We had our rehearsal dinner here two weeks ago in the back room. The food and experience was perfect. We did a pre-selected family style menu and everything from the eggplant, to the sausage, to the chicken and potatoes, to the ricotta appetizer was amazing. We worked with Madeline Harvey leading up to the dinner and she was very professional and responsive. She handled a couple last minute number changes and my questions without a problem. I would highly recommend for any type of group dinner. read more

Great traditional Italian atmosphere with a modern Italian menu. Sat outside during lunch which was great. I had the Pesto Giovanni pasta with gluten free pasta. It was great. The portion was just right for lunch and felt very light despite the pasta. I have heard their meatballs are amazing. My lunch partner had the meatball salad and said it was great. read more

Agree completely with all the high rated comments with the additon of the amazing acoustics! It was fabulous to enjoy delicious food, prepared perfectly, fantastic service all in an environment where we could hear each other and not have to use our outside voices to talk. Bravo!!! read more

Great service, good food and atmosphere. My only complaint was lack of vegetarian options. We had a large group of 11 and 2 of us were vegetarian. Only veggie entree was eggplant. I wound up with a wonderful beet salad and then several vegetable side dishes as a result. The roasted Brussel sprouts were excellent. read more

Celebrated my mom's birthday here, everything and everyone was so accommodating, gracious, and on point. The food was tops ;) Definitely would recommend this place to our friends and family! read more

My third visit to the West Loop's new Formento's was the best so far, and they've all been great! From Ray the Bartender's excellent concoctions and conversation, to the incredible service from the entire waitstaff and the warm and welcoming hosts that make you feel at home when you first enter, everything about this place screams classy yet comfortable. The decor is incredible, with an ambiance which is perfect for both intimate gatherings, as well as, larger groups of friends/family. All of our food was exceptional with highlights being: The Relish Tray, the Shrimp Scampi(actually large langostines), buttery garlic bread, lardo-wrapped Tuna Tetrazzini, Quail and the Half Chicken. And, for dessert, the chocolate cake is a must! The wine list is not only robust and diversified but also incredibly well organized. Steve the Sommelier was quite helpful and found us two very unique bottles that my entire group really enjoyed. Run, don't walk, to this new Italian gem! read more

I have been to this restaurant many times and have always enjoyed the food and service. I have sat both outside and inside. My two favorites are the squid ink pasta with crab meat and the orrechiette. The salads are also very good (and large!) Last evening I was very pleased with the food and our server, Jesus, was very attentive. (I have had him before.) We also had a drink at the bar after dinner and our female bartender was pleasant and attentive. Last night, however, I was a bit disappointed - not in the food or wait staff, but in a host who was dishonest. We were a party of 3 and we were seated at a large circular table for 4 in the middle of the room that didn't seem very intimate to have conversation. I asked the host if we could switch to the booth/banquette next to the window which was also a table for 4. He indicated it wasn't possible because they had a large group coming in. I assumed they were going to push two or three tables together that shared the same banquette to seat a larger party. As it turns out, no large group came in, and the host proceeded to seat three separate parties of 2. No tables were rearranged. The 4 top table that we requested was filled with two people. If the table we requested had been reserved, I would have understood. But the host essentially made up a story, for reasons unknown. That experience caused me to give less than a stellar rating. And I will think twice about going back. Because it was our friend's birthday and we didn't want to make an issue of it in front of her, we didn't call it out. Any other time I would have. I don't appreciate dishonesty. read more

Where to begin. My boyfriend brought me to his home city, and I work at a scratch Italian Restaurant, and let's say I eat a lot of Italian. I could have eaten here every night of our stay. We stuffed ourselves until it hurt. Kudos to the chef and the cooks for pouring their heart and souls into their food. The hostesses greeted us warmly before seating use with our Server Jesus and Gustavo. No water nor wine (get the super Tuscan, that's hard to get by the glass and authentically Italian) went dry. The Mussels and Bucatini Carbonara were exquisite. That's an understatement. We couldn't leave with our their crostada and marscapone gelato. The manager Richard visited us throughout the experience and truly had the humble understanding of his team creating a seamless sophistication of Italian cuisine and service. Thank you so much to everyone at Formento's for leaving our grandmother with back to back "mouth Orgasms" as she constantly stated to us and the staff. The food was so amazing, that couldn't even turn us off. read more

