Osteria Langhe

Annak and I had the good fortune of dining at Osteria Langhe, the Piemontese place that opened up in the old Brand BBQ spot. We think it was the best Italian we've had in Chicago. They managed to be sophisticated but unpretentious, and the food was not familiar, but classic and well prepared. The vegetable dishes (piselli, and insalata) were fresh, but had savory and hearty accents. The antipasti (vitello tonnato, polipo, lumache, and panino aperto) were all quite tasty and complex, and the primi (risotto and plin) were outstanding. The risotto was speckled with crab, and topped with two perfectly grilled shrimp. The plin was the italian equivalent of xiao long bao, stuffed with tangy melted la tur cheese, and coated with butter and fresh thyme. Both were impeccably al dente. The first half of the menu was so appealing that we didn't try any of the secondi, but we did save room for a semifreddo, which annak declared to be her platonic ideal of a dessert. The beverage program was also excellent, they steered her to a first rate roero arneis, and me to a solid local IPA, and they capped it off with a classic amaro. Highly recommended.

Osteria Langhe
2824 W Armitage Ave
(773) 661-1582

We also stopped in last night for a glass of wine (had already eaten).

Very excited to have this place in the hood. I'm not familiar with the chef, but the owner Aldo is a real sweetheart and very passionate about wine. Looking forward to dining here soon.

Really nice looking menu.

Logan Square is on fire, no doubt about that. Surprised I haven't seen an update to this thread as I had one of my best meals of the summer there this past July. The pasta was as good as Mike (Sula) said it was but the rabbit is what won me over. Wrapped in a thin high quality bacon served alongside a potent bell pepper chow with crispy bits of pork belly and roast potatoes in juice, I never had a better preparation. Though admittedly it's usually a New Orleans thing for me. Cant wait to go back for it and the pasta. Near perfection.


Coniglio - braised rabbit & bell peppers, pork belly, roasted potatoes

Osteria Langhe
2824 W Armitage Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 661-1582

Had dinner a few weeks back with boudreaulicious and mbh, and our meal was pretty phenomenal. Great food, great staff.

Arrived and mbh was already seated at the bar with some delicious anchovies in front of her.


CARNE CRUDA hand cut raw beef, cured egg, grissini


VITELLO TONNATO poached beef, crispy egg, tuna citrus caper aioli


CAVOLINI brussel sprouts, italian sausage, black olives, chili flakes


PLIN hand pinched ravioli, la tur, parmesan, thyme, butter

We were told the kitchen just received an order of truffles and they could be added to 2 different dishes for an additional cost. Holy shit. This dish may have been one of my top 10 of 2014.

CONIGLIO braised rabbit & bell peppers, pork belly, roasted potatoes


AFFOGATO hazelnut gelato, espresso


PANNA COTTA


boudreaulicious and I spent some time going back and forth on what restaurant we were going to dine at, and I'm extremely happy Osteria Langhe is what we landed on. I will definitely be back.

Thanks for posting the pics incite--this was a truly lovely meal--from the complimentary anchovies (anywhere else this would've been a $12 app by itself--other bar noshes included mixed olives and bits of what looked like summer sausage similarly presented in the glass with grissini) to the crazy generous serving of super fresh white truffles ($30--worth every penny) to the samplings of different Amari forced on us at the end of the meal (our bartender, whose name I'm forgetting due to said forced* Amari pours was quite knowledgeable and provided excellent service all around). The plin with truffles was obviously a highlight but I also thought the Brussel sprouts with sausage and Vittello Tonnato were spectacular. If you haven't been to Osteria Langhe yet, go. On Tuesday nights, they even have a 3-for-$30 deal similar to what Anteprima offers on weekdays.


*I am obviously kidding about being forced to consume multiple pours of Amari--our bartendress was merely encouraging our bad habits

This is my kind of food and killer shots as usual

We loved this place!
We ate at Osteria Langhe on Sunday. I'd never been to Brand BBQ so I'm not sure how the space has changed but it's a modern, yet cozy restaurant with a nice bar.
Everything we had was delicious: We shared 4 antipasti/primi, one secondo and a dessert and left pretty full. For starters we had the octopus and pork belly BLT (very tender octopus with just the right amount of bite), the chicken and mushroom rolls with sage cream sauce, the Brussels sprouts with bacon and the plin with la tur cheese. We also split the tortelloni with lamb and green olives. The octopus and plin stood out as favorites but we really enjoyed every dish. We split the S'amore for dessert--in addition to having an adorable name, every component of this dish was delicious and I would have been happy with a plate of the gingerbread shortbread (and maybe some of the hot fudge to dip it in). Our waiter was very nice and hospitable without being intrusive. The host really went above and beyond--stopping at our table to chat and tell us about the restaurant. They happened to be hosting a winemaker from Langhe for a special dinner. We opted for dishes on the main menu but we tried one of the wines by the glass, a pinot nero, from the winemaker (Paulo Saracco) and the host brought him to our table to introduce us and to talk about his wines. We will definitely be back.
Thanks Boudreaulicious and incite (and Mike Sula) for the inspiration

