Quartino

Very good Italian food!!!
Beef Carpaccio was amazing!!!
The Lunch Special ($ 25) is very good deal!
You can choose few items.
Beef Carpaccio: Amazing! Must try!
Pizza: has a lot of flavor but I don’t like the texture. I prefer to Eataly pizza.
Truffle Risotto: Very good! It has so much flavor!
Pork: It’s ok.
Banana Dessert: Very good! I like the gelato.

Quartino’s small dishes make it a perfect date location or place to meet with friends. Order several of the dishes so you can sample a little bit of everything (think tapas, but Italian food!). Our favorites were the calamari, the margherita pizza, and the tagliatelle bolognese. They also have lots of creative sangrias, both white and red, in various sizes.
A little trivia for Bachelor tv show fans: Chris Soules and Whitney came here on her hometown date in Chicago! :)

This place is amazing Food is delicious and such a great price !
We order many appetizers all of them deliciousness.
Risotto as main dish and small portion but good really good !
frutti D mare was a big portion and amazingly good

This place is soooo much fun. It’s always busy and crowded, it’s loud (but in a good way). Not the little romantic or neighborhood Italian dinner spot — Michael Corleone would not have been comfortable here — too many people.
The food is great, service impeccable, and the selection will knock your socks off. Be ready to share, the plates are on the table for. A reason — if you don’t share; well you may not like this place (chances are you’re going to be eating alone anyway if you’re not a good sharer).
Be ready to have a good time.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmaaaaaaazzzzzziiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn­nnggggggggg!
Date night with my husband.
Great atmosphere, loved the vibe. A great place to go if you want to enjoy a great evening with good company.
I recommend the pizza, of course staff suggested it for me, but it was very helpful. I like that he was knowledgeable and informative, very polite. I will be back, the pizza was something different but definitely something to try.
I heard the pasta was amazing as well, I will have to try it next time I go. And I do plan on going back soon.

I love Quartino. As an Italian woman with extremely high standards for Italian Cuisine, that is saying a lot.
I was on the fence about coming here the first time because Italian food is not typically served as tapas, but that is in fact what makes this place so great. The first time I was here, my date and I ordered a bunch of different items ranging from pastas, meatballs, cheese plates, and a version of fruitte de marre. Delicious!
My date and I were back this weekend for our anniversary and utilized the restaurant week menu, which was a special with one appetizer plate, one pasta plate, and one seafood/​meat/​vegetarian plate PLUS dessert! At $ 33/​person, this is a great promotion as most of the plates range from $ 8-​$ 15. The promotion is going on until February 4, so if you’re thinking about trying this place but don’t want to break the bank, I highly recommend doing so!

Reasonably priced with great service. It’s great as a lunch spot, a date spot and a group dinner setting.
I recommend eating family style here, the plates are large and are designed to share. I’ve never been disappointed by the quality here and I always send people here for great, fresh Italian downtown.

I have to say Quartino is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in town! They made great Italian tapas!
We arrived a bit late of our 6pm reservation tonight, and seated immediately. Our waiter was friendly, got us water and menus right away.
Here’s what we had tonight:
–Veal meatballs Napoli. Very juicy, the raisins added a slightly-​sweet flavor.
–Linguine with clams. Fresh clams in the shell cooked perfectly together with the pastas.
–Braised pork shank. Always the superstar! It was so tender and delicious, the meat just fell off the bones.
–Gran Coppa Quartino. Three flavors of gelato (vanilla, strawberry & chocolate) in a big cup with fresh strawberries and whipped cream on top.
The blood orange soda tasted good, while the watermelon soda might be a little bit too sweet for me.
We’ve been here several times and every time we left with a good experience. So certainly we will be back again!

Their food is good and price is good, too. I like that we can order bunch of dishes and get to have fun sharing them.
Only small complaint I make is that this place is the loudest restaurant ever. But, I and my family love to go this place whenever we have chance. You can eat their awsome pizza at home if you don’t mind picking them up from there.

On my last night in Chicago, I had an insatiable craving for spaghetti late on a Sunday evening. A friend suggested Quartino despite her fiancé’s reluctance to try such a touristy spot, but mannn, are we glad we went. This was technically Dinner #2, but really, who’s counting? The spaghetti was so simple but SO amazing. The pizza had a nice consistency and good flavor. The grilled octopus was a delight. The gnocchi was a little too salty but the pesto kept us going back for more. The shrimp risotto was delicious as well. Every dish we shared was wonderful. I will definitely try to stop by the next time I visit!

