LAGO Lake Zurich — Restaurant in Lake Zurich

I would give this place 5 stars, but service was lackluster and why is there a valet service when they have their own parking lot? This is a Fabio Viviani restaurant which is very similar to Giostra in South Barrington. I made a reservation for Saturday night online (there's a reason I'm mentioning this) so we showed up and realized that the lot is valet only. Maybe mention that on the website. I didn't have any cash, and I'm thankful my wife did. When I made the reservation, it asked if we were going there to celebrate anything. I stated that we were celebrating my birthday. When we checked in, the host asked if we were celebrating anything. My wife told them we were celebrating my birthday. They sat us at a table in the back part of the restaurant. I guess it opens up in warmer weather? The bar is very prominent in the main part of the restaurant and tables are jammed in providing very little pathways to walk through to navigate to and from the front of the restaurant or the restrooms. So we sat and were asked if we wanted tap water, still water, or sparkling water. We opted for tap and my wife asked for lemon and a straw. Then our waiter appears and asks if we're ready to order. We're not but he'll be back in a few. He reappears about ten minutes later and my wife asks him for lemon and a straw as the bus person who brought us the water seemed to forget. Our waiter disappears and brings back the straw and a small brandy snifter full of lemon wedges (that was weird). He then takes our drink orders and disappears again. Several minutes later, he returns (without the drinks) and asks if we want an appetizer. We order the bread. Again, gone for a while. He returns with the drinks and someone else delivers the bread. It looked like a cross between angel food cake and monkey bread. It was light, airy, and utterly delicious. The butter was a bit melty and smeared on the bread plate, but had good flavor. We then ordered. My wife got their French onion soup and the Brussel sprout salad. I get the Heritage 14oz New York Strip with a Bearnaise sauce and truffle fries. Everything was cooked to perfection. My steak was a perfect medium-rare. The food was fantastic. Pricey, but really, really good. I would recommend everything we ate. So, so good. But now we were out of water. Our waiter parked himself three feet away from our table. He just stood there for about five minutes. My wife played with her empty water glass. He just started right through us. The floor manager appeared, and our waiter scurried away. What the heck? He never came by to check on us let alone refill our water glasses. We flagged down the floor manager and he got us more water and apologized for the lack of checking on us. After we were done eating Our waiter appeared and asked if everything was okay. What? Then he noticed we were finished and he took our plates and brought containers for my wife and then asked if we wanted dessert. I asked what he thought was the best and he then listed everything on the dessert menu. Thanks but no thanks. My wife got the sticky toffee pudding and i got the peach cobbler with vanilla gelato. That was the perfect dessert. Not too sweet and plenty of big chunks of peaches throughout. Now you may be wondering if they did anything for my birthday, right? They didn't despite the website reservation program asking and the host asking. Why ask if you do nothing? Once we were done eating, and wanted the check he was johnny-on-the-spot delivering it to us and then kept appearing every two seconds to see if we provided a credit card. The clientele was a very keeping-up-with-the-joneses crowd. There were two people at the bar who needed to get a room and the young women behind us who kept taking pictures for their Instagram were only there to take pictures for their social media. The food was very good, but it is so similar to Giostra and the staff there is so attentive, that I'd skip returning to Lago and will go to Giostra...

Eh... It's honestly an overpriced disappointment. We decided to give this place a try for our nine-year anniversary. The reservation service even asked us if we were celebrating any events. It didn't matter.

The experience was nothing short of disappointing, sadly. We truly wanted this place to be another great option for our date nights but it fell way short of our expectations. The atmosphere embraced the 'open concept' a bit too much, which made having any kind of conversation nearly impossible unless you were prepared to yell. The esthetic was nice; but you really couldn't enjoy it.

We were sat in a cramped section next to the open kitchen. Honestly - why do restaurants do this? I don't need to see and ultimately hear my food being made. In fact, it added to the inability to enjoy a conversation. The open kitchen and the disorganized wine storage really bothered me, considering Lago is meant to be a 'upscale' eatery. The two person tables were extremely cramped with literally less than 18" of walking space between them - another irritation for us.

