Straight off the plane to our first dinner of a week filled with culinary treats.

Our first dinner during our Chicago trip was at Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio, a very popular Italian restaurant coming from a former Top Chef contestant. While the restaurant isn’t necessarily small, it books up very quickly. The menu has an ample array of dishes making it difficult to decide what to order. One of the dishes I wanted to try was the ragù alla napoletana (tomato braised pork osso bucco with soppressata meatballs, Italian sausage, and fusilli rustico) but it’s a large shared dish meant for 3-4+ people so that was unfortunately out of the question.

Gift: Skirt Steak Spiedini with Eggplant Caponata (7.5/10).

The kitchen was nice enough to gift us a snack to start off our meal. The skirt steak was nicely charred topped with eggplant caponata, chili, and fresh oregano.

Burrata e Ham (8-8.5/10).

The burrata e ham is a signature dish that seems to always be on the menu.  Homemade rosemary tigelle (an Italian style flatbread similar to English muffins) were served with creamy Burrata cheese, prosciutto di San Daniele, and spicy and sweet peach apple fig mostarda. A pretty straight forward but delicious appetizer to please anyone.

Black Truffle Arancini (8/10).

These golden rice nuggets were filled with sweet corn and served with black truffle and Parmigiano Reggiano fondue. You only need a few as these were very rich.

Potato Žlikrofi with Montasio Cheese and Black Truffle (8/10).

Žlikrofi are actually Slovenian dumplings, not Italian. These dumplings were stuffed with potato and garnished with roasted pearl onions, Montasio cheese, brown butter, black truffle, and a drizzle of honey. Definitely a hearty and rich dish.

Tortelloni di Zucca with Brown Butter and Fonduta (6.5-7/10).

Typically I love winter squash stuffed pasta but I wasn’t crazy about the actual pasta dough for the tortelloni, I’m not sure why. I did like the brown butter notes, the crunchy pepitas, and Parmigiano Reggiano fonduta.

Soppressata Meatball (8-8.5/10).

This was a very tasty meatball made from soppressata and mangalitsa pork. The texture was also phenomenal, very soft and fluffy, not dense.

Tiramisu (8.5-9/10).

This was a hefty portion of tiramisu and we actually couldn’t finish it (a first for us). It was really good though with the marsala zabaglione and chocolate sauce.

No wonder Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio is such a hot spot. From the friendly service, the good vibes, and delectable food, this Italian restaurant hits all the marks so my rating is a 7.5-8/10.