Gianni's Cafe In Palat - Palatine

Gianni's is a solid 5-star restaurant for an unbelievable Italian dinner experience. The menu, service, and food are all amazing.

Came by for dinner on Friday 9/13/24 around 6:30, party of 2. We were promptly greeted seated by the host. Our drink orders were taken and promptly received, but my boyfriend and I sat around for about 15 minutes before even meeting our server. Oil Cheese was served but it took a bit before our bread came out… We ordered an app to start (the Eggplant Involtini, it was tasty. Cooked nicely, I personally enjoyed the “dry” ricotta that was used versus the real wet, soupy kind, and the sauce was fresh and vibrant tasting. this took about 10-15 minutes before it came out before placing our order for our entrees. I got the Chicken Giardiniera, he got a BYO Pasta comprised of cavatelli carbonara add peas, add garlic. Entrees took about 45 minutes to come out, and in this time we didn’t see our server until we were about halfway through our meal and frankly were finished at that point. The portions were quite large in my opinion but the quality didn’t seem to justify the cost. There was SO much butter. Sooooooo. Much. Butter. in both of our dishes to the point that it was separating out and pooling on top of the dishes. Very heavy and salty. The carbonara seemed more akin to an Alfredo sauce. We didn’t see our server again until she dropped our check. Maybe she was weeded out (it seemed busy , or maybe it was in avoidance due to an error with our order, but it was hard to flag her down at times. She was very sweet and apologetic for the wait, but a little more attentiveness would have been appreciated. We’re generally patient guys, but we were closing in on nearly an hour and a half before food arrived and it was upsetting, with little communication taboot. To me it wasn’t awful but certainly could’ve been better for the $91 pre-tip price tag.

Hosted a family reunion here. Everyone was completely satisfied. They want to go back for the next reunion.

Menu descriptions make the food sound better than it was... it was a nice night though

Food was good, but it wasn't worth what they were charging. I've had better for much less. Overcharging about $8-$10 per plate. The food is prepared in house from scratch, but not the level I was expecting. They had way too many tables crammed in there, even with alfresco dining available. This place is a business failure from the simple standpoint that they should have moved out to their own stand-alone building years ago. Parking is okay, but the parking lot is set up kind of oddly in relation to their location. If you compare this to Pilot Pete's, Pilot Pete's destroys these people with food quality, price and atmosphere.