I made a reservation using OpenTable and when I arrived was seated immediately which was great. My friend and I really enjoyed several antipasto dishes and their daily special of risotto. Service was prompt so we were in and out in time to make our play at 8 p.m. My only complaint is the wait staff. Why do waiters and waitresses feel that they have to interrupt your conversation to ask how you are doing. Why do they not realize that if we needed something and they were in the vicinity we would get their attention. If they walked by and we are in need of something we are going to flag them down. But when they stop and interrupt the conversation repeatedly it is very annoying and the tracks from the restaurant experience. read more

I love Formento's for many reasons!! First and foremost, we actually checked out their private events room upstairs for our wedding reception and working with Michelle was so wonderful. She was super responsive, and very helpful when it came to answering all of our questions. Unfortunately, the space was a tad too small for our party, which made me so sad, so we had to choose a different venue, but I would HIGHLY recommend this if you have a small wedding you're planning! We recently returned for a date night here and we had such a wonderful experience. The food was on point, and our waiter was great! We started with the Tuna Bruschetta and it was delicious! As the waiter explained perfectly, its like a Nicoise salad, which happens to be my favorite so I devoured this app. For my main, I had the whole grilled branzino and it was super light and cooked to perfection. My fiance had the Mushroom Pasta and the few bites I was able to sneak it were worth it as it was rich and delicious. I made us order dessert and I was so glad we did as we ordered the mini donuts and honestly these were beyond amazing. They came out hot and sugary and doughy and they were everything you'd want a dessert to be! Highly recommend this place and we will definitely be returning! read more

Blown away by how good the salad bar is here. Great high end vegetarian options. Much better options than ZED's salad bar options.

A group of six of us had dinner there last night! Superb! EVERY. ITEM! We were greeted by the Executive Chef Todd prior to ordering and we were NOT disappointed on any item! Kale Salad, Burrato, Oysters, fried chicken as starters paired with a great Rose'. Followed by Lamb, squid ink pasta, lobster risotto, beef tenderloin and a perfect Chardonnay! We shared all items which allowed us to try so many! Amazing! Knowledgeable and perfect staff from waiter, sommelier,and well deserving Executive Chef! A must visit if you are looking for a great atmosphere, fine dining spot! read more

We dined here on 3/08: This was an excellent experience overall, though there were a few minor issues, I would definitely go back again. First, the issues: We had a reservation for 7pm. We were not seated until 7:35pm - strange, since we were standing right in front of an empty huge booth exactly like the one they ended up seating us in. The beer list needs a fixin' - it's horrid, now that is not to say they are focusing on beer, however, their selections leave much to desire. Vegetarian options are few, but they will accommodate if they are able. Interestingly enough, the meat dishes were HUGE, and the vegetarian pasta dishes were TINY. Go figure. I think they have that backwards somehow. The cocktail that I tried, the Stinger, was YUMMY beyond words. The escarole was delish, and my PENNE ALLA ROMANA (without the Nduja) was good. The birthday boy's CAVATELLI ALLA NORMA was so tiny it was shameful... and he with the biggest appetite. Thankfully the escarole supplemented his dinner, along with the lovely also tiny, relish tray we ordered. The garlic bread was fantastic and the two meat eaters were thrilled with their dishes. We shared a carrot cake and a tutti frutti spumoni - also wonderful. I would say, overall, the service, the food, and the old Italian speakeasy feel was a nice evening out.....the only things that they need to improve upon are their portions for the vegetarians (no, we all don't exist on salad alone! ) and their hostess/seating organization. Other than that, we will definitely go back! read more