Very well done but standard Italian dishes.
Extensive menu and I liked that both the Campania pizza and housemade burrata weren’t overly salty or too heavy… Although it did make the burrata seem more like a fresh mozzarella than a burrata. Pizza was thin crust but with a very chewy light pizza crust. Duck prosciutto served with pickled cucumbers also yummy with just a perfect amount of fat… Definitely order the warm prosciutto wrapped dates as well, which was our favorite. I also liked the self serve fresh Parmesan graters and the balsamic vinegar was nice and fruity.
Our server Jeffrey was also lovely and funny and apparently on weekdays lunch 2 can dine for $ 25.
Can certainly understand why this place is a classic!

One of my favorite meals while in Chicago! My friends and I sort of stumbled upon this restaurant and we were lucky enough to grab seats in the bar area. I love places that are sharing friendly and this restaurant is definitely that.
Red Sangria (⁴⁄₅) — delicious and slightly sweet with bite size chunks of fruit
Neapolitan Pizza (⁵⁄₅) — I forgot which types we ordered, but we were able to get half and half two different types
Polpette al sugo di Pomodoro (⁶⁄₅) — veal meatballs that are an absolute must get
Polenta Fries (⁴⁄₅) — crispy and held together well when bitten into
Minestrone Soup (³⁄₅) — average
Gnocchi (³⁄₅) — passable
Tortellini (⁴⁄₅) — prosciutto added great flavor
Shrimp Risotto (⁵⁄₅) — shrimp cooked perfectly and all the flavors were delicious together
It’s been awhile since I ate hear, but my memory of the food here was great.

I don’t know why I haven’t reviewed this before since I’ve been frequenting this place for the last 3 years! A solid staple in my book!!!
Atmosphere: I wouldn’t come here if I were claustrophobic. Definitely a lot of tables squeezed together. Also, it’s quite loud at its busiest.
Price: Fairly reasonable for the location and food. Pizzas are $ 10 – 16 which is enough to feed 2. Tapas style plates range from a $ 5 – 20.
Food: I’ve had probably 1/3−½ of their menu options and for the most part, I’ve enjoyed all of the courses. The pizza is NOT deep dish and comes with many different options. You can do half and half on the pizzas too!!! Pastas and other dishes are also yummy. Tiramisu is a secret dessert item on their menu. Their lemon ice cream sandwich type dessert is also yummy!

I had been wanting to come here for months, and on the first impression, I was kicking myself for not visiting it sooner!
Quartino looks every bit like restaurants in Italy, from the décor to the menu to the people working there. The main difference: the tapas style ordering. Honestly, I was confused by other reviewers on how to go about ordering, and looking around at other tables wasn’t much help either! We ended up ordering two pasta dishes to share and then, still hungry, we ordered a third. But plus one dessert at the end, it ended up being too much for two people!
The good: I LOVE that this place is so gluten free friendly. Not only did they have gluten free pasta that could be used in any pasta dish, but a designated gluten free menu had more choices than I’d seen at possibly any Italian restaurant EVER. If pasta isn’t your thing, there was a long list of gluten free meat dishes along with at least ten appetizers and five soup or salad options. Also, my boyfriend agreed with other claims that the tiramisu here is really darn good (although, confusingly, it’s not on the menu!).
The bad: the service and quality on my one visit here was a little spotty. Our half-​full water jug was taken away before we were finished eating, our silverware was cleared while we were waiting on another dish, and our waiter never followed up on more wine after we’d decided to do ¼ liter «to start.» Our first two pasta dishes were sloppily plated, with one vastly different in size than the other. The Alfredo one was yucky. Then, we waited for a solid 25 minutes for our third pasta dish, and our waiter was even confused as to why it hadn’t yet arrived at our table. Also, the wine, while cheap, wasn’t served with wine glasses which was just kind of weird.
Overall, I’d love to give Quartino another shot, but at $ 75 for two people, I think I’ll have to save up a bit before I do. The quality of the experience just wasn’t there for the price, so I’d be hesitant! However, it seems like it has great potential to be a date night spot or a fun spot for a group get-​together.

