Danny's Cafe

Friends in town visiting, met at my fav place their treat. Frutti de Mare. Yum Yum.
Everything is great here and you could never go wrong.
Great food, friendly and fantastic service and fun atmosphere. Best place to come for an enjoyable experience that you will be sure to tell others about.
Like I said, the Frutti de Mare is delicious and worth every enjoyable bite. See for yourself.

We just left Danny's as we celebrated our Godson's christening. We want to thank Danny's for their great service (ask for Susie) and Vito for checking in. The party room seats 50 comfortably and the larger room 100+.
My family is still raving about the service, family style food and warm reception. This place honors authentic Italian food. We had linguine agli e olio, rigatoni w/ vodka sauce, killer meatballs, chicken parm and their house salad with salad dressing u dream about.
Thanks to the entire team for making our event so special and affordable. GO DANNY'S

Kudos to my often dining partner Allison V. for sharing this trek with me, I'd neither heard about its fame on local television shows or about its mention on Check Please.

Who hasn't had a good meatball sandwich right? Meatballs slathered in a zesty marinara sauce, occasionally topped with mozzarella or other white cheeses and hot peppers or giardinera served on a French roll, right? Here at Danny's they've created a game changer. Flattened meatball sandwiches. WHAT? & Why? Maybe they wanted to do something different and be known for it. But really, who cares. It is different and it's superb for it. Each of their meatballs are packed with flavor. Now I'm a self admitted sauce fiend. Think Smeagol sulking in a corner of the room getting all handsy with a tub of marinara sauce..."my precious" I love sauce and with a meatball sandwich I ask for extra sauce over the top. While marinara is an option, it's almost unnecessary. These meatballs have so much flavor, then say you have it topped with cheese and giardinera and it's served on fresh, oven toasted bread and you have yourself a fantastic sandwich. I wouldn't say "to die for" only because I wouldn't want to die for just one. I want to live so I can have many of 'em! Meatball sandwiches are served with your choice of house made chips, thin or thick. I like both of them, the chips are thin like a potato chip is and straight out of the fryer some are still soft and soggy while others are crisp. The thicker chips are of the fry variety, thick enough to dip into ketchup and get a nice textured bite.

Two additional menu items I will share with you which I found tasty. The calamari was perfectly fried and the cocktail sauce they offer pairs with it well, it's of the zesty variety, sometimes called "spicy". Also, I was ecstatic to find tartuffo offered as a dessert. Usually found as an Italian dessert. Two soft ice creams tossed together to form a ball. Inside of it can be a creamy, soft chocolate, chocolate sauce, etc. It's then coated in a dark cocoa powder and topped with a bit of fresh whip cream and other sweet condiments. Here it's got a covering of chocolate sauce, white and chocolate chips served in a chilled martini glass. Perfect for sharing but loved even more, solo.

The restaurant is nice enough for a meal. If it's warm you may like to sit outside. The inside is kind of strange. It suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a sports lounge? A cafeteria? Family sit down? There is restaurant decoration & signage which seem out of place.
Their business is thriving. We hit it during a late weekday afternoon. A few tables were occupied when we entered. By the time "old people dinner time" came around ( 4 - 5 pm) the place was starting to fill with older couples and some families. Parking is easy to find since it's not Chicago and parking is free. I suggested to management to pick up on the local beer trend. Offer micro brews from some of the Midwest's finest. Currently they offer the regular domestic and import brands and one beer from a local brand. If management is reading, please please offer a decent IPA. Soon.

On another note, a few days after having these fantastic sandwiches I noticed a billboard with advertising about the meatball Panini now available at Corner Bakery. It weirded me out a little because of the proximity of the sign to where I stay. Like real life "cookies" adding local spam advertisement in my hood. I realize that might be a bit too geek talk for some of you to understand. We can chalk it up to wild timing.

Realistically, 3.5 stars, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I went to Danny's Cafe & Deli expecting a bit more of a "deli" element to the establishment. I had a $30 Groupon and was picking up lunch for two, which I was anticipating as some kind of sandwich (ala Alpine of Elmwood Park or the like) and then using the remainder of the Groupon for deli meats, cheese and or salads.

