Mia Francesca — Restaurant in Niles Township

A coworker of mine was raving about "the best appetizer he ever had" at this place, so I thought that was a good reason to go here. Parking was easy in their lot, but if it gets full, they do offer free valet; which is nice. Decor of the place was pretty cool: the large, thick ropes by the ceiling and the half car coming out of the wall. It was Friday night, 6pm, and didn't have reservations, but we were seated right away at a booth by the bar. Water was served to us, and we had already gone through the whole menu, but despite having a ton of workers walking past us, it took quite a while before we had a server come up to us. Finally, one of the bartenders walked over and amounted she was going to help us. I gave her a description of the appetizer my friend suggested because I wasn't sure which Foccacia app it was. She said she was new, and they changed the menu but thought it was probably the first one: Foccacia de Recco. When it arrived at the table I sent a picture to my friend and he said it was not the same. Regardless, it was good. For drinks, we had the Limoncello di Bosco & the Mr. Smoked Piggy: both well made, looked fancy, and tasted good. The calamari fritti was well fried, my Rigatoni Vodka was well prepared, and my husband's Orecchiette Con Salccicia was delicious. The portion sizes of the main dishes were not as large as they are at most Italian places, considering the prices here. For dessert, we had the Brown Butter Blondie, which is a good hefty piece and so good! My husband tried the cheesecake with pepper and honey - we were not fans. The waitress was nice enough to give us both a small serving of their house limoncello shot/drink to make up for any of her mistakes. It's a nice gesture, but that shot was way too strong for my weak palate. Maybe I'll come back to check out their Happy...

An update 9.15.2025:

Ten or more visits have confirmed us as big fans of Mia Francesca. Of course, we eat and drink exclusively at the large, roomy bar with delightfully efficient and chatty-enough bartenders/servers like Megan and Meredith.

Food is consistently excellent, with their meat lasagna, their chicken Caesar salad with refreshing house dressing, and their perfectly roasted half-chicken as our particular favorites. Tuesday sees all their wines at half-price, an obvious benefit. There is plenty of indoor garage parking and some nights a valet is provided.

This is all to be expected of a recommended Italian restaurant. Fresh, delicious foods prepared to order and served in an elegant, yet unpretentious environment by friendly, charming people is the truth underlying all good reviews. Right? A real and true highlight of our visits though, is Paisley, the warmly friendly and genuine managerial sort who remembers names and some pertinent facts of regulars and makes us feel at home, like part of the extended Mia Francesca family. Paisley is kind and generous and lovely, a person who behaves in a professional manner like a daughter we never had and would be proud to call our own. Paisley would be an excellent nurse.

Do eat and drink and enjoy this superb Scott Harris restaurant. Indoors or outdoors, it's one little Italian place you don't want to miss.

We ate at the bar. Adam the singing barback was a special highlight. Rene and Jeff were marvelous bartenders and servers. Our food choices were absolutely delicious. Alcoholic beverage servings were a bit small and overpriced other than the Manhattan, which was large and delightful. The chocolate sundae was creatively served and a...

Eating here is like dating a supermodel -- great looks but everything else is a disappointment.

Put succinctly, the food here just can't hang, at all. I said to my wife after eating here, "That's the type of Italian food I expect to get in Iowa." Not to denigrate the great state of Iowa too much, but fine cuisine is not something they're known for.

The food is... bland. It's just bland. What should be lively and invigorating is just... bland. My wife's vodka pasta was there, but outside of the mouth feel there wasn't much taste to either the sauce nor the actual sausage. My cherry tomato dish was okay, but only just. For a point of comparison, you'll actually taste your food far more at Maggiano's (which I'm not holding out as a paragon of excellent Italian food, just a common one).

Service was lacking. Despite being in an almost empty room mid Sunday, still took us almost two hours to get entrees and dessert! Two hours??? Well it took almost half an hour for each contact -- seating, ordering, entrees, dessert ordering, and then dessert. I'm as perplexed as you as to why it took so long, it's not as though they were slammed, or even lightly subscribed! (I made the joke that they must be pasteurizing the cheese in house everything was taking so long!)

The best thing about this Mia Francesca is the ambiance; the dining room looks fantastic! Twelve (or maybe fifteen?) foot high windows along two sides of the room let in lots of fresh light. Those are great! The tables are nicely adorned.

It's just a shame that the food will condemn this place to closure sooner rather than later. It's not bad per se, but it's entirely meh. (Or "very very mid" as the tik...