This past Valentines Day my wife and I visited "La Strada" at 2380 Lakewood Blvd in Hoffman Estates, IL. There are 4 Chicago land locations, one in Hoffman and 3 in the city of Chicago. Upon arriving we notice that the average size parking lot (free) is full and we are forced to park in the lot of an adjoining restaurant. Inside and out the place has a very contemporary decor. Marble tiles and squared off lights give a very classy look.
We inform the hostess of our reservation and she promptly seats us. Next to the bar! I'm sorry but this is Valentines Day and that is not a romantic seat, and definitely not one you make a reservation for. We inform the hostess that we would like another table and she is accommodating but let's us know that it's common practice to seat people with reservations by the bar as well as the dining room.
Once seated we are welcomed to a bread basket and glasses of water. Our waiter arrives and is very friendly. We order our drinks which are a virgin pina colada for my wife and a diet coke for myself. Her drink is tasty but overly thick. We order our dinner which includes jumbo shrimp cocktail, cheese tortellini for my wife, and a "prime" Kansas city bone in strip steak. Both came with a chopped salad and I added red potatoes to my steak.
First thing out is the shrimp cocktail which is 4 jumbo shrimp served with cocktail sauce. The shrimp are good but what's missing is a lemon to squeeze onto the shrimp and a dollop of horseradish on top of the cocktail sauce. Both are common practices at high end restaurants and of jumbo shrimp cocktail. This made the shrimp good but not very good. A small oversight but one none the less.
Next out was our chopped salads. This was lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, croutons, grated parmesan, and an Italian vinaigrette. The texture of the salad was nice, it had good crunch and a nice variety of items on the plate. But there was a big problem. The vinaigrette tasted like, well, nothing! There was no flavor to my salad at all. It in essence was like eating wet vegetables. Very disappointing and I didn't eat even half of it.
Next up was our main course. My wife's tortellini came in a creamy tomato sauce and had fairly good flavor. The pasta had a nice soft but firm texture and the sauce was quite creamy. it was good just not very good ( she enjoyed it more than I did). My massive 20 oz steak was next. It was prepared medium and served with 2 small potatoes cleverly shaped into mushrooms. Prepared as specified and had a nice meaty flavor. It was tender and moist but was missing any sort of a crust on top. I don't mean an added crust but one of the slightly crisp variety that a hot grill adds to the top. It's just that little extra amount of texture that was missing. The grill marks were very faint and therefore no crust at all. This was a good steak, but at a $43 price point, I expect an excellent steak. The potatoes were tasty, just so small that 3-4 bites finished off both.
Next up was dessert. My wife ordered the canolli's and I ordered the New York cheese cake. The canolli is filled with a very creamy ricotta cheese and has ground pistachios and chocolate chip on each end. Then it's drizzled with strawberry sauce. While we both prefer chopped pistachios instead of ground, the canolli's were quite good. Very creamy ricotta and strawberry sauce made this a fine choice. My cheesecake came and it was a large slice with both chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled all over it. My cheesecake was good but not very good. The flavor was fine but the texture was not to my liking. Being from Chicago land I expect my cheesecake to be very dense and very rich. This cheesecake had almost an airy texture to it. In fact it reminded me of a Sara Lee cheesecake that I can buy at the grocery store.
Overall impression was that it's beautiful looking restaurant and good but unremarkable food. And for the price there are definitely better options out there. Our final bill was about $125 and that could have been much more if my wife didn't order just pasta. Rating * and 1/2 out of ****.
We inform the hostess of our reservation and she promptly seats us. Next to the bar! I'm sorry but this is Valentines Day and that is not a romantic seat, and definitely not one you make a reservation for. We inform the hostess that we would like another table and she is accommodating but let's us know that it's common practice to seat people with reservations by the bar as well as the dining room.
Once seated we are welcomed to a bread basket and glasses of water. Our waiter arrives and is very friendly. We order our drinks which are a virgin pina colada for my wife and a diet coke for myself. Her drink is tasty but overly thick. We order our dinner which includes jumbo shrimp cocktail, cheese tortellini for my wife, and a "prime" Kansas city bone in strip steak. Both came with a chopped salad and I added red potatoes to my steak.
First thing out is the shrimp cocktail which is 4 jumbo shrimp served with cocktail sauce. The shrimp are good but what's missing is a lemon to squeeze onto the shrimp and a dollop of horseradish on top of the cocktail sauce. Both are common practices at high end restaurants and of jumbo shrimp cocktail. This made the shrimp good but not very good. A small oversight but one none the less.
Next out was our chopped salads. This was lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, croutons, grated parmesan, and an Italian vinaigrette. The texture of the salad was nice, it had good crunch and a nice variety of items on the plate. But there was a big problem. The vinaigrette tasted like, well, nothing! There was no flavor to my salad at all. It in essence was like eating wet vegetables. Very disappointing and I didn't eat even half of it.
Next up was our main course. My wife's tortellini came in a creamy tomato sauce and had fairly good flavor. The pasta had a nice soft but firm texture and the sauce was quite creamy. it was good just not very good ( she enjoyed it more than I did). My massive 20 oz steak was next. It was prepared medium and served with 2 small potatoes cleverly shaped into mushrooms. Prepared as specified and had a nice meaty flavor. It was tender and moist but was missing any sort of a crust on top. I don't mean an added crust but one of the slightly crisp variety that a hot grill adds to the top. It's just that little extra amount of texture that was missing. The grill marks were very faint and therefore no crust at all. This was a good steak, but at a $43 price point, I expect an excellent steak. The potatoes were tasty, just so small that 3-4 bites finished off both.
Next up was dessert. My wife ordered the canolli's and I ordered the New York cheese cake. The canolli is filled with a very creamy ricotta cheese and has ground pistachios and chocolate chip on each end. Then it's drizzled with strawberry sauce. While we both prefer chopped pistachios instead of ground, the canolli's were quite good. Very creamy ricotta and strawberry sauce made this a fine choice. My cheesecake came and it was a large slice with both chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled all over it. My cheesecake was good but not very good. The flavor was fine but the texture was not to my liking. Being from Chicago land I expect my cheesecake to be very dense and very rich. This cheesecake had almost an airy texture to it. In fact it reminded me of a Sara Lee cheesecake that I can buy at the grocery store.
Overall impression was that it's beautiful looking restaurant and good but unremarkable food. And for the price there are definitely better options out there. Our final bill was about $125 and that could have been much more if my wife didn't order just pasta. Rating * and 1/2 out of ****.
2 comments:
at least you took her out for v-day! =) sorry the restaurant didn't live up to the decor. i'll definitely stay away from that place.
Not bad food. But there are better options at that price.
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