Pasta Veneta Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

This dining experience was so bad I'm still annoyed and just need to write it out. Having lived in WL for 4 years, I'm used to the disappointment of trying restaurants and them not living up to the hype, but this place takes the cake.

TL;DR: Pasta Veneta is terrible. Poor service, average food, and extra charges make it an overpriced, subpar experience. Save your time and money—there are far better Italian restaurants in WL.

Detailed version no one asked for: Our dinner at Pasta Veneta was one of the worst dining experiences we've had in a while. Despite there being plenty of outdoor seating, the waiter hesitated to seat us. Once seated, things only got worse. He messed up two water orders ($4 per bottle) and failed to mention the prices of the specials until we asked twice—kind of shady, especially with the "AQ" (which means 'Ask Questions') on the menu with no legend.

We had to ask three times for a wine bucket, and when the waiter finally poured the wine, he spilled it on the table twice. Then the waiter informed us 10 minutes later that 3 dishes we ordered were unavailable. We had to wait for 5 minutes for them to bring another menu so we could pick replacements.

The food was okay—nothing worth the price. We ordered the carbonara, gnocchi, beet salad, focaccia, calamari, apple tart, and cheesecake. Monteverde is a much better option if you want Italian food.

Apparently, they have the right to automatically add a 20% tip no matter your party size, which was annoying because of the poor service. Finally, our card was charged more than the original bill (~3% charge that is unable to removed), and the waiter dismissively called it "policy."

Pasta Veneta is overpriced, offers subpar service, and employs poor business practices. There are far better Italian spots in WL like...

TLDR: Bad service. Frozen food. Overpriced/ poor value. Only serves bottled water, which is garbage.

We returned to celebrate the anniversary of our 1st date, which, sadly, took place here. We won't be back for year 2, not just because we'd never come back, but because there's no way this place is still open in a year.

It took about 15 minutes to get water, bottled, of course, because they have to run up the bill and be a wasteful as possible. The kid who served us (who I think served us the 1st time and who I'm assuming is the owner's son) apologized for the wait saying the rest of the servers quit that day. I would love to hear the hot goss on that!

Our over-priced one slice of bruschetta ($13) was good, and arrived about 20 minutes after we ordered.

Our main courses arrived 10 or 15 later, and could not have been more disappointing. My spinach tortellini were frozen in the middle. Not just cold, but FROZEN. Of course, I knew better than to wait for our server (who came by 30+ minutes later, after we ate and the plates were cleared, to see if we had gotten our entrees) so I ate most of it. It was just veggies so I was pretty confident I would not get sick from the undercooking.

My boyfriend ordered the special, which was $45 but described as including a wheel of pecorino and truffles. It was just pasta in a cream sauce with a few very small pieces of truffle on top. Any cheese was in the sauce. We didn't really expect a wheel, but thought there might be a lot of shaved cheese or something cute like a mini wheel. Instead it was just a typical pasta you can get anywhere.

We got out of there as soon as possible unwilling to also risk any more of our...

Osteria Del Pastaio's has a new sister restaurant in Fulton Market, Pasta Veneta. They have a weekly special menu that offers mouth-watering Italian dishes in a vibrant Italian dining setting. The Artisan pasta is made daily, bread is baked fresh each morning, and seasonal desserts and candies are hand-made.

Food we had… 🌟 Bread Service and Tapenade of the Day 🌟 Gnocchi, braised Beef Short Rib in its own Juice 🌟 Tortelloni stuffed with spinach, Butter-sage 🌟 Panfried Chickpea Polpette, Zucchini /Squash, Marinara Sauce 🌟Burrata, Cucumber Gazpacho 🌟 Classic Tiramisu, strawberries and raspberries

We started with the bread service and it was tasty, but the bread was crunchier than I expected it to be. We got a focaccia and eggplant tapanade.

Next we got the starters of burrata and chickpea pancakes. The burrata was refreshing and tasty. Just like you’d expect for burrata but the cucumber gazpacho really amped it up. I just wish I had some toasts or something to eat the burrata with. The chickpea pancakes were described as a vegan foie gras. Soft and smooth and crispy outside. It honestly reminded me of a Japanese fried tofu. Homey and comforting.

The tortelloni was delicate and full of flavor! The gnocchi with braised short rib tasted good! It was very decadent. The spinach tortellini was heavenly! The pastas were the best part of the meal, honestly.

They were out of panna cotta, but I was able to get the tiramisu and it was a nice way to end the dinner.

Definitely come back here for the modern and sleek decor but stay for the...