Well, no sign of such food around there so I had to improvise and go with the flow. So I got a Chicken Piemonte (did Al the car dealer pay them off for that entree name???) and a Rigatoni ala Vodka sauce with crumbled sausage. These were recommendations of the server who started to assist me and I have to say that overall, they were pretty good. Two large flattened chicken breasts with mushrooms and sauteed spinach tasted pretty good. The pasta was interesting - rigatoni on steroids, though the sauce lacked the advertised "crumbled sausage" - at least I didn't detect any. Kind of too bad because the dish was good, though somewhat bland. Got the pasta faglio with it as well - pretty good, though one order was fairly "soupy" and the other was more like eating a meal. I also ordered two Italian meatballs that were fairly tasty.

Processing the Groupon was a bit tedious, though when it was all said and done, I got a lot of food for about $18.44 after the $15 discount. Danny's is a nice, friendly place, pretty laid back and family owned. These types of restaurants are a dying breed, but in Chicago they are a compelling reason NOT to go to Olive Garden in this town - why do a chain restaurant when the real thing is sooooo accessible???

There are better Italian places in the area (Jimmy's Place in FP comes to mind), but the food was pretty good and the staff was nice, so I do plan on coming back. Give it a shot - you'll not be disappointed.

True Italian food has to be made by real Italians with love. Here is the place for genuine people and food.
The restaurant is in a residential area of
Melrose Park. Very casual seating on tile floor. They do have beer and wine.
They have daily specials that are tough to
decide on because they are all yummy.
Try the grilled meat ball sandwich!
My chicken lemone was superb.
Portions are huge. Doggie bags are a staple.
Good service and very reasonable prices
for the incredible quality.

Oh wow, we saw this place on Chicago's best and it's as fantastic as advertised. DO get the fried meatball sandwich ... actually the sausage burger is phenomenal as well, and can't say enough about the homemade chips.

Did not have the kids but would absolutely take them there, service was exceptional, obviously a place that has "regulars" but we were made to feel right at home.

FRESHEST PASTA EVER. That is all I can say! Danielle, our waitress was the sweetest and catered at our every need! My mom had a groupon for the restaurant so we had to put it to use. We ended up buying half a plate of calamari for appetizer which was fresh out of the kitchen and the seasonings were on point. For dinner, I ordered the giant rigatoni with vodka sauce which is my absolute favorite and my mom got the spaghetti with meatballs! Everything was so good and delicious. Hands down this is my favorite Italian restaurant

I had bookmarked this restaurant based solely on Yelp reviews ... Unfortunately I was very disappointed and dissatisfied ... I was craving spaghetti and meatballs and had read that was a good plate here... Not so, meatball was sooooo dry I needed a knife to cut thru it and sauce was so sweet and thick needless to say I didn't finish my food ... Hubby ordered some chicken dish and it was very skimpy ... They split a single breast in two and then cut in half ... Mother's plate was the ONLY ok one, she had chkn Marsala and said it was good ... Nope I won't return !

When we first arrived at Danny's, I was disappointed. Yelp.com said they were wheelchair accessible & there was a step at the entrance. So I sent my husband inside to find out if there was another entrance that was accessible. They sent us to another door & laid out a portable ramp. I was so happy & impressed that they were so friendly & welcoming to the disabled community. Once we were inside, the owner or manager (not sure) came to check on me, to make sure I got in ok.

I specifically came into Danny's to try the Fried Meatball Sandwich that I saw on Check, Please! And because I had a groupon. The sandwich was every bit as good as the reviewer on the show said. Additionally, we tried the Eggplant Parmigiana, which was amazing & the Cheese Ravioli with Vodka Sauce. Also very good.

We will be back!!! I just bought a larger denomination groupon, to bring friends to Danny's next time. The food was very authentic & had great flavor. I posted pictures of our meals to show the huge portions & how good everything looked, even before tasting it all.

Yummmmm.....We were in the area and were thrilled to finally try this place! There was a decent crowd there around 2 pm on a Monday. The server was so nice and eager to make our meal amazing. We ordered the meatball sandwich and chicken caprese sandwich, with chips! Both were high quality sandwiches, but I would give the edge to the near perfect meatball sandwich. The chips are made in house and cannot be missed. I am not a chip person, and these were delicious!!! Cannoli were also stellar! Yummm!!!

One star is taken off for the interior! Not the fanciest place around, and I do think they could update it a bit!