Gianni’s Cafe

Absolutely Excellent food. Attentive Servers!
Started with a stuffed artichoke, it was massive! First time experience with that appetizer, definitely enjoyed. Veal marinase as a main course, quite a large portion, only made it through a quarter of the plate. but had to indulge in a honey pistachio cheesecake for dessert. So silky smooth! Can’t wait to find room for the left overs.
Romantic atmosphere!

Ambience is great. Awesome décor, lovely restaurant, complimentary valet, good specials on some nights. However, I really wish the food tasted better or the service was better. Our waitress meant well but sadly was inadequate to serve our big party of 12. I wouldn’t mind giving Gianni’s another try in the future but will definitely have to order something I have not tried– which, I feel like we tried a lot of things off the menu:
Appetizers: grilled calamari was probably the most enjoyed, but the other appetizers we munched on while we waited a while for our orders to even be taken included the fried calamari, bruschetta, and stuffed mushrooms.
Salmon almondine: I honestly ordered this dish to avoid a saucy entrée, but that is exactly what I got. This salmon was swimming in sauce, which ruined the taste for me. My grandma had gotten the sea bass, which was a lot lighter and tastier in my opinion.
The desserts were rich and tasty– I especially liked mixing the chocolate cake with the carrot cake.
Overall, we were treated well, but our dinner took so long because of the extremely slow service and the several mistakes we encountered. If I enjoyed my main entrée more, I maybe would have had a better opinion on Gianni’s, but sadly I was disappointed after the recommendations I had gotten to try this place out. Lots of potential though, so maybe next time will be better!

We had a coupon in the mail and went here with friends to the weekend brunch buffet on a recent Saturday. Really glad we all went as the food is fantastic. We all tried almost everything on the buffet that day and the food is great and we all cannot wait to go again. The service was great too. Whatever bacon they use on the buffet is excellent … what a great flavor. I could not stop eating it. We ate so much from the buffet that we were all too full to try the omlets or the fresh made pasta so maybe next time. We all will definitely be back!

Great Italian food in the heart of palatine.
The valet parking is nice and necessary come Friday/​Saturday night.
Prices are a little high, but you do get a good amount of food.
They also do takeout too which is nice if you don’t feeling dining out.

With many of the Italian and Bruch restaurants disappearing Gianni’s offers both. Recently we took my inlaws to brunch there as the Milrose no longer offers a brunch. The Brunch had an Italian slant to it offering Italian sausage and a few pasta dishes. The two main negative was the seating was very cramped and difficult to navigate to the buffet as well as the omelet my husband received was too oily to eat. We may try again in the future but good to know in Downtown Palatine there is still a place to have brunch.

Delicious and authentic food. Had the chicken parm. Very good. The olive oil and cheese mix for the bread was great as well. Their house red was good too.
Great atmosphere and location. The service we received was good. No complaints at all. Enjoyed my experience. Will definitely be back!

Went to Gianni’s yesterday for a family brunch. Beautiful restaurant, excellent and expansive buffet brunch with made-​to-​order omelet and pasta stations. Great value at $ 17.50 per person. Only negative was the service was extremely slow. Took 15 minutes for our party of 10 to have a server come to the table, clearing plates and filling water glasses took long and we waited 20 minutes for our check after our plates were cleared.
We will be back!

Wonderful Italian food! Huge portions but that’s pretty much any Italian place. Had the sausage and pepper appetizer which was very good. What was even better was the eggplant appetizer with marinara sauce. That could have been dinner. I would recommend ordering it!
For dinner at our table, Lagnsa was ordered with bolgenses meat sauce. Huge portion and alot of sauce but delicious. The lobster tail of the surf n turf entrée, which was great! Seafood Linguine pasta, served with scallops, lobster meat, and shrimp. Very good. had leftovers for days though. And the sea bass with a side of potatoes was also amazing. Probably not a bad dish on the menu!

The food is really good here. This is my husband’s choice for a restaurant every year for his birthday, and because I am an awesome wife, I always plan a night out here
I am always happy with my meal and the drinks and really enjoy myself here.
The only negative is that the wait time is super long here. Everything seems to take many minutes. While I’m all up for people watching, I do get cranky when I am hungry. Sometimes I get real cranky waiting here.
That is of course fixed as soon as my food comes out.

This place came highly recommended but did not live up to our expectations at all. Pretty restaurant although the tables are on top of each other.
We were there on Sunday night, it wasn’t very busy but the service was very slow.
We ordered an eggplant appetizer that was very tasty. The chicken lemon soup was not great and not hot. I ordered the veal parmigiana and it was fair at best. More breading than veal. My husband had baked mostaccoli, it was tasteless and awful.
Don’t think we will be coming back!

Just had their Saturday brunch for the first time. It was fresh and very tasty. Very authentic and the service was splendid. We will b back. The décor is really pretty too. More people should know about their weekend brunch. Yum!

