Bacchanalia
2413 S Oakley Ave
(at 24th St)
Chicago, IL 60608 (773) 254-6555
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Parking: Street, Valet
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
14 reviews
Neighborhood: The Loop
"Atmosphere: Theatrical Price: Lunch expensive Bathrooms: Very Clean Food: Excellent We went here for lunch after a meeting in the area! No…" read more »
24 Reviews for Bacchanalia
Great neighborhood Italian restaurant.; Excellent food, big portions, cheesy bar in the front of the restaurant. VERY Chicago, in all the best ways. Only one heads up issue, they do not take credit cards, as I was embarassed to find out.....
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I came here for lunch yesterday, for the first time, and I was pretty impressed. There were plenty of open tables, so we did not have to wait. They bring some tasty pizza bread (of sorts) before dinner, along with the usual bread (both are highly delicious). For my main course, I ended up choosing Mastacholli. It was very good; better than Italian Village, almost on par with Mia Francesca's, in my opinion. Portions are big, so I had plenty to take home.
The cons of the restaurant:
They do not accept credit cards, so bring your checkbook (if anyone still has one of those), cash or ATM card to get cash out front. Also, the bathrooms are tiny, but clean. Oh, and they still have the rolling towel thing to dry your hands (not a fan of those more-than-average germ-infested things). But I'll deal. If I find myself in the area again, I'll definitely stop by.
Not too bad, but nothing memorable. The food was good but this restaurant sticks with the basics - nothing really creative, no signature dish.
Reasonably priced, parking is easy. They take cash or personal checks only but there is an ATM machine in the restaurant. The service was fine and our waitress was nice and friendly.
This is a hidden gem spot for sure. Unassuming from the decor, but the food is like youe grandmothers kitchen. Monica is our waitress usually, and the sausage and peppers is just so ridiculously GOOD! You have to order them 40 minutes ahead, but sooo good!
I'm so happy to see that this place is still around. Great, home-style Italian-American food, and it really embodies the quintessence of Chicago. I love the pasta e fagiole, and enjoyed everything else I'd ever ordered from the menu. It's also rewarding because it's a little marvel that's off the beaten track, and reasonably priced.
Bring cash, because they don't accept credit cards.
Almost hilariously so - a throw-back dining experience. The dining room reminded me of a smaller version of a VFW hall back in the 70's. A very elderly crowd to boot.
The chef is masterful with garlic. The pastas were pretty good, solid.
Our bus boy took care of us MUCH better than the Marsha Brady's Mom waitress. We received almost zero service from her and that made the evening a little unhappy as we rarely received anything - but the meal - that we ordered.
Wonderful Italian food...best in Chicago! This is in my top 3 favorite restaurants in Chicago for sure. The lasagna, tiramisu, and house chianti are my faves here. Go if you haven't already!
Mmmm. MMMM!
If this restaurant was in my neighborhood, I would befriend all of the lovely motherly waitresses and become a daily fixture. I would sit at the bar and chain smoke and be reminded of how nice it is to be in a restaurant that just serves wonderful food without an ounce of pretension. After the smoking ban goes into effect in 2008, however, I would just go there for the pasta. After a few years, the gooey mozzarella-y sauces would have squashed my desire to ever work out or move again and I would then be transported from door to door in a wheelbarrow pushed by my roommate. The neighborhood children would point and laugh, but I would have my deliciously cheesy lasagna to comfort me.
Thankfully, they're in LITTLE Little Italy (basically, in a tucked away residential area with a main drag with a number of restaurants), so I'm safe.. for now.
They lose .5 star because this was the quickest meal ever, and another .5 star because they're cash only (which we knew beforehand, thankfully). We walked in at 7:06 on a Saturday, and were out the door by 7:51. This could be good at times, but we kind of wanted to hang out and drink wine and watch the Sox game and not feel so rushed. But the food was swell.
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This place is great, best Italian food in Chicago. I do not come here often cause I am not an Italian guy but its good food when I am looking for Italian. My dad told me this place helped him get a raise when he took his boss here. So not only it fill you up and taste great, it helps with your life. The people in this place are friendly. Some places give you a fake smile but this place every time I walk in I feel that they want me here. Great place for lunch or dinner and the food is inceible for the price.
