Da Luciano (River Grove)

There's a small write up for this resturant http://www.dalucianos.com/ on the Oak Park Journal website
http://www.oakparkjournal.com/

Has anyone been there? I'm looking for opinions on the food, service, kid friendly, etc.

Phil

Never been there, but I must say they have an impressive list of gluten-free items.

Hammond

Just the other day I posted about DaLuciano's in this thread. http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9579

There are definitely better Italian restaurants in the area. DaLuciano's offers an excellent option for people with gluten intolerance and their families/friends who eat gluten. I've only ever ordered from their gluten-free menu and most everything has been very good with exception of the two sauces that I mentioned in the other thread. My father who is not food focused and eats gluten loves DaLuciano's. My elderly gluten eating grandfather again not food focused hates DaLuciano's.

In the spirit of full disclosure I'm totally biased as DaLuciano's is one of 2 restaurants where I'm comfortable eating.

Just a snippet on Da Luciano. A couple of elderly old ladies from church told me this was the best restaurant in River Grove.
(pregnant pause)

So I decided to check it out. Called Saturday afternoon for a reservation, but they were already booked up for the night! However, after some negotiation, they were able to fit me in at 5:00.

The space is nice and tidy, "fresh" even. I prefer dark and grimy, but to each his own.

The menu is quite middle-of-the-road. Typical pseudo-Italian pastas, veal, chicken, etc. The only thing of interest I saw was a daily special of tripe, which I am kicking myself for not getting.

I was in the mood for pasta, but somehow wound up ordering lasagne with marinara sauce. It was fine. What my non-Italian mother would have made back in the 70s if she were a decent cook. Wife had the fettucine salmonate, which was an enormous portion of linguine in a creme sauce of smoked and non-smoked salmon. She said it was good and given her general food snootiness level, I believed her.

Kids had a cheese pizza, which was fine. Certainly nothing to seek out.

All in all, everyone left happy. I would return under the right circumstances. A great place to go with fussy eaters, because there's nothing to assault your palate here. Service was pleasant.

teatpuller wrote:Just a snippet on Da Luciano. A couple of elderly old ladies from church told me this was the best restaurant in River Grove.
(pregnant pause)

So I decided to check it out. Called Saturday afternoon for a reservation, but they were already booked up for the night! However, after some negotiation, they were able to fit me in at 5:00.

The space is nice and tidy, "fresh" even. I prefer dark and grimy, but to each his own.

The menu is quite middle-of-the-road. Typical pseudo-Italian pastas, veal, chicken, etc. The only thing of interest I saw was a daily special of tripe, which I am kicking myself for not getting.

I was in the mood for pasta, but somehow wound up ordering lasagne with marinara sauce. It was fine. What my non-Italian mother would have made back in the 70s if she were a decent cook. Wife had the fettucine salmonate, which was an enormous portion of linguine in a creme sauce of smoked and non-smoked salmon. She said it was good and given her general food snootiness level, I believed her.

Kids had a cheese pizza, which was fine. Certainly nothing to seek out.

All in all, everyone left happy. I would return under the right circumstances. A great place to go with fussy eaters, because there's nothing to assault your palate here. Service was pleasant.

What distinguishes Da Luciano is that they have an extensive gluten-free menu. My wife and I recently went there with a friend and his partner - I chose it because my friend avoids gluten and so was able to have a full pasta dish without gluten. In other words, no ordering 'around' the menu to find something right and then pushing food around on the plate, i.e. not really having dinner.

That being said, the generic pasta dishes (we all tasted each others) were just ok, as you say, it seemed kind of middle of the road - but I ordered Risotto Pescatore and I found it to be very enjoyable. Now it may be that, as a Midwest resident for all of my life I do often have the pleasure of a plate full of clams and oysters mixed with scallops and whatever else was in there and rich creamy risotto. Seems pretty exotic and fun. It may be middle of the road Risotto Pescatore for all I know, but I liked it.

