La Macchina Cafe

Came here for brunch with girlfriends. There was only 1 waiter, who seemed lost and could not answer questions we had about the menu. The wait for the food took forever, though it was not even particularily busy. I ordered poached eggs topped with truffles and prosciutto. Though poached, the excess water on the eggs was not patted dry enough, creating a watery mess on the plate, making the taste of everything bland. The taste was not mind-​blowing. I did like the ambiance of the restaurnt, but do not think I will be coming back for brunch again.

Shiw: Shiw and Dou here, bringing you a review of La Macchina
Dou: Ugh…
Shiw: Ok so before we begin, maybe we should caveat this by saying that we went there for brunch RIGHT as it opened, so maybe our experience was a bit atypical. For example, there was only one employee who was still opening up, and their machines were all still cold.
Dou: Yeah its usually a bad sign when you see the chef walk into the kitchen AFTER you’ve already sat down for a couple of minutes already…
Shiw: Anyways, so we got there and ordered 2 paninis, but they came back and said their panini press was malfunctioning, so we re-​ordered. I got the Steak and Eggs and you got the Poached Eggs with Prosciutto and Hollandaise (essentially eggs benedict). And well…
Dou: So the poached eggs came back pretty overcooked, so didn’t really have any of that runny yolk that most people like in Eggs Benedict. The prosciutto was ok. Shiw’s steak and eggs on the other hand were, in my opinion, pretty bad. That steak was fairly awful–
Shiw: Haha I think your exact words were «the saddest steak I’ve ever seen in my life»
Dou: Dude, it totally was, I’m sad we forgot to take a picture of it! The thing was like 2 centimeters thick, and was like all twisted and stuff. And then for your eggs, they didn’t even ask you how you wanted your eggs done, they just gave them to you scrambled. Who gets SCRAMBLED eggs with steak? All in all, not a great experience
Shiw: At least the coffee was great
Dou: A small, silver lining on an otherwise disappointing cloud.
Shiw: Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

This is a gem in Evanston, the north shore and Chicago area. This restaurant serves authentic northern Italian cuisine that is excellent. The wine list is good too, and notice they serve many good Italian wines and wine from the Pisoni family in the Santa Lucia Highlands of California
(Pisoni makes the best pinot noir ever). They especially have good deals at lunchtime if you happen to be there then. My family went to their new year’s eve special dinner last year and had the best food and wine ever.

I was really disappointed how me and my family of 9 was treated there.
We have reserved table for 4pm on Sat night and at 6pm we have been asked to clear the table! Right after I paid my $ 400 bill and left 20% owner approached me with the this request (expaining its a Sat night and there is another family is here waiting for our table)
No one told us upfront, otherwise I would not reserve a table there.
While the food was good, and nice service during the dinner– this just ruined the whole experience. :(

Lovely waitress! Food here is so nice, and the coffee is amazing. For lunch, ribeye panini is a very good deal.

Excellent italian restaurant. Wonderful staff, waiter, .had squid ink clamp pasta was A+. Wine great and house roasted coffee very smooth.
Squash ravioli daughter had equally excellent. Wife had 5 meat bouignase. Ask waiter what he likes. Won’t go wrong.

I visited La Macchina on a night out with friends when we were looking for desserts. Two of us ordered the lava cake, one ordered an ice cream dish, and another ordered crème broulee. Everyone raved about the desserts! The lava cake was baked fresh when we ordered and it was so hot, gooey, and yummy!
We also all ordered different coffee: Brewed coffee, iced coffee, and expresso. The coffee also was excellent! Our waiter brought out bread and roasted garlic, which is an odd thing to eat with dessert but, OMG, was it good! Our waiter also was very friendly and attentive and chatted us up about being from Wisconsin.
The interior of the restaurant has a cool, modern feel. My only complaint is that the upstairs bathrooms were out of order and we had to use the (Read: very scary and icky) downstairs bathrooms. I tried to not let the scary bathrooms kill the experience though. I also believe the server told us they don’t open till 10 am, which seems a little weird for a coffee shop, but I’d certainly go back the next time I’m in Evanston.

We first ordered seared scallops as an appetizer which were excellent. But what impressed me more was risotto underneath the scallops. It had cubed yams. So I decided to order porcini/​matsutake risotto for my entrée. It was very good. I could taste and enjoy the texture of all the mushrooms inside. Highly recommended!

