Baffo

Baffo is Eataly’s prestige Italian dining venture, orbiting it like a very expensive and delicious satellite. You pay here — oh how you pay! — but it’s well worth it; everything is as it should be, from a quiet, well-​appointed atmosphere to extremely attentive service (and a supremely talented old-​school bartender) to very fine dishes giving a high-​style twist to Italian favorites. It’s been said before, but the beef cheek/​garganell combo is outstanding, as are the perfectly cooked vegetables. This is a place to go when you’re keen to impress, so make it happen, promgoers and VC-​chasers!

I visited Baffo with a friend to catch up and try some good quality Italian food. The ambiance was nice and quiet that we could catch up but not dead (i.e. boring). The wait staff was very friendly, but this review is mostly about the food. The food was amazing! I live in NY so have been to many wonderful restaurants in my time and this was on par with some of the best. Dish after dish I was impressed and thought it couldn’t get better. My friend and I did the chef’s menu so we tried a number of courses prepared in the ideal size to taste everything but not be overly full. I try to be adventurous but normally don’t order certain things (i.e. seafood), but I had the scallops (amazing with the citrus sauce) and fried octopus (never would’ve guessed it was octopus). We moved on to the oxtail ragu pasta which was another delicious dish (normally don’t order meat sauce but finished it up). The truffle on the risotto was a highlight. We finished with a perfectly cooked and seasoned piece of steak. Dessert was a mix of hazelnut and chocolate with a pour over of panna cotta so all my favorites to finish off an excellent meal. All in all, if you are looking for a nice place to experience wonderful thought of and crafted Italian food, this is your place. Can’t wait for my next visit to Chicago and in turn my next visit to Baffo!

I came here for my birthday this year, sat at the bar and had the tasting menu with wine pairings. Food was beyond great, pastas were insane, wine pairings were perfect, and chef is handsome af. Will absolutely be back.

Baffo is one of the finer Italian places I’ve been to in awhile. They have great offerings that are innovative and traditional at the same time. We started our meal with the chicken liver mousse with the warm brioche and the polpo. Both were amazing. The richness of the chicken liver mousse perfectly complemented the spicy flavors of the polpo. Our second course was the oxtail ragu. Pasta was perfectly al dente and the ragu was divine. Our third course which was the duck and scallops were delicious. The scallops were perfectly seared. Very sweet tasting. I was told by our waiter that it has «gras pista» which is an anchovy and herb compound that melts on top of the scallop. It made the dish. The duck was perfectly cooked to medium and was topped with honey. Sweet and savory, perfect combination. Didn’t have a chance to grab desserts but their selection looked enticing. Will definitely come here again.

Amazingly presented cuisine, with an awesome environment. The wine pairing by their sommelier Jordan made excellent additions to the meals, I suggest the stracciatella which had the best mozzarella cheese I’ve ever had. You couldn’t go wrong with any of the pastas either.

This was my first time to baffo and i loved it! From the food to the service, everything was great. Dont forget to try the crudo and venison! We will be back again.

I would tell you about the ambience and service and blah blah blah but I come here for the food and the attentiveness they put in every dish
What you should get:
The stracciatella beet salad is very refreshing even if you don’t like beets, which I don’t, but for some reason the combination of ingredients definitely make it all work together
The calamari salad (cold) and octopus (hot) appetizers whether you like it cold or hot you can’t go wrong with these two.
For pasta the capellaci filled with butternut squash is sweet salty savory good and the fusilli with oxtail ragu is delicious.
For main course:
I love duck enough said, if its on the menu I’m getting that every time. It’s perfectly cooked to medium with honey drizzled over it. Again the sweet salty savory that always gets me.
If you have room for dessert, everything is good the sorbet and gelato made fresh in house everyday.
Whether you sit at a table or grab a seat at the bar know you are getting amazing food.

I stumbled upon this gem while out holiday shopping. Baffo is part of Eataly, but tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the market, making it a nice quiet place to dine. The service was great from the moment I entered until the end of my meal. My server was knowledgeable, and helped me navigate the wine list. Get the polpo while here, you can’t go wrong! Everything I had was amazing. Kudos to the chef. I will be back.

While visiting friends in Chicago last week, we ended up trying out Baffo. One of the best decisions of the trip. Had the tasting menu and will definitely be returning for more when we visit again… hopefully soon!

5-​course Tasting menu here is a must! We added the wine pairing for an additional $ 45. Can’t wait to go back!

This place is amazing. Went here last night for a United private event that included a five course dinner with wine pairings, and the chef and director of beverages discussed each pairing course. The courses are listed in the picture attached. Everything exceeded expectations here. The best was the third course, a ravioli type of pasta in a white truffle and brown butter sauce. Honestly orgasmic.

