Volare

Reviews 4

RA

Rachel Wille

My husband has been talking up this restaurant for years. I finally was able to go and try and it he wasnt wrong. It was excellent! Our waiter was very attentive and helpful with our dinner selections. He was also very Italian and the way he said all of the dish names made them sound even more delicious. I ordered a special, it was linguini with clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari, and white fish. It was amazing! My husband had a pasta dish with gnocci because he is gluten free. I will say I was a little disappointed that gnocci is the only gluten free pasta option. Our friends had a margherita pizza and chicken parmesan. They both loved their meals. I will say it can be a pricey meal. We had 5 glasses of wine, 1 cocktail, an appetizer and 3 meals and it was almost $200. However, its downtown Chicago, its authentic Italian food and it is freaking delicious! I already have a reservation to go back in a few weeks with family that is in town UPDATE: I am so disappointed to write this review. My husband, my in laws and I all absolutely love this place. However, tonight was a less than stellar experience. Our waitress, I dont remember her name but she is blonde with thin hair and seems hyper and talks very fast. It was tonight 3/24 we sat across from the bar. Everything started off fine. They brought in a wine specialist to make sure we got the wine we wanted- he did great. We ordered our food. Soup salad and appetizer came. Then busser or whatever he was would come by and clear things but stick his hand right in our face while we were eating- it was so rude! Then the mains came out and they got my aunts meal wrong. The waitress kept arguing with my aunt on how my aunt did order what came out. Im sorry but regardless you DO NOT argue with a customer. Suck it up, own it and just fix the problem. She continued to bring up the situation even once the correct dish was brought out. We could not believe that she kept insisting that the first dish is what my aunt ordered. How awful!!! Then my aunt thought her meal was just ok but didnt say anything. She ate some but was full. The waitress came back and was like "oh you didnt like it" my aunt replied with it was fine and the waitress kept insisting that my aunt did not like her meal in a condescending way. It was very rude, unprofessional and I couldnt believe it was happening in such a nice place. Im most disappointed because I raved about Volare and I feel like it was so disappointing for my mom and my aunt.

A

A Private User

I live in the neighborhood and tried this place a couple years back but was very disappointed in the portion size (and Im a petite girl who doesnt eat a lot)! But I decided to give it a second try so I made a reservation for a table of 2 last night and when we arrived on time at exactly 8:30 we ended up waiting ONE HOUR for a table! Whats the point of a reservation? I felt lied to since when we arrived they never mentioned that they were behind schedule nor each time I checked in with the hostess I got the run around--vague estimates on when we would get seated "well call you when youre table is ready". The waiting area was sooo overcrowded that we got bumped into several times. One waiter fell so hard trying to squeeze by that it shook the floor. Another waiter dropped a small tray near us. Many other customers waiting had somber looks on their faces probably from waiting so long, which made for an uncomfortable atmosphere. Service was friendly but frantic and slow. It took 20 minutes to get a drink at the table:( When the manager (I assume he was the manager) came around to ask how everything was, I mentioned that the food was pretty good but it was very upsetting to have to wait an hour to sit down. He nodded and moved on. He did NOT compensate us with a free appetizer or anything. Very disappointing. Whats the point of asking how things are, if youre really dont care!? Im Italian and love Italian food but found this place to be of average quality. Not worth the wait! Will never go back again.

DA

Dave Greenbaum

Classic Italian at it’s best. If you like the old stuff, it’s in there and they move you in and out quick. We stopped here on the way to a show and slightly worried we’d get out in time—boy were we wrong! Despite the long lines they run this place like a military operation. They really work at turning over tables quickly. Our server ran us right on the border of being efficient and rushing us. I’m still not sure. I didn’t feel rushed per say but I would have liked a more leisurely pace to the meal. At one point, when someone was picking at their food during the chat she actually cut his food trying to move him along! It was bizarre and she asked permission, but it was to send the message “eat it or box it”. He boxed it. The place is incredibly large and noisy. This isn’t the place for a romantic meal. Our server upsold most items and, this annoyed me, saying because I was a big guy I didn’t order enough food. I get she needs to upsell but I was quite satisfied with a half portion. Quality of the food was great, but everything was a bit heavy here which is classic red sauce style Italian. Lots of cream or olive oil. I’m not always accustomed to this as I prefer a lighter fare. For the portions, pricing was reasonable but the portion sizes were quite large especially with bread service before. If you want to get a half portion—get it. A nice experience and a great quick meal

A

A Private User

I took a girlfriend to Volare in Chicago because I had been there many times before and loved the place. My husband loves the lasagna and so I ordered that knowing I could take him the leftovers. My friend ordered the Aglio-Olio pasta. We were rushed thru our entire meal by this tall Italian looking waiter. I have eaten at this place before and NEVER been treated so poorly. While we chatted over our entree he tried to give us our bill. We said we might be ordering dessert. After we got our dessert he gave us our bill. He didnt even let us finish. He kept coming to check if it was paid. We put the bill at the other end of the table so he would know we were not done. He reached over both of us to check. At that point my friend said we would let him know. He rolled his eyes. This was a horrid experience that we spent all of an hour at. The place wasnt even that busy because it was early on a weeknight. I dont know if this was because we didnt order a special or something expensive but it is not like we just ordered an appetizer. I am so very disappointed in this. We have catered from the place, ordered out and dined in. Now I am just turned off and wanted others to be aware.