IL Mio Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Clarendon Hills

I brought my family to this restaurant for the first time. I ordered what I thought was going to be a decent portion appetizer, : listed as a grilled octopus", I also ordered rigatoni with bolognese sauce, my husband ordered rigatoni bolognese, and my son ordered linguine all vongole. The food was ok. Mine was overloaded with sauce, and I specifically asked the waitress to make sure they did not put too much sauce on the rigatoni, but they did! I mentioned this to the waitress, and she basically ignored us. Here comes the appetizer, my husband order the grilled octopus...it was not ! It was barely one single tentacle drizzled with love oil and light vinaigrette, for 20 $ you would have expected more than just a single tentacle. We informed the waitress , and she stated she was going to mentioned this to the manager. Now comes my husband's dinner. Cacio and Pepe, there was hardly any pepper on the spaghetti, and looked like a child size portion, or more like Mac and cheese. Again we called the waitress, and instead of addressing the issue, she simply stated " well those are our portion, nothing I can do about it!" My husband had to get another order of the same just to make a full dish, The second plate had more pepper on it, than the first one, my son's dinner was probably the better of the entrees...Anyhow, here comes the bill, my husband ask the waitress if she had talked to the manger about the miserable portions served, and the fact the it was advertised as a grilled octopus, the last time I checked an octopus has more than just one tentacle, or leg, unless was crippled!Again we are given the attitude that she spoke with the manager and there is nothing they can do. In reality she never really spoke with the manager, as we found out later from the actual owner of this place. WE go the bill and cost for 3 people, over 130, not including the tip. I asked the waitress again to have the manager come over, She finally came, and I expressed my concern about the really small portion of the dishes, and the miserable tentacle in a dish, where there was more oil and arugula than octopus. With a typical attitude of a snob manager, she came over sayin : I am one of the owner here, I do not know what to say, but those are our portion", my husband told her that a bad comment or review in the food magazine may actual ruin the business. She reiterated that this is the first time someone complained about the food, and the portions. So what? I expected her to at least apologize for not being happy with either the service and the food, but no,,,she had to give us this BS about the portions being that wa...perhaps for a child, but not an adult....She abruptly took my husband's credit card, literally out of his hands, proceeded to the back to charge the card, after 20 mnts, another waiter comes over to give us the receipt, and he even stated " the manager should have handled this differently, but she did not" I would have given him a tip, if he would have served us, but I did not leave any tip. The waitress never asked the manager when we first requested to, and she never addressed the issue of the overloaded sauce, and miniature portions. I would not recommend this place to anyone, and I have dined in many restaurants before. This is not an authentic Italian restaurant, and the owner has absolutely no customer's skills what soever.A simple apology, or a mere drink on the house for the inconveniencewould have been sufficient, and with something like : sorry you had a bad experience, but if you come back next time, remember these are our portions, so you will not be disappointed again" a good manager caters to the needs of the clients, and goes beyond being cheap! I will give one...

I made a reservation for 6 of us on Resy. My husband and I arrived a few minutes before our 6:30pm reservation. We were greeted in a less than welcoming manner, and when I asked if we might be seated at a table for 6 that was outdoors and empty, told "probably not...Let me know when the rest of your party gets here." So when the last of our group arrived (we had one straggler that arrived at 6:38), I went back up to the Host and informed him that we were all present for our reservation and reminded him that we would love to be seated outdoors (table for 6 still remaining empty). He did not acknowledge me or give me any update. Our group stood in the small entryway until 6:58pm, watching as the Host (I assume the owner) hugged and warmly greeted no less than 20 people before we were seated in the back of the restaurant by a young hostess. No apologetic nod or verbal acknowledgement by the owner. I felt humiliated by this rude treatment.

Luckily, the restaurant and bar was a lovely (and lively) space, and quite busy. Having never been here before, I was relying on the reviews to plan this dinner out with friends. Our server, Barbara N., was great. She was welcoming, efficient, accommodating, and considerate. The spaghetti and meatballs that 3 of our group ordered were "mediocre" or 3/5 as described by my friends. The rest of us had fish, which was described as very good to excellent. Also, the Arancini that we ordered as an appetizer were delicious. Lastly, we had Sorbetto. That was excellent. Cocktails were good. It was a Friday night, and very busy, so it was very noisy in the restaurant. I noticed after leaving the restaurant that my iPhone alerted me that the decibel level was extremely high (98dB). Even though we were sitting in a curved booth, we were shouting to be able to hear each other talk.

Based on the unwelcoming first encounter and the noise level, we probably won't be back. Why drop $70 a person, to feel disappointed in the experience. Shout out to the young hostess that smiled and led us to our table, and of course the server, Barbara N., and all the ancillary waitstaff, bartenders, chefs, cooks, food prep., dishwashers, busboys, etc. that are behind the scenes and work so hard to make sure the restaurant keeps the majority of its...

Hate to do this, but I feel like I have to. My friend and I went in at 4 PM today. The place was barely busy and I asked to be seated by the windows. The person in charge tried seating us at the corner telling the host to take us to table 44 (not a window spot). I then asked again to sit by a table by the windows and they reluctantly told me they’d check. After making it kind of awkward and with a weird vibe, we were told we were able to. Then, our waiter, a tall guy with gray hair kept on giving my friend and I an attitude. I don’t know what kind of place thinks it’s a good idea to treat customers like this and expect them to return. Not friendly staff at all. The only friendly person there was a nice lady who greeted us with a smile. Everybody else seemed to be having a bad day or something.

I am honestly forced to think the reason for this is because my friend looks/is Mexican. I have no other explanation for this kind of behavior. I am very disappointed, because I wanted to spend my Saturday relaxing and having a good time after a long week. But we came in to an unwelcoming place that supposedly specializes in the hospitality industry to be treated like second-class citizens. We honestly should’ve just left because nobody should tolerate rude behavior for no apparent reason; much less pay for that kind of treatment. This is also the reason we spent less money (we were originally going to spend a lot more).

Could my assumption be incorrect? Maybe. But then I want an explanation about why these two incidents are ever acceptable. There was plenty of space to seat us but it’s like we were asking for too much. It’s as if being treated with respect is asking for too much. Very very disappointed with this place I was excited about trying but turning into something like this. I can confidently say I will never go back or spend a cent at any business owned by these people. Racism is unacceptable today. These kinds of experiences are precisely the reason terms like micro-aggression and differential treatment exist.

There was a table of four people, all Caucasian, that walked in after us and also requested the window seating. They got it right away, I don’t recall them having the same experience my...