Surprisingly good Italian beef sandwiches from a well known chain that serves many of the Chicago classics.
Chicago Italian beef sandwiches have become popular outside of Chicago, partly due to the popularity of the series 'The Bear'. This means of course, that there are many lists of the best beef sandwiches in Chicago on the internet, but I've never seen Buona on any of them. It's a shame, since my wife grew up going to the original location and could testify that it was just as good as the other beef places like Portillos and Johnnie's. So around the time we were dating, Buona was rapidly expanding their original Berwyn location to other suburbs, so we stopped by multiple times to the nearest franchise location and we were disappointed every time. The beef wasn't as plentiful or flavorful and didn't justify the price. These locations closed soon after, and I kinda forgot about them.
But this location was right across the street from the hotel we were staying at in Itasca, and I ended up stopping in twice for carryout. The first time was to grab a quick dinner for the two of us (the kids had dinner plans with friends in Chicago), and just kept it simple with two regular original buona beef sandwiches ($7.99 each, hot giardiniera +0.75) and an order of cheese fries ($4.19). Their version of giardiniera is very hot, and includes black olives. The sandwiches were good, with very thinly sliced beef, not overly heated up. The bread seems to be their own version of Italian bread, and it was fine. We got it the original way (a little gravy on top).
The experience was good, so two days later, I came back to order lunch for the 4 of us. This time I noticed they have two digital order screens in the very front of the restaurant, allowing one to customize and pay for it exactly the way we wanted. We then found a place to sit down in the dining room.
After about 10 minutes, instead of yelling out my name to get the order, somebody actually came out to the dining room to hand me my package, and we were on our way. We tried some other dishes.
- chicago style hot dog ($4.69) - it's a jumbo, all-beef hot dog (doesn't say what brand it is, so probably not Vienna beef), dragged through the garden. Everything about this was just right, including the size of the wiener. Can't help but compare it to the version from Portillo's, and this is better.
- Big Joey's beef ($12.49) - large Italian beef with added hot and sweet peppers and melted mozzarella. It's a good sandwich, though the toppings were too much. Next time, would just get a large beef with hot pepper oil, dipped.
- Beef Regular ($7.99) and side of giardiniera (+0.75) dipped - this is the combination that works for my wife, since she just likes the hot oil for the sandwich. Getting it dipped was the right move (meaning only the ends of the sandwich are put in the gravy)...though if you can eat the sandwich right away, try it baptized. The bread will start to disintegrate, but its a great way to maximize the flavor.
- Large fries ($3.99) with cheese cup ($1) - it's crinkle cut. they don't give you that much (it just reaches the top of the package) and it's just OK. The cheese is a thick nacho cheese, similar to what Portillo's has.
Reg Strawberry Shake ($3.99) - good price. A bit watery (not thick at all), but the flavor was good.
They have a self serve soda machine in the back, and for those doing carry-out, they have small and large carryout cups near the ordering kiosks. So after you order, you can pick up a cup or two and fill it with ice water while you wait. It's a nice touch that I've never seen at any other place, and strangely is one of the things I remember most about this restaurant as I sit here writing my review.