Terragusto on Addison: User Reviews

I and a group of 3 more friends went to the Terragusta looking for good food.It was 9 pm we had a concert to go and were ready to order some light food. The four of us were ready to order when one of my friend's date arrived saying that she just wanted to hang out a little bit before going to the concert and she had eaten already. The waitress, really polite btw, told us that if we were 5 people we would have to buy a “family menu” starting at $37…We explained that the 5th person was not eating and asked her to talk with the manager, as it was 9 pm, the restaurant was empty and closes at 10 pm. She came back saying that that was the “policy”. We asked to talk with the manager and he gave the same answer. My friend's date got so embarrassed that wanted to live and it was really an awful situation as we didn't want to spoil our friend's night! As we were about to live, a tall guy came to the table and said: “What is happening here?". We told him what had happened and he said:” I’M THE OWNER OF THE PLACE, AND THIS IS THE POLICY AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE PLEASE GET OUT!." At that point I was not in the mood to eat in the place at all...If the guy is the OWNER, he's not supposed to treat customers like this, he could have explained why the crazy policy or saying why he couldn't open an exception (the place was about to close AND it was empty).I asked him why he was being rude and he said we were being rude with the servers...The rudeness of the guy spoiled our night, my friend's date and our concert. I can't tell about the food, cause I was not able to try, but service is definitely not their strength. I suggest never to try the restaurant as the guy that is cooking for your can be as rude and disrespectful as he was with us.

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My wife and I ordered what the restaurant calls the "traditional Italian dinner," where you each order your own appetizer and pasta and you share the meat and dessert dishes. It's not necessary to do this, but we like this style of eating so we did.

FOOD: I loved everything we ordered. Delicious and unusual savory custard (sformato) as an appetizer, both pasta dishes (tortelli with beef ragu and ravioli with mushroom ragout) were wonderful. Chicken, too, was great: flavorful, juicy, crispy skin. Honey panna cotta an excellent way to end. Really, everything hit the mark for me. Though, full disclosure, my wife liked it very much but said she wasn't "wowed."

SERVICE: she was very attentive, informative, and quite helpful. She let us know us in advance that certain items would be an extra charge which I appreciated. Everyone made us feel like they were happy we were there.

FEEL: The physical feel of the place is certainly nice, though if I could choose I'd warm the place up a bit (just my personal preference for restaurants). It has that exposed brick/duct feel which works well with the store-front neighborhoodiness of the place.

I loved the place and felt that the $37.50 per person was worth it. Also, it's BYO.

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My partner and I went on Valentine's Day and left feeling taken advantage of. We should have perhaps known better than to expect a good value on Valentine's Day, but Terragusto's $85 per person price (including tax and tip) was way out of line. For a $20 increase in price over last year's Valentine's Day menu, we got a smaller selection of much less interesting dishes. I enjoy polenta with mushrooms, pasta with bolognese and roasted chicken, but for $85, I expect something more special. Even my main course of grass-fed beef was pathetic, drowned in overly salty butter.

Neither did service rise to the occasion. For example, our server repeatedly requested that we keep our silverware course after course. Not very elegant.

What a disappointment. I think it’s fantastic when creative chefs use inexpensive ingredients to create something wonderful. But Terragusto's food barely rose above wedding reception fare. For $85 pp, they need to do better.

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10 of us went Thursday night for the first time. We were promptly seated and proved with complimentary bottled water. The waitress informed us that we had a choice of a $39 or a $45 chef's selection. We asked what the difference was and she said it was just allowing the chef the ability to provide a full range of dishes. Since it was our first time there we asked several times what the dishes would be. We were not given menus, but told it was the chef's choice. Well, if she only gave us a menu we could have at least seen that each dish was on the menu. The chef wasn't creating anything "special". We went with the $45 option. When the appetizers, pasta and main courses were brought out we were provided with just enough for everyone to have one piece or a spoonful. We all agreed the food was good and trying a variety of everything was good, but were pretty disappointed in the portions provided for a group of 10 paying $45 each. Everyone paid $62 each. Very high for a BYOB…

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We ended up going to Terragusto for a bday dinner. Reservations were made 2 weeks in advance and we were informed that for parties of 6 or more, we'd have to go with the chef's tasting menu. Once we arrived, we waited for 5 minutes while the table was being set up. We had a choice of the $39 chef's menu or $45. We had no idea what was being served to us. The only difference in price was the quality of ingredients being used. We decided to go with the $45 menu and it was fantastic. For someone who is sensitive to salt and find many restaurants to overuse it, Terragusto's food was rich in flavor without being heavy in creams, sauces and cheese. They seem to have the perfect balance in the texture of the food too. The service was great too. She'd explain the food as she brought it to the table. This is a place where you can't go wrong.

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We arrived on time - we were seated immediately at the Pasta Bar. We asked if we could move to a table (several were empty) and were told that all of the tables were solidly booked.

My appetizer was good (Crostini) but not memorable; hers - a mushroom polenta was much too salty. The Pasta course was excellent, mine was a black pasta and shrimp, hers a more traditional pasta with bolognese - but excellent nonetheless. No sooner did the pasta arrive than followed virtually immediately (maybe two minutes at most) by the pork course. The pork (farm raised or not) was tough but very good.

Traditional or not, following the pasta with the main meat course in a matter of 2 minutes is too much food too soon. The menu indicates that the course does follow in 3 to 5 minutes - a traditional Italian groaning table. Having traveled extensively in Italy - this is not my recollection of traditional Italian food service.

Meanwhile, all but one of the empty tables that were vacant when we arrived remained unoccupied (we had checked again about the possibility of moving about 15 minutes after being seated) for the duration of our stay.

The next time at this restaurant I will either ask that the meat course be deferred for at least 7 to 10 minutes after the pasta is served or the meat course will simply be omitted. The pasta is worth the trip - an appetizer, pasta and desert would be a perfectly sized meal if the meat course is to be jammed in (I was one bite into my pasta when the pork arrived) - better that the course be omitted.

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We celebrated my boyfriend's 30th birthday with a few friends. Since we had six people in our party, we decided to leave it up to the chef and go with the "Chef Tasting." After our server made sure we didn't have any dietary restrictions, she proceeded to bring out a tasting of everything on the menu. Each tasting was fantastic! There wasn't a single complaint in our party, which was a rarity because our party was filled with "foodies." The chef also came out, greeted our table, and shared a few glasses of wine with us!

Terragusto is, without a doubt, my favorite restaurant in Chicago!

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I had my husband's 40th Birthday party here with 14 friends. The food and service were wonderful! They allowed us to put up some cheesy decorations, spaced out the service perfectly and made the whole evening very special.

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Went there Saturday and the food and service was outstanding. This is the 3rd time we have dined there and each time has been a delight. Our server Sharon was a pro. Our courses we paced perfectly and the food was prepared perfectly.
If you have had a bad experience here you owe it to yourself to try it again.

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My husband and I ate here for our Friday night date night and had a fantastic experience. The service was great and we enjoyed our seat at the "pasta" table by the window. After delicous appetizers (the daily bruchetta and soup), we each enjoyed the hand-made pasta. We didn't really have room for the pork course and I thought it was a tad dry/tough, but overall we had a wonderful dining experience and will be back. The ingredients were high-quality and we loved bringing our own bottle of wine.

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