01/11/09

Nice atmosphere and service, but serious lack of flavor

by BernSteve

Dinotto's started out promising - quick and friendly service, clean and romantic atmosphere, and tasty bread with a pesto butter. The good stops there. Our appetizers were average at best - eggplant parm drowned in cheese with minimal sauce and caprese salad (pretty hard to mess up) that was a very small serving for the price. Our entrees were dreadfully bland. The "crispy risotto with shrimp" was basically a rice ball in brick shape form with shrimp in a very dull runny tomato sauce. The spaghetti bolonese with sausage was the absolute worst I have ever eaten. The sausage was burnt and without flavor - ballpark saugsages are way better. The sauce was embarassingly bad - no flavor whatsoever - a raw tomato offers more flavor. Save your money, try somewhere else.

• Pros: atmosphere
• Cons: food

09/09/08

Best Wine and Dine

by verysovery

Ok, I read some of these "poor reviews" and I wonder if they're done by other restaurant employees in the area. I've been to Dinotto's on and off on many occasions, over the course of the past 3 years and I must say that this is a great place, be it winter or summer. The food is excellent. The atmosphere is great, the drinks are wonderful and the servers are friendly. We recently went to celebrate my sister's birthday and we dined al fresco. My sister absolutely loved her birthday dinner. And the owners always make it a point to walk around and say hello to their patrons. I like that kind of attention. If you haven't been to Dinotto's, you have to try it.

• Pros: Everything
• Cons: Tuesdays are a little slow but then again, it's the slowest business day in the City.

09/08/08

AWFUL FOOD AND SERVICE - Sept. 7, 2008

by TracyK28

I was last at Dinotto in the winter. When walking out of the restaurant then I said to myself "I probably won't be coming back." It was so-so and there are so many choices around that I can avoid the "so-so" places. Last night a friend came into town unexpectedly and she wanted to go to Dinotto. So off we went. The restaurant was not packed, in fact I was surprised to see the staff / owners sitting down at the bar - taking up prime space. In any event, we were immediately welcomeed and seated. The waiter came by and took our drink orders and then disappeared for 10 mins. I did say that the place was not packed ,right? My friend and I were so busy catching up that we really didn't pay attention to it, until she got up to go to the bathroom. AND there he was... sitting at a back table with friends.

So we called the owner, Dino, over and explained our frustration. He was so rude to us. He actually told us that we could take our business down the street if we didn't like it. Can you imagine?

So we ordered one entree and one appetizer and split them both. The food was AWFUL, presentation was pretentious.

What we should have done was gone down to Topo Giogio, picked up a couple of orders of pasta and brought them back to Dino and Dinotto and shown them what real Italian food looks and taste like.

NEVER GOING BACK... EVER. Thanks, Dino.

• Pros: location is the only pro
• Cons: EVERYTHING

07/22/08

50 - 50 Chance

by nolachitown

It's unfortunate that the service at this restaurant is slow, because the food is great. I came on a Wednesday night, with reservations made, and while they promptly sat us at a lovely table outside - the gnats and flies immediately came to join my date and I for our meal. Be sure to wear insect repellent, or at least bring some to spray around you if you are seated near the gate facing the street. While the slow service didn't bother us (we had time to waste that evening), the fact that the "bottled waters" aren't newly opened in front of you to prove they are new, and the fact that they are refilled from the kitchen tap did bother us. I hope they get new management and staff, because it would be a waste for this restaurant to go under.

• Pros: ambience, delicious food, nice area
• Cons: parking (valet parks your car in front of you), service

07/03/08

Great Food and Best Tiramisu !

by Jaite

My wife and I wandered into this restaurant on a cold thursday night - we had good service and the food was great. We're definitely going back. She ordered the veal milanes (?) and i have their "famous" lasagna which was really delicious. For dessert we ordered the Tiramisu. We consider ourselves Tiramisu experts and I believe we just had the best Tiramisu ever outside Italy!