We were hoping for an intimate place to have a great meal and celebrate our nine-years together but, honestly - this place isn't great for intimacy.

The food is just Okay. I'm not afraid to pay a premium for premium food but that wasn't delivered tonight. We started out with the Tuna Crudo. The tuna itself had a lot of flavor but the rice crackers are not it. They are tasteless and awkward to eat, with one piece being larger than the others and no real way to break them apart without it all falling apart.

For our entrees, we had the Miso Cod and the New York Strip. For the price you'd think they could spare a little seasoned rice or whipped potatoes, but sadly no. The meals come with nothing and all sides are a la cart. Fine - but for $70 for a New York Strip which tasted only as if it was seasoned with salt and pepper you could throw in a small side to round out the meal.

The Cod was completely saturated in oil or butter. The size was decent but you couldn't actually taste anything except the oil.

Lastly, Valet. Nice touch except their approach is extremely disrespectful. If you go, take a look around the parking lot. Every car in their actual parking lot is worth $70K or more. Everyone else gets shipped over to the old Fritzl's parking lot (you peasant). For clarity I drive a nice 2021 Ford Ranger, far from a luxury but definitely not a crappy car. It definitely left a lasting impression. Before realizing this, I was a solid 3 out of 5.

Again, we wanted this place to be a star, but right now it's coasting on the 'it's new, expensive, and owned by a 'celebrity chef'' to gain notoriety. In my opinion, wait a few months. Maybe the hype will die down, the vibe will change, and the prices will come back...

For Father's Day this year, I want to give Fabio Viviani's Lago a try. My wife and I have been huge fans of Fabio since his time on Top Chef and we were excited to give this place a try. While we didn't get to see the man himself, the atmosphere food and service were incredible.

Since this review will be chock full of positives, I'll start things off with one of my very few negatives. And I have to say this negative is something that is not unusual in the restaurant business at all. My wife and I aren't drinkers and always find that our beverage options at places like this are a little bit lacking. I do still commend Lago as they had a selection of non-alcoholic special drinks which is nice. Yet still their choices of diet soda options are very thin. There is a lot more than diet Coke out there that they could offer after all.

But let's get to the good stuff anyhow. We started out with Fabio's giant meatball I think it came in at 14 oz. I came with four crusty pieces of bread and a nice tomato sauce. For mains, my wife had the spinach and ricotta gnudi, while I went with the short rib ragout. My wife hadn't had gnudi before, but it was right up her alley and was perfect for her. The short rib was exactly how you want braised short rib to be - packed with flavor and tender.

We also added two sides, the brussel sprouts and the proper mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was exactly what mac and cheese should be at a restaurant of this caliber. It was made with nice big shells and full of stretchy cheese. But now for my other negative, the brussel sprouts. I like my diet soda complaint above, this is a problem I always see with brussel sprouts in restaurants. They never take off the stem at the bottom, and no matter how much you cook them that thing will never be tender. Spend the extra prep time to cut off the very bottom end of the brussel sprout.

We finished with an absolutely amazing dessert, the sticky toffee pudding. We split it (as we always do with dessert) but I could have eaten my own.

The service before during and after the meal was great. We never found ourselves wanting for anything. The food all came out quickly and efficiently. And yet I'm a way to make sure that we didn't feel rushed.

The room itself is nice and warm with dark tones, and much of it is dominated by a large bar in the center. The tables were relatively close but I didn't feel cramped.

Lastly I feel like I should mention the parking situation. The parking lot is very small, but they do have complimentary valet service since they have to park many people across a busy highway.

I highly recommend Lago if you're looking for a great meal, and my wife and I will certainly be back again in the future. To close this out, I only have one question for Fabio - why doesn't Stefan have a restaurant...