I’ve been here a handful of times, and I must say Quartino is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. I love the Italian tapas style menu, where you can taste a bunch of small dishes and are not stuck with a huge entrée.
Most recently, I took my mom here for a date night before we saw the Nutcracker. She loved it as well! We had a reservation for 5pm, but arrived 30 minutes early. We were seated right away, which was great for a Saturday night (the wait tends to get really long without a reservation). Our waitress was attentive and helpful. We started off with the quattro formaggi pizze, then ordered the tortellini (one of my favorites), potato purée (excellent), and the porcini & truffle risotto — which was too much food for us, but it did not stop us from eating 90% of it.
Overall, a great place for lunch or dinner! If you’re going on the weekend, make sure you make a reservation to avoid the wait.

We came here on New Year’s Eve. I had read all the raving reviews but decided I don’t agree. The food was mediocre and the presentation was sub par. Service was ok. Waiters dressed in soccer uniforms. They could have dressed up for NYE.
We had
Calamari: eh
Caprese Salad: good
Bacon wrapped dates: terrible. Bacon tasted like plastic.
Frutti Di Mare: ok
Veal meatballs: good. best item
Flatbread (Margherita): good

This is a stylish but informal room, with a sort of sunroom fronting on State Street; I imagine that in the summer this opens up as a semi-​outdoor seating area. Pressed tin ceilings, ceiling fans, globe lights. Separate bar area. Open kitchen off the main dining room. Staff are mostly dressed in Italian football (soccer) jerseys. Italian programming on the flatscreen TVs.
Bread (not hot, though possibly house-​baked), olive oil, and balsamic vinegar are on the table. Sharing of dishes is encouraged; to this end, there is a big stack of plates on the table, and entrées are placed between the patrons. Our very pleasant waitress came at once with the menus, gave us time to absorb them, and promptly took our orders, though the food was then a bit slow to come to the table. We tried three items, all good to excellent:
— Sun-​dried tomato soup. An individual crock of a thick and chunky soup (tomatoes, carrots basil and onion, topped with crostini and shavings of cheese.
— Risotto with Tuscan sausage. Rice in a yellowish sauce, with peas, spinach, tomatoes, and finely-​crumbled sausage.
— Linguini with clams. A big bowl of pasta with five clams in the shell, in a rather thin marinara sauce, with red pepper slices and whole garlic cloves. This was undoubtedly the star of the show.
This deal is probably the weekday lunch special: three courses for two people for $ 25. Unfortunately we missed this on our Sunday visit.
Restrooms upstairs with no elevator that I could find.
Located two blocks from the Grand Avenue station on the Red Line; also the 65-​Grand bus. On the 36-​Broadway bus line. Three blocks west of Michigan Avenue.

My girlfriend and I dined here on a very quite and cold post Christmas afternoon. The atmosphere is extremely cozy, despite the restaurant being very big (there is both an upstairs and downstairs). The service is absolutely top notch. My gf and I were talking and catching up so we didn’t even look at the menu for the first 3 – 4 times our waiter came over but she was more than happy to wait for us.
You get warm bread upon sitting… it was delicious. We gobbled it right up with oil, balsamic, and the parm cheese that was on the table. The menu is large for small plated Italian. Soups, salads, pizza, pastas, antipasto… you name it, they got it! We decided on the caprese salad and a spicy sausage flatbread pizza. Both were delicious and just enough for lunch. We didn’t drink, nor order desserts but those of those menus were substantial as well.
Quartino is a great, cozy little spot in the heart of River North. A better bang for your buck too if shopping around Michigan Ave… as opposed to eating on the Mag Mile:)

