Clara’s

I read these reviews and thought this should be tasty. Having a lot of food is just that a lot of food it doesn’t make it good. Who puts Tabasco sauce in arrabbiata? What «Italian» restaurant has Cajun chicken dish as any dish let alone as the special. Back to my pizza, the amount of chew on the crust is great for teething biscuits.
The hostesses were inconvenienced when I asked to sit al fresco nor didn’t understand that that meant.
The service was meh.
Go find another Italian restaurant.

The food was excellent and the atmosphere was awesome. Unfortunately the waiter that was serving us we SO sloooowwwwww.
My friends ordered a couple of pizzas and I ordered a mescalun green salad and salmon on top.
We also ordered grilled calamari which was amazing. We ate on the patio and it was pleasant. The only gripe besides the slow waitstaff was the fan blowing over our table and it was really cold. Took forever to get our check. I would come back though because I really liked the food.

Great place in burbs for Italian food and good Vino. Worth the trip out of city and plenty of room. Went with group of ten. Food and service awesome. Try the lasagna very good. Will be back soon.

I am a big fan of Italian food and my friends have been raving about this place for ages. It is a bit of a hike for me (maybe 30 minutes or so with traffic) but I was finally in the neighborhood and got a chance to check it out.
I definitely enjoyed the atmosphere and the friendly hostesses and wait staff. The restaurant is charming and cozy but with plenty of space to seat lots of guests. We were seated in a glassed in side area with the windows open which was very pleasant on such a nice day. Our orders were taken right away and the food was brought out promptly, warm and fresh. Nothing to complain about at all, and I enjoyed the experience there.
Italian restaurants are a tough market and it is hard to earn a 5 stars, especially in the western ‘burbs. There are so many great ones out there. There were a few reasons why I ranked Clara’s at a 3. I think my expectations were somewhat over-​inflated by all of my friends’ ravings about the food, as I found it only so-​so. My husband and I each ordered a different dish and then split them (the cheese ravioli, and the chicken parm) and we both weren’t thrilled. They were ok, but nothing that I would order again. The side salads were actually quite good and I liked the house Italian dressing, so I may try a larger salad as my main course next time I go. The bread basket and oil wasn’t all that great… I’d skip it. We ordered the chocolate cake for dessert and it definitely wasn’t worth it. Just a small bundt cake with a dish of vanilla ice cream, which I felt wasn’t very tasty and didn’t taste like a homemade dish. Ultimately, I think that for the price (quite pricey) the food isn’t comparable to what you can get at other restaurants in the area. Even Maggiano’s and Olive Garden are doing the buy one get one meal deal lately. So, getting just one meal that I wasn’t too jazzed about for the same price as I’d get two at the competition’s restaurants just didn’t feel like more than 3 stars to me. I’ll probably give Clara’s another shot in the future and see if I can find another meal that I like better there since I know so many folks love it, but the way I felt about my last meal I’d be more likely to continue going to Maggiano’s than to make the drive back to Clara’s on a regular basis.

It was good, but not the best Italian I’ve ever had. Nice ambiance and not too loud for private conversations. I need to try it again to see if it’s a 3 star or really a 5 star place.

We visited Clara’s for the first time this evening, for Mother’s Day. All the staff we encountered were very friendly and provided prompt, accurate service despite being very busy.
I had the creamy chicken pesto pasta and my husband had Clara’s Seafood Special, both were fresh, good sized portions, reasonably priced, and delicious. We were pleasantly surprised by the reasonable price and good quality of the kids meals, too (ice cream included but drink is not). Food is served with fresh bread and our entrees came with soup or salad. I had the potato artichoke soup which was creamy and flavorful, however it was a big stringy. The calamari was good, not great. The dipping sauce was marinara and a bit watery/​separated.
Overall, we really enjoyed the food, service and ambiance. We’ll definitely be returning!

