La Rosetta

This is my go to place for lunch. The food is excellent and the service, whether sit down or take out, is fantastic. While lunch is not inexpensive, it is definitely worth it for the quality. In any event most lunch places in the loop charge nearly $ 10 for lunch anyway, so I don’t mind paying a few bucks more for really good food.

Went to lunch on a Tuesday around 1pm. Place was super crowded and waiter brought us the wrong food. Eventually the order was fixed, however for a restaurant of this caliber you would expect better service. Food was good not great.

I have been going to La Rosetta for several years now and it never disappoints. The staff is very friendly and the food is always good.
Although not on the menu, I like to order the Veal Saltimboca which has a wonderful sauce. I get a side of Angel Hair pasta to go with it.
The linguini with clam sauce is good, as are most of the fresh fish dishes. The lamb salad is also good. I like the ambiance and the food much better than the village.

I’ve become more of a fan of La Rosetta since my first post a few years back. Maybe I’ve just become accustomed to downtown prices or maybe it’s because I’ve had a couple of raises since then :) It could also be that their happy hour appetizer spread has gotten better. Or the friendly bartender. Either way, it’s become one of my regular spots and I’m changing my rating to 4 stars and have nothing bad to say about La Rosetta.

Great salads and food. A great place to take friends our for lunch. it’s extremely busy for lunch, so it’s loud and sometimes it’s hard to hold a conversation BUT i always get past it. Wait staff are greart and attentive… really know how to work around the crowd.

Yet another restaurant that has fallen victim to over expansion.
Back in the day, there was only one Rosebud, located on Taylor Street.
It was really good and quite popular. Naturally, they saw a need and decided to expand their concept, and now have 8 or 9 locations.
Sadly, now their food is corporate and caters to the masses. They have the luck of location on their side as there are not too many restaurants in the Loop that offer sit-​down service. This place is always hoppin’ and they do a good job of getting you in and out in about an hour.
Therein lies the rub. I think most of their food is pre-​cooked. The pasta tastes and has the consistency of sitting around in warm water, and then having the sauce thrown on just before it arrives to your table.
I’ve been here several times for business lunches and I can’t remember anything I’ve ever eaten, and this from someone who remembers just about every meal she’s ever had. None of it was remarkable and it all pretty much tasted the same.
Mia Francesca has suffered the same fate as well, I’m afraid. I’m a little nervous that my beloved La Gondola is opening a second location, but I trust Andy not to get too big for his britches and I know his food will always be good.
I will likely be back as business lunches dictate where to dine, but this is not a place I will go of my own volition.

I wish the service and atmosphere matched the food. Let’s start with the bad news first:
The service and atmosphere at this place are more obnoxious than bad. It’s cramped, which can be fine, except that the menus are so huge that you can’t wait to place your order just so you can have a shred of elbow room. Then the waiter, who may or may not know what beers are available (because beers aren’t listed on the equally enormous drink menu), takes a while to get your order. The restaurant doesn’t feel that busy for a Friday night, yet he and all the other servers dash about the dining room in a very dramatic fashion — be careful to dodge them if you go to the restroom.
The restaurant is on the first floor of an office building. The crowd is predictably professional and a little douchy.
Now, for the good news — the food is plentiful, tasty and prepared well. Our group started with bruschetta (didn’t try it, but the presentation was nice), fried calamari, and sausage and peppers. The calamari was decent but I appreciated the big hunks of squid and the horseradish-​heavy cocktail sauce. Even with seven of us noshing on two plates, we had plenty leftover. The sausage was dense and very savory, charred on the outside and tender inside.
For my main course, I ordered the linguine with clams in red wine sauce. Excellent. A blend of chopped clams, garlic, tomato and red pepper flakes on layers of tender, fresh pasta, served with whole clams along the side of the bowl. I was glad that I chose a relatively light but full flavored follow up to the heavier apps. I did sample a bit of my husband’s cavatelli al forno (ricotta dumplings in marinara, baked with cheese), which was the typical sort of cheesy dish that I usually order. It was also very good.
I also enjoyed the complimentary crusty bread and the floral olive oil (worth stacking the gigantic menus on your lap just to get to it).
I guess this sounds closer to a 4 star review, but I didn’t fully appreciate the food until I was eating my leftovers later. I needed to get out of the cramped and unnecessarily hectic atmosphere to enjoy it as much as it deserved. Since this restaurant’s front of house seems poorly managed, my advice is to get take-​out, instead.

