The Florentine

I went here with a group of six friends for Restaurant Week, and it was such a big disappointment. They served a four course meal and we had high expectations. A couple friends had been there for lunch and said it was great. The antipasti course was completely mediocre, and the server never told us what anything was so we had to guess. For the next course I had the Spaghetti alla Chitarra and it was unbelievably salty. The gnocchi was also very salty. The Pollo Milanese was just a very boring breaded chicken. My friends who ordered the fish said it was crazy salty. We also weren't thrilled that we couldn't just order a glass of wine, the smallest quantity was a quartino--but I'm not going to complain much about having too much wine! The only truly enjoyable part of the meal was the tiramisu; we were all pretty happy with that. One of my friends talk to the manager about our disappointment and she sent over dessert wine for us. Nice, but didn't make up for the experience, or the (yikes!) amount I had to pay for the meal. And to top it off, a gratuity of 20% was automatically added to the bill--20%?? From my experience 18% is the highest gratuity that has ever been automatically added. A little bold, if you ask me. I went home mad about the whole experience.

I was quite disappointed. Restaurant Week brought us here for dinner last Thursday night. The waitstaff was a little to desire. He just wasn't very nice. Took forever to place our order and the restaurant was not full. He just seemed to have frowned on us not ordering a more expensive wine. He made a point of saying oh it's good for that price but suggested something much more expensive. And onto the food. My gnocchi was so salty that I couldn't really eat it. The salmon I ordered was really salty as well and I had to send it back. I couldn't take it. While the ink squid was really flavorful, it was heavy in salt too, but we didn't return it. And finally the dessert. The panna cotta was over gelatin. I was really excited for panna cotta....hoping for it to come close to Naha's...but no dice. Not sure we'll be coming back to this restaurant anytime soon :(

Yikes.  It may be in the Loop but that's not an excuse for some funky food.

I was taken here to discuss a job offer that I had received.  So, we all know the rules for ordering food while having a meeting.  I opted for the chicken panini because of the avocado and swapped out the french fries for a side salad.  There was waaay too much aioli on the sandwich.  Maybe I have bad luck with lemon dressings in Chicago but there was so much of it that I just took the bun off and ate the chicken and avocado.  It was a bit distracting while I was trying to be professional and yelping a review in my mind.  

Not impressed.  And I was hungry after my free lunch!