Stopped in here today on a whim! Was walking by the establishment last week and saw they were advertising a Saturday brunch. Talk about a SPREAD!!! Their options were amazing! Their food quality was amazing! Our waitress was friendly and quick to fill up our beverages! All in all I would say this is the best thing going in palatine for brunch! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

I really really really liked this place. The grilled calamari appetizer was different, unique and absolutely delicious! It was huge. I will order as my entrée next time. Service Was tops! Martini awesome. I’ve had better braciole (try Zeal in Schaumburg) but it was very very good. I will be back here. Can’t wait to try more on the menu.

Humongous portions, enough for 3 meals! I had the Friday special and the veal was so tender and flavorful. Bread is warm and fresh, bruschetta loaded with tomatoes.
The wait staff is friendly and professional, décor reminds me of Italy.

A strange and wonderful meal.
First, the food is good. Traditional Italian cooking with flair and variety. Pasta, fish, meats and oysters are on the menu. From eggplant to shrimp, each meal served and shared at our table received high marks.
Now the strange. We were seated for an early dinner (5:30) for 7 people and the tables are so close that seating, let alone serving, was a chore. How can you seat guests at a round table the server can’t even reach or walk around? Although the place was empty when we arrived, other diners were seated at one end of the restaurant and then packed in like sardines in a can. Conversations were overheard as other diners are an arm length or less. Two very large dining areas are underutilized at the detriment of the diners.
One note about the calamari. It is served fried, grilled or with two spicy seasonings. We ordered the milder of the spicy offering and it came out limp and covered with a butter like coating over the fried exterior. Not spicy in the least. Made an otherwise exceptional and generous plate of calamari go dead. We did see many others order the super spicy plate and enjoying the outcome.

Nice ambiance/​décor — well suited for friends/​family get together or date night.
Large portion pastas good for two meals. There are set dishes + create your own pasta section. Everything was solid Italian American cuisine, the only thing I LOVED was their chicken/​lemon soup (Avgolemeno-​like). There is a little bit of something for everyone.
There are TVs in the bar, enjoyed the open kitchen layout. Probably due to server sectioning our corner of the restaurant was full and the tables were too close in proximity. The middle of the dining room was empty — not sure if this was in anticipation of later reservations. Spent the entire meal shifting my seat so people at other tables could get past or to let food be served/​table be cleared which was distracting. Server was pleasant and flow of meal was fine.
3 positive stars — truly A-​OK.

The shrimp cocktail was butterflied shrimp which is odd and served room temperature. Not a great start.
Then I the filet mignon trio. One of the 3 fillets were cooked correctly at medium rare, was tasty and seasoned well. The other two were so overcooked they tasted like a burger. The side of broccoli was the star of this dish and delicious. The broccoli florets are enormous and you get 2 pieces.
My better half had the Chicken Marsala. She enjoyed it. You will probably have some to take home as they give you three chicken breasts.
The beer selection was very good with a good amount of craft selections. There is also a good wine list and original cocktails.
The service was pretty good. Our waitress was very nice. Our drink glasses were almost always empty before we were checked on and offered another. (in my experience this is usually always the tell tale sign weather you will get good or poor service)
We did enjoy the atmosphere.
Overall it was OK. We will give it another shot as it could have just been an off night.

Great décor, menu and food. Nice for a special night out.
The front desk always takes time to chat with customers, and you can tell by the many filled tables the locals are long time patrons. Of all ages.
Very attentive and friendly staff. Management comes by to check on things.
Very relaxed and inviting Italian restaurant conveniently located few steps from the Metra. Don’t get startled when an express goes by.
My new favorite Italian restaurant, can’t wait for my next visit to try a new dish.

I called ahead to make a reservation for a Sunday night dinner with family. The hostess seemed caught off guard. When I walked into the restaurant, I knew why. The place is relatively spacious, and there were only a handful of people in the dining area.
We were seated promptly, and our waitress was quick to come talk to our table about the specials and the available beer options. They have a decent amount of craft beer options.
They start you off with bread and oil with grated parmesan. The real parmesan not the cheese dust that you usually get.
The menu has enough items to give you a good variety without overwhelming you. All the descriptions sound delicious. The orders were varied at our table. The baked shrimp (very garlicky with angel hair pasta, cheese and bread crumbs), tilapia vesuvio, spaghetti with meatballs, and I ordered one of the specials of the day, meatball stuffed chicken parmesan.
You read that correctly. They took a delicious chicken breast and stuffed it with their meatballs, breaded it and fried it. Then they topped it with marinara and giardiniera on a bed of penne pasta. It was glorious. I only ate half of it. The other half made for an excellent lunch at work on Monday.
The food was outstanding, the atmosphere was nice (I wonder how it is on busier nights), service was good, and the menu is varied but manageable. I definitely plan on returning.

Our group enjoyed exceptional service and the food was fresh and tasty if somewhat ordinary.
I felt that the best thing on the menu was the create your own pasta dish– you can select your pasta, sauce (gravy) and 4 levels of add-​ins as desired. This is by far the greatest number of choices that I have ever seen in a build your own entrée type of thing.
Overall we felt it was a great place for a special occasion dinner or meeting, but a little pricey for what you get to make it a regular destination.