Davanti Enoteca

I had never been to Little Italy before this weekend, but had always wanted to check it out. I finally made a date and went with my family to Davanti Enoteca. The original location is on Taylor Street in Little Italy, but they've also expanded and have one suburb Chicago location, a River North location, and two restaurants in California.

I could tell this place was good immediately after walking in, as we had a relatively early reservation and the restaurant was PACKED. As in, not one table open. There is a vast menu and they recommend ordering several plates and sharing with the table. This was a great way to be able to try a lot of the menu items. The food was absolutely amazing, and you have to order the focaccia di Recco, which is baked focaccia stuffed with fresh soft cow cheese and a honeycomb topping. To die for.

I did however find the restaurant to be very loud. I felt like we could hardly hear each other unless we were almost yelling. Definitely not a good place for a first date!  Also, the dishes came out very quickly and it made me feel a bit rushed. At times, I felt like we were being bombarded with food, and maybe we should have spaced out when we placed our orders.

Overall, I highly recommend coming to this place. Definitely make a reservation though because you will never get a table walking in. Also, plan ahead for parking or bring cash for valet. Almost the entire area around the restaurant is permit parking, and the available pay to park spots were few and far between (non existent in our case).