In town and decided to try it out and glad we did. We went Sunday night and it was quite busy. However we were able to get seats by the bar 5min after arriving. Service was great and not pushy or quick to try to get you out. The food was great! We ordered sausage appetizers, side of meatballs and 2 entrees: lasagna and breaded chicken. The waiter immediately told us that the sausage normally takes 25min but that night would take 30-35..and suggested we have the meatballs to start, which turned out to be a great idea. The sausages were great and plenty as an appetizer. The sauce was so great that we didn't let them take the plate away and had them give us more bread. The entrees were also very good and good portion for the size. Overall a great place to eat at your own pace and enjoy the food!
Review Source:Delicious Italian fare in a pleasant, if a little crowded, restaurant space. Excellent kitchen works in view as you enter, with a great textured wall and counter.
Menu features a variety of appetizers and entrees for every taste: pizzas (gas oven), pastas, seafood, meats, etc.
They have a great, mild iced tea that went along very well with an order of grilled seafood as our starter, and then my black ink pasta with seafood. Delicious. Finished off my meal with a dark chocolate pudding topped with real, homemade whipped cream. Exactly how a chocolate dessert should taste, delicious!
I would definitely be back in a heartbeat. Our waitress was charming and very professional--as were everyone who came to refill or take things away for us. The staff really makes this restaurant. The front desk staff changes: during this visit they were charming, during our last visit they couldn't have cared less about us or finding us a seat.
Lots of large groups enjoyed seating in one of the large, centrally located round tables. There's high tables near the bar.
Beware, the restrooms are located one floor below the main dining room after taking a longish staircase down, take a left and then a right. During my visit to the ladies' room, two women who seemed to have enjoyed their vino a little too much decided to turn off the ladies' restroom lights while all the stalls were occupied. Then turned the lights back on several minutes later. Not sure what that was about.
NOTE: if you are making reservations using OpenTable, they DO NOT have the Chicago location, only the Oak Brook location. Be warned. Call the Chicago location directly for all your reservation needs.
Was recommended by concierge that this restaurant is the best Italian in town. Â Now being Italian myself, most restaurants I would hardly rate high . Â This is the exception. Â You can tell from the olive oil dip for bread this is going to be top notch. Â The olive oil dip is high quality. Â The pizzas (proscuitto and burrata cheese) and 4 cheese pizza are amazing. Â THe arribata rigatoni is superb. Â Went with group of 30, and most agreed this was the best Italian they ever had. Owner is constantly monitoring the floor, great service, great food. Â A must go to restaurant in Chicago. Â All of this is also at a great price as well.
Review Source:I never turn down an opportunitity to try a different Italian restaurant. I am oh so glad that I tried Volare. My boyfriend and I came here on the Saturday after Valentine's Day, so it was especially packed. We got seated about 20 minutes after our reservation time, but it was well worth the wait.
I ordered an apple martini, but the bartender recommended a carmel apple martini. Thank you, bartender. It was amazing. From the bread to the gnocchi alla vodka, which I ordered, everything was phenomenal, and the prices were reasonable.
It can get a little cozy with the people you're seated next to, and it can get a little loud, but that's pretty common at Italian places like this (i.e., La Scarola). We will definitely return.
SERVICE: 5
FOOD: 3.5
ATMOSPHERE: 4.5
Friendly staff from the time we entered the restaurant through our exit. We were greeted and seated promptly at 5pm on a Sunday. Our waitress was great, explained the specials and flexibility in menu and quickly provided us with a bread and oil/cheese refill when we were out. She provided our check, collected payment within 2 min...that's why I rate service as a 5.
We had a custom dish, rigatoni ala vodka with chicken. It came out hot, presentation was clean and portion was a pretty large size. The vodka sauce was a little creamier than what I'm used to but the pasta and grilled chicken was cooked to perfection!
Ambiance was upscale and staff presented themselves in a professional manner. Dress of patrons was everywhere from business casual to tourist shiek to Adidas track suits.
Phenomenal food. We've had a few different things at this restaurant and it's always amazing. Great sauce, perfectly cooked meat and pasta. Our kid thought the pizza was perfect.
