Alonti Cafe

Good selection of salads, samiches and pasta.  The prices are outrageous for everything.  They have a lot healthy items which is why I keep going back.  There are not too many healthy restaurants in the area so my options are limited.

They just remodeled the place recently so it's much nicer inside also.

This area of the city does not offer many great lunch choices.  You're stuck with $2 pizza, Subway, way overpriced pork chops, Americanized burritos, or the myriad of fried chicken places down Clark St.

I really wanted to like Alonti.  It's on the same block as me and is a 60 second walk from my office.  It has a nice varied menu and when it's fresh, it's good.  I've tried it a few times for both breakfast and lunch now and I just can't bring myself to give it more than 1 star ultimately.

Breakfast is a disaster.  I come in at 8:45AM and there's always a wait for sausage.  Today, I was shocked there was actually sausage in the pan and had hopes of actually getting a sausage breakfast taco.  I was told there's no sausage available for breakfast tacos.  Ridiculous.  Why is this so hard?  Hey I understand, things run out sometimes.  Here though, it's a daily occurrence.

Lunch is a bit better but the sandwich station is obnoxiously slow and the Build your own sandwich is an exercise in patience.  You constantly have to repeat the order.  Nothing is written down and the person behind the counter constantly forgets what you asked for on your sandwich.

Prices aren't bad for the loop.  A build your own sandwich and 1 cookie is $7.  Compared to Subway, that seems pricey for a smaller sandwich but the quality blows Subway away.

I'll echo the comments about the decor.  The place looks like a dump and needs a complete remodel.  The white tile everywhere makes you feel like you're eating in a hospital.

This place could be so much better and a solid 3, maybe 4 stars, if they fixed their disorganization and staffing problems.

I actually really love this place, and unfortunately it's located right by my office, so I'm there about 2 or 3 times a week, which is more than my budget should allow.

My favorite things there are their amazing Italian dressing, their tequila chicken pasta, and their chicken club sandwich (when adding avocado) is one of the best club sandwiches I've ever had. I think it's the bread. The foccacia bread is to die for.

It's usually not packed, the people are friendly, and they play great music. The only two things I'm not crazy about is that they're a little on the expensive side for fast food (although maybe only on the upper side of average for the Loop) and that their Muffaletta needs a little work to hold up to a real New Orleans Muffaletta. They need to work on their olive mixture in it. It's not bad, just not up to Muffaletta quality.

Aside from that, I have yet to find something I don't love there. Also, it's great for bringing lunch dates.