Very excellent experience. A+ service from the entire staff. Ate with 7 and we ordered for 10, nearly eating 75% of the menu. I'll say the homemade mozzarella was lacking salt. But honestly, it was almost offensive how incredible all the pastas were (carbonara, scampi, gravy, lasagna, rigatoni with sausage). The Branzino (fish that day) was masterfully prepared and phenomenal, as were the lamb chops. Sides included the Gorgonzola potatoes (insane), "creamed" escarole (f yes) and grilled corn with parmesan. All were great, particularly the escarole. Slightly bitter and perfectly seasoned. Highly recommended this place if you're in the mood to carb load. Excellent wine list as well. Haute Randolph street location but prices were super reasonable. read more

This place is wonderful. The servers are on top of it with drinks and new silverware. They are so nice. And the pasta is homemade. ..it is amazing! Had a Chef's week 4 course, Nonna's meatball, pasta carbonara and chocolate cake. All of it was amazingly delicious. read more

Formento's is my current favorite restaurant I'm Chicago! I have been here twice so far, and both times have loved each dish from appetizer to dessert. I love the constantly changing seasonal menu. The service is impeccable, especially compared to other restaurants in the area. Love that all played and utensils are changed between each course without question, and that the wait staff is attentive but not overbearing. The attention to detail in food presentation and in service is beautiful. Cocktails and wine pairings are strong. Formento's completely outperforms all of the other overhyped restaurants in the West Loop. Hipster it is not, but delicious and classic it is. Formento's deserves way higher reviews than its current 3.5 stars! This will continue to be my pick when I'm craving Italian food, and for special occasions. I really hope it will be around for the long haul! read more

Sat in the bar area and got great service from Richard...very nice, hard working dude. Loved the Bucatini and Rigatoni. Will definitely be returning!! read more

Great Food and Very attentive and helpful staff. Explained the menu and even helped us order. Great place to take friends and catch up over a good cocktail and yummy food. read more

Love this place. Great food and service. Grilled mushroom appetizer is delicious. Will it was a larger portion. Good trunk menu with many options. read more

Chicago restaurants the past few years have been all about reinventing the wheel, or not reinventing it...I don't know, I don't do metaphors. But anyway Formento's has taken all the old school Italian-American fine dining restaurants and treated them as if they opened yesterday. My grandparents used to eat this food at Larco's and Lelli's in downtown Detroit (or if it pleases the court of Chicagoans...Gene and Georgettis), but the food at Formento's would be insulted with that comparison. It has all the makeup of those classic restaurants: big red leather banquets, white table cloth with paper place settings, white shirted/black tie'd servers, Frank and Dean on the radio. The food, though rooted in those classic recipes (garlic bread, antipasto wedge salad, Chicken Vesuvio, Spamoni) is far beyond expectations as only the guys from The Bristol and Balena can bring you. The Bristol has withstood the test of time as my favorite restaurant in the city which is why I went to Formento's in the first place. But I can't wait to tell everyone how amazing this restaurant truly is read more

Wow! The food was outstanding. I don't like the taste of meat or game and I loved the quail. I was with a group of 8 girls and we were those 8 girls that servers hate. I know, I was a server. But Nosheen, our server, was so wonderful. She had awesome recommendations and let us taste the wine before we ordered it. And she was so patient when she was trying to take our order and we wouldn't stop yapping! I ordered the rigatoni vodka and it was great. It had a little spice too. Do not miss the Gorgonzola mashed potatoes. They look runny when they come out but OMG. They were delicious. I also tasted the spaghetti with meatballs, beet salad (excellent), Sunday gravy, and pesto. All phenomenal. Then we ordered dessert, which we hardly ever do. Carrot cake, chocolate cake, salted caramel and butter pecan ice cream. Also worth it. I will definitely be back. And I recommend going with a group so you can taste everything. Don't expect Italian buffet style portions but enough to make you full while finishing every bite. Also round-ish tables so your group can all talk! read more

Food was decent- they recently changed the menu and it is very slimmed down. Service on the other hand was lacking to say the least. We won't be back! (And we liked it the first time we ate here) read more

Food was good but just so you know the $27 linguini with mussels, clams, calimari and shrimp is actually 3 mussels, 2 clams, 1 calimari and 1 shrimp... not really what I was looking for at all. read more