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Old time favorite, Very authentic and huge portions, Chicken and veal are exceptional, Soups are simple and full of flavor, Service is also very good, Parking is a challange but worth it.
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Evenings can go either way here. The food can be fantastic, sans the gnocchi which is just a pasty mess, or mediocre. Shellfish is almost always superb. The ambience hasn't changed forever and that is a good thing. The winelist is full of robust hearty gems if a bit overpriced. I never tire of going here but it is best on busy nights. When slow they seem to be off kilter and the food can show it.
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I absolutely love this family-owned Italian restaurant. It is the best resaurant on Oakley. I used to live a couple of blocks from Bacchanalia's and would eat there or take out at least twice a week. Oh how I miss the old hood. The portions are large and the prices are great .
Here's a list of my favorite dishes:
Chicken Vesuvio
Chicken Bacchanalia
Veal Al Lemone
Veal Vesuvio
Shrimp Vesuvio
Shrimp Bacchanalia
Linguini and Mussels red or white wine sauce
Baked Clams
Mostaccioli
Ravioli
Tortellini
Make sure you save room for the Tiramisu.
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Ohhhh deliciousness. I love this place, I throw a fit when anyone I know has Italian anywhere else. This place is cozy and warm and the staff reminds me of a team of sweet grandmas making sure you're so full you can hardly move. There's plenty for vegetarians including an amazing garlic and olive oil pasta and delicious ravioli and manacotti. Plus, I discovered this place while stalking an old friend's dad who we were sure was in the mafia. We found him in there having espresso with a bunch of rich old Italian guys. Awesome!
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This cozy and quaint Italian restaurant is very "old school" Italian like its neighboring restaurants in the Heart of Chicago. I went there for lunch and the portions are huge and the prices very reasonable. You get a small bowl of soup with your meal and bread and foccacia. The food was fresh and flavorful. I opted to try the gorgonzola gnocchi. This gnocchi was stuffed with the cheese and covered with a homemade marinara sauce. The flavor of the cheese was a little strong for my taste with the power of the marinara as well. However, it was still good to try it. I would definitely go back there and try a different pasta dish or the eggplant parmesan.
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Let me preface this by saying that we might have gone on an off night. While it was really good, I'm not sure it's worthy of five stars. The good things:
-Great servers. Not the fake, "I'm trying to get my hands in your wallet" types, but genuinely pleasant.
-Cool, old-world feel.
-Decent and well priced wine list.
-Awesome food and plenty of it.
-Good value.
The bad:
-Waited nearly 40 minutes after our reservation time.
-Just walking through the bar (we waited outside) made me leave smelling like an ashtray. Better ventilation could prevent this.
-The salads were a bogus attempt at best.
That said, it was an interesting experience and overall the food was good. I had the stuffed gnocchi and my girlfriend had baked shells. Both were very good but my guess is that you can't go wrong with any of the pastas. The dining room is small and there was a table of 12 seated behind us which made for a loud dinner. Midweek might be a better option if you're looking for a romantic night out.
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This is a throwback to the old time, a Marty Scorsese type of place, in ancient New York. No frills decor, intimate seating, excellent noise level, and crappy old bar in front. That is what I like. And the food, you can't go wrong. Chicago has lost its edge in old-time Italian joints, giving way to the kinds of places that cater to yups, and fuse their dishes with other styles.
Not so, here. This is good Italian comfort food, the kind that sticks to your gut, and makes you feel nice and sleepy on a cold winter's night. It's some of the best Italian food in the city. I personally recommend the sausage, peppers and potatoes. So plentiful that, no doubt, you'll be bringing it home for thirds, if not seconds. The Chicken Vesuvio is also quite special with the bird kind of crispy, and not gummy like most of the places that try too hard to be real Italian foods. They also have some of the best red sauce in the city, tastes perfect on the side of mostacioli they throw your way with each dinner.
Prices are excellent, and this place makes Taylor Street and Grand Avenue look like Disneyland.
