Viaggio Restaurant Chicago — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

The food was good but the service was actually pretty awful - some of the worst I've had in a while. There were a lot of "regulars" and they clearly got way better service than what we got. Also, the tables with more people than we had (we had 4) also got special treatment (and by special treatment I mean doing a basic job of serving). Here were the issues: Straight off the bat, we sat at the bar to get a drink as we were early for our reservation. The bartender was busy but still took longer than it should of to get us a drink. Meantime, the manager (or who we thought was a manager, if he was the owner then extra shame shame to him - he was an older gentleman in a suit) passed us several times and didn't say a word because he was too busy getting drunk and talking to the women customers. The time there was not off to a great start. And, we kept an eye on that manager through the night...he didn't do anything to assist or support his team and instead continued to drink with the "regulars" the whole night.

It took a long time for our waitress to come tell us specials let alone for her to take our order.

She made it very obvious that she only cared about how much money we were going to spend. She seemed annoyed when my parents didn't initially order a drink and then perked up when they ended up deciding to order something (after we had to flag her down because she wasn't revisiting our table for a while). And then as soon as we didn't order the more expensive items that she suggested for entrees, she literally gave attitude to us and went back to not caring about us. The kitchen delivered our food and we didn't see her again until our plates were gone and it was time for her to ask if we wanted dessert (again, hoping we'd spend more money). When we said we were full, again, she literally made an annoyed sound and gave attitude.

Throughout our entire meal, well before the entree came out, we needed butter for the bread course (my mother doesn't eat her bread with olive oil; and as it turned out, she ended up being forced to just eat it plain). Then we ran out of bread and needed more so then we were in need of both bread and butter. We asked the waitress for both bread and butter at the time of ordering our entrees and then flagged people down many times but nothing came out...oh except the butter finally as soon as we were done eating. Our plates were being taken away by the kitchen crew and then someone brought the butter. That's a bit too late and we still had no bread.

We were never asked if we needed anything else during our time there or ask how the food was. All basic courtesy was non-existent.

The waitress then put the bill down without saying a word. We were paying with cash so we put the cash down and left. Thankfully we didn't need change or need to use a credit card because we would of had to wait a long time because we discovered on our way out the waitress was taking a smoke break right near the front door. It's frustrating, one, that she was taking a smoke break when we were trying to check out, and, two, that employees there think it's appropriate to be smoking in the front of the building - that's restaurant etiquette 101.

Overall, if you go here, maybe just get...

What a great place!! Small but powerful menu of Italian American classics prepared incredibly well. Our group of five each had a different entree as well as dish of housemade noodles and not one of them let us down. Risotto was fantastic, ravioli perfectly finished, salmon crisped from a nice hard sear, beautiful U12ish shrimp with the noodles, possibly one of the better carbonara coming out of a kitchen and even some delicious peppers and oil for the crunchy bread. We finished with the obligatory coffee and tiramisu and again, near perfect. The service was also excellent and the staff warm and friendly. This is definitely a place to take a small group as the room is not a gigantic warehouse, it's a cozy room with tight tables ----- AS IT SHOULD BE.

4.75 would be the most accurate rating and only dinged that small percentage because the experience would have been heaven sent if we could've grated fresh Romano tableside. Oh, and I'd shave a little off the points for those damned U of M fans at Westside next...

Food was good, but service? Unfortunately my fiancé and I had an awkward experience. We both felt like the waitress that served us was judging us. We had questions about some menu items due to dietary restrictions, which she answered but interaction was different after we made our order. It took a while to get our food, and she checked up on all tables around us so much more promptly before checking in on us. We could hear a difference to how she spoke with us than the other people sitting nearby us. It took forever for us to get the dessert menu let alone ordering dessert and then getting the check. Each time all other tables she approached first and only came to us when I signaled to her. She was also less bubbly when she spoke to us than she was to the other guests. I can’t help but feel like it’s because my fiancé and I were minority..?? All other staff were kind...