 4 foot wall. Anyway, I love their food. Keywords: Homemade, plenty of it, reasonable prices, fresh ingredients, good service. The old Italian grandma/cook always used to send out some lemon cookies, or similar, gratis, after dinner. I'm surprised they've apparently been flying under the radar here.