Many of you have likely known someone for whom English was not their first language. The sort of person who has been here a long time and by now they know the language and they're totally able to communicate. But something about the way they speak is just not quite right. That was Piccolo Sogno. They want to speak fine dining, but they just can't get the details right, those details that really make an experience great.
Things started off nicely with the very friendly hostess and coat check lady taking care of our coats. Then it happened. Now, we went there at 5:30. There were no more than 6 diners total in the entire property. Yet the hostess walks us over to a corner in the outdoor area that has the canvas weatherproof structure enclosing it. And puts us in the corner of that section. Now I understand there are seating plans and all that. But if you want to be a high-end restaurant, you just don't stick patrons in a glorified tent. You especially do not do it when you're walking them through an otherwise empty indoor seating area to seat them out in that area. If you're not going to just suck it up and give up those few extra tables during the winter, at least make those tables the overflow ones, not the first options for seating. It essentially tells the patrons "you are not important."
Now had the service been excellent and the food transcendent all of this would have most likely been moot. And as the first course was cleared away it seemed like this was a very good possibility. We went with the chickpea flour fries and the Riboletta al Delfina. The chickpea fries were wonderfully creamy on the inside but with a fried polenta like texture on the outside. The Riboletta was delightful and unique. At this point the service had also been top notch. After this first course was finished and our plates were cleared away I felt like I could totally deal with being shunted into the outdoor area.
Then it all started to slip. The pacing was just awful. The wait between the first and second course was nearly a half hour. Our server, so solicitous and on point early on, showed off some magician tendencies by disappearing for very long periods. By the time the food arrived for the second course our appetites had waned somewhat due to the long interval. Honestly this was not a tragedy by any means, as the main courses were nothing special. The Porchetta was decent, with the rosemary potatoes being nice for lack of a better word. The Paglia with veal ragu was at best competent. Nothing that showed any great imagination or way with flavors. It tasted like a lot of other Italian food I've eaten of the years.
At this point sitting in the shaky (lots of trucks on Halsted that make the outside room rumble), chilly, unloved outdoor area we really just wanted to get our desserts and go. But nothing happens fast here. In fact nothing happens at all for very long periods. Despite a waitstaff to customer ratio of seemingly 1:1 the wait for everything is excruciating. Another nearly half hour wait from clearing our second courses to dessert ensued. I would have asked our server to hurry things up, but he was rarely to be seen, and when he was he scurried around too quickly to catch.
Dessert was another course of disappointment. I was served a trio of gelato that no one even bothered to explain which flavors were which. To contrast this to the detailed and highly enthused explanation about the house made gelatos/sorbets we received yesterday at Cafe Spiaggia just made it seem all the more lacking. The Tortino cake was almost totally flavorless and the heated plate meant that half of the gelato was melted before it could be consumed.
Yet another excruciating wait for the check allowed me to survey the outer room. It seemed like the outcast area. Everyone who they either didn't want to deal with or who seemed poor ended up out here. From the prototypical business douches (the kind who love to talk very loudly about the many highly important deals they were involved in that day) to the other younger looking patrons to the couple with the baby to the guy who looked like he was there with his favorite escort. This just made me even more annoyed with this place and ready to hurry up and leave with no intention of ever coming back.
This is the good thing about Restaurant Week. Not only do you get to try places that will become new favorites, but you get to try places fairly cheaply that you will never need to waste big $$$ on in the future. Piccolo Sogno is definitely in the latter category. I would have gone one star but the appetizers were really good. I suppose if you went there, sat at the bar, and ordered appetizers this could be a decent experience. But for dinner...no thank you.
Or maybe...thank you?
Shortly after posting this review I was contacted by one of the owners of Piccolo Sogno. He was very concerned with what I had written about his establishment, and wanted to make it up to me. So at some point in the near future I will be going back to try his restaurant again. If the experience is better I will be happy to say so. However a better experience does not change what happened. It may change something minor like a star rating, but the story would only be added on to, not altered.
Piccolo Sogno
464 N Halsted St
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 421-0077
HCH Rating - 2 stars...for now.
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