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Acquaviva Winery
Categories: Restaurants Italian Arts & Entertainment Wineries Food Wineries Italian, Wineries [Edit]
47 W 614 Rt 38Maple Park, IL 60151
(630) 365-0333
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot, Valet
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- Free
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Classy
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
17 reviews for Acquaviva Winery
17 reviews in English
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Review from Max M.
5/20/2012
Glass half-empty:
Illinois Wine.
Faux Venetian decor.
Located in a far West suburb.
Glass half-full:
Respectable wine. (Donna Mia was really good!)
Generous portions.
Very solid Italian American Food. (golden calamari, thin crust pizza, veal piccata)
Friendly Service.
Vineyard in Illinois!
Nice patio.
Fiancee and I each ordered the Herb Crusted Whitefish with sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes for $16.95 a piece. We each received a side of an entire Whitefish filet! It was VERY fresh and cooked perfectly.
Honestly, I would go back at least once a month for the Whitefish and a glass of ice cold Illinois white wine on a hot summer day.
Definitely worth a visit for anyone living in the West Suburbs. Don't let the Sopranos vibe distract you....Acquaviva Winery is a pleasant surprise. -
Review from Jake W.
Campton Hills, IL
5/13/2012
Knew this place existed for a few years, but ate there for the 1st time a few days ago. Since it's a winery, let me say a word about the wine - it's great. Definitely a fan. The food was pretty good as well. Good atmosphere to sit down for some good food and drink a bottle or two of wine while enjoying the company of a few friends or family members. Wait staff is very nice; food prepared fresh. Nice Italian decor. Since this is essentially the only type of place out in the western suburbs it can get pretty busy so I'd advise to make reservations.
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Review from Dianne S.
11/20/2011 1 Check-in Here
Who knew that the Midwest could grow a decent vine?
Believe it or not, the western suburbs has a vineyard/winery to boast of.
Acquaviva Winery is a beautiful stone building that sits across of its vineyard on Route 38. The venue has banquet hall look with a more intimiate feel. Paintings of Venetian bridges and gondolas pair well with the Italian fare menu. Gianni on the keyboard plays and sings a mean Michael Bublé.
Service was very hurried and chaotic, but our waitress, Erin, did her best to keep on top of things. She was very friendly and apologetic when the wrong appetizer showed up on our table. She even let us keep the extra appetizer that was accidentally delivered. Also, when my husband had a mild allergic reaction to my fish entree, Erin asked around for Benadryl-pharmacist and server all in one!
The menu promised authentic and simple Italian cuisine. I couldn't wait! I had missed great Italian food since coming back from a recent trip from Italia. Unfortunately, the food fell short of my expectations.
Appetizers:
-Polpo e Calamari alla Griglia ($13.95)... I was hoping for more of a clean octopus flavor ever so slightly accented by a good char and lemon drizzle. Instead this octopus and squid combo was doused in a heavy balsamic vinegar reduction.
-Carciofini al Forno ($9.50)...These artichokes were covered in melted mozzarella and had a slight kick-paprika? Too much cheese. Quite heavy for an appetizer.
-Calamari Fritti Dorati ($10.95)...Nothing special. Fried calamari. More tentacles than usual, definitely a plus.
Entrees:
-Muletto al Forno ($16.95)...A whole white fish fillet with a crispy bread crumb topping served with two mounds of sauteed spinach and a handful of potato wedges. Good but not outstanding.
-Chilean Sea Bass ($29.95) served on a bed of seafood risotto...My husband did not enjoy the grainy, undercooked risotto.
My husband and I enjoyed a bottle of their Bianco Bello ($20.95) white sweet wine. They only offered three choices of white wine, two of which were sold out. Bianco Bello drank like a dessert wine, just as sweet as moscato.
Overall, Acquqviva offers large portions of mediocre food that tries to pass for Italian eats. The space is definitely beautiful and the wine decent. Maybe I'll come by for their wine tastings (6-1 oz pours for $6). -
Review from Kevin D.
Saint Charles, IL
8/6/2011
Had a great afternoon visit. The facility is gorgeous and the wine was good for an Illinois winery. Bottles were a little expensive, but I imagine they have a lot of overhead. We had a salad and a pizza for three of us, and it was very fresh and authentic. The caesar salad was great. By the way, I had no idea the winery was a full service restaurant, but the entire building is mostly restaurant. The tasting bar is small and can handle around 10 people. Oh, and they do charge $5 for 5 tastings, but again the wine is good and the building was beautiful.