Solid service and a great value for the money.
This place is well known and fills up fast... get there early and enjoy.
A group of 20 went there last night for a 6 course dinner and every dish was sublime. The risotto was creamy and literally melted in your mouth. The buffalo mozzarella caprese salad was fresh and pleasing to the palate. The gnocchi in vodka sauce was the best I have ever had. Most notably though was the service. We had three people with different allergies and they made special dishes for them. They were gracious, attentive, and some of the best servers anywhere. What a memorable night we had- can't say enough about this restaurant. I will definitely go back when I am in Chicago again.
Review Source:Solid Italian but I was not wowed! Â I had gnocchi with Vodka sauce, and a side of sausage. Â It was good, but even Maggiano's was better. My wife had a tasty lasagna, but again we have had better. Â In fact, the lasagna was a tad bit dry. Â Â The wine selection was solid. Â They bring you bread and olive oil/parm cheese to dip. Â Half the bread was warm, while the other half was so cold it came right out of their fridge. Â Service wise, the wait staff, managers, and bussers were outstanding.
Review Source:Note: This review is only based on 2 menu items.
I was disappointed with [ lack of ] service as well as the food. Â We came here for lunch on a Wednesday. Â Not sure how busy it normally is, but I was here on business, and the conference I was attending was only a few blocks away. Â So when the fiance and I were here... it was busy.
Upon entering Volare, we weren't greeted by anyone, but had to approach the hostess who said we'd be seated shortly. Â In a few minutes, we were seated at a table by, I believe, the restaurant manager or GM (maybe an owner, not quite sure). Â We had to flag down a server a number of times before someone was finally able to take our order. Â Grigliata Mista to start and the Pizza Special to share.
The Grigliata Mista is described as: Sea scallops, calamari, octopus, and shrimp fire grilled, laced with aged balsamic and frantoio olive oil.  SOUNDS delicious, but most of it came completely charred.  We don't normally send back anything unless it's steak that's terribly under/overdone.  But this... we would have were we not scared it would take forever.  We were famished and just wanted to eat.  So, after eating what we could, about half of this appetizer was still left on the plate.  Such a shame this tasted awful, considering the portion was generous.  I made sure to flip all the seafood charred side up so that the server and/or a manager would notice, but it didn't happen.  And FYI the charred sides were pure black, no exaggeration (I will post photos soon).  The pizza (I forgot the description our server said) was topped with pepperoni & sausage and was actually quite delicious.  Definitely deserving of 4 stars, at least.  The crust was a little soggy, but this pizza was so tasty the crust didn't  even matter.  I know, what a waste!
I am in Chicago often on business, but there are so many amazing places to eat that I'm not sure if I would choose to come back to Volare.
To be honest, I feel like the service and atmosphere were better than the actual food itself, which is the only reason why this might be 4 instead of 5 stars.
First, the good stuff: the staff were pretty tolerant of us bunch of college kids bumbling around in the hallway and so on, having just come back from watching a film. Waitress was friendly, bread was refilled promptly [this is so important to me, you have no idea. BREADDDD. They didn't give another plate of the parmesan-olive oil though, now that I think about it.]
On the other hand, most of the food [with the exception of the vodka sauce gnocchi--quite good, as the reviews say] was relatively meh. The seafood risotto was actually disappointing, and not creamy at all; the whitefish was average. Spaghetti on the chicken parm was a little harder than I like. Tiramisu was okay, bread pudding was definitely not worth it.
Mwerhhhh. Now that I think about it more, service/atmosphere probably made it 4 stars instead of 3 from counting food alone. Isn't it odd, how analysis changes impressions?
Came here for lunch with a group of coworkers after a meeting. The place was just as described in some of the reviews. Pretty cozy and Italian-like. I was a bit surprised that the sitting area was smaller than expected while the open kitchen area looked huge. But it was fine for us since it was lunch and the place was not filled.
We had reservations and was seated immediately. The waitress was nice and attentive...maybe almost too attentive as she interupted a number of conversations we were having which was a little annoying.
