02/24/08

"Total waste of money" - our waiter

by danm900

A few years ago we loved this basement Italian place in Evanston because of its college feel. Tonight we went there to find that the place has gone down. Our waiter told us, as he gave us the check, "total waste of money". He obviously wasn't a very good waiter -so that covers the service. My dinner was not good, I had the garlic scallops which had absolutely no garlic in the recipe. My date had the shrimp and scallops Alfredo and she was disappointed. I tried the alfredo and it was much better than the not-garlic scallops, but was thin in the flavor department. The wine of the day, a temprenillo was very good. As we tried to keep a positive attitude we struggled with a screaming baby at the next table. It is a bit cacophonous down there as evidenced by the spray-painted noise-reducing foam that is staple-gunned to the ceiling. (Enough people must have complained.) The bread wasn't good, and even the olive oil tasted funny. The same strange thinness that my dinner had, perhaps made from the same low-quality oil. You'd expect that an Italian restaurant of any caliber at least carry some decent olive oil. Overall, kind of bleh. I could make better pasta at home.

• Pros: Wine.
• Cons: Everything else.

08/15/07

Solid, inexpensive Italian

by alleniversonhandles

Not too shabby, does get a little loud at times as stated before. Have recently tried the calamari pasta and fettucini alfredo w/chicken, fair enough quality for the price and nice sized portions. Expect leftovers unless you are an overeater, then prepare to binge. College type crowd as joint is near Northwestern campus and student housing. Can do better as far as quality and schmancy atmosphere, but for come-as-you are dinner Dave's is a good value. I have yet to eat anything bad there yet.........

• Pros: Value
• Cons: Can be noisy : if your over 50 or an uptight person you may be offended at times :P

04/21/07

beware of flying food

by midder555

As a long time (15+ years) of Dave?s, I?m saddened to write this account of my dinner there this evening. Four of us were seated at the back of the restaurant. The host then seated a party of six young, highly intoxicated college students at the table next to us, and we noticed immediately that the waiter served them bottles of wine. We were surprised both that the waiter did not ask for proof of identification/age and that he would serve a party that was already clearly drunk.

One of the guys in the party began shouting at the waiter to be served, followed by loud stadium cheers, disrupting conversations at all of the surrounding tables. We asked him to lower his voice. We then noticed that something was thrown onto our table, from the angle of where he was sitting. It turned out to be a clump of parmesan cheese that struck one of our dinner companions in the back of the head. She confronted him immediately, but he and his party denied that anything occurred.

We called for the manager, who came to our table with the restaurant owner. The manager apologized, but offered to do nothing. I suggested that the restaurant should stop serving alcohol to those who were yelling and throwing food, and that they should pay for our dinner.

Consulting with each other, the manager and owner said they could do nothing at the moment, but would provide us with a complementary dinner at some later date. When we paid for our bill, the manager said he would remove the cost of wine and dessert from our dinner tab, and that it should settle the issue.

I?m very disappointed that Dave?s management decided to continue serving the drunk patrons. I can only presume that they value their patronage of college students, as they should; however, it appears that they?re willing to forego patronage from others who do not wish to be assaulted with food, drunken outbursts and other abusive behaviors.

It?s no longer a place I would recommend to anyone as an enjoyable evening out.