Since Clara’s has called me twice to scold me for this review and posted a slightly misleading follow up, I thought I’d be very explicit.
The venue I booked for my rehearsal dinner permanently closed and I needed to find a replacement quickly.
I called Clara’s on a Saturday around 5. I was told the banquet person was on the floor and they could forward me to her voicemail. They said I’d get a call back that night. I didn’t pay much attention to the outgoing message about her availability because I was promised a return call on Saturday. I spent Saturday night watching my phone, expecting to have to duck out of my own birthday party to handle this.
I did remember that her outgoing voicemail said she had Sundays off, but it also said she checks email when she’s not in. I didn’t feel the need to send an email on Sunday because I assumed she had heard my message on Saturday and didn’t call back because it was late.
Monday afternoon rolled around and I hadn’t been contacted. I went to Clara’s website to find the phone number to call again and realized that they are closed on Mondays. I sent an email around noon (remember her message says she checks email!).
I didn’t hear back on Monday. Tuesday night, when I still hadn’t heard back, I booked another potential venue (they responded the same day). Tuesday night, I posted an initial Unilocal review about Clara’s lack of contact.
I was finally called back late in the morning on Wednesday. I answered and said I had found other accommodations. I updated the Unilocal review, mentioning that I was finally contacted on the fifth day.
Later Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from Clara’s, followed immediately by another, unknown number. I was in a work meeting and couldn’t answer. When I got out of the meeting, I called the unknown number back. It was the Clara’s banquet manager who kind of apologized, but was also kind of passive aggressive. She was sorry they couldn’t live up to MY expectations. Her message SAID she was out of the office (ignoring that I called on Saturday, when she wasn’t). She HOPED there wouldn’t be any more bad reviews from me on Unilocal.
She also tried to blame me saying that, when she tried to call back, my voicemail was full. This was parroted in Clara’s response to my review. To their credit, Verizon had pushed an update to my voicemail and I didn’t realize my mailbox was no longer set up. It wasn’t FULL, like they insist. Also, they’re acting like my voicemail stopped them from contacting me. I answered and spoke with them the first time they called me, on Wednesday morning. The only time I missed a call was later, when they called to complain about the Unilocal review.
In conclusion, they didn’t get back to me until 5 days after I called, when they promised a response on the same day. I received phone calls to complain about Unilocal review. They posted a misleading response on Unilocal to shift blame and make it seem like my fault.

I have been frequenting Clara’s for many years. I love their new location for the atmosphere and am so thrilled that the food has stayed of the same quality as their original. I really cannot say enough good things about the food here. When anybody says they don’t love Italian food, I tell them its because they have yet to try Clara’s — has never failed either. The food is just so fresh, all the sauces are amazing. My family and I prefer spicy food so whatever we choose to order we ask for the sauce to be the arrabbiata sauce. It’s heavenly on their vegetable lasagna. Its easily one of my top 5 restaurants I eat at. We come here for all big events and have so many memories at both locations. Service is always so friendly and accommodating. The wine list is amazing and the recommendations for pairing are always on point. The bread is fresh and tasty. I’ve never had a bad meal at Clara’s and will continue to frequent this gem in the suburbs. And on top of all this goodness, the prices are so reasonable for huge portions! My tips would be to replace any of the entrees with arrabbiata sauce for some spiciness and also to order the pasta e fagiole! Enjoy!

This was the third time I have been to Clara’s and I was very disappointed. The waitress was being rushy on what we wanted to eat. I order a speciality meal gluten free penne pasta, grilled chicken (not grilled it was pan fried), sautéed spinach, Portabella mushrooms and broccoli. The whole meal was so salty I couldn’t eat it. For the cost just for my meal was $ 24. There mugs look dirty like they have never been cleaned, waitress said the mugs are cleaned with wire wool. Don’t think I will coming back to Clara’s

I have been here (and the old location) on a few different occasions and have never come away hungry or disappointed. We had reservations for 5pm on Saturday and arrived about 15 minutes early. We were seated right away and the focaccia and rolls with the olive oil dip was brought out right away. The focaccia with the olive oil dip is almost enough of an appetizer on its own, but there After ordering our drinks, we ordered the appetizer of Buratta and Prosciutto. The buratta was very fresh and tasty. The only minor issue was they served it with a fork, but you really needed a knife to cut into the buratta; the fork just had it moving around.
For the entrée, I ordered my favorite dish, the Rudy Jr. Shrimp Special. There are just a few dishes I have enjoyed in life that I have actually dreamed about. This is one of them. It is a very simple spinach & egg noodle dish but the garlic & wine sauce is what makes it. I was curious this time about just how many shrimp were in the dish and there were 14, about ¹⁄₃ of a pound. Many more than I have gotten at other, higher priced places when ordering shrimp scampi or other similar dishes. I always end up bringing at least half the dish home from Clara’s because there is so much food.
My boyfriend ordered the Cream of Chicken Pesto. We were both surprised at how much chicken was on the dish. There was A LOT. Again, there was so much on the plate that it makes for very nice leftovers.
I’m already anxiously waiting for my next opportunity to come back.