The food was very good. We each ordered a half salad and was expecting small sized portions. But let me tell you that the half order of the Mediterranean seafood salad was like a full entre size. I'd be worried about finishing a full size order even for dinner! The salad came with grilled calamari, shrimp, octopus, and scallops which were all tasty and cooked to perfection. Â For the price, I was very impressed with how much seafood was in it. However, the chopped greens it was sitting on was drowned in too much dressing which made it salty and soggy. Ah well, that was ok though. Who would've had room for lettuce after all that calamari!
The entre's came a little slower than we would have liked. I think we were starting to get a bit restless especially when we saw that only half the restaurant was full. How could food be served so slowly? But it was worth the wait. I ended up getting the half size lasagna and i am in heaven! The pasta was cooked to perfection. the meat mixture in between was smooth, light (if meat can be light!) and creamy and the sauce was not overwhelming or salty as many other places would have it.. I was full from the salad already, but managed to finish the entre too. Yum! Another person who also had the same dish was also delighted with the taste. My other coworkers had a risotto and a pannini. The risotto ended up to be a bit rich, but my boss exclaimed that the humungous panini was surprisingly good.
Overall recommend especially for lunch when there may be less of a wait!
Amazing service, phenomenal food.
The atmosphere is definitely on the casual side for such a pricey place! Â But a great Christmas Eve dinner.
We ordered the grilled calamari appetizer and prosciutto, both of which were delicious. Â My sisters are both prosciutto-crazy people and I barely had the chance to grab a piece when it reached the table because it was GOBBLED UP SO FAST!!
Entrees: the lamb and filet mignon were both on the expensive side ($36 and $32 respectively) but were worth every penny!! Â Everything was cooked to perfection, juicy, and packed with flavor. Â EVERY BITE was a DELIGHT!
Desserts: The chocolate cake and tiramisu were both delicious, but I do believe that this is the BEST tiramisu that I've ever had. Â It's so creamy and light, you MUST leave room in your stomachs for these sweet treats!
MAKE A RESERVATION at least 24 HOURS in advance and you'll be seated immediately!
My favorite Italian restaurant in the city. Â Delizioso!!! Â I have eaten here many times and never had a disappointing experience. Â The ambiance / atmosphere is warm and cozy, the servers knowledgeable and attentive, wine list excellent, and most importantly ....the FOOD......absolute perfection. Â Looking at these photos is making my mouth water just thinking about it. Â Hope to get back soon.
Review Source:Thankfully we read the reviews to know that a reservation was merely a place holder. Â Upon arrival, 10 min before our reservation, we were asked to sit in the bar and to wait for our table. Â The reservation was for 7 and we were sat at 7:45 pm. Â I had eaten take out before and loved my meal. Â Perhaps this time, we ordered wrong. Â We had a an escarole soup that had a ton of flavor but was very salty. Â As an entree we had a whole wheat pasta with eggplant. Â The pasta, like the soup was very salty and hard to eat. Â The best part of the meal was the Volare pizza. Â I believe we ordered wrong and will give Volare another try.
Review Source:Food: good. That's where the goodness stops. I will make this quick as possible:
(1) Don't bother making reservations. Useless. Relatedly, snobby hostesses who waved me off when, 20 minutes later, when I asked what was going on.
(2) Our table wasn't wiped off. Disgusting.
(3) All our water glasses were dirty and there were black flecks in the water.
(4) We were brought the wrong order.
(5) One of the chefs wiped his nose with his fingers and continued cooking. I saw this as we were by the bar, having waited 45 minutes for our table.
(6) Â The server recommended a $100 bottle of wine which, maybe was our fault for not noticing, but still. Insult to injury at this point as we ordered it desperate to get our food and drinks.
(7) The tables are so close together that our waiter (a big guy) was knocking into the other waiters and actually made another guy drop a tray full of water glasses.
(8) Douchebag city. I think we would have gotten better service had I been wearing a see through black dress with a Gucci purse.
Overall, terrible. There are too many other good restaurants to drop $180 on abysmal service.
