Tutto Famiglia — Restaurant in Lake Forest

Charming little place in a hole-in-the-wall strip mall location. Don't be put off by that. On a Monday it was full of regulars; this place has a following. The meal starts with warm, buttery garlic bread. Great soft and chewy consistency, with a hint of butter and garlic. Not an overwhelming quantity, and not enough to spoil your meal. Just right. We felt like splitting an appetizer, so we went with the fried artichoke hearts. Batter was a little heavy and over-fried and had no special flavor. Not bad, but not special. What we loved were our pasta dishes, the fettuccini Alfredo and the spaghetti carbonara. The portions were perfect -- plenty without forcing you to bag a week's worth of leftovers. The sauces were super flavorful, and the carbonara especially had lots of pancetta and peas, the ingredients that restaurants often skimp on. Both dishes were rich. This isn't a delicate, nouvelle version of Italian. It's hearty, like my grandmothers used to make except they didn't cook quite as well! We loved our meal, and the service was attentive enough that we felt taken care of but not bothered. Way better than the chain Italian eateries, Tutto...

My fiancee and I were recommended here by some other local foodies. Very small and cozy, small outside seating section.

Service: the service was pretty darn good. There only time service seemed to lack of you will, was when we needed/wanted more bread. My guess is you simply have to ask.

Food:

We ordered the sizzling feta and tomato. Super simple and delicious. Lots of herbs and cooked perfectly, it comes out sizzling on a platter.

Chefs special lamb osso bucco style. This was extremely delicious and reminded me of my mom's home cooked roasts. Everything was spot on in this dish.

Minestrone: the minestrone was full of vegetables and no beans, a pleasant surprise. Full of flavor and was perfect for a chilly evening.

Salted caramel cake. My goodness this called is 10 stars itself. Not overly sweet, salty homemade caramel. Absolutely delicious.

Overall I'd like to give five stars but the limited variants of pasta type a minimal wonder selection leaves just a touch to be desired. However even with this slight downside this is an amazing place to dine alone it...

Amazing!

Looking to get dinner with my wife and I was hungry for Italian food, at a place where pizza isn’t their main dish. Theres no place around that we’ve been to that was amazing, so I turned to Google maps to find a new place, which is how we found Tutto Famiglia. We headed down and it looked pretty bland front m the outside. The signage said “Italian Food” where the biz name would normally go, and the space was pretty small. From the moment we got inspected de though, the service was very attentive, the place was pretty busy for a random Thursday night and the menu looked tasty. My wife got the salmon and I the quattro Formagio pasta. Both were Delicious! They brought fresh bread while we waited for our minestrone soup and those both were perfect. Service was on point with immediately removing dishes we were done with, food was hot and steamy, flavoring was better than what I could have possibly expected and I am so happy that we ventured out.

We will absolutely be returning and I’m so happy to have...