Fornello Trattoria

This place is delicious! And the atmosphere is one of great charm.
It’s a neat date place or a cool hang with friends you adore.
The price is a bit high, but the food is some of the most delicious Italian I’ve ever tasted.
The staff is very welcoming and full of wit and professionalism.
(This is being very picky, but I was only taken aback when I saw that a side I’d requested was charged at full price when I requested to replace the original side that came with my dish. End result: 1 expensive side, no original side… expensive dinner.)

Our 2^nd time there — the 1^st time was on Groupon. My new favorite place. Sat night pre-​theater, we shared baked clams, artichoke salad and mushroom risoto. The clams were good, although we prefer more garlic, less Parmaesan in the crumbs, but the salad and risoto were as close to perfection as I can remember having. We finished with a couple espressos & a vanilla gelato. Excellent cheerful service. I look forward to bringing groups on the near future.

My girlfriend and I like to eat here at least once a month. We could easily go there more, but we don’t eat out as much as others. We love their specials, but love their risotto even more. Try their grilled octopus, gnocchi, and the seafood platter.

It was a cold January night until my friend and I stopped here for dinner and were exceptionally treated by Malissa. She was delightful, attentive, and she mixes a mean martini with hand-​stuffed bleu cheese olives with truffle oil! YUMMY!!! The food was delicious, the atmosphere was cozy, and Malissa was awesome. What an unexpected treat!

Love this place! So happy Fornello is just down the street from my new apartment :) great pizza for delivery but also great service dining in. Lobster ravioli & cheese gnocchi are my two favorites! Alfredo sauce is amazing, made fresh highly recommended.

A great date spot. Very good Italian food. A little bit pricey but it was worth it in my opinion. I lived nearby and always enjoyed a great dinner here. The alfredo sauce is alone, worth going to get.

I’m ashamed to have lived down the corner from this place for almost a year, and I have just been to it. Started with the Oysters Rockefeller, and they were phenomenal! I order these whenever on the menu, and they were the best. Dinner entrée accompanied with minestrone soup, which was delicious. I ordered the Pork Chop Calabrese and my old lady had the Veal Francese. For the record, I was surprised to see Calabrese on the menu, as I rarely see it. However, chicken Calabrese is my favorite dish a Carmine’s, and the PCC at Fornellos would have smacked it around. It was perfect, great flavor, fresh peppers, tons of garlic, FUGGEDABOUTIT! Service impeccable. A little pricey for the hood, but not bad. Plenty of specials too. Im surprised on a few bad reviews, especially with the consistency through each course. I will be back, maybe tomorrow!

I was a little skeptical about going to this restaurant from the reviews on Unilocal,but since I live around the corner thought I would try it.
My friend and I shared a 3 course meal here last week.
We had the asparagus shrimp horderve, asparagus salad, and the gnocci pasta dinner. I have to say this meal was delicious. The seasoning was PERFECT.
The service was impeccable and the atmosphere cozy and inviting.
I highly recommend this restaurant if your looking for Italian food!!! Well be back!!!

I’ve eaten here several times, and the food and service are both consistent and very good. I especially like the pizza and pasta dishes (pizza margarita and gnocchi are delicious). Wine list and prices are good. Would recommend.

The food here is awesome and most of it is authentic. It seems silly, but I love bread and olive oil and they drop it off at your table right away. The chicken parm and the gambiotta are both incredible. Good service. Good wine options. I recommend for sure.

I ordered a chicken wrap from the express spot and it was definitely less than stellar. I was really craving a fried chicken sandwich and the picture made it look like the wrap had fried. It was disappointing that it was grilled. On top of that, the wrap was really soggy and unappetizing. I don’t recommend it at all.

Melissa is amazing!!! She was so attentive to us and suggested a zillion drinks for us undecided people of the world. So nice, and so genuinely interested in personal taste in drinks… A legit bartender.

Good food and good service. Three stars because menu is very limited. Only 3 pizza choices, what’s up with that? Other entrees seem priced a bit too high for what they are $ 15+, but they are shareable. Likewise salads.

An overlooked gem!
The food is so delicious and you can tell the chef takes pride in what he sends out to your table.
Our favorite is the Sausage and Peppers starter. I’ve had lots of sausage and peppers and I even make my own but these are the top of the top. The quality of the meat and the delicate white wine sauce… YUM.
My husband loves their Fettucine Alfredo and he adds grilled shrimp to the dish. It’s perfectly creamy, without being too rich or salty. He orders it every time we go – in fact that dish is his main motivation for dining there. He thinks it’s perfection and compares it to a Fett Alf he ate in North Beach, San Francisco’s Italian neighborhood.
I’ve ordered pastas, seafood and salads on various occasions and all have been tasty.
We mostly go for the food but I’ve had a martini or two in the past and they were well made and delicious.
I typically am too stuffed for dessert, but last time we went I had an amazing Tiramisu that was made in house. It was rich, flavorful and delectable.
Service is always friendly and attentive.
We’ve never been disappointed and will continue to frequent Fornello.