A friend and dined at Volare last night and it was outstanding. Â It was our first time dinning at there and it will definitely not be our last. Â I had the black spaghetti with seafood. Â The seafood was cooked to perfection and the sauce was tasty and not too garlicky. Â My friend ordered the gnocchi with vodka sauce, which was also amazing. I can't wait to return! The only issue was our reservation was for 8:30 and we were not seated till almost 10:00.
Review Source:YAY! Found an Italian place I really really like in Chicago! Â Went here because my roommate recommended it as a good dinner place after going to see a movie at AMC River East. Â It was about 9pm when my friend and I went. Â It was still really crowded, but we lucked out with a high-top table at the bar. Â The bread basket is tasty and the olive oil they provide is really flavorful. Â The olive oil comes with Parmesan cheese already in it (which I can't eat), so I requested another dish of olive oil. Â It took a long while for the waitress to get the new dish of olive oil and in general service was a little slow, hence 4 rather than 5 stars. Â
In terms of entree I got the Linguine Alle Vongole ($21). Â This was really great, seriously. Â It was linguine with a white wine sauce and clams which I requested nondairy. Â It wasn't over salty like how I find a lot of these kinds of sauces to be. Â The pasta was al dente and delicious. Â The portion size was just perfect too such that I ate the whole thing but didn't feel overly stuffed or under fed. Â
Appetizers at other tables looked really good, so I look forward to returning and trying out some of those as well as eating more yummy pasta.
One of the best meals - of any cuisine - I can remember. Great service and a solid wine list are bonuses. Â Volare is a must-stop for me on any Chicago visit.
The complaint I have is that Volare is a victim of its quality. Waits of over an hour are apparently not uncommon, even on Monday. I can attest that on my Monday visit, I'd waited for an hour for a table, and finally (just barely) nabbed a seat at the back bar.
On that, one more annoyance: the bars are a great place to eat, but for the fact that they can quickly get packed at least two people deep, and there is absolutely no system for prioritizing bar seating. I lost a back bar seat to a passer by simply because I chose to check for seating at the front bar at the wrong time.
In short, be prepared to wait and be prepared to be blown away by your meal. To the owners, please try and bring a little method to the madness of bar seating. Volare is a stone's throw from multiple hotels, so you'll have a lot of tired, solo biz travelers who could use a break finding a seat.
A solid addition to the many Italian restaurants in Chicago. Â The wait can be long. Â Do yourself a favor and make a reservation beforehand. Â The food is very good. Â As many others did, we ordered the fried calamari appetizer. Â Nice flavor - not the best I've had but still quite good. Â The portions are generous. Â If there are two of you, you should probably go for the half-portion size.
We had the day's specials which was a pork shank. Â For those who might not know, this is the lower leg (i.e., the calf). Â It was huge! Â Very good. Â We also had the seared sea bass, which was also cooked to perfection. Â Awesome. Â My compliments to the chef.
Price was decent (at least by Chicago standards).
The service is excellent. Â Friendly and you will rarely go without a prompt drink refill.
Volare looks like a classic Italian restaurant mixed with a dark romantic date spot and open kitchen grill.
There was a super long wait at 8 pm on a Wednesday night, so I'm assuming there is always a long wait. Make a reservation. Our "twenty minute wait" turned into a half an hour. Then fourth five minutes. Then a man in a suit, who I'm assuming was a manager or something, seized us from out of nowhere and took us to a magically empty table in the back of a very crowded room. It was amazing.
The service was very quick and super attentive. Our water glasses were always filled. You really cannot complain about the service; it is everything you could expect in a restaurant and more.
I ordered the lasagna and adored. It is possible for lasagna to be light? Because mine was. My parents weren't really feeling the squid ink pasta. But overall, we had a very pleasant experience!
A friend of mine and I decided to dine here before seeing a movie on a Friday night. I am very  happy that we made reservations though since the place was packed and seemed to  have an hour plus wait. No worries though because they have two bars and plenty of drinks to go around. I would try to get there a bit early for your reservation because even with ours, it took about 30 minutes to be seated. Thought they did say they had a couple large parties dining there that evening. I won't count it against them.