But it is a charming place with good service and a wine list and you can happily take a friend who needs a gluten-free dinner there for a full Italian dinner.

DKoblesky wrote:

teatpuller wrote:Just a snippet on Da Luciano. A couple of elderly old ladies from church told me this was the best restaurant in River Grove.
(pregnant pause)

So I decided to check it out. Called Saturday afternoon for a reservation, but they were already booked up for the night! However, after some negotiation, they were able to fit me in at 5:00.

The space is nice and tidy, "fresh" even. I prefer dark and grimy, but to each his own.

The menu is quite middle-of-the-road. Typical pseudo-Italian pastas, veal, chicken, etc. The only thing of interest I saw was a daily special of tripe, which I am kicking myself for not getting.

I was in the mood for pasta, but somehow wound up ordering lasagne with marinara sauce. It was fine. What my non-Italian mother would have made back in the 70s if she were a decent cook. Wife had the fettucine salmonate, which was an enormous portion of linguine in a creme sauce of smoked and non-smoked salmon. She said it was good and given her general food snootiness level, I believed her.

Kids had a cheese pizza, which was fine. Certainly nothing to seek out.

All in all, everyone left happy. I would return under the right circumstances. A great place to go with fussy eaters, because there's nothing to assault your palate here. Service was pleasant.

What distinguishes Da Luciano is that they have an extensive gluten-free menu. My wife and I recently went there with a friend and his partner - I chose it because my friend avoids gluten and so was able to have a full pasta dish without gluten. In other words, no ordering 'around' the menu to find something right and then pushing food around on the plate, i.e. not really having dinner.

That being said, the generic pasta dishes (we all tasted each others) were just ok, as you say, it seemed kind of middle of the road - but I ordered Risotto Pescatore and I found it to be very enjoyable. Now it may be that, as a Midwest resident for all of my life I do often have the pleasure of a plate full of clams and oysters mixed with scallops and whatever else was in there and rich creamy risotto. Seems pretty exotic and fun. It may be middle of the road Risotto Pescatore for all I know, but I liked it.

But it is a charming place with good service and a wine list and you can happily take a friend who needs a gluten-free dinner there for a full Italian dinner.

One last thing. They need to turn the lights down in there about 30%. It is super bright!

Maybe my comments came off as a little too critical. I have to admit, I was slightly disappointed. But it seems you can put together a pretty good meal if you order right. Wine list was sufficiently cheap. Service was good. Prices were reasonable: most pastas in $10-$11 range.

I've eaten there.....food was fine but nothing to go out of the way for. I think I would frequent it more often if I lived closer.

chicagotribune.com wrote:The father-and-son owners of a popular Italian restaurant in west suburban River Grove have been charged with evading federal income taxes by failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash receipts.

Luciano Libreri, 67, and his son, Ignazio, 36, who together own Da Luciano Pizza and Pasta, were each charged in a criminal information with one felony count of tax fraud, court records show.

Father-son owners of River Grove restaurant charged with tax evasion for allegedly hiding cash

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

chicagotribune.com wrote:Luciano Libreri, 67, and his son, Ignazio, 36, who together own Da Luciano Pizza and Pasta, were each charged in a criminal information with one felony count of tax fraud, court records show.

If Goodfellas taught me anything, it's that their Sunday dinners on the inside will still be better than mine on the outside.

Some fish-wrapping publication with a tower on N. Michigan Ave. wrote: The father-and-son owners of a popular Italian restaurant in west suburban River Grove have been charged with evading federal income taxes by failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash receipts.

Luciano Libreri, 67, and his son, Ignazio, 36, who together own Da Luciano Pizza and Pasta, were each charged in a criminal information with one felony count of tax fraud, court records show.

As somebody with journalistic training, could this story have been better presented if the adjective "popular" had been omitted?
[i.e.: Will any business ever be described as "unpopular", or "non-popular"?]