NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 09:20:57 CDT Organization: Giganews.Com - Premium News Outsourcing X-Trace: sv3-LgtbCzRrcZ4EqX1N9r43mPCsEQXfZ04y/+unwKZKuQ8wr3DUx28yN0IxF2yF3AtrtKICLUnTewBGKXltk5HvpEg== X-Complaints-To: [email removed] X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:20:57 GMT Xref: usenet.INS.cwru.edu chi.eats:15041 On 21 Apr 2002 18:58:32 -0700, [email removed] (Tad Short) wrote: >Can anyone recommend a decent, home-made pasta type of Italian >restaurant in Chicago? <snip> The pasta at Merlo is in-house made and, to me, very Italian. My interpretation of Italian, as opposed to American, is the pasta is equally, if not more so, as important as the sauce. Merlo is a fairly new restaurant, with a focus on Bolognese, and this was the first time we had been there, I say that as way of indicating that while some dishes were excellent, others need a bit of work, as does the service. I, as Trent would say, got out my yardstick and ordered the rabbit ragu which was served on small green bow tie pasta, whose name in Italian I forget. My benchmark rabbit ragu is served with tagliatelle, but the delicate parsley infused bow ties were wonderful. One of our group had tagliatella with the combination of mushrooms, which was absolutely fantastic, the only so-so main course dish was my wife's straccetti. The straccetti at Merlo consists of grilled veal medallions served over arugula, parmesan with balsamic and sounded good, but the veal was a bit grainy/stringy as if it had been over pounded. The veal also had a braised flavor, though the waiter assured us it had been grilled. Appetizer wise, the artichoke tort is delicious, as was a slightly spicy shrimp special, while the tuna carpaccio was, in addition to being a very small portion, quite bland. I am fond of fried artichoke hearts and while Merlo does not have this as an appetizer they were happy to make us an appetizer sized portion. We also split/sampled a bowl of hen stock with breaded egg noodles, which everyone liked but me, I thought the parmesan breaded noodles overpowered the flavor of the soup. Next time we are at Merlo I will order be sure to order the prosciutto appetizer, which looked wonderful, and, though we only ordered and split one dessert, next time it will be something aside from the Torta della Nonna. One little annoyance was Merlo does not have salt or pepper on the table, which would be fine if the chef did not have a tendency to under salt. Case in point, the tuna carpaccio and the fried artichokes hearts had no salt on them whatsoever, nor were they served with lemon. Both were much improved with a few grinds of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon. The wine list is not large, but more than adequate and they have a nice sized bar with a few tables looking out on Lincoln Ave. Merlo is not an inexpensive pasta place, as the original poster requested, but the food is excellent and will only get better over time. Enjoy, Gary Merlo 2638 N Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL. 60614 773-529-0747 Dinner only
Chicago, IL