We arrived a little after 5pm on a Saturday. We have attempted to dine here before and were met with a 45 min wait for a table. Today we waited about 5 minutes for a table for 4 (2 adults and 2 kids)
The kids menu is nice. The kids get a choice of pasta with a choice of sauce or lasagna or I believe baked mostacoli. They also receive a scoop of ice cream at the end of the meal. One child chose spaghetti with marinara sauce and the other one choice spaghetti with butter and cheese. When brought to the table there was a definite difference in portion size. The Butter and cheese noodles was about ½ the amount of noodles as the marinara noodles. Big disappointment.
We ordered calamari for an appetizer. I enjoyed it, my husband found it to be just ok.
My husband order Meat lasagna and I ordered chicken and portobello with pasta. Wow that was a lot of food. The lasagna was enough to feed 2 people and my dish was enough for a table of four to share! It was all good and very filling. But that’s it… just good. It wasn’t the best Italian food ever. It was just ok.
Would I dine here again? Yes.
Would I rush to dine here again soon? No. I would pick many other restaurants before this one, but if I was having dinner with someone that wanted to go here I would be fine with the choice.
The waiter was pleasant and attentative. :-)

The takeaways: great food, healthy portions, amazing prizes.
I’ve been going to Clara’s as long as I can remember — both the old location and the new one. The new location features more seating, an updated (but classic) décor and ample parking. The one thing that has never changed is the quality of the food. The menu is expansive without being overwhelming, has options for everyone, and everything I’ve ever had has simply been fantastic.
I was there this past Friday and a dinner for two (with a bottle of wine) rang up to $ 55. The wine was $ 30 of it. The food is beyond reasonably priced. Drinks run a little more expensive but comparable to the area, and they have a nice wine list that compliments their menu. Service is attentive and pleasant. I really have quite liked everyone that works here that I’ve interacted with. It goes beyond the generic «nice to have you» — they’ll make actual conversation with you. It’s very nice and contributes to a very pleasant atmosphere.
Note: Clara’s does not, as far as I know, take reservations. It can get very busy especially on Friday/​Saturday prime time. I’ve had to wait a time or two, but they’re always honest in their estimates and then you have to decide if it’s worth the wait.

One of the best Italian restaurants we’ve ever been to. Never once had a bad meal in over a dozen visits.
You can ask for Pat — our preferred — or any of the servers… they are all superb.
Our favorites are the Calamari for the appy (make sure you order that grilled), with the Steak Toto and Shrimp Ersilia for entrees. They are always accommodating, so make sure you ask for extra mushrooms with the steak (cooked rare, of course) and some spice added to the shrimp — you won’t be disappointed.
Finish things off with the Lemon Delight if they have it!
They also have one of the best quality wine selections in the area with reasonable prices on everything.
All of the food is well above average. You’ll get 5-​star restaurant food and service, but at 3-​star prices.
One of the very best in the Woodridge/​Naperville area and well worth the drive even if you’re not local.
Enjoy!

The inside of Clara’s is beautiful. Whoever designed and decorated it deserves lots of kudos. It is super open with at least three different large-​party areas. We got to peek inside the one the host sat us next to and it looked as if it belonged in a little European village. From the strung lights to the amazing window fixtures, it was all breathtaking. Moving on to food; I got the half order of Clara’s Garden Salad with added grilled chicken and ranch dressing. The portion size was just enough for lunch. Oddly, the ranch tasted a little of tzatziki sauce (which I didn’t mind). The pieces of chicken were huge, but the seasoning was a little too salty for my liking. Not bad price-​wise, either.

I haven’t been here for maybe 5 years but what a step up from there previous location! I certainly enjoy bringing my business here than the lettuce chain restaurants or bucca. The food, service and atmosphere did not disappoint for our family post Christmas gathering.
We had reservations for Saturday… which I highly recommend and were seated promptly. Melissa was our waitress and was friendly, prompt and attentive.
We started with a light appetizer and wine followed by the gorgonzola side salads which were fantastic. The wife had the chicken parmagiana and I the chicken portabella both over fettuccini with the cheesecake as a follow-​up. There were somewhere around 12 different pastas that we could have substituted but the standard fettuccini was perfect as served. Portions were more than adequate… as a matter of fact we could have skipped the appetizer. as it was we have 2 days of leftovers in reserve .
When all was said and done we walked away with a conservative dinner for 3 at $ 88.
I highly recommend this place if you’re in the area… its a fantastic place well worth the adventure