Give it a try! -
Review from Melissa V.
Lily Lake, IL
1/12/2012
I REALLY wanted to like this place because its practically in our back yard, but we can't get past the terrible service and bad food with unnecessary high prices. The ambiance is gorgeous and a couple of the wines are pretty good- my boyfriend I are huge wine drinkers. We'll probably go again out of sheer convenience and proximity, but would't really recommend anyone to travel far to eat at this place for dinner.
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Review from Critic D.
St Charles, IL
6/30/2011
First time visitor. The place is drop dead gorgeous! Ceilings are amazing.
Kind of confusing as to where you go - there are tables to the left and to the right...the left has a gift area spread around the perimeter.
I was there with some friends. They asked for separate checks and we all know how that goes - not well. First, we ordered drinks, now remember we are at a vineyard. Those who ordered pop and iced tea got it almost immediately. This who ordered wine waited almost 40 minutes. Then came the food, everyone seemed to enjoy their lunch - salads, paninins, pizza etc. The service though was HORRIBLE, some of the food came out, some did not , the waitress never got the orders right which meant food went back, etc.
Then came time for the checks, 45 minutes later no one had the right one, she forgot to charge for the wine, etc.
Then we went over to do the tasting, no one was there, the tasting list showed about half were sold out, so we left.
We had each heard that service was terrible, but the place was not even 25% full, so we figured how bad could it be? Bad!
As an aside I had their California Chardonnay and it was a nice summer wine. Will we go back, probably if friends come to town but not to just eat - too many good places around with good service.Listed in: Dining around St Charles
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Review from Jon P.
Santa Rosa, CA
12/4/2010 1 photo
To set the stage, I'm a winemaker from Sonoma County, California who not only enjoys great food, but also appreciates fantastic wines. If this winery/restaurant were located in California, my rating would likely be three stars; however it's not. In fact, what owner Vito Brandonisio has built out in the middle of the Illinois heartland can only be described as amazing. It appears that Vito has spared no expense in building his dream; from the facility itself, to the materials and craftsmanship of the décor.
Overall, the food was prepared extremely well; everyone in our party enjoyed what they ordered. We started the evening off with the classic Bruschetta alla Romana; for being fall and in the Midwest, I was surprised that the tomatoes were actually ripe and had flavor. I ordered the Gnocchi al Pomodoro Basilico Sauce with Pecorino; the gnocchi was prepared correctly, great texture and was served with just the right amount of sauce - in other words, it wasn't swimming...
I specifically ordered the Frontenac, which we were told by our server was an estate wine, grown across Rt 38 at the winery's own vineyard. The back label reflected that the wine was bottled in Wisconsin, so it's possible that winery needed to crush and produce their wines elsewhere until this facility was opened. I'm not sure I can buy their description of this wine being an "Illinois Zinfandel." The flavor profile reminded me more of a Tempranillo, with flavors of blueberry vs. the classic Zinfandel red raspberry. Overall, the wine was appropriately dry and quality was clean and good.
Service was polite and very friendly; however not pretentious or very sophisticated. When we first arrived, we visited with the tasting room host, who raved about the food. We were made to feel comfortable and were not disappointed. I would summarize to say that for being located in corn country outside of Chicago, this is probably one of the most formal restaurants w/in an hour radius. I would also recommend coming here for lunch and hope to do so on my next visit. -
Review from Julia R.
Chicago, IL
7/8/2011
Went here for an anniversary, and it was very fun! Beautiful building, and great to have this sort of place near the suburbs.
Before dinner we tried 6 wines for $6 and it was fabulous! Our server at the bar was very nice and knowledgeable.
2/3 of the employees we dealt with gave wonderful service. Our waitress, however, was mediocre. Not bad but not good.
I ordered the Margherita Pizza and my boyfriend ordered the Lobster. We also got Calamari and Bruschetta. Everything but the pizza was delicious! The crust of the pizza was floppy and wet, and the toppings were flavor-less. Thankfully we ordered tons of food, and I was very satisfied.
I will definitely go back to Acquaviva, and I will just stay away from the pizza! -
Review from Dom G.
