Traverso’s Restaurant

This place has really great Italian food. I went here for a company Christmas party and had the pleasure of enjoying the food without paying the bill.
The service was great but right at the end the server failed to fill my drink for at least 20 minutes even after I asked her to. They were very busy so I under stand why she forgot.
I felt the cuisine was authentic and the atmosphere was inviting. The lights are very dim so bring your reading glasses.
They have great dessert. I had the peppermint red velvet cake. Just wonderful!
Bottom line is I love this place. If you have a large party get pitchers so your glass isn’t dry. Try it out!

Great place to take the family. Always friendly and always delicious.

Food was good. Calamari was cooked perfect I highly recommend trying. Had a sausage, Italian beef and giardiniera pizza, which I recommend the hot, mild had no taste. Service was poor and u have to by baskets of bread for $ 3.00 to use the olive oil and cheese on the table. I thought that was wrong should have been complementary.

Excellent service ! Could tell it’s family owned — servers really cared to provide delicious suggestions. Since it was our first time there — they even comped our chicken wing appetizer !!! Will definitely go back!

I dined at Traverso’s with approximately 12 family members a couple of Sundays back. Attentive service but I don’t think anyone was very impressed with their food unfortunately. I was having trouble deciding on a pasta dish and chose the chicken bowtie based on a recommendation from our waitress. Bowtie pasta, chicken breast, broccoli and tomatoes in an olive oil/​garlic sauce. Pretty tasteless. Even red pepper flakes couldn’t save the dish. I had a few pieces of someone’s thin crust pizza. Decent but nothing special.

It doesn’t matter if you are from Naperville or remember the original Traverso’s from the south side, you will love this experience. The pizza is definitely top notch and the customer service is unparalleled in the area. This is a real restaurant — not trendy or a fad– an establishment you will visit again and again.
Take out is good too as is catering!!!

How have I not ever reviewed Traverso’s? I love this place!
Traverso’s is as cozy as a golden retriever puppy, friendly as a golden retriever puppy, and as delicious as a… golden retriever puppy? No, that’s not right.
But it’s so good! If you like thin crust pizza, Traverso’s is cracker thin. I love the white pizza but you can’t go wrong with the other toppings.
There’s a dining room and a bar area. Both are nice, but I prefer the bar. It’s a little dimmer and more cozy-​like. Plus you can peep at the regulars at the bar and wish you were one of them. Who doesn’t want a drinking crew at Traverso’s? Woop woop.
The staff and manager/​owners (not sure their rank) are always so nice and go above and beyond to make sure your experience is great. I love them like I love puppies.
Finally, Goosey Pie. Just get it, it’s an awesome dessert.

Traversos is one of the true values in the Naperville area in terms of Italian cuisine. I have never found the restaurant empty regardless of day or time.
One of the two owners, which I believe are brothers, seem to always be on the job, ensuring everything is up to standards. More often than not one of them will come to the table and ask if everything is satisfactory. Traversos has a modest number of menu choices, but executes them well. The wine list seems to have been upgraded.
My wife and I dined there this past Sunday. The place was busy with one long family table occupied (10) plus a special party group in the back room. In spite of this our service did not suffer. I had a simple pasta dish and my wife ordered a customized pizza. Everything was done nicely and we got away without breaking the bank.
Portions are such that one often takes home leftovers. A recommended staple for neighborhood Italian food.

A good but not great restaurant. Friendly staff, seated on time for our reservation. But the food is consistently mediocre, which is especially a let down since you can easily drop over $ 100 for a dinner for four. In our case, the beef was tough and the salmon was undercooked. Perhaps the more traditional Italian dishes are better. Been here a couple of times and disappointed both. Serviceable, but not special.

Great place, great people, just avoid the pizza.
Have been to Traversos many times and have enjoyed each time until we tried the pizza tonight. The dishes we have loved are bow tie pasta, cheese ravioli, chicken parm, and lasagna. They have a very good craft beer menu.
This would be five stars if we had not had the pizza. The crust is spongy. The mushrooms are canned. Both are pizza sins in my book.

Best thin crust sausage pizza in the world. Extremely generous with the sausage. Had to smile when a newbie ordered extra sausage.

I’d have to say our visits here on many accounts has been consistently plane. The staff attitude sets the tone for just a mediocre meal. I recommend the sausage and peppers appetizer and their pizza.

I’ve been eating at Traverso’s (orland park) since I was a toddler. My extended family always met at Traverso’s for birthdays and we ordered takeout several times a month. I grew up eating their pizza and to this day it’s my benchmark that I compare all other thin crust pizza’s to.
I moved to Naperville not even knowing they had a second location. I was soon happy to be ordering pizza a delivery from my favorite spot. Best pizza in Chicago and the Naperville location is spot on to the original. Nothing fancy, just a really great family owned old school joint.
LOVE Traverso’s.

