Viaggio, Highland Park

We've been conscripted into a dinner here this weekend. I wish I were more excited about it but the menu seems right down the middle of the fairway (meatball salad, brick chicken, flavored-vodka cocktails, etc.). I'm hoping there's more here than meets the eye. Anyone been?

=R=

581 Roger Williams Ave
Highland Park, IL 60035
847-926-3441

Haven't been, sorry; hopefully someone else has.

They opened in April. It's the second location of the West Loop restaurant for which G Wiv posted a review ten years ago.

Though I live nearby, I haven't been. I agree the menu looks very middle-of-the road. Probably right for Highland Park.

2nd & 3rd hand comments I've heard from locals are: 1) food is pretty good, 2 it's crowded, and 3) it's on the loud side.

I'm looking forward to Ronnie's review.

I walk my dog past there practically every night. While I have never eaten there ( I am confidant that my cooking is better than theirs ) it is certainly regularly very crowded. Somebody must think the food is good.

lougord99 wrote:I walk my dog past there practically every night. While I have never eaten there ( I am confidant that my cooking is better than theirs ) it is certainly regularly very crowded. Somebody must think the food is good.

Or Viaggio's cooking is better than somebody's.

They have a cute little patio if the weather is nice. Food is incredibly average - I'm willing to bet if you stick to basic red sauce type things and some wine or a Peroni, you'll to just fine for yourself. Too bad you can't just go to Abigail's down the street - very good food and often some relatively interesting (for Highland Park) asian-tinged specials. And almost annoyingly-friendly service. But, alas...they are closed on Sundays!

DClose wrote:They have a cute little patio if the weather is nice. Food is incredibly average - I'm willing to bet if you stick to basic red sauce type things and some wine or a Peroni, you'll to just fine for yourself. Too bad you can't just go to Abigail's down the street - very good food and often some relatively interesting (for Highland Park) asian-tinged specials. And almost annoyingly-friendly service. But, alas...they are closed on Sundays!

Unfortunately, it wasn't my call, which is why we're ending up here. And it could end up being just fine but it's not the kind of place I would have chosen. Ironically, we're going with a fairly unadventurous group, so when I was initially asked to make our reservation, I immediately thought of Wildfire, since it seemed to be a good fit. However, one of the couples in the group, the least adventurous, vetoed that idea (for unknown reasons).

At that point, I suggested that they make a reservation wherever they wanted to go, and Viaggio is what they chose . . . even though they've never been there. So we've got a group of people going to eat at restaurant of which no one in the group is actually a fan. I find that perplexing (especially since this place is not likely to break new ground or set any bars) but sometimes, as my wife naively reminded me, it's not about the meal, it's about the socializing.

=R=

Coincidentally, I just returned home from dinner at Bella Via in downtown HP. My wife and I were treated to dinner by friends of ours. They picked the spot. We haven’t eaten there more than a couple of times in the 20+ years that we’ve lived in the area.

Our food was quite good. The service sucked beyond belief. For example, after handing my empty iced tea glass to our server for a refill, he seemed to have disappeared. I ended up having one of the hostesses bring me a refill. One of the managers ended up serving our food. Our original server managed to reappear only when the check was requested.

As Ron mentioned, sometimes you go to a restaurant for the company rather than the food.

Dave148 wrote:As Ron mentioned, sometimes you go to a restaurant for the company rather than the food.

LOL, I mentioned that my wife naively stated that nonsense!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Ironically, we're going with a fairly unadventurous group....

=R=

Not ironic, quite apt.

scottsol wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Ironically, we're going with a fairly unadventurous group....

=R=

Not ironic, quite apt.

Not sure I understand what you mean.

=R=

{replies snipped to save bandwidth}
Ronnie, if push came to shove, the group would have put the meal at Olive Garden. Got it?

ronnie_suburban wrote:

scottsol wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Ironically, we're going with a fairly unadventurous group....

=R=

Not ironic, quite apt.

Not sure I understand what you mean.

=R=

It would have been ironic if the group had consisted of gustatorial adventure seekers. An irony is when the results conflict with expectations. Ironic is the opposite of apt. In this case, since the group consists of unadventurous eaters, it is not surprising or unexpected that the chosen restaurant is also unadventurous.

It is true that in the past 30 years or so ironic has suffered the same fate as literally. Both have been used to mean the opposite of there “true” meaning. eg. “I literally died when I heard that”

The benchmark for the misuse of ironic is Alanis Morisette’s “Ironic”. None of the examples in the song are true ironies. This is cleverly explained starting at 1:20 in the following.
https://youtu.be/nT1TVSTkAXg

Yes, I know what irony is. I think you misunderstood me, or more likley, I didn't make my point clearly. It was ironic that unadventurous folks rejected a conservative restaurant, Wildfire. That they ended up choosing another conservative one was not the ironic part. I should have been more clear about that.

