La Strada Ristorante

This past Friday I and my wife decided to give a last try to a restaurant we had visited on three other occasions. The first time the food was good but the service was so bad we felt that we needed to train our wait staff. We visited a second time soon after and again had the same experience. Good food. Bad service.The third time we visited, nearly a year later, Ginger thought that perhaps the staff would be better trained and would do a great job serving a good meal. Instead we found the service superb but the food had fallen down some and was just okay. We felt this evening maybe it would all click.

La Strada is a popular name for Italian restaurants and this La Strada has two locations. One in Chicago on Michigan Avenue and one in Hoffman Estates in the suburbs. Earlier in the day I called to make reservations as the La Strada Ristorante web site indicated. An answering machine told me to leave my name and desired time on the machine. I felt kind of iffy....What if the time I wanted for the number of people in the reservation couldn't be accommodated? Would we show up and not have a table? At any rate, I left my name (party of two) and the time we would want a table (6:30PM). We arrived at exactly 6:30 PM and were told by the hostess that she didn't have my reservation. Now I was a bit miffed. I asked the hostess why anyone would bother to use their phone messaging system if this was the typical result. She assured me that we could still have a table and reservations weren't needed for this evening. She motioned for us to follow her and we passed through a narrow hall with cases which I recall used to house fresh meat and a tank that held lobster on the right and a glassed in bar area on the left. Both lobster tank and meat cases were covered with table cloths. We were led into the main dining area where Ginger and I have enjoyed the ambiance in the past. We have sat in a booth in the main area and also a more intimate booth off to the right of the main floor. As we were escorted to a table near the south facing windows, I remarked to Ginger that the place was empty. Maybe it would pick up later.

We were seated and not immediately greeted by our waitress yet she did pass by the table and called over her shoulder that she would "be right with you." We nodded and waited a few minutes before she returned with water and menus. She introduced herself as Melissa. You could determine who were wait staff versus servers and bus staff by their attire. Melissa wore a white shirt and wide black tie in a Windsor knot and black pants with a white apron tied around her waist. Very professional and friendly. She informed us of the specials and took our cocktail orders. Ginger as is her habit ordered the house Chardonnay and I ordered a house Chianti Classico. Off she went to secure our glasses of wine.

While she was away a server walked up to the table and laid down a basket of warm bread. looking around on our table we spied saucers, extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper shakers.... that's right not a pepper mill but a shaker. A saucer in front of each of us quickly got a drizzle of olive oil and a shake or two of pepper. Tearing off small pieces of a very delicious bread we dipped it in the oil and enjoyed a couple of nibbles while we looked over the appetizers on the menu. After a few minutes the same silent server returned and placed a small bowl with grated Parmesan cheese on the table and produced a spoon which he plunged into the bowl, turned on his heel and zig-zagged his way through the maze of tables and disappeared into the kitchen. Nearly five minutes later he returned and placed a small plate on the table with exactly four pats of butter arranged in the points of the compass. Again he was swallowed up by the kitchen in the same manner as before. Ginger and I looked at each as we munched on our bread as we wondered aloud why we didn't get the butter when the bread was first brought to the table. Oh well ..... we looked at the menu some more and marveled at a menu that was all over the place with far too many selections. The only area that wasn't crowded with choices was the appetizer section. Well friends, to our surprise our silent server arrives at our table again this time bearing a small plate with a head of roasted garlic which he places in front of the butter such that the butter, Parmesan cheese, bread, olive oil and pepper shaker were all lined up and bisected our table in a line east to west. What Ginger and I find hard to fathom is why all of these items didn't come out at the same time. It was clear to me that the server used only one hand during each of these deliveries. Unbelievable!

Somewhere between the butter and the garlic arriving at our table the waitress deposits our wine on the table and we decide on the bruschetta. Melissa thanks us for the order and marches off to place the ticket with the kitchen. Not long after that she returns with our appetizer and Ginger and I dive in since it was now nearly a half an hour since we sat down. Melissa asks if we have decided on our dinner selections and Ginger orders the special which is a grilled Mahi Mahi and asks that it just be grilled and leave off the cream sauce. No problem she says and turns to me. I scan the seafood section and finally my eyes settle on a delicious sounding concoction of Zuppe Di Pesce (sauteed fish, clams and calamari served over linguini in a brandied tomato sauce). She writes the order down and dismisses herself to place our order. After only a couple of bites we realize that the bruschetta isn't anything to write home about. In fact the only reason I write about it here is the sheer blandness of it. There was no tasting the tomatoes. I could barely make out onion and it wasn't red onion. There was no evidence of olive oil or balsamic vinegar. The basil was the only thing that stood out, but barely. The crostini wasn't properly toasted and, in fact, appeared to be just bread that was left over and dried under a low heat in the oven. Ginger took one of the crostini and turned it on edge to show me how it actually matched crust on the bread that we had enjoyed earlier. The best bruschetta preparers always toast the bread on a grill after brushing lightly with olive oil and grill marks are in evidence. Not so at La Strada.

Don't look now folks but the silent server has returned, using both hands this time, carrying my pasta and Ginger's Mahi Mahi. He waves the bowl under our noses without a sound and I realize he expects us to identify who gets what. I raise my hand and the bowl is placed in front of me and the plate in front of Ginger. At that moment Melissa returns and asks if we need a refill and we order the same drinks again. The wine is passable and inexpensive so why not. Ginger says the fish is just okay and is cooked through but not really exciting....no spice....hmmmm. I taste my dish and I'm immediately disappointed. The sauce is dark, and the tomatoes appear to have given up the fight. There is no brightness with this sauce and it is an overly salty red mush. I detect a burned flavor and begin to wonder just how long this sauce sat on the stove and how many days it was stored in the refrigerator and then returned to the stove for the next day's service. The fish wasn't there except for a small inch by inch square. The clams were definitely overcooked and flavorless and the calamari rubbery. But wait, it gets worse. As I try and dig into the glop poured over the pasta I notice that there is no cling to the pasta. It seems that the sauce has been washed off by the amount of water that was apparently added to my dish by the improper draining of the linguine before it went into the bowl. As Harry Caray would say.....HOLY COW! This was worse than terrible. It is nearly inedible and I stopped eating after only a few bites. I'm not being overly critical. I'm just being honest. When our waitress returned to ask how everything was I asked her to taste the Zuppe Di Pesce and she reported it not too good and salty just as I had thought. She offered to get me something else and I, of course, refused. She even offered to take my dinner off the bill and again I refused. There was no way I was going to eat anything else this evening. I didn't accept the offer to remove my dinner from the bill as I was writing my review of this restaurant and my integrity and my self imposed policy won't allow it.

La Strada has disappointed for the fourth and last time. The only thing that would get me to go back to try again would be a report, from people I trust, that the food and service are again superb. We asked Melissa if there was a chef in the kitchen to which she replied "no only a cook." This is what I think..... There is only one chef for La Strada and he is in Chicago. He showed some people, with rudimentary cooking skills, how to prepare his menu when the restaurant first opened and when he felt they had it down off he went back to Chicago and rarely visits his suburban location. Unless that chef makes frequent and regular visits to Hoffman Estates and actually sees what they are doing, tasting the food and seeing how the back of the house functions this restaurant will fail. As we walked from the restaurant at 8:15 PM the house was still as empty as it was when we first arrived with only a couple of tables that had diners. Perhaps this place has already failed. A shame because La Strada should have been so much more.

http://www.lastradaristorante.com/menus-hoffman-estates.html