Tarantino’s

We love this place as they always make us feel at home. The food, staff and atmosphere is outstanding. You can’t go wrong. I always get the Fusilli as it is my favorite. We ALWAYS request Sarah as she is attentive, funny and a fellow pet lover :-) If you haven’t been, you need to try!

The girlfriend and I visited last night and had a wonderful experience. We were seated promptly upon our arrival, right on time with our reservation.
We asked for bread and oil and it was great — served with eggplant which was fantastic.
We ordered a bottle of Malbec which did not disappoint and our server provided excellent service. She made great suggestions and made sure we wanted for nothing!
We ordered the fried oysters for an appetizer, spicy and delicious. She ordered the pork chop and I got the lobster ravioli, both were great. Finished with a Tiramisu and went home happy. Thanks for taking care of us, we’ll be back!

Waited over 45 minutes for a table and I had reservations!
No ‘sorry’ or offer of a beverage while we waited.
Walked next door to Dee’s Chinese and got a table right away.
Dee’s was so nice, no need to ever eat at Tarantino’s again.

I had dinner here the other night with a large group, and Tarantino’s didn’t disappoint!
The salad was fresh, the pasta quite good (although there was so much garlic on the one I wish I had known that before indulging) and what can ever be wrong with Tiramasu?
I like that this is a neighborhood place, cute, cozy with the servers and bartenders really knowing their regulars. And on this Tuesday night, the place was packed so clearly it is supported by the local neighborhood.
Sit at the bar, sip your wine and chat with the bartender. This is old school Italian the way it is supposed to be!

This place looked so cute and my family wAs so excited to try it. We had an outdoor reservation. When we arrived, they sat us inside. We figure it’s kind of hot out anyway so we don’t say anything. We sat for about 10 minutes before any waitress or anyone came over to us. This gave us time to already decide on our appetizers. We ordered 2 appetizers as we ordered wine. I had to ask for water 3 times before I got one. We finally got bread and she brought over our wine. We placed our orders. Anytime you waned water, you had to try and flag someone down and it seemed impossible. After a while, we almost finished our first bottle of wine and ordered another. She brought it over and was about to start pouring it into my dads glass and he had to mention to her that he needed to taste it first and didn’t want her to pour it into his current glass of wine (just in case the new bottle was corked. This is just common knowledge). All of us at our table were discussing how hungry we were and how long it was taking to get our appetizers. At one point we had to ask the hostess if she could get our waitress for us because we hadn’t seen her in so long. She finally came over with our meals. My dad proceeded to say thanks, but I don’t want my meal yet because we wanted out appetizers first. She completely forgot. She said they had been sitting in the back and she just never went and brought them to us. She asked if she should bring them out and take back our meals. Um, no thank you, I’d rather eat my meal while it’s hot than let it go sit back in the kitchen while we eat our appetizers that have been sitting for 45 minutes. I ordered the fussili, which (thank god) was amazing. The food itself was phenomenal, but I would never ever go back to this place because of how poor the service was.

We’ve eaten at the bar periodically, and although the waitresses/​bartendresses always seem to have an attitude, we’ve enjoyed sparing with them and had a good experience. Tonight they were far more interested in impressing each other than providing service. We had to wave and speak loudly to get attention. Their excuse was one was ther for her first night and was in training. With both clustered around the computer it was a really bad experience and I hope they learned that that level of service means no tip! The restaurant was almost empty and with this level of service will likely stay that way!

Excellent neighborhood Italian joint.
The food is great — my roommates rave about the filet, how it’s the best in the city, yada yada yada. Tried it last night and I just may have to agree — it was super tender and the creamy mushroom sauce was amazing. The orecchiette with sausage was excellent as well. Ended with the tiramisu which was DOPE. The portions are healthy but not overwhelming.
The place has a rustic Italian feel to it, it’s never super loud or super busy, but the ambiance is great. If you’re in Lincoln Park and craving Italian, look no further.

The black seafood linguini was outstanding. Very nice pizza as well. Service could be better.

Great food, great atmosphere, and great service. I mentioned that it was my birthday when the waitress was at the table, and she put a candle in the dessert we ordered without even being asked to. I will definitely be going back!

Solid four stars. Impressive cocktails. I had the key lime infused gin drink which was excellent and that’s saying a lot for someone who doesn’t particularly care for gin. Shrimp app was great. Salad spot on. Pasta cooked just right. One note — this place is a firm believer in garlic.

Rack of lamb was amazing, beef carpaccio appetizer excellent as well. Great outside service and experience.

Had a quiet dinner here for our anniversary on a Wed night– it was pretty quiet since the hockey playoffs were on and this place has no TV at the bar, but that suited us fine!
The wine list is decent, we had a $ 40 bottle of pinot grigio which was pretty good.
We started w the eggplant parm, which was really good and a large appetizer. We shared the hearts of palm salad which is HUGE and the heirloom tomato salad– this was really good– they make their own balsamic glaze in house.
My husband had the salmon special served w green beans and carrots, I had the rigatoni with mushrooms and peas, and parmasean. The pasta portions are huge and fed me for three meals.
We had the rosemary potatoes and asparagus for the side, and the molten lava cake for dessert.
This is a great place for a small group /​casual family dining. Not sure if I would bring kids in the evening-​unless it was really early– They open at 5 pm. Parking is street and they have a $ 10 valet as well.
Overall would recommend this place and plan to visit again soon!