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I had no idea this little row of fancy restaurants existed in middle of such an industrial ghetto. Saturday night and this one block is jammed packed with valet service and people in fur coats like it was Michigan avenue. We came here on a double date with Rachel H. The dining room was packed, luckily we were able to snag a table in the bar area. The food was plentiful and delicious, for $5 you can upgrade your meal to soup, salad, dessert and coffee status. Which is great because sometimes it's so hard for me to decide if I want soup OR salad, here I get both. I did get antsy after awhile due to the fact that the bar area was so cramped and smokey (BLEH), there was constantly a person's ass in my face or the worry of someone sitting down in my mostaccioli. Next time I will probably head over to this place on a weekday, or make reservations to sit in the dining room.
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My companion and I have been all about trying stuff in our neighborhood lately and this little place is just a few blocks from me. At around 8 on a Monday night it was not crowded and we felt like we were in someone's home just listening to the kitchen staff chat away. I cracked up overhearing our waitress talking about thinking of pouring vodka in her bad eye to cure it. My baked mostaccioli was delish and so huge I will be eating it all week. The minestrone is also very good and house made. We will definitely be adding this to our list of regulars.
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The restaurant is on the ground floor of a three-flat, so the bar and the dining room behind it are long and narrow, but informal and comfortable. The complimentary warm tomato bread is delicious, and helps you to be patient on a hectic night. When I lived nearby, this was the only Italian place in the neighborhood I went to. Entrees might seem to take longer than average to get to your table, but my favorite waitress explained to me that the sauces are made to order, which has to be unheard of anywhere else. The proof is in how fresh they taste. The spaghetti carbonara is the best I've had anywhere, and I'm pretty sure I've tried it everywhere. It's not on the regular menu, look for it on the specials list. When the carbonara isn't available, I get the ravioli. The filling is perfect, and the pasta is made fresh. Awesome.
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Haven't been in a while but seeing these other reviews makes me want to saw something about this place. I grew up in the building across the alley from this place.......when Bacchanalia used to be a tavern (where I could always find my uncle Frank). My dad says that before that it was a car fix it place. Go figure.
Anyways, when my nonna was still alive she would go here begrudingly (she always got claustrophobic here) but always enjoyed the food.
One of the few places in the neighborhood (besides Bruna's) that serves great Italian food.
If you haven't been down to this charming little area called the Heart of Italy, go there next time you've got a taste for great Italian food! Tucked away in an industrial area of the city, this 4 block radius of beautiful 3 flats and old school Italian restaurants boasts many great options for dining. Bacchanalia has got that old neighborhood charm, like when you walk in you feel like you're in your old Italian aunt's 3 flat. That's because you basically are in a 3 flat; it's crowded, it's full of Italian lights and tables crammed together, and a lot of really big cigars being smoked by very old neighborhood Italian men. But it's great - the food is so delicious, and the portions are huge - like dinner for the next 3 nights! We made reservations with a group of friends for this past Saturday night, and I had called on Wednesday and had no problem getting a table for a larger group. We tried several appetizers; highly recommended is the fried calamari, lightly battered and spiced to perfection. I would agree with the other reviewer that this is probably the best calamari in the city. The baked clams were also really good.
Vesuvio style seems to be a great bet here; they have chicken vesuvio and swordfish vesuvio, which I had and was really good. Also, you can get a lot of different pasta dishes sans meat, and they also have a baccanalia style chicken or shrimp which also was quite good. Pretty much anything on the menu that I tasted was wonderful!
If you come here, don't be shy; you have to walk thru the very crowded, very narrow bar to get to the dining area, and you will brush up very closely against everyone and anyone standing in the way. As it gets quite crowded on the weekend nights, it is inevitable that you will intimately have a brushing encounter with many strangers. So realize also that if you come on a weekend night, you will probably have to wait in this very crowded, very smoky bar. Or you could come at 5:30 for dinner like we did and not wait at all!
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It took someone dying for me to find out about this place. This little patch of Italian restaurants, Bacchanalia specifically, is a diamond in the rough. Located just north of Blue Island on Oakley, it is stuck in the middle of a residential area and is reminiscent of Little Italy in NYC (but with parking in the area!). The previous reviews correctly characterized the decor.