We ordered the calamari appetizer. Nothing special here but definite tasty calamari.
I had one of their daily specials. A three cheese and prosciutto ravioli which was simply delicious. Pasta and cream sauce always has my name on it! My friend had the Gniocchi. I won't lie, I took several bites because he was "full" and couldn't eat anymore.
This place is a great Italian spot in the city and I would recommend it anytime.
I have eaten at this restaurant several times over the years - always a great experience. Â Unfortunately, I've seen this restaurant decline and the service this past time warrants this review.
Let me first say that generally speaking, the food here is good. Â Its not a great as it used to be, but its ok.
The wait staff is friendly enough, but they are always super busy. This may make you feel neglected or that they are rude. Â Trust me, they are not. Â Just nice people being forced to work under ridiculously busy conditions with very little support and help from the management.
Granted, we showed up about 30 minutes early for our reservation. Â YES, we had a reservation. Unfortunately, we still waited nearly 2 hours for our table. Ridiculous.
There are much better places in the city with better food, better service, and better control of the wait times than this place. Â
I won't be back any time soon.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the food here!
The atmosphere was great, and I'm glad we beat the crowd because even though we got a table right when we arrived, we had to fight the waiting crowds just to get out the door. Â
Our waiter was wonderful. He patiently explained the ingredients we werent' familiar with, was honest about a salad I asked about (told me that it was the only thing on the menu he wouldn't recommend) and had great timing. The tables are a bit close together; I could follow the conversation of the couple seated next to us, and I"m sure they could hear ours, too.
I started with the Insalata di Rape; I thought I'd pick out the beets but I loved them (and I've never, ever said that before). The combo of the cheese, the egg, the beets and the tiny slivers of apple were just wonderful.
My boyfriend started with the Salumeria. I can't tell you exactly what he chose, but I can tell you that it was yummy.
For entrees I ordered the Gnocchi alla Vodka and WOW. I've never had gnocchi like that before; it was light and billowy and rich all at the same time. Really amazing. And the sauce was spot-on.
My boyfriend ordered the ravioli and said it was very good as well. I'll return again next time I'm in the city.
After my flight back to Orange County was cancelled, we had an extra night to spend. Â We had already done Shaw's, Gino's Pizza and Smith & Wollensky. Â We chose Italian and consulted yelp. Â Volare had the bast ratings and was less than a block from the hotel. Â We were shocked to find some of my workmates already at a table after getting sent here by the hotel concierge (I never trust the concierge....long story...)
Anyway, the staff was able to fit us in to their table and we quickly got caught up on drinks. Â We had the bread, a plate of shaved prosciutto, parmesan and warm olives. Â Delicious. Â The minestrone was fabulous as well. Â The osso buco over risotto was an incredible hit. Â One of the best meals....EVER. Â Seriously, it was that good.
Impeccable service, the manager kept floating around and grab handing the guests (suit and pinky ring, too...classic...) and we had an amazing time in a classic Chicago Italian joint.
Service was miserable. The waiter started off promising but I think he had some friends visiting him at the bar that took precedence over our table, getting our food, and you know... Doing his job. The salads came out immediately which was fantastic because we were Starving!!! An hour later or so, we got our main dishes... By that point we'd made due with the bread basket and anything else not nailed down to the table. AND he got one of the orders wrong which was disappointing (honestly, there's a big difference between a caprese salad and spaghetti caprese.)
I was very pleased with my Spaghetti Neri al Pesce with crab and all other manner of happiness. A few of the girls commented that the lasagna had a "strange spice" flavor in it that ruined it for them.
I would have truly loved to love this place... But the service was so slow and awkward that it ruined the night.
If I lived in Chicago I would be a fattie cause I would be eating here all the time! We walked in with a group of 8 (5 children). Instead of rolling their eyes they got down on the kids level to tell them how pretty they were. They had me right then and there. I would endure mediocre food to be welcomed like that, but not to worry the the food was some of the best Italian I ever had. And I've had alot!!
Kids split entrees, and they did that in the kitchen for us. Such a nice touch. I had Gnocchi alla Vodka and it was lip smacking good. Tried another's black spaghetti with crab, shrimp and scallops - delish. Everything was delish.