2/22/2011 1 Check-in Here
When you visit vineyards around the country it just doesn't stack up the others around the country.
Dinner was OK at best and the staff was very friendly and prompt. The ambiance was very inviting and warm, though it was a larger place it felt quaint.
The wines were good to taste and I enjoyed the tasting selection all around. The only wine that was really not that great was the Christmas Wine. -
Review from Alex A.
10/10/2010 1 Check-in Here
Good food, good service. I had Linguini w/ Clams & Mussels; the mussles were a bit "oceany", but the sauce, pasta and clams were tasty-with-a-kick.
I recommend this place for either date night or girls' night out, not for casual dining.
A gift shop is also available. -
Review from Gabriela S.
Spring Valley, IL
1/4/2011 1 photo
I was going to school a few towns over in DeKalb and occasionally you get bored and decide to roam the countryside but in this Case it is more like the cornfields. We drove up to this 4-way intersection and to our amazement there is this palatial looking building made of what appeared to be granite or some other fancy rock. Another uncommon sight was the fact that they had a door man open and close the door for you. Inside was vast and expansive, the tasting bar is the first item into view then on the venture to the left and they have a small market like area filled with Italian goodies, for example, cheeses, cookies, salami's, etc. To the right of the bar was the restaurant with big open windows to let in the light.
All the employees were nice and helpful, while at the bar I decided to go for their tasting menu, which was small samples of each one of their wines. They were all good which is strange because I am not a red wine fan and for me to actually like a red wine is saying alot. I went home with a slight buzz (my friend was driving so its okay) and a bottle of white wine called Brianna for a special occasion which turned out to be New Years Eve well into New Years Day, all by myself.. Definite stop if you're in the area and bored and want to be whisked off to an unsuspecting region of Italy or France your choice.Listed in: DeKalb, IL Food Joints
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Review from Julie P.
Maple Park, IL
1/16/2011 1 Check-in Here
Had a great dinner here over the holidays. Beautiful atmosphere, great service, knowledgeable waitress....They have California wine now which was a big plus for me... Not big on Illinois wine but some people may have fun trying it. dinner was awesome. I'm looking forward to trying it again to determine my final opinion.
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Review from Lulu K.
Elburn, IL
6/10/2011
Love this place! Great food, BEAUTIFUL place!!! A real gem. Servers are very nice however they get a little busy at times. Pizzas are just like I had in Italy... Yummmmmmm
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Review from Jeff S.
Batavia, IL
10/8/2010
Very disappointing. Service was extremely slow. It took 35 minutes to get a meat and cheese plate and it only had one kind of cheese. Wine was bland. The building is new and very nicely done. With this kind of service and food it will soon be the nicest 7-11 in the area.
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Review from Matt H.
DeKalb, IL
7/7/2010
Yesterday my wife Jill, our friend Mary and I met at a new place called Acquaviva Winery in Maple Park located at 47W614 IL Route 38. There has been a vineyard here for several years and the winery itself has been under construction for a couple of years.
We arrived right at noon and there weren't many people there. As we walked up the stairs we were greeted by a young man whose job appeared to be to open the door for us. Upon entering the winery we were immediately transformed to Italy by the ornately-detailed decor inside. The domed entrance reminded us of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. The columns resembled marble. The first impression was breath-taking. We were greeted and escorted past the wine-tasting area, the grand piano and the brick pizza oven. There is a terrace outside but we chose to sit inside as it was a bit humid outside. I was fortunate enough to be the person facing south so I had a view of the vineyard across Lincoln Highway which added to the Italian feel of the meal.
We were given a basket of bread and individual dishes of dipping oil and what appeared to be freshly grated Parmesan (I thought it would have been a nice touch if they had grated it freshly at the table but this was lunch and maybe they do that at dinner time or maybe they did and I wasn't watching?).
I am not much of a wine drinker and Mary, who is the most Italian person I know personally doesn't seem to be either. So Jill is the only one of us who ordered the wine. She had the Piacere (red) and she liked it very much..I think she had two glasses with lunch.
They had a nice lunch menu and Jill ordered an artichoke pizza from their extensive pizza selections. They seemed to be kind of designer pizzas and she shared it with Mary and I as her pizza arrived well before our food. The waiter explained that the pizza arrived earlier because it's cooked in a different oven (the brick fire oven we saw upon entering). My thought would have been to maybe not put the pizza in right away so that the meals could have been brought out together.