Top Highlights/​Lowlights
1) gluten free pasta available
2) loud/​energetic atmosphere
3) great service
We visited Quartino on a Sunday night right after the holidays. We made a reservation about three days in advance and man am I glad we did! Both floors of the two story restaurant were packed. The closeness and loud atmosphere is what we look for when we go out to eat (fun atmosphere!), but if you prefer a quieter dining environment this may not be the place for you. Our server seated us right when we got there and promptly got us menus and water. The theme of Quartino is essentially Italian tapas.
Our server got me a gluten free menu right away and the g free menu was quite impressive (especially for an Italian restaurant!). The g free menu had the «normal» gluten free things like cheese, salami, antipasti but also a gluten free fusilli (pasta) that could be prepared the same was as their normal pastas. COOL. We tried several of the tapas; the stuffed dates (AMAZING), asparagus risotto, caprese salad, gluten free fusilli with the sausage marinara, and broccoli rabe (spicy A F). The food was awesome and we loved that like a traditional tapas restaurant they brought the food out when it was ready so you can kind of graze the whole night.
Wine is purchased by the carafe. We did the half carafe and that was plenty for us!
I am definitely a person who loves to try new restaurants and rarely visits a place twice but I will definitely be making a second trip here.

Delicious in every way. Everything we ordered was executed well, and the atmosphere and bartender were delightful elements that added to the overall experience.
Husband came here a few months back when he was in town for business, and he along with 2 other colleagues came and enjoyed a slew of small plates. He enjoyed it so much that he wanted me to experience it as well on our recent trip to Chicago.
Boy was he ever so right! We ended up ordering calamari, soprano pizza, pappardelle in a braised beef tomato sauce, shrimp with garlic, red chilis, olive oil, and white wine. Each were well-​made and had fantastic proportions for the price, but the stars out of the bunch were the calamari and soprano pizza.
The calamari had a light coating and it was crispy and yummylicious. The meat itself was tender and seasoned nicely. I only spotted 2 tentacles, but the other pieces were so well done that it didn’t matter. The soprano pizza was divine, and the crust made it. Sure the veal meatballs brought the base flavor profile, but the crust had just the right amount of chew and crispy texture. We had to be so careful not to devour the whole thing in one sitting, otherwise, we would have not been able to eat the rest of the food!
We ended the night with a delicious dessert of zeppoles. They are fried doughnuts, but so airy and fluffy. To accompany each bite are dark chocolate and honey. The combination of the two sauces together is like experiencing nirvana. Absolutely loved every bite, and for $ 6.25, it was plenty for the two of us.
Each dish that we had ranged in prices from $ 10-​$ 15, and there was plenty of food to take home. We ordered 4 savory dishes and 1 dessert, and we could have easily just gone with 2 dishes and the dessert. However, the leftovers reheat wonderfully.
With a convenient and central location to Magnificent Mile and River North neighborhood, Quartino is easy to find, and will leave you and your family members happy. For bigger parties, make reservations online or via phone. They have an upstairs area that offers a great view of the city if you’re looking for that. I’ll definitely be back next time I’m visiting!

I was slightly disappointed in this place. I mean the food was good but I thought the service was just not very good. Like we had a waiter but we didn’t see him most of the meal. Like the kitchen people brought out the food and served it, so trying to order more drinks or more food was difficult.
We were seated about 30 min after our reservation to a table for 4, when we had 5 people. We had to ask for a chair for the 5^th person as the host didn’t even notice we had 5 people… they brought the chair never brought silverware or anything.
We were able to wait at the bar before we were seated which was very crowded. They have some small tables that have a waitress and you can order the full menu I believe.
Anyways the food was good. Besides the chicken, that was a little dry. We also ordered the Bruschette, Dates wrapped in Pancetta, (which were never brought to us and we had to ask some random waiter, as ours was MIA most of the meal), Carpaccio, Brussle Sprout Salad, Penne Alla Vodka, the Chicken and the Salmon. It was shareable plates but things like the Salad, Bruschetta, and pasta were a little hard to share, so I would order 2 if you have more than 4 people, and are not ordering as much as we did. We also got the hot chocolate cake for the birthday girl which was actually amazing.
There was a ton of larger groups here, so they are good at accommodating that. I also was told they deliver so that’s good. I would go back eventually, just service last night was not that great, (I will give the benefit of the doubt, it being the 26^th, maybe they were under staffed). There are just so many other Italian restaurants on my list to try, I am not jumping to get back here.