The biggest surprise came with the check - $78 for all of us. Are you kidding me? (no adult beverages cause it was lunchtime) What a deal. I'm a fan.
Best Italian food in the city, hands down. The bread was baked with care, I couldn't get enough of the olive oil and cheese, the wine was crisp, the three very different dishes (a beef, a veal plus spinach fettucini and a shrimp plus pasta) my guests and I got were all flavorful in different ways. Eating dinner here was an exciting experience.
But the atmosphere was a different experience. Overcrowded, cramped, noisy. Then they turned the music up to 11 at about 6:30pm. Our server, Luca, was sweet and patient and great, but the servers buzzing around the floor like drones are really inconsiderate! They squeezed past us, banged into us, sailed platters over our heads, kept speedily on their course whether you were walking there or not, etc., etc.
Just totally unpleasant. It's like the chefs consider you a special guest in their homes, yet the servers are programmed robots, efficient to the quick but completely lacking an empathetic bone in their bodies.
Volare holds special - romantic - meaning for two of my friends; hearing them rave about the food and service for years made it an obvious choice for a most unromantic celebration - tax dinner.*
Volare recently remodeled, expanding to what I believe is almost double their original size. What's interesting about the remodel is that the new portion is virtually a mirror image of the old. A wall separates them, so each side remains lively, but cozy. In the warmer months, they also have a decent sized outdoor patio.
When I arrived at 7:30 on a Wednesday evening, I was a little surprised to see the place packed. So packed, I didn't even notice my friends tucked in at the small bar; I highly recommend reservations. As soon as I arrived, we were ushered to our table; the tables are a bit close together, which makes for an intimate dinner, if not a loud one.
To start, I had a solid greyhound - made with real grapefruit juice and not stingy with the vodka - and split a cheese plate, Grigliata Mista, and mussels in white wine sauce. The cheese plate options could use some tweaking. Maybe offer a variety plate or use some garnish to jazz up the plate; our peccorino was good, but the thin white cheese delivered on a white plate looked boring and sad. I didn't care for the Grigliata Mista, a favorite of my friends. Normally a big fan of seafood, something didn't jive for me. I'm not sure if it was the pairing of seafood and a balsamic glaze or if possibly the seafood was over-grilled, either way I wasn't loving it. The mussels were good; large and prepared traditionally, they were solid, but not what I'd consider a destination dish.
The wine list is pretty lengthy; my one friend and I opted to split a bottle of pinot grigio with our dinner. For my main, I ordered the Spaghetti Neri Al Pesce**, or squid ink spaghetti with shrimp, scallops and lump crab in a pink sauce. My friends went with their favorites, the meat lasagna and rigatoni alfredo with prosciutto and peas. I see it stated on the menu, but our server gave us the option of a full or half order for our entrees. Personally, having a great meal twice is a treat, so I went with a full order. My meal was excellent; they did not skimp one bit on the seafood, the pasta tasted homemade, and the overall pairing of the ingredients was perfectly decadent.
Volare has earned itself another fan; I can't wait to eat up more of the menu!
* I do tax returns for friends in exchange for dinner. I think more services should be available via barter; a good meal and great company is the perfect payment.
** The menu on their website differs from the one you'll see on site. Personally, I think the online one is harder to read and you're better served viewing the MenuPages one.
If you are craving Italian, this is the place to dine!!! Came here in a Monday night and walked into a robust dinner crowd. On a Monday. Make a reservation regardless of when you plan to eat.....just in case.
Our waitress was fantastic, she recommended excellent wine for us to try and happily offered her suggestions for dinner.
For an app you must try, under Frutta y Verdura, the grilled eggplant. It is sliced and grilled served with grilled tomatoes, pesto, and A MAZ ING has to be house-made ricotta cheese! There is nothing more I can say......just taste it and see for yourself
I choose the sea bass special for my entree and was not disappointed. Cooked perfectly, seasoned delicately, and served with a small (YAY) twice baked potato and brusell sprouts. The boyfriend chose a pasta dish with cream sauce, prosciutto, and peas. He was impressed and had nothing but positive things to say...... Me not so much because I don't like the cream sauce ( she said with an Italian accent to be a dork).
