Rose Angelis
1314 West Wrightwood, Chicago IL; Phone 773-296-0081
Date of Review: May, 2006; updated May 2008
This neighborhood Italian joint offers large portions of solid, standard and somewhat innovative Italian food. It is my favorite Italian restaurant in Chicago.
This is a very romantic restaurant. It feels like you are eating in a home. The entrance has a warm, cute bar with some tables where you can enjoy a drink as you wait for your table. There is also a nice outdoor area off to the left of the bar entrance. The restaurant opens up into 3 additional adjoining rooms that give you the feeling that you are moving through a home. The tables are close together and the restaurant fits in with its location between 2 homes on a quiet side street.
For appetizers, I really enjoy the bruschetta and the “special” whole wheat pizza. The vegetable laden pizza had a very tasty wheat crust that added to, rather than detracted from the pizza. In addition, I highly recommend the minestrone soup. I am not even a big fan of minestrone soup but it will definitely be the appetizer I order the next time I visit the restaurant. The grilled calamari steaks sautéed with spinach and onions in a spicy balsamic sauce with toast points is solid and the sauce really makes this dish.
The menu is heavy on pasta but the chicken marsala and fish specials are very good also. On the innovative side, the duck filled tortellini is one of those rare “must try” entrees on a menu that immediately catches your eye. The wine and cognac reduction sauce is a good accompaniment to the flavors of the duck and the spinach, mozzarella, and tomato that are layered throughout the dish. Rose Angelis specializes in different types of ravioli’s. I have been particularly impressed with the salmon filled ravioli and the ever changing special ravioli. On other occasions, I have enjoyed the pumpkin filled ravioli and the cherry, walnut and portobella mushroom ravioli. The linguini al frutti di mare features fresh linguini served in a tomato white wine sauce with mussels, shrimp, calamari and scallop garnished with parmagiana cheese. It is one of the best renditions of this dish I have had as the home-made pasta is outstanding.
On the down side, I wasn’t blown away by the asparagus wrapped in prosciutto appetizer and thought the huge portion of lasagna was awfully cheesy, but lacking in taste. The appetizer salad for the table was nothing special.
For dessert, the bread pudding with caramel sauce is enough for 3-4 people and is one of my favorite deserts in Chicago. The strawberries in caramel and the chocolate mousse assortment are also very good.
The service is excellent and the servers here are ripe with suggestions. Most of the servers have a “flavorful” persona that suits the environment of the restaurant. This is not a formal atmosphere and this comes through in the personalities of the servers.
On my last visit, we had 3 appetizers, 3 entrees and a dessert for 81$ plus tax and tip. We had 5 people eating but did a lot of sharing because the portions are so large and we still left with a take home bag. We only had 2 drinks total so that helped keep the price low. I don’t think you will find many other restaurants in Chicago that give you large quantities of good food at such great prices.
No comments:
Post a Comment