Microwave-​flavored pasta accompanied by rude service. While the place is relatively well designed, I probably won’t visit again anytime soon…

Food:
I applaud the above average creativity of the menu items. I had a Parmesan cheese appetizer drizzled with balsamic vinegar that was great. Then ordered chard/​spinach tortelli with butter and parm. It was ok, not bad. Wife ordered mushroom risotto which was, well, frankly… weak, just boiled risotto rice without any creaminess or parmesan favor. If a kitchen can whip out a good authentic risotto, you know it’s on top it’s game.
Drinks:
Wife ordered an italian wine flight. All of those were just barely drinkable. I ordered a very pricey ($ 15) glass of Chianti Reserva (most expensive on the menu). It was more drinkable than my wife’s wines but not what I would expect for that price. I think I’ve gotten better wines at Outback for a lot lower price. I also had a Manhattan that was pretty good. Ditch those insipid standard maraschino cherries for some good cherries (Luxardo or other marinaded cherry) and you have a winner.
Ambiance:
Finally, where they really need to improve… professional staffing and interior ambiance. The staff has a very casual attitude and our server had to have the bartender come out and tell us which wines were in the wine flight (even though they are clearly printed on the menu). The hickey on his neck was also pretty… well, you know. I did not like sitting on flat wooden chairs and an uneven wooden table (no table cloth). Next time I will sit at the bar and eat.
Conclusion
This could be a serious Italian restaurant with some improvements in it’s interior and staff professionalism. This is not an inexpensive place, and for the tab, I have pretty high expectations. I do hope they improve because the core of menu items (maybe too many) is a great foundation to build off of. (And please improve that risotto or take it off the menu.)

The food here is 4 star solid.
The service though, on a Sunday night, is absolutely horrible.
Service–
We waited 30 min for our check to come correctly. Is that a joke. The first server simply forgot that we requested our check, split. 10 minutes later we had to request it again. It took them 10 min to bring out the check but forgot to split, and then it took them another 10 min to split the check. I’m really not impressed. You either gotta hire more servers or have a more efficient system for this.
Food–
I ordered linguine wth veal and beef cooked in tomato sauce. Linguine was cooked to al dente. Veal and beef were cooked through and were soaked in tomato flavor.
My friend’s pork loin, however, was bland in my taste. It also lost a lot of its moisture so the texture was hard and unpleasant. Definitely needs some improvement.

I was a little hesitant since there isn’t a kids’ menu but the owner reassured me that this was family friendly, too. We got there around 6pm and I was happy to see at least four other families there with kids! The kids insisted on the chicken parm, but the hubby and I still got our ultimate favorite — the lemon roasted chicken with asparagus and potatoes. Even our picky eater said that he preferred the lemon chicken over the chicken parm! We also got the gnocchi and salad which our daughter polished off. Hands down a delicious meal that we enjoyed, and family friendly!

Simply wonderful! My girl and I went for an impromptu dinner during our Staycation in Evanston. We went with very little expectations and we were bowled over by the service and quality!
The décor is interesting, rustic and inviting. The service is great — hospitality that you would receive in a true Italian family bistro.
But, let’s talk about the star of this place: the amazing food! We started with a smoked salmon bruschetta with capers and red onions. Usually, smoked salmon and capers are predictable, boring but reliable. However, the delicious Parmigiano Reggiano crema added more complexity to this bruschetta. So tasty. We then had the mushroom risotto. It was perfectly al dente, rich and creamy. The combination of Masutake, Porcini and Chanterelle made the risotto really earthy and unctuous. For the main course, I had the handmade squid ink Tagliolini with vongole and bottarga! If you love seafood, you have to order this!!! The pasta is clearly hand made. It has that perfect toothsome mouth feel with a briny/​earthy flavor that only real squid ink can impart. Many times, I have had squid ink pasta that was so plain that I wondered what they used to make the pasta black. The bottarga… Mmmm… Shaved over the top of the pasta giving it that perfect sea salt tang. So good with the clams and made the dish sing!
Now, I am not much of a dessert person but I have to talk about the desserts we had. Affogato al caffe and peach ripienio (sorbetto served in a natural frozen peach shell). They were both so good but I could not stop eating the Affogato. The espresso was dark and rich. As it slowly mixed with the vanilla gelato, it revealed layers and layers of flavor. My server asked me if I was happy and I told him how I loved the Affogato and that it was a mistake not to order it. Without a word, he quickly brought me another one on the house!!!
We were the last customers in the place and he (wish I could remember his name) clearly had a long busy night. But he was very attentive and full of energy. He spent time talking about his chefs, their dedication to providing the freshest ingredients and how he was proud to serve the food that came out of the kitchen.
One of the top Italian meals I have had in a long time. Cannot wait to go back!