While other places seem to get more press Osteria Langhe quietly keeps turning out some of the better Italian food in Chicago. I think this place flies under the radar, but the neighborhood seems to have embraced it as it was bustling on an early spring Saturday night.

My friend and I split the fritto misto with octopus, calamari, fiddlehead ferns, olives and onions, served with a meyer lemon buttermilk dressing. The octopus and calamari were like eating filet mignon, I've rarely tasted such tender cephalopods. We also had the cavalfiore, a parmesan encrusted cauliflower with salted cod & sun choke purée served with house pickled vegetables. The pickled vegetables and salted cod puree were the perfect acidic counterpoint and I used them with the fritto misto also.

For our entrees we had the much praised rabbit, which continues to be one of the best versions around, I've eaten a lot of overcooked, dried out rabbit and Osteria Langhe has yet to have an off night with this preparation. We also had the risotto of the day with crab, fennel salami and topped with caviar. It was very rich and we couldn't finish it, but the flavor was amazing. This is becoming a go to favorite for me, their skill with Piedmontese food and their wonderful wine list are making me a regular.

We had a great dinner at Osteria Langhe last night. There were four of us, which gave us some ordering power. Started out with some lovely cocktails. I had the Sbagliato from the Negroni options (Cappelletti, Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino, Sparkling). It was very smooth and drinkable. Two other dining companions had daiquiris, another had the Ristoro (Gin, Cocchi Americano Rosa, Lime.) All were excellent.

For food, we had:

TAJARIN TARTUFO NERO house made noodles, italian summer truffles, fontina, cream with added sunny egg
POLIPO grilled octopus, chilled leek & potato crema, bagna cauda croutons
AGNELLO lamb & green olive tortelloni, feta, hazelnuts, figs, mint, barolo honey
CAVALFIORE parmesan encrusted cauliflower, salted cod & sunchoke purée, house pickled vegetables
PLIN hand pinched ravioli, la tur, parmesan, thyme, butter
CONIGLIO braised rabbit & bell peppers, pork belly, crispy potatoes
RISOTTO (here's where I have to rely on my memory. Always a challenge.) Tomato, prosciutto, three kinds of cheese, mussels

I felt the pastas were the stars of our meal. I kept going back to the tajarin tartufo nero. The plin were amazing as well. We were less impressed with the octopus and rabbit, but they were still good. For wine, we asked for a recommendation and were led to the fabulous Barolo: Fratelli Revello La Morra. It went with most of our food. We wrapped up with the panna cotta (with blackberries) and the torta (key lime cheesecake.)

We arrived with the rest of the dinner rush so service was impacted by that. There was a long gap from the delivery of our drinks to ordering our food. It took a couple of requests to get refills on water later in our meal. Those were minor quibbles -- I thought the staff was excellent overall.

It's a trek for us to get to Osteria Langhe, but I'm sure we'll be back.

http://www.osterialanghe.com/

i'm glad you had a good meal; i really like this place a lot. if i had a quibble, it's that i wish they'd change up the menu a little and add another entree, and vary the preparations more often. the rabbit is ok, but could be more exciting.

Visited Osteria Langhe for the first time last night - fantastic food; service issues very frustrating, though I wonder if the owner being out of town played a role in this.

In any event, the evening started out with a 20-minute wait (with a reservation), during which we were scolded by the hostess for being "in the way." She first suggested we sit at the bar -- she was standing with her back to the bar . . . a full bar . . . not a single seat, though there were four of us. It's too bad when front of house staff don't realize (or don't care about) the negative first impression they create.

Luckily, we were mostly able to forget about these issues when the food came. It occurs to me now that we didn't get any bread or grissini -- not sure if there was grissini on other tables, but I had heard good things about Osteria Langhe's. I tasted a few appetizers and all were fantastic: baccala fritters (a menu addition) were about as delicious as I've ever had, if not more so. Polipo (octopus) was impressively tender and delicious. And the plin (pinched ravioli) was terrific too.

