Ciao Baby! — Restaurant in Barrington

We had a reservation tonight at 730 for 2. The waitress kept mentioning how busy they were, but there were quite a few empty tables, and many folks were then finishing meals and ordering desserts. The house salads were just small plates of chopped lettuce, cold from the fridge. The drinks were ok, but no one refilled our waters or refreshed our bread. It then took over an hour and ten minutes to get our pasta dinners. Our waitress came by to say that our meals still were not ready and she suggested we talk to the manager, which we declined at that moment. We thought about leaving and almost went somewhere else for a quick pizza. The manager herself finally served our food without explanation except to imply that all was well given a busy kitchen. We thought that the chef and waitstaff might have quit and left them shorthanded. The attitude from the manager was arrogant and indifferent. There was no explanation except a busy kitchen, which we were hard pressed to believe. They offered no apology, not to mention a free dessert or a round of drinks. It’s tough to run a restaurant with an unfriendly and apathetic manager. I wonder what is happening behind the scene...

I love Melrose Park stuffed peppers so when I saw it on the chalkboard when we stopped in after the Art Fair on Saturday I knew what I was going to get! When I got my order they were actually those mini colored peppers you get in a plastic bag at Jewel! When I told the lady in charge she shrugged and said that's what we call them....my Italian side was pissed! False advertising for sure and she didn't care...! So wrong! So careful when you order there cuz maybe your Itaian sausage is actually Polish sausage...but thats what they call it there.... Wonder what other lies they tell...no scruples...

Bill...are you serious?! I'm Italian and know both melrose and cubanelle peppers. You are seriously going to tell me those red and yellow thick fleshed baby peppers were cubanelle?? Both melrose and cubanelle are longer and thin skinned...and not as sweet fleshed as what I was served. I've had your melrose peppers when they are in season and they are good...but don't try to pass off these as melrose or cubanelle. Your chalkboard says MELROSE STUFFED PEPPERS... change it to Mini stuffed peppers and people will still order but don't...

I dined in last night since my last visit June 2023! This dinner was even better! I had 2 appetizers: the Melrose Peppers and Vesuvio Lambchops (both were DELICIOUS)! I was going to have their world famous Meatloaf, but the very cool gentleman in the table next to me got the last one -- LOL. (Oh well...great excuse to come back! Anyway, I actually I had it in my last visit!) So, I had the Grouper Franchese (my other favorite entree), which was also SPECTACULARLY DELICIOUS! For dessert, I had the chocolate cake! It was the size of Greenland and HEAVENLY DELICIOUS!!! The restaurant was very relaxing to be in that night and had some really good chill music playing overhead (unlike the obnoxiously loud club music at Lago in Lake Zurich--where I no longer dine at) and had 1 other (later, 2 other) tables of customers dining near me--Wednesday night is definitely a great night to dine here! My server, Kelly, did a fantastic job taking care of me-- she was very upbeat, personable, knowledgeable and efficient! I will...