We went to La Macchina last night for the first time and it was good. Not great, just good. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could, but our outstanding server, Kyle, gets the round up to 4 stars. This place SHOULD be packed solid because it has great ambiance, cool décor, terrific service and tons of potential.
We had the following dishes: Mixto a Griglia (mixed seafood grill) which was vastly overdressed with balsamic vinegar. The seafood was cooked well and delicious, but drowned; Tuna carpaccio, which needed some sort of seasoning — far too bland; and Linguine with Seafood, which was plentiful in the seafood department, but just average in flavor.
I’m going to be constructive here because I would love to see this place succeed: immediately put a few local craft beers and ciders on your menu. Maybe even a few innovative cocktails? Great menu, but improve on the quality of the food — it’s good, but not good enough to come back for. Step it up, La Macchina and you could have a packed house every night.

Wow. Possibly one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in life. Definitely in Evanston. Get the butternut squash tortelli. Just trust me you won’t regret it. It has so many layers of flavor and is so perfectly creamy and yummy. The gnocchi is pretty awesome too but really the tortelli is the standout.
I’ve had other things on the menu and they’ve all been decent or good as well.

How has this place not shown up on my radar? I wonder if it could be because of its location? It’s located on a somewhat awkward curve along Orrington Ave. that would not really make it very visible to passersby (on cars, at least). Nonetheless, I was happy to have «discovered» it for dinner last night.
Imagine my delight as I quietly squealed upon seeing parmiggiano cheese from red cows! The last time I had this type of cheese was on a trip to Rome a few years back so of course we had that! We ignored any rules (if these even exist) on having form and structure to our food choices and just ordered whatever looked good to us on the menu. It’s a good thing our girls are quite well versed on Italian cuisine as my 5-​year old’s first request was if I could order her some polenta (proud mommy beaming)!
Aside from the cheese, we also had a charcuterie board of prosciutto di parma, salami soppressata, mortadella and speck, a special appetizer of beef and lamb skewers (lamb was just a tad on the gamey inside even for my husband who loves lamb), and scallops.
The pastas were handmade and found both the squid ink pasta and the tagliatelle with bolognese sauce hearty and satisfying. Did you actually think I would skip dessert? We opted for the gnoco frito which were essentially fried (being the key word here) dough drizzled with honey and doused with powdered sugar. I even dipped a couple on the delectable cup of cortado! All in all a great choice and will definitely be on my list for Evanston spots!

Cute ambience. Much improved from when I came here March 2014. Last time there were flies all around the windows and the food felt overpriced and mediocre.
This time, we came to brunch with a Groupon and left full and happy! It was beautiful weather for outdoor seating, and the servers were very accommodating to help us find good seats.
La Macchina Salad — good variety of ingredients and tasty, but a small portion for the price. Also found a tiny hair stuck to the gorgonzola… ($ 8)
Linguine with Pesto and Shrimp — deeeelicious! But could be a larger portion for the price ($ 20)
Orechiette with sausage ($ 9) — also great. Reminds me of Zuppa Tuscana,
Steak and Eggs — not so great. Came with burnt toast and the steak was hard and a little burnt too. The potatoes came cold. Actually a total waste of $ 15.
If I wasn’t already using a Groupon I would’ve complained about the steak and hair, but I let it go. Everything else was very enjoyable. Service was nice. Coming again!

Food is awesome here, I had the truffle tagatielle, gnocchi dough appetizers, and hubs has the butternut squash ravioli. Used the groupon so price was good. Would give 4 stars but the place could clean up a little, bathroom was dirty and tables a bit sticky.

Overall: Cute little café with good food and drinks. Casual and interesting décor to go along with it.
The good: The food, specifically our dessert that we got, was pretty tasty. The drinks were hot and fresh and tasted good. The décor of the café was interesting. Not exactly «cozy», but it’s rustic and different. A ton of food options to choose from for breakfast, lunch, snacks, or dinner.
The bad: The service wasn’t the best.
Atmosphere: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁷⁄₁₀
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀

This is one of the better Italian restaurants in Evanston, despite the confusing name that makes it sound like it’s a coffee place. They do indeed have good espresso, but it really is an Italian café.
I tried two specials of the day. The first was the «artichoke fritters» which weren’t actually fritters, but lightly battered artichoke pieces deep fried. A better choice was the mussels in cream sauce. These were nicely done, and the cream sauce was delicious without being too heavy. A basket with two types of bread was provided, and one of them proved perfect for dipping in the leftover sauce.
There is a thoughtful list of wines by the glass, including many Italian selections, and the pours are generous.
A macchiato was the perfect way to finish off the meal.