Tortello — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Update: 8 months after writing this review, I find myself going back to Tortello over and over again. I've read some complaints about the price being too high for Italian pasta. My responses is this: you get what you pay for. The owner Dario uses the freshest and highest quality ingredients to make the dishes. You can taste the difference the way you feel after you have a meal there. Also, I love that they rotate their menu based on what's fresh / in-season at that time. Through foods like this, I can travel to Italy without leaving home. Grazie mille Dario!

What is the secret to making great pasta? A great pasta! Often times so much of focus goes to making a great sauce for your pasta that you forget the main ingredient: the pasta!!! This gem of a place in Chicago does just that. Making fresh pasta daily using quality imported semolina flour from Italy, fresh organic eggs from a local farm up in Wisconsin and water. That’s all the ingredients you need and the results are fantastic! In my previous post, I made stop at Tortello just to check out their production. I’m a skeptic like that. I’ve had so many pasta dishes in the US. Many will boast of theirs being authentic but often times I leave disappointed in their quality and in execution. So before trying it out, I decided to make an inspection first. When I walked in, I met the owner Dario Nonni who greeted me at the door and we had a brief conversation about his place. From what I saw, I was impressed so I decided to come back another day to give this place a try.

Second time around, we went into throw down and ordered the following: Focaccia w/ ricotta & honey, fennel, celery & orange salad, tortelli, cacio e pepe and Zucchini “pasta” w/ grass-fed beef ragú. All the pastas were excellent. Their tortelli One dish to point out: their cacio e pepe was one of the closest I had outside of Rome and I love how they kept it simple (good bucatini style pasta, imported aged pecorino cheese and fresh pepper) - just like how that dish is suppose to be. Complimenti Dario!

For dessert we got their classic tiramisu. This is the one that I anticipated the most. If you know the history of this dessert, it originated from a town called Treviso, about 30km north of Venezia. Since Dario is from Venice, I expected him to keep the recipe as close to the traditional one as possible. Thankfully he did. Aside from couple of very minor critiques, I can say that their tiramisu is probably the best one I’ve had in Chicago and made/taste the way how Tiramisu is suppose to be! Bravo Cuoco!

I wanted to talk and thank Dario & Jill in person after this wonderful experience. Unfortunately they were not in that day but I was more impressed because of their absence because their staff provided excellent service and the chef also trained his staff to keep the dishes consistent which I found out recently from my other visits to restaurants that it is not an easy task to do. Because of this, Tortello Pasta gets my #kkapproved hashtag. Auguri Tortello e ci vediamo alla prossima!

Disclaimer: I do not have any experience in food & restaurant industry nor have any training in culinary school. My only credential is that I know lot of chefs and I may have had more pasta / Italian food (both locally and all across Italy) than your...

We ordered a couple different things here starting with the Focaccia Ricotta & Honey and Fennel, Celery and Orange salad. Amazing focaccia and the combination of the ricotta with honey was heaven. Focaccia was soft and warm. The fennel, celery and orange salad had a great flavor; the fennel was not overpowering yet allowing it to shine on its own. For pastas, I ordered (or shall I say was forced to order; more on that later) the Tagliattelle Tina. Pasta itself was cooked well; al dente but I've never cared for this pasta. The sauce was way too salty for my taste. The rest of my group ordered (again seems like were sort of forced into) 2 Cacio e Pepes and 2 aglio e olios. Why would 3 people order this much? I think we need a little common sense to ask that question.

In any case, the cacio e pepe was packed to go so don't know much about that but the aglio e olios was cooked wonderfully. The spaghetti was al dente and there was a good use of garlic which was awesome. The dish however was grossly under salted.

So the 3 stars honestly is for the less than stellar flavors here.

While I'm not holding the following to rate the restaurant, I do feel I got to say this here; the attitude of the guy taking the order was plain rude. I requested my wife that I'll have the spaghetti but with the Tina sauce (I am not a fan of some of the other pastas they had). I then went out to hold onto a table for the 3 of us.

The ladies come back and tell me what went down and after asking several specific questions of them since I did not see this first hand, I kind of put the pieces together.

My wife was told by the guy behind the counter the pastas won't be substituted; that's fine. Only 3 things that really make that not ok.

a. They had a sign (which I saw myself) that they indeed DO MAKE custom pastas. Although you do need to give a 48 hours notice but they do. So the statement he made to my wife next is well, you decide.

b. "This is an Italian restaurant and we know what goes well together." Hmmmm, perhaps you are right Sir but we as foodies know what we 'like' and what you Sir 'know' goes together may not be something all your guests 'like'

c. The attitude with which he spoke was just plain rude.

While I completely understand that there are no substitutions (and there are plenty of places I've been to that don't do any substitutions and we never ask for any), there's a way in which this is communicated with class, not as a rude prick. Additionally, if you are so adamant about not substituting, a clear sign that has 3 simple words in CAPS that say: ABSOLUTLEY NO SUBSTITUTIONS should be there that is clearly visible.

The dude seemed so confused that what the ladies actually wanted was 1 cacio e pepe and 1aglio e olios. NOT 2 of EACH. Yes, it's the ladies fault for not checking the bill when paying but I bring this here so the snark's attitude gets laid out here.

Needless to say, I'm not interested in having Italian food "the way Tortello" knows it so won't be stepping foot here anymore. There are hundreds of Italian restaurants that do a way better job of the food (not to mention service)...

We cannot wait to go back! Without a doubt, this was the best pasta we have had in the city. My fiancée and I dined this evening and split three pasta dishes (we couldn’t narrow our selection to two!). We had the tortelli (which is filled with a light, yet creamy burrata, topped with a delicate brown butter sauce, and is balanced by a crunch of crispy sage and toasted hazelnuts), orecchiette (which is tossed in a peppery rapini pesto and breadcrumbs for great textural balance), and lobster bucatini (with super fresh tomatoes that brought a lovely brightness to the dish).

Most notably, the pasta was cooked to a PERFECT al dente, yielding an actual bite that was firm, allowing the pasta to hold its shape, promoting true tasting of the richness of the fresh pasta, and perfectly balancing the texture with the additional components of each dish. There is nothing worse than mushy over cooked pasta. That certainly is NOT the experience here, as Tortello perfected each plate!

The service and atmosphere of Tortello are also wonderful. The owner greeted us as we walked in, spoke to all of the guests at their tables, and showed genuine consideration for each diner and their experience. His passion was obvious and he made my fiancée and I feel welcome right away. There was a mix of families with young children and young and old couples, sitting inside and also dining outside on the patio. While we dined, we noticed the sfoglina making pasta by hand was catching the attention of dozens of passerby on the street. We don’t blame them as we also took the time to sit and watch her!

What a wonderful experience. Tortello has two new regulars. Our only qualm was that we hadn’t...