The Pasta Shoppe and Cafe
116 North Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park IL; Phone708-763-0600
Date of Review: June, 2006
This is a landmark neighborhood Italian restaurant in the heart of Oak Park that is a fantastic deli in addition to being a solid sit down restaurant. Upon entering the restaurant, I was immediately awestruck by the impressive display case that had an assortment of meats, cheeses and salads in addition to some luscious looking profiteroles. The goodies inside this cabinet show up on the bowls and plates of the patrons sitting at the tables in the restaurant. In addition, they can be found on a picnic blanket in the park nearby or on the kitchen tables of those that were smart enough to swing by the Pasta Shoppe in preparation for that picnic or home cooked meal.
Upon entering the restaurant, you pass by the display case (mentioned above) and a freezer loaded with fresh pasta to make your way through a narrow path to a small, intimate dining area of no more than 7 or 8 tables. There is also an outstanding outdoor seating area that feels European as you are sitting on a sprawling, pedestrian sidewalk situated between two buildings.
On our visit, we started with a plate of arancini. These fantastic little rice balls are stuffed with cheese and are then deep-fried and are served with homemade marinara sauce. I could have eaten 5 or 6 of these beauties if I wasn’t trying to make room on my plate for an Italian salad and fried ravioli (served with the same marinara sauce). We complimented the appetizers with 3 baskets of bread we used to clean up 2 or 3 small plates of olive oil sprinkled with fresh parmesan.
For entrees, we decided to listen to our instincts and stick close to the home made pastas and sauces. My dad had the cheese ravioli with the spicy arrabiata sauce. Both my Mom and I went for the same sauce but with a different base. I went for the rigatoni and she the cavatelli. My sister and brother in law decided to branch out a bit and chose the chicken marsala which was also very good. The portions were large and I was very satisfied with my meal. The pasta sauce was rich, hearty and flavorful. As an accompaniment, I ordered the spinach and mozzarella stuffed meatballs that were out of this world. All of the pastas were cooked perfectly and had a nice consistency to them. One thing I will say about the arrabiata sauce is that it is very spicy. For me, that is perfect because I love spice and can handle it. However, my Mom and Dad found it to be too spicy for them. They actually asked for a side of marinara sauce and found the combination of marinara sauce with the arrabiata to be a better spice combination for them.
We had 2 appetizers, 1 salad and 4 entrees. In addition, we had 8 glasses of wine between us. The total cost was $102 plus tax and tip. We also did a fare bit of sharing as the large portions made entrée sharing a definite option. I ate my entire entrée myself but really had no reason to other than the fact that I was enamored with the sauce despite the fact that it gave me a sweaty forehead.
A nice accent is that the wine is served in those small glasses that you can fit your whole hand around. These are the ones you find at old school Italian restaurants. The nicest accent is that everything is homemade in The Pasta Shoppe and that is tough to find these days.
