La Luce: User Reviews
La Luce
1393 W. Lake St. - Chicago312-850-1900
What a nice place. It is very quaint / cozy restaurant. The L tracks do not really come into play. If you are from Chicago you don't even notice the train. Actually, it adds to the charm. The Sausage and Peppers are the best in the city. The salads are wonderful. I had a stuffed chicken breast that was great and my wife had ravioli that was wonderful. Nice wine list at a reasonable price. Javier provided very good service.
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This restaurant, though the decor is charming, is located under the "L" tracks and the sound of trains every 10 minutes overwhelms the music and ambiance. The crowd is a mix of hockey jerseys and shirt sleeves, which overwhelms the charm. Dish after dish has a delicately flavored meat with a heavy-handed sauce that overwhelms the meat. For instance, for you foodies, a heap of bell peppers on a stuffed pork chop, prociutto wrapped around a beef filet, ... Can't think of a good reason to come here unless you work next door or are attending an event around the corner and are looking for someplace/anyplace nearby
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Went to a concert at Bottom Lounge and needed to find somewhere to grab dinner. This place was next door. What a fantastic local Chicago Italian restaurant in an old building. Everything about it says Chicago Old School. Not a stuffy place - acceptably causal with a clear bunch of regular loyal patrons. Reasonably priced with good service. A shame its a bit out of the way, but will definate make the effort to visit again and bring my friends.
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They have very good pasta dishes and excellent Chicken Saltimboca. They're baked clams are the best in the city. Parking is available and prices are reasonable.
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I have passed by this tiny restuarant with the neon signs underneatht the EL tracks for the past few years and always thought "no way can this be good". Last night we decided to try it and I was pleasantly surprised. I am extremely picky about my italian and really prefer very basic homemade pasta versus too trendy places that add too much to the food. I started with the tortalleni soup and it was awesome. Then I had the baked rigatoni and I thought the sauce was excellent and not over powering. There is a lot of cheese so if you do not like cheese, then try something else..... Yes the portions are big but I just took half home. I don't know why people have such a problem with this? I cannot wait to eat the leftovers and I will definitely be back to this adorable little Chicago Italian place....
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Dined here last night and was really disappointed. The lettuce in the salad was limp and wilted. 2 of us ordered the Asiago Gnocchi & I couldn't eat it. The huge & gluttonous portion Gnocchi was overcooked & totally mushy & drowning in way too much gooey sauce that tasted like nothing but garlic. It was a bowl of mush. Neither of us ate it & the server didn't even notice. My other friends ordered spaghetti bolognese and the special ravioli and both were average. Overall the service was average. The atmosphere is nice but the food isn't worth the trip.
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Good italian restaurant... not great, but good
By steven81882 from gold coast, November 10, 2008
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La Luce came as a recommendation from my girlfriend's coworker. She said it was one of her favorite places, so my girlfriend really wanted to go. We were going to drive, but we ended up taking a cab and I'm kinda glad we did bc I don't know if I would've found the place (despite knowing the address) because it's under the El on a poorly lit street.
When we walked in, I had no idea where to stand bc there is no host stand and no one there to greet you. We meandered through some tables near a bar that has tables right up against it so no one was standing there (kinda awkwardly placed) and someone seated us from this area. Service was fine, but with the El coming by it was a little hard to hear our waiter read off the specials. We started off with some calamari which was actually pretty amazing. The crispy pieces were great but some were a little soggy. Great batter and the sauce was just how I like it: chunky, red and fresh. We then got our salads that came with our meal and we both had the balsamic viniagrette. I was VERY disappointed when I saw it was not homemade dressing, but the creamy kind you would find at a grocery store salad bar. I like the oily kind, especially at a restaurant.
For my entree I had spinach and ricotta ravioli with meat sauce. My meal was great. Very hearty sauce and lots of it, just how I pictured it would be. My girlfriend had eggplant and some other veggie penne with shrimp (I don't remember what the other veggies was) in a white wine sauce. She seemed to like it and I had a bite and thought it was fine, nothing special. We had a nice bottle of Ravenswood Zinfandel with our meal, but neither of us are wine connoisseurs, so I couldn't tell you if it was a good value or anything else beyond the fact that we enjoyed it.
The dessert menu came out and was about as unoriginal as you could be at an Italian restaurant. We skipped the tiramisu, cannolis, etc. altogether.
I thought the meal was a little pricey for what we got, but not too out of hand. At least each meal included a soup or a salad. I probably wouldn't go back there just because there are so many other places I'd like to try. There are places I would definitely go back to, but this did not make the cut. It was good for what it was though and that's why I'd give it 3.5 stars or so.
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Won't be coming back after two experiences post Cirque shows. The pasta is uneven. Our party of 10 were OK with the 4 cheese ravioli/vodka cream sauce but two other pastas were bland. The risotto was a tastelss mass that we found uneatable, the worst ever and we love risotto. The seafood and gnocchi were the reason the restaurant even got 2 stars!
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Have been going to La Luce since I moved to the neighborhood in 1999 and it is one of my favorites. Delicious are the simples pastas, the bruschetta with always fresh tomatoes, the seafood salad for an excellent lunch dish, any of the veal dishes are the best I've had anywhere in Chicago because of the tender quality of the meet and great sauces, and, as others have noted, the banana dessert. Service is always excellent and I love going to a place where they know you after one or two visits and remember your likes and dislikes. AND it's open on Sundays, a rarity in the neighborhood, and has Heineken beer on tap.
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This place is GREAT. My husband and I go to this place about a month and are rarely disappointed. If you want some trendy, place to be seen, this is not for you. If you want a cozy restaurant with good food and a great place to sit and relax, this is the place for you. We never feel rushed to leave and the prices are reasonable. We have had the lobster ravioli, the grilled calamari, the lasagna, the grilled portobello app, the bruchetta, and like I said, we are rarely disappointed. The only thing I will say we weren't huge fans of the chicken parmesan just because we thought it had too much breading on it but that was it. We had our rehearsal dinner here for our wedding in 3/06 and all of our 40+ guests were really impressed with the place-and it was very reasonable for a group versus a lot of other places in the city.
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Review Summary
The following scores represent the average rating submitted by 40 users:
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