I ordered the baked artichoke hearts topped with mozzarella and Mary had a sandwich that looked like a Caprese sandwich with red peppers and a bowl of soup. We talked and shared our food and were there for quite a while. The place got very busy but that seemed, mostly, because there was a Porsche rally of some sort and this was a stop on their tour.
Mary and I both initially ordered the Crab Cakes that were one of the specials of the day but were disappointed when the waiter came back and said "the chef isn't ready to make them yet." Then why were they mentioned as one of the specials?
Jill's pizza was excellent and my baked artichoke heart dish was superb. I did not try Mary's sandwich as I think I filled up on the bread and dipping oil. In fact, at one point I asked for a second basket of bread. The waiter seemed put out by this. The new basket of bread was not warm and toasty like the first basket and it took longer to arrive than expected. It was clearly a different bread. I was willing to pay for the new basket of bread if that was the issue.
After dinner we went and browsed through their store. They have wines made on the property, of course, and they had interesting food items and a very nice selection of cigars. We decided to do a wine-tasting. It was $6.00 each for six one-ounce pours (six different wines). We tasted three whites (Prairie Star, Bianco Bello and Brianna) and three reds (Vitino, Piacere and Frontenac). Jill loved the Vitino. She loves, and regularly drinks, a wine called Beaujolais Villages and this wine is a Beaujolais-style wine. Though I am not a wine drinker for some reason I want to be a wine drinker because of the romance of drinking wine. Jill says that "you just need to find a wine that suits your pallet." It's kind of a quest I guess. I did like the Prairie Star and Bianco Bello okay. The only thing that I found negative with the tasting is that the palette-cleanser (bread sticks) were stale. But, I am not normally a wine-taster and maybe that is by design?
Overall the foods and the experience were fabulous. I did not find it expensive but other people have told us that they thought it was expensive. We were there for lunch and the others had gone there for dinner so maybe that is a different menu with different prices. I would recommend Acquaviva Winery for anyone who is looking to take a drive just a bit west of Route 47. The food is great, the scenery is amazing (especially for where it is located) and I found it moderately priced. There were the few glitches that I mentioned here but they are newly-opened and they are probably still fine-tuning. Bravissimo! -
Review from Stacee C.
Montgomery, IL
8/5/2010
Driving through the cornfields past La Fox on Route 38, you will be pleasantly surprised to find The Acquaviva Winery, right across the street from the vineyard which supplies some of the grapes they use to make their wine. The building is beautiful, inside and out...hand painted domed ceiling in the entryway, lots of stone and marble. I immediately thought it would be a great place for a wedding reception or other large party. There is a small store area with meats and cheeses, wine, and wine related gifts, a beautiful tasting bar, and dining area. Before we had lunch, my friend and I did the tasting to check out the flavors of the wine. They were out of one of the reds, but we tasted 3 whites and two reds. The bartender was very personable and patient with all the questions we had about the facility and the wine. We had lunch and shared a salad, which was nothing special, but the mushroom pizza was really good. And we splurged for dessert...the tiramisu was fabulous! It was all and all very pleasant. The facility has only been open for 2 1/2 months, and I am sure there are things that need to be ironed out. My prediction is this place is going to be jamming 6 months from now. There just aren't a lot of places in this location that have this kind of atmosphere.
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Review from Jerry P.
Warrenville, IL
Updated - 7/19/2010
This is a very cool place in a very nice setting just east of DeKalb on Rt 38. The food was excellent. Started with an artichoke appetizer, then split a chopped salad which probably had 10 or more ingredients, then ordered a scallop special and the hot Italian sausage entree. All were very well presented and most of all delicious!
The wait staff was very attentive, but not too, and very informative. We were offered more bread, but didn't take the bus person up on it.
The only drawback is the valet parking. The valet staff insisted on it, but the manager, Diane, says that they will give you back your keys while you dine. I didn't care for leaving my car to a very young person that obviously didn't know how to operate my car.
Acquaviva has now be operating for 2 months and already has a strong word of mouth following. For IL wine, it wasn't bad. I've had worse from MI. You won't find anything like it in the area!1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/18/2010
This winery is actually located at 47W614 Il Route 38
Maple Park, IL 60151 and not in Batavia.
The… Read more »
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