Also, thinking about it, Wildfire is pretty ironically named, since there's really nothing wild about the place.

=R=

scottsol wrote:It is true that in the past 30 years or so ironic has suffered the same fate as literally. Both have been used to mean the opposite of there “true” meaning. eg. “I literally died when I heard that”

Just an ironic use of literally.

You see, it's ironic because the person didn't actually die. Ironic is the opposite of apt.

But how were the portions??

I literally want to plotz in reading the recent pedantic turn of thread. Parsing pedantic irony in it's most ironic iconic ignoble intent.
whose going too pick up the 246 toothpicks on the above to sentences

On any given night at Olive Garden, I bet 3-5% of patrons have gone there ironically.

G Wiv wrote:I literally want to plotz in reading the recent pedantic turn of thread. Parsing pedantic irony in it's most ironic iconic ignoble intent.
whose going too pick up the 246 toothpicks on the above to sentences

Never fear. I'm a bit tied up right now but an actual account of the restaurant is forthcoming.

=R=

DClose wrote:Food is incredibly average - I'm willing to bet if you stick to basic red sauce type things and some wine or a Peroni, you'll to just fine for yourself.

Prescient words, my friend. The food was fine - nondescript and inoffensive. Through my own personal process of elimination, I ended up with the Brick Chicken . . .


Brick Chicken

Even though it's described on the menu as boneless, it was actually a spatchcocked and partially-boned whole chicken -- and the only chicken on the menu with any bones in it at all. The dark meat was tasty, as was the vesuvio-like sauce, the whole, roasted cloves of garlic and the potatoes. The broccolini was tough and undercooked. It was a gargantuan portion, so I cannot comment on the white meat, since I didn't make it that far.

My wife ordered the Pork Chop Parmesan . . .


Pork Chop Parmesan

Beyond its enormity, the pork chop was tasty enough, with a good coverage of breading, sauce and cheese. A side of tortellini in Alfredo Sauce, which comes with the pork chop, got kind of lost in the shuffle. I understand not wanting to serve a red-sauced pasta with the parmesan dish, but the Alfredo just didn't stand up. Maybe, instead, a vegetable should be offered by default.

Before the main courses, our group shared a nicely-cooked, tender order of Grilled Calamari, the Chopped Salad and the Meatball Salad. The meatballs were somewhat mushy but I thought the red sauce was respectable. The romaine-based salad beside them was pretty standard-issue. The chopped salad was served unmixed and laid out on a plate almost like a Cobb Salad, which made it kind of hard to deal with, especially with 6 of us sharing it.

Our server was friendly and efficient but what pissed me off -- and was likely at least somewhat beyond his control -- was how hurried we were. Our reservation was at 7 pm and it was somewhat bustling when we arrived (including a larger party with screaming children that lingered far longer than they should have). But it emptied out pretty quickly after that and I guess the kitchen staff really wanted to get out of there, so the main courses arrived at the table before we were even close to finishing the salads. I really hate that. And it was a small table to begin with, so it made things really uncomfortable, as well as sending us an unmistakable "get the fuck out of here" message . . . which we eventually did, without ordering dessert.

All in all, it was fine. Because of the general nature of the food -- the menu felt as if Rosebud and Maggiano's had a baby -- and the hospitality gaps, I told my wife it was kind of the anti-Anteprima. I can't really foresee any circumstance where I'd choose to return, but if I ended up in a group that chose it, I could live with it. I do think Wildfire would have been a better choice. Not only is their food at least marginally better (though, admittedly, also pricier), a round table, of which they have many, would have been ideal for our group. And I'm certain we wouldn't have been rushed there in any way.

=R=

Dave148 wrote:But how were the portions??

Ronnie's pictures provide the definitive answer to this question!
Massive leftovers you didn't particularly enjoy first time around.

I guess I don’t understand how and where pork chops come from. How can you possibly get ( and why would you want ) a pork chop that large.

lougord99 wrote:I guess I don’t understand how and where pork chops come from. How can you possibly get ( and why would you want ) a pork chop that large.

My guess is that it was an extraordinarily thick chop (or even a double chop) that had been butterflied out a number of times in order to achieve that size.

=R=

lougord99 wrote:I guess I don’t understand how and where pork chops come from. How can you possibly get ( and why would you want ) a pork chop that large.

Hollywood cut pork chop*, butterfly, pound out thin. Dust with flour, egg wash, bread crumbs, pan fry. Lots (and lots of cheese), run it under a salamander (commercial broiler) to bubble and brown the cheese.

*Hollywood cut in BBQ guy rib terms is when you cut against the adjacent bones so each rib has extra meat on each side.