Baci Ristorante & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Joliet

A lot of weird reviews here. I hope my review can help clear up any confusion about this neighborhood hole in the wall. 1: the food is made fresh, therefore, you’re going to wait like 45 minutes for it to come out. That is just standard. You don’t like that? Don’t come then. 2: the red sauce is real marinara. If you don’t like that, don’t get it. 3: why would anyone order delivery from here? See #1 as the reason not to order delivery. Get takeout or dine in. 4: the thin crust Karens are annoying everywhere in the greater Chicago areas. Waaah it’s not thin enough. Cool, go plague some other poor business with your thin crust woes. Every pizza place has these same Karens whining everywhere. 5: the food is more mild because the location. You go for the cheese and pasta because everyone’s YT grandma whines about black pepper being too spicy. I didn’t make the rules. If you want fine dining, you’ll have to drive to the city. This is a hole in the wall in Joliet. 6: if you want something annoying, Yt, and suburban that is overly complex, “half this topping, and this other topping on the whole thing,” you get one chance to either draw a picture of it or write it down because it takes a long time for your meal to be made. Don’t mess this step up. 7: read the menu. Point to what you want. Repeat it. 8: of course the cannoli isn’t ricotta, it’s mascarpone. There is more than one way to make a cannoli, and again, this is Joliet. If you want ricotta, drive to the city. 9: probably don’t get the shrimp. Don’t get anything iffy because it’s a hole in the wall in Joliet. 10: also no, the selection is not huge. The menu is sizable, but there are limited choices. 11: wouldn’t get chicken piccata here. I’d wouldn’t get it anywhere that isn’t $100 per plate, honestly. I’d that steep? Yes. But it’s still accurate.

I enjoy this place, but I also understand the limitations and location. Adjust your expectations accordingly. This is like the only Italian food we get, so if it’s not good enough,...

We ordered a pizza with spinach on all and pepperoni on half. First one we got had spinach and pepperoni on half and only cheese on the other half. I think the waitress thought we would just eat it. We sent it back. We told her again exactly what we wanted. She came back with the wrong thing again. We were hungry so we reluctantly ate it. Our friend ordered a chicken sandwich. They brought out barbecued chicken. By the time they brought that out we were ready to leave. He didn’t get to eat it. Again, she thought he would just eat the barbecue chicken. The bruschetta was decent. The antipasto salad was disappointing. It needed more tomatoes, maybe some peppers. Then when we asked for dressing, we had to ask for it a couple times. Then we had to ask for salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and Parmesan cheese. With each thing, she looked like a deer in the headlights. It was a very disappointing visit and will never go back. Oh, I don’t want to forget, when we came out there were used needles on the...

As long-time residents, we used to go to Baci's when it was in the former church building on Lockport Street in Plainfield. There was always a long wait, but we enjoyed the food. It closed back in 2010.

I was looking for something different to try tonight and found the Baci's name was resurrected in Joliet a couple of years ago. Because of Covid, they focused on carryout and delivery.

I wanted to try it. The surroundings are considerably more subdued since they are set up primarily for carryout. No one else was eating there, but they were getting a number of calls for orders. They had one person handling all in-person and carryout orders. She was very nice.

The food was exactly as I remembered. It's not that fancy and seems a little out of the way, but if you liked it before, you may want to...