As for the food, this place is a solid 4. Not the best Italian food I have ever had, but still very good. We started with the Caprese, and was it delicious! A plate COVERED with medium slices of beautiful red tomatoes, perfectly sliced red onions, great mozzarella and fresh basil with a drizzling of the house vinagrette drizzled over the top. SO good. I followed it with the three cheese raviolis, which were pretty good and homemade. The cheese was quite nice, but I didn't really like the shape of the pasta, and it could have used a little more sauce. My companion got Eggplant Parmesan, which isn't on the menu, and wasn't bad; it would have been better had they used the non bolognese sauce, but we didn't think to ask since it isn't usual to put meat sauce in eggplant parmesan.
Also, the busboys hover. Don't leave your plate unguarded if you want to keep it around. My companion had finished half his meal, and we were talking and the busboy swooped in and asked if he wanted it wrapped up. It probably isn't as bad when it is busy, but we went on a Friday night about 6 PM and the busboys were right on the edge of being annoying.
Overall, this is definitely a place to support and head down to for its old school style. Plus, you might get to see the chef sitting by the bar who has to be named Luigi. Of course, if you refuse to support a place that serves a lot of veal and unsustainable "Chilean Seabass", this isn't the place for you!
EDIT - 1/24/2008 - I have downgraded my original review by one star. My foodie companion and I dined out last weekend, baring the FREEZING cold (yes, those sub-zero temperatures) because I wanted some delicious pasta, and he wanted their amazing fried chicken. The fried chicken met all our expectations, and it was delish - and their hand cut fries, excellent. My dish was absolute crap. I ordered the calamari linguine, but instead of getting it with a red sauce, I asked for an alfredo. No big deal, right? Well, it is a big deal when i comes out, and the alfredo is the consistecy of soup, there is no grab to the linguine whatsoever, and the whole thing makes you want to vomit. I am not one to usually send things back, but I sent it back. The fact the chef had the audacity to send it out like that apalled me. Even worse, he sent to waitress out telling me that since I asked for something "not on the menu" (aka, for white sauce instead of the red sauce) that he wasn't responsible for how it turned out. And he is a chef? What is so hard about cooking calamari, and throwing it into some fettuccine alfredo? And what moron of a chef actually cooks the calamari IN the alfredo sauce? Because the owner wasn't at the restaurant, the chef was the final authority, and of course HE couldn't be responsible for making a mistake! Oh no!
The waitress was nice, and brought me a salad and gave us a couple tiny desserts free, but the whole debacle soured me on Bacchanalia. Hence, I offer you this advice -- NEVER order off menu here, and always beware the chefs, because they are jerks. They won't be voted top chef here anytime soon!
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What a shock to see a block of unbelievable Italian restaurants in the middle of a neighborhood! I expected Paulie, Tony, and Chris to be sitting out in front of some of these places. Bacchanalia is the only spot I've been to on the famous stretch of Oakley Ave. Bacchanalia is so good that I can never convince myself to try another spot. The atmosphere is great, small place, with older full time waitstaff that really knows every ingredient in what your ordered. Try the shrimp Bacchanalia! You get the feeling that you are dinning in someones house. Pay attention to note how small the kitchen is. Bacchanalia is a must for any Italian lover in the city. Taylor street is nice, but this Heart of Italy or Heart of Chicago area is a must see and taste!
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Great Food!, Great Service! NO CREDIT CARDS-BRING CASH. If you want fru-fru, you're in the wrong neighborhood! Registrations recommended on Fri/Sat.
Bacchanalia is in little Italy--has been there for ages and you can imagine the history when you walk in--old time restraint, old time Chicago--deals being made in the back dining room over a drink. The place has many regulars, is small and family owned. The son and daughter of the original owners run it now and one of them are usually on hand.
All dishes are prepared from scratch, including the lasagna. The menu includes items that can be ordered as a full dinner item or ala carte(dinner includes soup/salad, specified dessert, drink), appetizers, side dishes(the spinach is one to try)desserts and categorized items(pasta, chicken, seafood). My husband usually orders the gnocchi's with a side of sausage, but i order all over the menu! The Shrimp Bacchanalia is one of their signature dishes and is excellent, as are the vesuvio dishes. We feel they also make some of the best calamari in the city and I wouldn't turn down the Tiramisu either! Specials are run nightly, including on Sundays. I don't think I've had many bad experiences here.
Why not 5 stars? The bathrooms. They're clean, but it's a regular bathroom, so only 1 person at a time.
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