• Pros: Great outdoor garden
• Cons: Not for families with kids,

06/28/08

a gift cert. is not a promotion

by OldTownPatron

My wife and I went to Dino Lubbat?s restaurant, Dinotto?s, in our neighborhood on a Wednesday evening. We were delighted to hear about their ? price wine that night. When the bill came, I presented the waiter with our $75 gift certificate, at which point he explained that Dinotto?s policy doesn?t allow gift certificates to be used on promotional nights (the ? price wine). Keep in mind, our gift certificate was not a coupon or some other promotion ? my parents paid Dinotto?s $75 for this gift certificate. I explained this to the waiter but he could only state their policy. I quietly asked for the manager.

We then patiently explained to the ?manager? that a gift certificate for $75 is not a special offer or promotion by Dinotto?s but a certificate that certifies that, in this case, $75 has already been paid to the restaurant. The gift certificate was a benefit to the restaurant by them having been paid several months advance, and that honoring the gift certificate for which they were already paid was not some sort of promotion or special offer that the restaurant was extending to the patron.

This ?manager? persisted in saying that he couldn?t afford to give us two promotions ? both their ? price wine promotion and using a gift certificate. We explained again, he has already been paid $75; a gift certificate is not a promotion.

I then asked for the ?manager?s? card only to discover unbelievably that this ?manager? was Dino himself. We couldn?t believe it.

He actually claimed couldn?t understand why we would use the gift certificate and pay full price for the wine instead of saving the gift certificate to take advantage of his half-price wine offer. Dino, if you?re really scratching your head, let me clear it up for you ? We?re NOT coming back.

(By the way, we decided the waiter was not to blame so we tipped him 20%+ of the full bill.)

04/14/08

Simply the Best!

by joebucs32

Dinotto is quite simply the best that Chicago has to offer! I have been dining at Dinotto since it first opened years ago and every visit is a delicious and memorable one! The food is outstanding -- and the menu offers an excellent range of traditional Italian entrees and more creative dishes as well! Their grilled calamari appetizer is unparalleded and make sure to leave room for dessert because after seeing the dessert menu, you'll find yourself ordering "one of each!" Right along side the outstanding cuisine is Dinotto's fantastic staff. You won't find a better staff at any restaurant in the entire city! Michael, Jessie, Mario, Guiliano and the rest of the staff not only make you feel right at home, but remember you each and every time you return! And in the warm weather, Dinotto offers an outdoor patio and bar like no other! Owners Dino and JC have created a gem of a restaurant that will leave you wanting to return again and again. It doesn't get any better than Dinotto!

• Pros: Superb Food And Outstanding Service
• Cons: You're Kidding, Right? There Are None!

02/10/08

Take a Pass

by Tiani329

We have been here 3 times in the past 6 months and the food and service just keep getting poorer. Our food was bland and tasted like caned tomato sauce. I had to ask the bus boy to get our waiter so I could order another glass of wine. Not once since we ordered our food did the waiter come by to ask us if we needed anything or how our food was, this was at 530PM and the place was not that busy. I would stay away from this place, your better off going to Topo Gigio on wells.

12/08/07

Best Neighborhood Place, classy; Loved the Food and service

by david_kellerby

Just enjoyed one of the best dinners ever in Chicago with my family. My cousin lives in the area and had recommended going there. She had raved about it and she was right! Although we were late for our reservation, the host seated us right away and our server, Ruben was awesome. The wine list was mostly italian so I wasn't familiar with some of the wines but he served us a sample of their wines by the glass and we picked the Barolo. Our appetizers were hot and very good, but our dinners were even better. The Lobster ravioli was so good, I used bread to soak up all the sauce. My date loved the Pork Loin with some sort of Wine-Pomegranite sauce. We were too stuffed to order dessert but were convinced to try their "signature award-winning' Tiramisu. They were right, it was awesome too. We called the owner, Dino, over to compliment him and found out he was the host also. Excellent place, we'll be back many times now....

• Pros: valet parking was nice.
• Cons: place was packed

10/22/07

Where is the food?

by mlh214

My husband and I recently moved to the neighborhood and were looking forward to trying out a new restaurant. The service was terrible, we had to flag down our waitress to take our drink order and then again when we were ready to order our food. When the food arrived it was wrong. My husband ordered veal and was given chicken. We sent it back, forty five minutes passed with no replacement meal. When we asked to speak to the manager we were offered a fifteen dollar gift certificate to come back again but no apology. The food never arrived and my husband left hungry. Please beware!!!!!! I will not go back even to redeem the fifteen dollar gift certificate.