I had a very nice dinner here. This is part of the Eataly complex and is the nicest of the eateries at Eataly. The place exudes refinement and may the quietest place within a several block area. It’s conversation friendly, even with some classic R&B tunes in the background.
The alcohol program is, of course, very Italian. The wines are done in an interesting way. There are wines by the bottle and by the glass, but there is also a «Coravin» program where 3 oz or 6 oz tastings of special bottles can be had using the Coravin device. For the uninitiated, the Coravin device enables wine to be withdrawn from a wine bottle leaving the cork intact and replacing the extracted volume of liquid with an equal volume of Argon gas. It’s cool. The available Coravin wines are pretty pricey to try however, so I stuck with a Negroni and a crisp, fruity Friulian white wine.
The food is good — here the emphasis is on top flight ingredients prepared simply. An amuse of mini-arancini’s arrived first. We then shared the charred octopus and the eggplant stuffed squash blossoms. The octopus was perfect and the squash blossoms were nicely crisp with a suitably earthy eggplant filling.
My primi course was the squid-​ink tortelloni stuffed with crab and served with a shellfish broth. The tortelloni were like mini-​sombreros with their brims filled with the broth. Wow, delicious.
My secondi was the whole roasted branzino which was partially deboned, with head and tail attached but spine removed. It was tasty but slightly overdone and had a few too many stray bones.
Dessert was the olive oil cake with roasted pear and fior di latte (mozzarella) gelato. Nice. The gelato was super creamy.
This place is definitely worth coming back to.

I cannot say enough good things about our first visit to Baffo.
We stumbled upon it accidentally while visiting Eataly in Chicago and simply could not be more impressed.
Carl, our server Carl was incredibly knowledgeable about both the menu and the wine list. He was consistently helpful without being obtrusive on our meal as well as being generous with samples of items we were curious about and even bringing us a complimentary ravioli di ricotta (more on that in a minute). and a taste of a digistif called Amoro which was very unique and intriguing.
Beyond Carl, who again was wonderful, Jose our «understudy to Carl» (he was much more than a busboy) was also incredibly thoughtful and surprisingly knowledgeable about even the smallest things like the differences between their options for sparkling water was also a welcome surprise to our experience. And then there was Jordan who I can only assume was the restaurant manager who stopped by our table to check in our experience (and I am sure was a motivator for our free ravioli di ricotta… my thoughts on that are coming next) was very friendly and attentive to seeing that we enjoyed our experience.
Our meal was delicious without question, there was no down point. The polpo (charred octopus) and carne cruda were brilliant as were the triangoli (braised beef cheek ravioli) however the star of the evening was the ravioli di ricotta which was brought to us as a complimentary taste and we couldn’t be more grateful. Now my wife and I consider ourselves to be armature «foodies» but we don’t consider ourselves to be «food snobs» and we are not prone to hyperbole but after a single bite of the ravioli di ricotta (which is topped with a brown butter sage sauce) we both agreed that this was one of our favorite bites of food we have ever tasted.
Please try not to let that jade your expectations (because expectation is a huge part of human experience and we did not have any when we arrived at Baffo) however it would be dishonest if we did not give our honest feelings about our experience. So don’t expect your best bite of whatever just go with confidence and order whatever you want and let your palate be your guide.
Cheers

treat yo’self! came in for lunch and was wowed by the food
what i ate:
— chicken liver pâté: sooooo rich, but soooo goood. almost TOO rich, but the cherry really helped break up the richness from the fat. the nuts added a nice crunch. wanted more bread because the toast that came out with the dish was not enough.
— fresh mozzarella and black rice: this dish screams SPRING into your mouth. fresh, light, bright flavors. the mozzarella flavors were really able to sing
— octopus antipasti: my friends and i are fatties. we ordered this to share and so glad we did. the octopus was so perfectly cooked. tender and crispy. the balsamic vinegar flavors really made this dish delectable.
— mushroom ravioli: very earthy, very savory. if you love mushrooms, you’ll love this dish. the pasta has a nice bite to it
— cavatelli and ragu: the ragu was rich and oh so great over the perfectly cooked pasta. flavors were spot on, and presented in the most refined of ways.
— chocolate mousse: decadent. no other word for this dessert. so rich that after 2 bites i was done
— gelato: great assortment of rich flavors. i especially like the hazelnut and coffee.
pros:
— food! everything we ate was delicious!
— service was top notch
— prix fixe menu: came in for lunch and they had a prix fixe menu, which was 3 courses
— bathroom: the bathroom was so nice and luxurious
— open kitchen. it was nice to be able to see the chef actually prep our food for us.
cons:
— we were the ONLY patrons at the restaurant. our rez wasnt even that particularly early. it turned out they had only JUST opened the restaurant up for lunch. it made it very awkward becuase my friends and i are rather loud and rowdy, and the restaurant was very reserved and quiet
— pricey??? but you get what you pay for
would i go again? probably not. while the food was great and i was happy with my experience, i’m not a local.

