Aldino’s
626 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, IL; 312-226-9300
Date of Review: June, 2010
http://aldinoschicago.com/
Aldino’s is a nice addition to the already impressive group of excellent Italian restaurants across the entire city that Chicago is home to. They have moved into an area that is highly competitive and are trying to find their own niche. From the looks of it, they have some good ideas of how to get there with an establishment that offers a variety of food and drink related entertainment options.
Aldino’s is located on Racine right off of Harrison a stone’s throw away from Taylor Street. If you didn’t know, Taylor Street is Chicago’s “Little Italy” and is home to many of Chicago’s big name Italian restaurants including Francesca’s, Rosebud and Tuscany not to mention many other traditional restaurants with loyal clientele like Gennaro’s and RoSal’s. Aldino’s offers something different and seems to be successfully inserting itself into this competitive mix. The location on a busy section of Racine with a decent amount of traffic is well thought out as it is a block away from the Racine Blue Line stop and is far enough from Taylor not to be classified as one of the spots on Taylor. They are focusing on using local and sustainable ingredients from all regions of Italy in a style they refer to as Italian comfort food. The waiters, cooks and bartenders are impressive and are all very knowledgeable on the products, dishes, beers and wines that are served. This is a restaurant that prides itself on quality ingredients which includes those that are for sale in the small market that is adjoined to the bar which serves Panini’s and pizzas for lunch and sells organic vegetables, cheeses, olive oils and meats. The market can be reserved for parties and is also used for special events like wine tasting. The bar that is situated between the market and main dining room is worth mentioning because it is much more than what you would expect from a restaurant bar. It is has a long counter with plenty of bar space, a few tables and nice large windows looking out onto Racine Avenue. In addition, there are TV’s to watch sporting events making it a venue itself to enjoy a drink at, a casual meal or an after dinner drink. The main dining room is large and airy with high ceilings, dark wood and well spaced out tables.
The menu has many items that someone that hails from Italy or who has travelled there would enjoy. The dishes aren’t overdone with too many ingredients but offer simplicity and quality. They have a variety of over 15 different appetizers including things you’d expect like bruschetta, prosciutto and veal meatballs to some more adventurous dishes like grilled pheasant sausage with house made giardiniera (which is outstanding) and braised pork terrina. Every appetizer I’ve tried has been excellent including the generous portion of olives for $4, pheasant sausage, roasted beets and grilled octopus.
They have an average size menu of 7 pastas and main dishes with some specials and a few side dishes. I have sampled enough dishes here that I can say with confidence that I don’t think you are really going to go wrong with anything. On one visit, we had the squid ink pasta with braised calamari which was done very well. The pasta was cooked al dente and the taste was perfect with just enough, but not too much squid taste. The bucatini ‘all amatriciana features bucatini pasta with a traditional pasta sauce based on dried pork cheek or guanciale, chili pepper and tomatoes. This subtle sauce is one that creeps up on you until you are finished with the dish and using a piece of bread to make sure the dish is clean with no hint of left over sauce. This place speaks of doing homestyle Italian food and I found out what they meant on my first visit when I ordered one of their specials, porchetta. Porchetta is a traditional home style dish consisting of a boneless pork roast that is layered with a meat stuffing that includes fat and skin and herbs that is then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood. The pork products are local and outstanding as every bit of my slice of porchetta was outstanding with fatty pork belly, tender roast meat and crispy skin. It was served with potatoes that had a bit of spice and a whole lot of wood grilled flavor.
I have been to a wine tasting event on one occasion and the people presenting the products were every bit as knowledgeable about the olive oils, balsamic vinegars and wines they poured as the servers were on the food. The wine tasting event was done in collaboration with Gentile’s wine shop and was great value as we tasted 8 wines and sampled 4 to 5 different types of appetizers for $20. The event was held in the market section of the restaurant and was a great place to socialize and sample menu items in addition to some of the excellent wines featured on their menu.
Aldino’s prices are fair with most appetizers in the 7 to 9 dollar range, pastas from 15-17 and mains around 20. The portions are good size without being obnoxiously large. On our last visit, the bill for our party of 3 came to $150 with tax and tip for 2 appetizers, 3 entrees and 9 drinks between our party of 3.