We came to Traversos last night with a big group of children for our school’s restaurant night (20% of our bill goes towards Clow School in Naperville). I don’t normally subject myself to bringing 6 1^st graders and 2 toddlers to a restaurant but this was all for a good cause. I wanted to leave a review because I was very happy with how the restaurant staff treated our big rambunctious group. Our server right away grouped everybody at our table into groups so that the check situation wouldn’t be a nightmare. She then very calmly (over the dull roar of our boys) took our orders. The food was incredible. I had heard rumors of these magical raviolis and they did NOT disappoint. The pizza and pasta was also amazing. I am so glad that our school partnered with Taversos and we will continue to visit and enjoy this restaurant.

This «Italian» is much like the kind I grew up with. –before the US as a whole became more internationally traveled. Decent food for what it was, but not Italian in the real sense. It felt like a very homey environment though. Food served, much like I imagine my mom would have made, had she have known how to cook. Sadly however, I grew up with a mother who cooked eggs in the microwave, so this was not even the «Italian» I was served at home growing up. –Italian in my house was Chef Boyardee. ;)
Judging Italian restaurants is tough for me. Am I rating it on real Italian (that I’ve eaten here and in Italy) or am I rating it on «American Italian»? This review is strictly «American Italian»; their food was so Americanized, they should just call it «American» and be done with it. ;)
I give the food my husband and I ate 3-​stars. The gluten free food my brother ate 3-​stars and Wendy our waitress earned a 5-​star. The fact that it is a family owned business is a 5-​star. All together and Traverso’s get’s a 3-​star from me.
We will be back for sure. Why would we come back for what I consider to be «A-​ok» food that also happens to be 5 miles from my neighborhood? Because my celiac brother was able to eat a heaping plate of gluten free fried chicken. His very first fried chicken since being diagnosed 2 yrs ago. He also was served GF bread and as GF breads go, he really liked his.
I ordered the gnocchi with meat sauce. Would have preferred gnocchi with cream sauce but after having eaten a doughnut the day before, red sauce it was. Gnocchi was slightly gummy and a little too dense. They were not melt-​in-​your-​mouth fluffy, like they should be. I still found them to be «A-​Ok» though. Meat sauce was made of very fine ground meat, definitely had a fair amount of sugar added to it and very reminiscent of my grandma’s cooking. –Close enough that I could have sworn she was back in their kitchen! My own red sauce only has enough sugar to cut the acid and full of sausage and short ribs. Good enough to elicit a marriage proposal I’m told. Theirs was too sweet and just not meaty enough with the very fine ground meat. Not bad, but nobody would propose over it.
My husband really liked his spinach and feta stuffed chicken breast. I tried it as well. Chicken was cooked very well. Juicy. Had very nice flavor. His also came with polenta, which was completely swimming in sauce and just not visually appealing to me. –When it came out, I couldn’t even tell what he’d ordered. I still liked it enough to steal an occasional bite from his plate though, but should I order polenta from there, I will be sure to ask them to only add half of their usual amount of sauce.
Wendy might be my favorite waitress I’ve ever had. I liked Wendy’s attitude and humor so much that I’d like to take her to lunch just to keep listening to her speak. She was exceptionally helpful; very knowledgeable of the gluten free menu; very patient with our table’s questions and stayed on top of our table’s needs without being overbearing, all while delivering comedic comments. If all wait staff at every restaurant could be that fantastic, we’d all be very lucky people indeed. –She earned the biggest star of the night; although, my brother might say she tied with the GF fried chicken. ;)

I ate here last night and will return because the food was fantastic, but our waitress on the other hand wasn’t really that great. I had read a lot of other reviews on here and knew the service was going to be hit or miss. We got a miss. Hopefully next time we will have a little better service.
My friend and I were not in a hurry, but the entire dinner took 2+ hours. Our waitress just seem preoccupied with tables other than ours. We initially asked for another minute to look over the menu since neither of us had been there before and after 45 minutes we had to ask the owner to send our waitress back over so that we could order.
Now onto the food… I ordered the chicken parm and asked for the tomato cream sauce on the penne pasta. The chicken parm was good, not the best I have ever had, but good. The tomato soup that came as a starter was one of the best I’ve had. The tomato cream sauce on the penne was awesome. We ordered the brownie sundae for dessert and I was totally blown away with how good it was. There was this cream cheese topping that was to die for. It was warm and served with ice cream and whipped cream. Delicious!
I had to ask twice for a glass of water and my friend had asked for a refill on her drink half way through the meal and never got it. There were a lot of larger parties in there and it seemed like there were only 2 waitresses working which didn’t seem like enough.
Will be back based on the food alone. A bit pricey for the area like others have said, the quality of the food makes it worth it.