The waiter proudly exclaimed that he was hungover and had no voice after being at Riot Fest. The pasta was an interesting texture of gummy. Overall, extremely over priced for the mediocre food and service.

I used to order from here before I moved to the neighborhood. It was good. I’d almost say very good. Then I moved to the neighborhood a few years later and, just can’t do it.
We’ve been twice, and both times the food was really bad. Putting straight lemon juice on mixed greens is not good. Pizza should not be bitter. Drinks should not taste like your sucking on a sugar cube. The one star is for $ 1 oysters.
On top of a bad, expensive meal, the patio chairs were filthy and now the butt of my cute white jeans is black. So much for getting good use out of them before Labor Day :(.

I’m so disappointed in this old time favorite of ours. We had 6 meals last night and none were very good. Sauces were overpowering fish was old. Sauces were heavy on salt and low on freshness and flavor. Not going there again.
I did enjoy the music though, the reason for the second star.

When my husband and I were dating over two years ago we frequently ordered from here when we needed to carb up before a race. For delivery they are pretty tasty. I fell in love with their butternut squash ravioli. The pasta with the sun dried tomatoes is also another good dish.
Recently we actually dined here. It’s actually quite roomy and looks deceivingly small from the outside. The food was still pretty solid, I really can only can speak for the pasta because I’ve never been let down with that. We did have the calamari and that was pretty delicious. Service was a little slow, but then again we were on a concert deadline so that could have played into my anxiety to get in and out ASAP.

I lived right next to Fornello on Irving Park Road for about 3 years. Well, I actually lived right next to Byron’s, which is right next to Fornello. You get the idea, I’ve given Fornello more than their fair share of opportunities to win me over.
Their staff is pretty inconsistent, sometimes you can get a super friendly and helpful server, and other times you can get a cranky server who has no interest in really helping you. They have a few people that just sit outside from time to time in the summer, and I’m not sure what their affiliation is with the restaurant, but they just sit there and talk to the staff. Very strange.
Their food isn’t bad. It isn’t great either. It’s certainly not something that’s worth their prices, as a dinner for two and a couple drinks or wine can really add up here. I have absolutely no problem footing a big bill for a nice meal with great service, however Fornello doesn’t (consistently) provide either of those things.
They do have two really nice things. 1.) In the summer they have a rather large and nice patio. There’s probably 8 to 12 tables on the patio, it’s covered, and nicely decorated. There’s also great people watching, which is an absolute must for me when sitting on a patio. This is a prime location for Cubs traffic as well as people coming and going from the Sheridan Redline, so there’s no shortage of foot traffic. 2.) Their bread is delivered fresh daily. I know this because I would walk past it every single day and I saw the bread being delivered each day. Their bread is really good, I will say that.
All in all, I really wish I could give Fornello more than two stars, I really do. But, I’ve given them at least 10 opportunities to change the way I feel, and honestly I’m not sure why I gave them so many chances. Probably because I lived right there and nothing beats convenience.
The only circumstance where I’d say it’s worth stopping in would be if you’re already in the area, there’s a spot to sit on the patio, and all you want is a drink and a snack (their bread). That’s about all I would recommend, though.

I live in the area and have ordered from here multiple times 3 ways: eat-​in, carry-​out, and delivery. Carry out portions appear to be smaller than when dining in and can be a bit pricey. When eating in, Eliot the host, is super friendly and attentive. I like that he gives us one menu to snuggle close over and makes suggestions on what to order– which I have ordered, unfortunately, I did not think they were worth writing home about. I know Rachael Ray has endorsed this restaurant, so I was expecting it to be fantastic. It’s good enough to satiate my quest for Italian comfort food until I get off my lazy butt and make my own 2 hour meat sauce. I do like their fresh warm bread that they bring out as an appetizer with a tomato based sauce with a dash of grated parmesan cheese. They kindly oblige when we ask for more!
— Bruschetta was soggy by the time it was delivered and not very flavorful.
–Baked clams were pretty good.
— Spaghetti is completely mediocre, like it was out of a jar.
— Wild Boar Ragu with freshly made pappardelle, meat was tender and noodles were al dente but overall, needed more seasoning.
— HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Timballo Macaroni — love this dish!