The only reason I am giving this restaurant more than one star is because our waitress was lovely and the meatballs were good. Besides that, this place was a complete disappointment. While I was waiting for a date to arrive, I took a seat at the bar. I told the bartender that I do not want to order a drink until my date arrives and asked for a glass of water. The bartender repeatedly insisted that I should have a drink and then suggested I try some wines. I asked to taste the house Chardonnay. He poured me a taste of a very mediocre wine. I told him that I did not like it and will just wait for my friend to arrive until I order a drink. He then opened a bottle of a different wine and persisted to tell me that I will love the bottle he's opening and to just taste it. The wine was fine so I agreed to have a glass. My date arrives and he orders a mixed drink and asks for the bill since we are going to be seated for dinner. The bill comes and to my surprise (and complete awe, my glass of wine was $25. I have no problem ordering and/or paying for the wine, but the deceitful up-sale by the bartender was insulting and embarrassing for me seeing that my date was paying and my morals are that's it was presumptuous of me to order a $25 glass of wine. I specifically asked the bartender for the "house" brand and the decent thing that he should have done was inform me about the higher price and allow me to make an informed decision. We then proceeded to have dinner. As I mentioned, our server was lovely and she recommended the meatball appetizer. It was delicious. My fish on the other hand, was inedible. I walked out that night hungry and angry. I was with a different friend last night and as we were walking in the area and he mentioned that Formentos is awful. He told me a similar situation he and his gf had at the bar and how he didn't like the food. We discussed how pretty the restaurant is but what a disappointment it was. I couldn't believe he had a similar experience. I don't like bashing but now that I know others have had similar experiences, I feel I need to share. read more

The Chocolate cake was amazing! Overall this place was great! Great service. Would definitely go back here.

The wedding soup was cold. The Chicken Parm was terrible. The Rigatoni Vodka is better at Olive Garden. Second and last visit. And don't order the Veal. Their idea of veal is to ground it up make a sausage and serve is sliced. Yet they call it Veal Limone. Awful. read more

This place was recommended to me by a friend with great reviews! We took a special guest from out of town. We had an 8 o'clock reservation and upon arrival they did let us know that they are running late. However the table was really late and by the time we went to be seated there was no table. They accidentally seated another party at our table just as we approached. However Steve Morgan the manager went above and beyond and turned what could've been bad situation into a wonderful evening. The food was spectacular the service was great the atmosphere was wonderful overall we ended up having a great experience I would highly recommend - we will be back!!!! read more

I really loved the rigatoni (vegetarian) so 5 stars for that. But the alfredo was just okay. I wish this place had more vegetarian options so we could taste a few things but the server only pointed out a few things. The price was also steep for what they offered. read more

One of the best spots in the West Loop. Service is top notch; menu is classic and inviting- always well done - can't wait to see what the new chef brings! Just please don't take away the chocolate cake!!! read more

DELICIOUS!! Great service, great ambiance, overall excellent dining experience. We had the crudo and manila clams for appies and branzino and veal for entrees - each was outstanding. We will definitely be going back. read more

Loved it. Waiters were very knowledgeable. Great to share family style because there are so many dishes you want to try. We had a big group and ordered every appetizer and pasta on the menu. Highly recommend. read more

It was our anniversary, and we go here every single year for it. However this year the entire vibe was different - the waiters were in jeans, they wouldn't take our wine order with the food order because they claimed they needed to get the food in ASAP and then our server forgot about us so by the time he came back our food was already there and so we just got glasses of wine instead of a bottle, then we got the truffle pasta at market price for $60 which wasn't even worth it because the truffles they had weren't ripe and you could barely taste any truffle, and on top of that our waiter just kept pushing the specials on us to get us to to buy it which clearly would have given him commission because he was so pushy and at one point even said "wow you must want it, I can read your mind, I'll go ahead and put that in for you!" Which...NO. We didn't want it and I didn't appreciate him being so pushy. And lastly, he was SO loud and not "high end" like the restaurant usually is and was in our faces and used the exact same lines at every table around us, and it completely took away from the ambiance. His name was Anthony and he completely ruined the reason we love formentos and have come every year for 4 years. We will be going to a new restaurant next year. read more