Very good food but expensive. Wine list was a challenge, but our server, michael, helped.
Patty started with foie Gras which was divine. I had grilled octopus which was very tender.
Our second course was pasta. Patty had thick spaghetti with shrimp. The spaghetti may have been the best al dente I ever tried. My cavatelli was also perfect with a Bolognese sauce.
We shared the short ribs which was so tender our forks slide through the beef.
Great service and food. Upscale part of Eataley.

I had a wonderful meal for Restaurant week. We started with the Burrata and the Antipasto. On to the a Skirt Steak and Parpadelle for shared entrees. We ended with the delightful Walnut sponge cake and Chocolate cake. Top notch meal for $ 44.
The service was amazing. Attentive, not intrusive. I had a great experience and will be back.

Hmmm. .. .this place underwhelmed me the other night as I was expecting a truly outstanding experience and what I got was mediocre at best.
The space is simple, yet elegant. I like the little bar tucked up into the corner and that might be the best place to sit in this restaurant. The table we were seated at faced the wall and I felt like our server kept coming up behind me which made it hard to engage.
Speaking of our server, he might have been part of the issue on our visit as he seemed almost impatient with those in our group who wanted more information on what to order and then seemed upset that this group of women were not ordering full 4 course meals but rather a couple of first courses or one plate for their entrée. He was a bit sarcastic and even dismissive of one of my friends passing her over because she was «taking so long», to use his words. Bad form on his part as I really don’t go out to eat to get attitude from my server.
I ordered the veal loin, and I guess for $ 48 I was expecting so much more. It was tasty but wasn’t special enough to warrant the price.
The pasta dishes that others ordered fared better but there were none of us at the table that thought this experience lived up to the hype. And know that if you want to try the tasting menu, everyone at the table has to do the same thing…not unusual but less practical when you have a larger group.
Know if you go that this restaurant actually sits on the back side of Eataly facing Grand so if you wander in the front of Eataly, you will have to wend your way around to the back and down some stairs. If you drive– there is valet parking on the Grand entrance side for about $ 14.
In my mind? There are a ton of great places to get fine Italian food at reasonable prices with servers who care in this fine city of ours. Too bad Baffo isn’t one of them. !

Went in a Saturday for lunch. There were 5 of us. Decent service.
Easier to access directly from grand ave vs through Eataly.
3 went for the 3 course, prix fixe menu. It’s $ 29 and substantial.
The pear and ricotta salad was liked by me but my sister felt the pears were too syrupy.
We 3 had the eggplant pasta. 2 of 3 liked it. My hubs ordered off the regular menu and loved his octopus app & beef cheek ravioli. My friend had the pasta w clams which he really enjoyed.
It was all edible. But did not wow us or live up to it’s hype. Cocktails were good. But I’ll stick to the other many amazing Italian places in the city right now!

A lot fancier than delicious. A lot pricier than good.
Sigh.
I love you Mario Battali and I love your TV shows. I love Eately with every fiber of my being. But both your restaurants in NYC, Babbo, and this one, Baffo, fell short.
Service, knowledge, professionalism, upscale atmosphere deserve 5 stars. More. I mean just the caliber of restaurant and people employed in them, the beautiful perfection of how the place ran, was just astounding.
But the food. I mean seriously, just not that great. Not bad. Not great. You really do expect it to be the best of the best. Beef cheek ravioli was great. The porkchop looked amazing but was flavorless. A colleague’s pasta dish was just so so.
Too bad! I know there are a lot better places to eat in Chicago and for a lot less bank.
Wines, though, stellar!

Overall: For it’s reputation, price, and location, Baffo underperforms. I’ve had better Italian in the city. Still, an overall pleasant and tasty experience.
The good: Complimentary bread is delicious. Food is overall good quality. Service was friendly and overall was attentive. We were sat immediately. Clean atmosphere and presentation.
The bad: For the price and expectations, the food is not worth it. This is supposed to showcase high-​end Italian and Eataly as well, and I’ve had better Italian elsewhere. The prices were too expensive and the food choices, while good, were underwhelming. Not a huge menu either, but it was lunch time. Restaurant was freezing and too dark as well.
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
Food: ⁶⁄₁₀