Affordable, delicious, excellent ambiance! My new official go to whenever I crave Italian.
Went to Volare's on a Friday night after reading the reviews on Yelp. Â We got there early (6:30 PM) and got seated right away and we were immediately greeted by our server. Â Fresh bread and olive oil were brought right out to our table. Â Bread was great and fresh.
The menu had a wide variety of choices and the waiter offered house specials for the day.  We created our own anti-pasta platter for an appetizer - had choices of several meats, cheeses and olives.  It was an enjoyable way to start the dinner.  I also ordered the Volare Salad - a mixture of greens, cheeses and meats tossed in the house dressing.  It was very  good.
For dinner, my wife ordered the Lasagna and I got the Gnocchi in the vodka sauce. Â Both were excellent - my wife could not make it through half the lasagna since it was a large portion.
By the time we finished dinner, the place was packed inside and out in the patio area. Â It got a bit loud but its expected when its that crowded. The prices were very reasonable and we left there very satisfied with Volare's
Tried out Volare last night for dinner, with a reservation at 7:30 for 4 of us.
Initially, we were seated at a table in the middle of the dining room - but much too close to the table next to us. Â We were bumping elbows with the table next door, and were practically sitting in the aisle way that all the servers and patrons were using. Â I knew I'd get frustrated if this was going to be my 'dining experience', so after a few minutes, asked one of the hostesses if we could move to another table. Â They were happy to shuffle us over, and the experience got much better from there.
Dinner was delicious.  My hubby and I split a Gnocchi alla Vodka and the Pollo Parmigiano.  Like everyone says - the gnocchi is pretty amazing, and the chicken had  great flavor as well.  My friend got the oysters, followed by the swordfish - and he raved about both. Â
A little pricey, but not awful. Â It was about what you expect for a nice dinner out in downtown Chicago. Great food, and lovely dining experience as long as you find a table with enough space. :)
I love Yelp and use it often, so I decided to start adding some reviews... so bear with me, it's my first time!
Went to Volare after reading a favorable review in Crain's Chicago business.
The only thing I have to complain about is the bread - so I will start there and end on the good stuff. Â There were two types of bread, regular baguette style slices and an onion focaccia. Â The problem was that both styles of bread were incredibly dry and I felt as though it was disintegrating into flour in my mouth. Â The olive oil for dipping was not the most flavorful either in my opinion. Â But that's enough with the critiques, now for the good things!
Sitting outside was incredibly nice. Â They have a big enough sidewalk where you don't feel crammed against the other tables and waiters trying to walk around you. Â And our waitress was friendly, knowledgeable and really enthusiastic about the menu. Â All of the staff was polite and welcoming.
To start, my mom and I shared a salad - The insalada "rapi or rape" (sorry, not on the online menu so I forgot the name) was incredible. Â It was spinach leaves, crispy onions, apples, gorgonzola, roasted beets, with a roasted onion vinaigrette. Â The best part about that salad, however, was the parmesan crusted poached egg on top. Â I don't usually love eggs, but this was amazing!
My mom ordered the braciola, which is a special on Thursdays and the waitress said a lot of people come in exclusively for this dish. Â It was really good, the noodles were al dente, the meat was tender, the sauce had a great rosemary taste to it. Â The sauce is actually a pork neck bone sauce, and it was very flavorful. Â The one thing I didn't love about it was that it was stuffed with egg (like I said, I don't love eggs) but I would definitely order it again.
I got a fusilloni with veal ragu, mushrooms, peas in a cream sauce. Â Like you would expect, it was very rich - but SO good. Â It was almost like the Italian version of a Stroganoff, if you could imagine that. Â I was full from the salad, so I took about 3/4 of it home - and I think if I add more pasta and peas, I could make at least three more meals out of it! Â (now I just sound like Carl Weathers).
We did not try dessert because we were stuffed!
OK, first Yelp review, check! Â I hope it helps!
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