Great food, drinks were not memorable. We came here for my birthday on a Friday evening. This place is pretty large. For some reason, the hostess seated us in a section with a very large and boisterous group celebrating an occasion. The staff recognized the mishap and apologized as did the boisterous table but really you'd think the hostess would be more aware. You can't be mad at a large group of people having a good time so we just stayed where we were seated. There were two other couples seated there after us that asked to be reseated. We had avocado toast and calamari to start and both were delicious. I would recommend them both. We shared the branzino and canestri for our main dishes. The canestri was fantastic. I would definitely get it again. We had the leftover canestri for lunch the next day and it was just as delicious. I didn't care for the chocolate cake but the budino was good. read more

I was super excited to try Formento's this past Friday night. Made an 8 o'clock reservation and arrived right on time. The hostess told us they were running 20 minutes late.. great, now we were committed because there was no where else we could get in on Randolph. 35 minutes later the hostess lets us know we can sit. At 9 o'clock (1 hour after reservation time) we get our drinks. No manager comes by to apologize, nothing. The food was okay. The meatballs where good. Would definitely not go back. It's okay to mess up, especially if you just opened, but at least apologize or make it right. Not impressed. read more

When entering Formento's on a busy Friday night we were immediately welcomed with the smell of bleach. I'm glad they are a clean restaurant but not the best first impression. Hostesses were very pleasant and although we were 15 minutes early for our reservation we were seated immediately. The decor is very nice but the restaurant was too loud to have normal conversation. Our waiter was professional and competent and we had no issues with service at all. The pasta portions were smaller than expected but my carbonara was very good. My Wife ordered the oricchiette and sausage which the menu listed with broccoli rabe but was served with asparagus instead. We both love asparagus so initially this was not an issue but upon tasting the asparagus it was marinated and did not fit with the flavor profile of the rest of the dish (which tasted very good without the asparagus). Overall Formento's was not bad but was not great. read more

Impossible to say what's best, EVERYTHING is!!! Great food, wine selection and service, ambience and an outstanding staff!!!

We ordered 2 slices of the chocolate cake for take out and were not impressed:( was really hoping to enjoy this cake because of the reviews but we were left disappointed. read more

We came in for restaurant week, and I booked Saturday lunch on Open Table. The restaurant called, and said there was a mistake, and they had a private event, but they'd be willing to give me a Sunday table and 50% off my bill (WHAT?). We went Sunday, the service and food were excellent (although the stuffed shells were a bit on the dry side). And when the bill came, the 50% was marked, without any prompting on our end. Overall, great experience with a very accommodating staff. Thanks! read more

The down side - be prepared to wait, even with a reso! We had reservations for 6ppl at 8:15 and didn't get seated until 9:20. However, they took very good care of us bc of this - bought us our appetizers and our desserts and started us with a bottle of champaign. They felt terrible about it but there was little they could do as ppl didn't want to get up. As for food - it was outstanding. The veal parm and chicken parm were delicious and not greasy. Their homemade pasta was delicious - al dente and perfect. The meatballs had a nice hint of spice and their marinara sauce is awesome. Highly recommend this place, but if you don't want to wait, hang on until the hype dies down! read more

Looking for authentic Italian? Look somewhere else. Here's the thing, I used to love this place before they changed the concept to small plates. Back in the day you could come here and get a nice glass of wine and a big plate of amazing pasta and walk out happy, it almost reminded me of an old school Italian place. Now they only have like four pasta dishes, 2.5 oz portions......quality has gone down. We ordered the ricotta app and it comes out with flowers and radishes on it, true Italians would roll over in there grave if they saw this. Don't try and fix something that's not broken. You all had a good concept going and now you're trying to change it into what every other restaurant in the city is, overpriced small plates. Food doesn't always have to be pretty and small, it's OK if someone wants to go to a place and get a big bowl of delicious pasta and carb out. I guess I'll have to search for this somewhere else now....I want you to be what you used to be and I feel you'll want to as well when you see your client base falling. read more