I was just here last night, and I already can’t way to go back. In fact, I left so full I could barely walk, and yet after I got home, wanted to open back up the leftovers and eat more! I am only disappointed I never visited earlier.
Immediately as we walked in, I was pleased. The hostess was very friendly, offering us a spot either in the dining room or the bar. We chose the bar, and it was a good choice. Everyone was watching the USA World Cup Game, and it was a great atmosphere. We were all starved, so we decided to start with an appetizer before our pizza.
We settled on the calamari, and I must say, it was hands-​down the best I’ve ever had. Light fried crust and the calamari was so well cooked. Not rubbery; almost melt in your mouth good.
For dinner, our group of four ordered 2×14″ pizzas. The boys shared (and finished!) a half pepperoni and half sausage. The fresh sausage was delicious and the cheese was greasy and fantastic. Us girls split a 14″ with black olives, mushrooms and green peppers. The peppers were crunchy and the toppings were plentiful. To top it all off, the ranch for dipping was amazing! We ate about half of the pizza and split the rest to bring home.
The prices are a bit on the high side, but the food really was great. Our server was attentive, friendly and helpful as well!

We went here for a date last weekend and absolutely loved it.
For an appetizer, we ordered the toasted avocado, which was great. Imagine an avocado lightly heated and decorated with bruschetta toppings. It was out of this world, so I hope they continue to offer it since it was a only a special for that night.
For dinner, we split the eggplant rigatoni dish (also a special). The waitress was amazing at accommodating our request to split the meal, even so far as splitting the salad that comes with it.
This place is great for a date night or for a night out with the family, but it’s not too fancy. The prices were a little high for Naperville, which is why we split the dinner, but we really liked it overall.

I’ve had the pleasure of dining here twice and coincidentally, been seated in the exact booth on both occasions. The bf and joke that it is now «our» booth.
After being seated by the extremly friendly host, we ordered our drinks. I wish I could remember our waitress’s name, but I can’t recall it. She was very friendly, attentive, and kept us «in the loop» about the status of our order.
My drink for the night was an Abita Satsuma Harvest Wit. I had never tried it, though I’ve tried four of Abita’s other brews and I’m quite the fan. After a sip of the Satsuma Harvest Wit, I was pleased with my selection and I must have been rather thirsty, as I ordered another one almost immediately.
For our appetizer, we selected the Spinach Artichoke Dip (bf’s choice — he’s a S&A addict). It’s a large appetizer and I knew immediately I wouldn’t be finishing my entrée, that’s for sure.
I chose the Chicken Picatta for my entrée, which was boneless chicken breasts sauteed in white wine and lemon, served over angel hair pasta and topped with capers (similar to the Chicken Limone at Luigi’s, so it seemed). I had the choice of soup or salad with the entrée, and I chose the mixed greens salad.
Our appetizer arrived quickly, however the entrees took quite a bit longer. It was Black Wednesday though, so I understand. Once the food arrived, I was correct in my assumption that I would not finish my entrée as the portions are quite large. I enjoyed my meal as did the bf (he orderd the same thing) however we both agreed we didn’t really care for the chicken. It seemed rather… greasy? It wasn’t bad, just not great. The mixed greens salad was fabulous.
I wish this place was a little closer to home, but it’s definitely worth the trip and we’ll certainly be back again. You definitely get your money’s worth here!

I’ve been here a handful of times and each experience is always an enjoyable visit. The tables are a bit close together and the waitress must of bumped into me at least a half dozen times this visit. The salads are so crisp and fresh but I need to remember to have the dressing on the side, as otherwise it’s a bit heavy for my liking.
One of my guests got the white pizza and it’s a first for me to sample. I’m stuck on red sauce and pepperoni but I see one of these for my carry-​out plans in the future. The crust was cracker thin and had an amazing flavor. Not sure if the olive oil is what sets off the flavor, as even the edge crust had a great taste.
Since it was National Pasta Day, (no one here even knew this!) I went with the chicken bowtie. It was a huge serving and I hope to enjoy the leftovers just as much. Nice fresh broccoli and tomatoes, also the great waft of garlic, it was wonderful.
There was lip stick on the wine glass… sorta gross but was quickly replaced. An apology from the manager should of been in order, as he did make the rounds to check on the meals. I trust that’s not a normal occurrence but should be on their radar.
The other dish my guests had was the shells and sausage and his plate was licked clean. They serve great warm fresh bread. It’s hard not to fill up on it and I was sure to soak up some of the extra juices from my bowtie chicken.
If you’re picking up pizza… there’s a separate entrance on the north side of the building. It can get crazy busy and they only take reservations for parties of five or more. We were safe on this Thursday early evening but the previous weekend there was a thirty minute delay and I was too hungry to wait, so it was great to be seated promptly before our movie tonight.
Biaggi’s has nothing on this place IMO and I prefer to support a smaller family business than a corporate chain. Get in here and enjoy!