Walking distance from our hotel — my husband and I decided to stop in Quartino’s for a late lunch after dropping off our luggages.
Perhaps I should have done my research and planned my meals better — we only learned that their lunch special offer (3 courses for 2 people $ 25) was only available Monday — Friday! Nevertheless the price was fair and the dishes were tasty.
Truffle mushroom risotto — creamy, buttery, perfectly cooked. Two cups worth — perfect to be shared for two!
Brodetto — loaded with fish, clams, shrimp, and squid! All of which were beautifully cooked! Paired with two hearty, brick sized toasts. Perfect for soaking up every drop of the aromatic broth!
Lamb ragu rigatoni — a little too al dente for my taste. I prefer home made pastas over imported. Tasted fine but nothing to write home about. I wished I tried the pappardelle or the gnocchi instead!
3 dishes for 2 — along with tax and tip ~$ 60. Compared to $ 25 we could have gotten during week day lunch, my wallet def wasn’t happy for my lack of planning. Nevertheless, a great starter meal in the city!

Solid 4 stars for amazing service + quality food.
You really can’t go wrong with dining here. Our pastas met our expectations and everything was affordable! We needed to dine somewhere quick because we had somewhere else to go within an hour and we made it out in time although it was during dinner time :)

Quartino is a pretty tight spot for Italian food. My boyfriend and I were looking for a good place to grab a bit to eat and Unilocal suggested this place. With all the good reviews, we decided to make a reservation on OpenTable. I’m glad we did, it was slammed when we got there! We made a reservation for 8:00pm and arrived on time. We had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for our table to get ready, but that’s not bad compared to the 1.5 hour wait they had going on.
To start, my boyfriend and I ordered some red wine. I can’t remember what we got, but it was pretty good. For our appetizer, we got the white bean paste/​hummus with bread. The paste was very fresh and you can taste the white bean, but it was just so thick. It was almost impossible to remove from the baking sheet they had underneath. They also don’t give you enough bread with it, so I ended up dipping my pizza crust in the white bean paste.
We ordered pizza as the main course. Being from New Jersey, we ordered the Soprano. It has Veal Meatballs, Giardiniera (pickled vegetables), Basil, & Red Chilis. The veal meatballs are perfection! They are so delicious and I wish I could just eat bowls and bowls of it. The pickled veggies took some getting used to. After the first slice, I kind of liked them, plus they added some zing to the veal meatballs, which I really liked. The size of the pizza is perfect for two. My boyfriend and I each had 4 slices and we weren’t too full.
Overall, had a very nice dinner at Quartino. If I’m ever back in Chicago, I don’t know if I’ll come here again. I may want to try other restaurants around the area first before coming back to this place. The veal meatballs deserve a 5 star though, get them if you can!

Pros: HUGE space. If you have a big party, come here and they will seat you for sure AND bring out your food super fast. Our server was even nice enough to split our bill for us because my group was not good at math or something
Cons: the food is just not that good. Sad but true. Had the parpadelle, which was too salty and missing the satisfying meatiness (that’s what she said) of the ragu. The steamed clams were a miss too — they were small probably frozen clams. I guess I’m used to juicy Manila clams. Maybe Chicago doesn’t do clams? I do highly recommend the mussels at Publican though…
Conclusion: I’ve definitely seen better. Will not be back. If you’re craving Italian, head to Siena tavern few blocks away instead!

This came very highly recommended by a local resident. While I wasn’t completely over the moon by anything we had, it was fairly solid Italian. They like to focus on small plates to share, which is actually my favorite way to eat.
We shared some charcuterie, cheese and some various spreads that were all pretty good. We also had a risotto dish that was just OK. The consistency was a little bit runny, which is not how I like my risotto. We also had a tagliatelle with the heavy meat sauce that was decent. This is one of their house made pasta dishes and the consistency of the pasta was pretty good.
They have a pretty extensive wine list offering primarily Italian wines, but some California wines thrown in for good measure.
We sat on the patio outside which was really lovely and had excellent service. The price point is very good, and I think it’s a great value for the money. While everything was pleasant I can honestly say I don’t know if I would come back. They are just too many other Italian restaurants that really wow you in the city.

Excelente atención y servicio !! Platos justos y muy buen postre. Estaba súper lleno pero comimos bastante rápido. Los precios nada caros .
Tiene unos platos pequeños con quesos muy ricos.
La atención fue cálida y sobria con buena recomendación de entrada y postre.

Les plats sont très bon, surtout les pâtes qui sont maison. Un peu d’Italie dans Wind City. Service sympa dans un décor style bistrot. Le vin est pas cher !

Me gusto la comida buen atención