Found this place by accident while lost. Needed to eat before going to a play in the area.
Been here many times an it never disappoints. Granted, the service can be bad when they get busy but the food is all en pointe.
Big fan of the ribeye, pasta and mussels. Really looking forward to lounging in the outdoor seating area now that the weather is nice again.

The food was good. The portions were a little too big and the lamb lacked flavour.
However, the worst part of it all was the service! I am sitting at the restaurant as I type this and they took 10 min to remove our plates and still haven’t offered coffee, tea or dessert. The servers keep walking past us without noticing and we’re clearly not the only ones who look unhappy about the service. Wouldn’t come back.

The place was good. I’m not a huge fan of Italian food, but some of my more common food-​friends always seem to drag me to one. I wasn’t too disappointed with this restaurant. We arrived late on a Sunday, table for 5, all of us showing up at different times. We were accommodated rapidly, not ushered to the bar and told that the entire party had to be there.
This is a big thing for me, because I find it annoying when restaurants make you wait for the entire party, luckily I guess this place was not busy. The hostess gave her recommendations, as did our server. Our party had someone who wanted the Rigatoni without the tomatoes, not only did they leave the tomatoes off, but they switched the creamy tomato sauce out for him. Someone else in our party really wanted spaghetti and meatballs, which are not on the menu. The server went to the kitchen and returned informing us they would be able to make it for him.
So kudus for the restaurant being super friendly, very accommodating, and very fast. The food was pretty good too. Although the butternut squash ravioli, a beloved dish by my wife, was not very good, I’d pass on that. I ordered the fusili which was spicy enough, filled with sausage. We also got the arugula salad, which to me was more meh.
Overall, great place to dine. Great service. Good food. Kind of pricey. I’m not counting the days to return, but if we need to go to another Italian place, this would be a consideration.

Great experience here. We got in with 4 people on a Saturday night and they rearranged some tables to accommodate us. The place is small and cozy, but not too loud. Great music, great ambiance, friendly staff and servers.
More importantly, the food was also excellent. My husband and I were going to share two dishes and asked our server for a recommendation of 2 out of 3 that we were choosing between — her solution was to give us half portions of 2 of them, and a whole portion of the third. We thought that was great service and were THRILLED with the food.
We ordered several appetizers that were big enough to share between 3 – 4 people. And the secret bread is worth requesting — its so easy to just throw a loaf of cold bread and some olive oil on the table, so its nice that they make sure its also great quality.
We will be back again!

Had an absolutely great experience at this restaurant. I had never had it before I took my entire family, a group of 12 people, in to eat dinner on a Saturday night. I called that evening to make a reservation and they were very accommodating. I had no idea how small of a restaurant it was, good thing I called ahead. The menu is small, but every single thing on it is absolutely delicious! Totally worth eating at. More of a date night place rather than a group meal.

Torn between 3 and 4 stars…
I enjoyed their simple menu and wasn’t overwhelmed by a million choices.
We were greeted kindly upon arrival (and exit) and seated promptly Saturday evening and the place was quite busy, with just a few empty tables. We had the eggplant parm to start, and it was delicious. Perfectly seasoned and cooked, and not heavy or greasy at all. However, this took a tad long to come.
We waited for our entrees for around 40 minutes and we were starving, so we asked for the bread, which came right away. Now I know why it’s only available upon request, because this was one of the best bread I’ve had. It was super fresh and the accompanied olive oil/​eggplant pairing was delish.
Our waitress was nice and checked up on us adequately, although never to update us on our status of food or to address the empty bread basket (guess they are stingy with that). She really only ever asked us if we were good on drinks. Our food finally came, and am glad that it came piping hot… so at least it wasn’t just sitting at the counter all this time. Either they had some mishaps, have a small kitchen, or it really takes that long to cook our food, but likely the former two. Our waters were constantly refilled though which is always a plus in my book.
I had the black linguine and everything was pretty good. I had three giant shrimps that were cooked perfectly. There were many mussels, although small which were also cooked well. The sauce was a light spicy marinara that was perfectly proportioned to my pasta. My bf’s butternut squash risotto was amazing and might get that myself next time. It was also nice to see the portions being quite satisfactory.
Would definitely come back for the food, but if slow service again, I’m not so sure I would return after that. Also felt that they are more overpriced than need be. Average entrée cost is $ 20 – 23, but feel that the upper teens would be the usual overpriced cost for a nice Italian place.

Really really good. Not sure why it has less stars. Went there bc of it’s patio and had great service and even better food.
For starters, they cleaned the high chair. And that was our first experience. We will absolutely being going back.
Inside ambiance felt like a very local upper scale neighborhood restaurant.

Great neighborhood Italian. Farfalle and saltimboca special were both excellent. Also loved that the waitress let us sample wine. Perfect for a Sunday evening wind down.