Conveniently located restaurant for a quick lunch in the Loop. Service is efficient, portions are ample and the food is good. Nice selection of well prepared salads, pastas, and entrees.

La Rosetta is located at the main floor of my office building. While I usually grab food from the smaller Rosebud Express (the baby version of La Rosetta), my co-​workers and I take advantage of the excellent happy hour at La Rosetta. They have a nice free spread of finger foods, cheeses, and pastas for anyone who orders at least one drink. The service is great and the manager always comes by and says hi.

I just came back to downgrade my review (thinking I might’ve given the place 3 stars) but I guess 2 is low enough. I had lunch here today with my coworkers. The host was a complete jackass to us, and the food was once again bad. At least I didn’t get anything cheesy this time though.

Went here yesterday for a work lunch with about 25 people. The food was delicious. I highly recommend the vodka sauce and the calamari. Everyone enjoyed their dishes, but the service was terrible. Like I said we had a group of 25 and we were given 1 server. We had a busboy for about he first 30 minutes we were there but then the lunch rush hit and he vanished. Our poor waiter didn’t even have help bringing out our food. My boss complained to the manager, but he still did nothing to give us another server. Oh well, I guess you can’t expect much competence out of a chain restaurant manager.

We have gone here for work and also used them to cater larger lunches for 150+ people on our project. They do a good job and are moderately priced considering you’re getting Italian food. It doesn’t especially stand out for me against the other «Rosebud» brand restaurants.

This is a great spot to go for lunch downtown. It’s nice too pricey (for a restaurant in the Loop) and the food is very good. (I actually prefer their food over the Italian Village Restaurant.) I recommend the Chicken Parmigiana — and the homemade Cannolis for dessert. They also have a great selection of flavored ice teas.
I do recommend making reservation as they tend to be very busy during the lunch hour. Also, as a result of the large crowd, it can get rather loud making conversation with your fellow table mates more of a challenge.

Service is always friendly and quick. It’s a nice spot to go to for lunch in the Loop. The food is decent, Italian fare and the wine list is good too.

I notice that La Rosetta (Rosebud) has pretty good reviews but I have to say this was very mediocre Italian food, at best. They don’t have a whole lot of variety, they are a little on the pricier side, and it is hardly as fancy as it appears, pretentious more than anything else. Their service is slow, even though the waiters are nice and the servings are generous but the ambiance is dull, especially for dinner… I might as well go to bed, ya know?! I can see it being better for lunch since they have their pseudo outdoor seating in the building lobby, ha-​ha, and it would be convenient since I work in this building.

This is a place I go for lunch with co-​workers once in awhile. Food is not bad, and service is generally pretty good. Tonight, I went there with a friend for drinks and happy hour food. We both had the chocolate martinis, which were yummy, but very strong… at least the second round were much stronger than the first. Thank goodness for the finger food buffet they had to offer: pizza bread, cheese, crackers, tacos (yes, tacos), fried zucchini, and other things I could not figure out (probably due to the 1^st martini?). During our first round at the buffet, the food was a little cold. Despite this little problem, we managed to get food in our system to help with our drinks. Once the items were refilled, the food was better. Overall, the place is a decent place for after-​work or having dinner before theater shows. Even with the crappy weather, there were about 4 cabs waiting outside in front of the building.
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Edit: Chicken Parmasean is good by itself. The pasta that comes with (or underneath the chicken) is just okay, and the sauce was a little watered down.

La Rosetta is a Rosebud Restaurant, which means it comes highly recommended. It’s a great little lunch place with delicious salads and the best olive oil/​basil/​cheese mixture.
I could eat there every day. They have a quick little take out area too… So for busy worker, stop by and try the daily salad, served fresh and made to order.