This is my new favorite restaurant!
We came here over the weekend for dinner and it was a good 45 minute wait for 2 people. However, we jumped on 2 seats at the end of the bar and had a great dinner.
The bartender, Morgan, was amazing! She was so busy but had time to make my boyfriend and I smile and was on top of her game. So the service was just great!
The food was fantastic! We ordered Bruschetta as an appetizer and it came out fast. It wasn’t over-​soggy and the bread was toasted but soft on the inside. We also ordered side salads, I got the ceaser and my boyfriend got the house and both were delicious! The ceaser was a $ 2.25 up-​charge but there was definitely more to my salad than the house. Lastly, I got the fresh herb linguine with the vodka cream sauce with Italian sausage and my boyfriend got the rotini with primavera sauce and grilled chicken. Both dishes were amazing! The pastas are homemade and you can tell! My sausage was thinly sliced and vodka cream sauce was perfect. The grilled chicken and veggies on the rotini were also so fresh.
I cannot wait to come back here to try more dishes! The prices were also much lower than I expected. A glass of wine, beer, appetizer, salads, entrée pastas with a protein came to about $ 60. I definitely recommend coming here!

What a terrific experience! My wife has been talking about this restaurant for years. She was excited to try the new location but definitely nervous that all of her «hyping» would not match the new service. I have to say that I I was impressed from the moment I walked in. It’s a beautiful restaurant. We were greeted and seated immediately in the sun room with open windows and brightly colored walls. We were immediately helped by a very friendly server, Craig I believe, and then cared for by a team of people who made sure our glasses remained filled and that all needs were met.
The food… wow…visually appealing, wonderfully flavored and the portions were very generous. The options for sauces and extras are exciting and insightful.
I created a spaghetti bake which Ioved. I’m typically not a fan of tirmisu but Clara’s had me reaching for more.
Do give the new location a try. You can’t go wrong with any selection. We didn’t have the pizza but it looked awesome too!

Should I say my expectation was too high for this shinning new location? I was so excited to see how nice this new location looks comparing to their old place. This new Clara’s seemed always packed with the customers when I drove by at dinner hours.
The complimentary bread and dip were still awesome. The bruschetta was not what I expected. Mussel with marinara sauce was so so.
The old Clara’s has decent pasta dishes with excessive portion which is not the case anymore. The seafood pasta now came with ²⁄₃ portion of before and less seafood which should not be an issue if they could flat the price a lit. The angel hair was a bit overcooked. The same thing happened with the Veal chop which was served medium well instead of medium as I asked. Kids loved the spaghetti with meat sauce and the pizza so I was happy there.
Services were pretty good during a crowded dinner time. We made a reservation for party of 6 so no problems on waiting time. I wish I liked the dishes more as Clara’s is so close to where I live.

Great experience! I stopped in with my husband and mom. We had a heavy lunch and just wanted some appetizers and a glass of wine. They do not have tables in the bar so we put our name in and only waited about 10 minutes for a table.
Joe was an awesome server! He came to the table right away. He kept our wine classes filled and brought the appetizers to the table right away. The food had a great taste and was reasonably priced. My favorite was the pesto bruschetta with goat cheese. The stuffed mushrooms and mushroom pizza were something I would order again.
I did not have pasta on this visit but enjoyed the pasta dishes in the past. We’ve had issues in the past with Clara’s. I’m glad we stopped in over the weekend– great tasting food and the server was accommodating. I will be sure to visit again.

I’ve been going to Clara’s for a long time, way before this new location. My mom and I would pick up the tiramisu to go only. However, there is too much hype around Clara’s. Don’t get me wrong they do have good Italian food, but I’m biased because of Rosebuds Downtown Naperville.
This place is always packed and does not take reservations, which I find weird. At least they should put a certain amount of tables aside for guests who need reservations. Makes it inconvenient if you have more than 4 people. If you come during the dinner rush, you’ll be waiting awhile. Yes, there’s a bar, but I’m hungry! lol
The service once you FINALLY get seat is fine. I’ve never had any negative experiences with the servers. Again, this is a good choice for Italian, but not the best around town. The wait is just too long and there’s nothing special about the food to wait this long especially if I can make reservations somewhere else.