But another service issue happened with the plin. A (mostly) non-English-speaking food runner was bringing all of our food to the table. So we had a very difficult time trying to explain to him that the raviolis were missing the 2 grams of shaved white truffle ($16/gram) we had ordered. I thought this took too long to resolve, and even then I question whether we indeed received 2 grams of white truffle. Along the same lines, while we enjoyed our waiter, he seemed to be assigned too many tables and was almost impossible to track down (not his fault).

Back to the food, my halibut entree was delicious, though perhaps the saffron in the beurre blanc was undetectable. Still, a fantastic entree. For dessert, I had the affogato, which was slightly disappointing, unfortunately due to overly hard (i.e., too cold) hazelnut gelato that also had too many ice crystals.

A solid negroni started the meal, and I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine from the lengthy all-Italian list. This was some really fantastic food, and I'd be running back but for the service issues. As it is, I'd like to return . . . but it might be a while.

Yeah, on our 4 or 5 visits, the owner helped make the experience. He's very enthusiastic about the food, open to feedback, and knows his wine.

Sweetbread wrote:Yeah, on our 4 or 5 visits, the owner helped make the experience. He's very enthusiastic about the food, open to feedback, and knows his wine.

Aldo . . . an excellent host all the way around.

=R=

Italian Hotspot Osteria Langhe Opening Fast-Casual Animale in May

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/4/26/1150 ... ant-baocos

Looking fwd to this one. Very much enjoy Langhe.

Is Osteria Langhe one of the places people are going but not talking about? Mr. X and I had a fantastic meal there last night. Tuesday Prix Fixe Trifecta was a nice surprise. Three courses for $38. Mr. X declared his antipasti the best thing he's eaten all year. He had the Funghi: wild mushroom and gorgonzola quiche, creamed leeks and crispy salami. I had the Agnello: braised lamb, castelvetrano olive, la tur crepinette, baby bok choy, jus, onion ring. It was tasty, but yeah, his was amazing.

For our secondi, I won that round with the Coniglio: prosciutto wrapped rabbit loin, wild mushrooms, fontina, creamy polenta, jus, black truffles. Mr. X's choice, the Tajarin: house made noodles, meat ragu, was good, but mine was better.

For dessert, I had the apple tart (description not on the website) and Mr. X had the Cioccolato: hazelnut chocolate flourless cake, passion fruit coulis, orange Tic-Tac lace cookie. Both were delicious.

Service was excellent, as were the wine suggestions and Mr. X's cocktail. I look forward to going back when their patio is open, if not before.

We really enjoyed our meal here. I had the funghi quiche (sublime) and for my main dish, the thing they call Anatra. (I don't know what any of the entree names mean.) What it amounted to, as best I can describe it, was Kentucky Fried Duck--which I mean as the highest compliment possible.

We popped into Osteria Langhe last night after Table Donkey Stick's Tuesday wine special left the place just a bit too hectic for our liking. We didn't even realize that they do a Tuesday prix fixe, but it was an amazing surprise. Waited about 15 minutes for a table, and were seated for one of the best meals we've had in awhile. Funghi, Polipo, Coniglio were all outstanding. One dish not mentioned below was the porchetta with fennel, potato puree, and chicharron. Excellent.

Having only been there once, I hadn't really taken a close look at the wine list. Although visually gives the impression of not having many by the glass options, I'd suggest ordering a bottle off their list if you are in a large enough group; there's good quality and value there. Only small caveat is that our bottle of red wine was a bit too warm. Should've asked for a bucket.

rtb178 wrote:Only small caveat is that our bottle of red wine was a bit too warm. Should've asked for a bucket.

I haven't been yet, but only heard great things and can't wait to get over there.

A major issue for me. If a restaurant is marking up retail prices as restaurants do (say 3x RETAIL, which already included a profit for a retailer) it better come to the table at a proper drinking temp. When it comes over in the mid 70's because it is uncaringly stored near the kitchen, come on... Then when you request a bucket to cool it down, you are met with looks from non-wine savvy waitstaff, like "what sort of cretin are you, requesting an ice bucket for a red wine?"

Don't use the excuse of proper handling of the wine to mark up exorbitantly and then not properly care and serve the wines.

Al Ehrhardt wrote:

rtb178 wrote:Only small caveat is that our bottle of red wine was a bit too warm. Should've asked for a bucket.

Don't use the excuse of proper handling of the wine to mark up exorbitantly and then not properly care and serve the wines.

Understood. Given a) their excellent list and b) their reputation across the city, I'm fairly certain they're serious about wine. While I get the sense not everything they serve is stored in a full cellar, I don't think this description really applies. As I said, while I would've liked a cooler wine (and maybe a decanter), I didn't read the experience as approaching some kind of vinological malpractice.