Osteria La Madia

Walked in on a Saturday night for dinner and was able to sit in the front/​bar area without a reservation. The décor of the dining room is quite nice and cozy — we sat next to the fireplace. We ordered the short rib and butternut squash filled pasta. Both were good although they were way too small for the price we paid. The pasta was offered in both a small and large size for $ 13/​$ 20. We got the large size for $ 20 and it was still very small — maybe like 10 noodles; I’m afraid to see what the small portion size would have looked like. The short rib itself was a decent size but the bed of rice it came on was super small. After spending $ 26 on the short rib and $ 20 on the pasta, we were still hungry. We asked our server for some bread (why was bread not brought out automatically at the beginning?) which was essential to finish the meal and quench our hunger.
Overall, a nice dining room, friendly service, and good tasting food — I just wish the value was better: either the price needs to come down or the portions need to increase.

This was a really solid meal in a douchey neighborhood. Fiancée got the cacio e Pepe and I for the wild boar pasta. Both great.

We are out-​of-​towners that were staying a hotel close by in River North. Came in for restaurant week and got the 3 course meal. Inside the restaurant was very cool and modern. You can see the wine cellar as well as the kitchen with the wood fire oven. Our server was fantastic and super helpful with recommendations and accommodating. Definitely try the spinach and cheese fondue. Comes with their pizza crust they bake in the oven. Just cheesy-​garlicy goodness! Had the braised short rib as well and the homemade gelato for dessert was probably the best gelato I’ve ever had. Overall, a great experience!

I go here at Osteria La Madia most of the time, dinner with coworkers and nights out with my wife. Love the food most of their cocktail. Other notable menu items are the pizza and selected desserts.

I very likely just had the most expensive Italian meal of my life. We ordered delivery for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised that a semi-​fancy River North establishment provided delivery, even if it was through a 3^rd party. The meal was delivered 25 minutes after it was placed, and during peak hour. That blew my mind. Now… onto the meal itself. We ordered the Cacio e Pepe (house-​made spaghetti), Tagliatelle all’ amatriciana, and tomato and bufala mozzarella fondue, which is more like naan and a side of tomato sauce w/​a large piece of mozzarella floating on top. You can choose between small and large for the pastas, and got small for both. There is a price difference of $ 6. I guess we should’ve ordered one large to compare the portions. Anyways, small was more like child portion, or anti-​pasti size. There were tiny bits of bacon in the tagliatelle but everything else was straight up tomatoes/​tomato sauce, cheese pieces, bread, and pasta. The meal that cost maybe 3 dollars to make ended up being over $ 54 dollars w/​tip and delivery charge. That is why i say i had the most expensive Italian meal of my life. We engulfed everything in 10 minutes. The food was appetizing but just really pricey for what we paid for. The portion ordered was just the right amount for two.
Warning: 3^rd party site charges a dollar extra for everything. It was cool that they allowed me to select options such as «deliver asap» and «free paper plates» even though they forgot the latter, but i’ll let that slide.

I ate brunch here for the first time on New Year’s Day and will definitely return for brunch and to try out their dinner menu. For $ 22 the brunch includes a starter, one entrée or pizza (which is 6 slices), and a glass of prosecco or a bellini. I had the brioche bourbon cinnamon roll and fingerling potato and egg yolk pizza. I can’t even describe the mix of amazing flavors in the pizza. I had plenty to take home for leftovers. Highly recommend!

Always a winner!

Great food and a nice wine selection. Charcuterie was decent portion and great quality though the meat and cheese should have been slightly more room temperature. Artichokes were amazing and pizza was thin crusted, wood fired, and to also get entertainment included with dinner try sitting at the chef’s counter where you watch it all being prepared. Why this place isn’t packed I cannot understand.

This place was just delicious! It’s pricey, but at least the food is really good. We had the following items:
Mushroom Bruchetta — Very flavorful and beautifully presented. Only comes with two pieces though.
Mussels — They were just okay. My friend who had been previously said they were a little off the evening we were there. Also the broth didn’t had that much flavor
Parma Classic Pizza — OMG Delicious! I wish we got another one of these. I love Neapolitan pizza, so this was right up my alley.
Hot Rum Winter Cocktail — Strong, but sweet. It’s served hot and sort of reminds me of apple Cider.
Atmosphere of the restuarant is really cozy. They also have a bar and half price glasses of wine for their happy hour special. Waitress was sweet. I would return just for the pizza itself.

Had my first meal at Osteria la Madia this past Sunday, and it feels like the beginning of a wonderful relationship. Great food, great service, great atmosphere. The pizzas were amazing — and gluten-​free! I ordered a salad to balance out the cheese and pepperoni, but the salad was just as delicious as the pizza. Excited to go back for the short rib in red wine!

Take your date here for Pizza. It was date night with the husband and we landed here (check off my list of places to try). We had the lamb meatballs (THEY BROUGHT ME TO LIFE) just in time because they were about to run out. Yep, that good. Seasoned so well. I have a new respect for polenta. (PS: if you have a nut allergy, please do not order). Husband had the salmon (very «juicy» and tasty). I had the aged grape and cheese pizza and the burrata bruschetta. EXCELLENT. Bread was the right amount of soft and crusty. Although our waiter was sweeter than pie, he did not ask us if we cared to see the dessert menu. (Do they have one?) so we ended our night at Eataly sampling gelato. I tried the white wine of the week. Fantastic! Wish I had gotten the name. Ask about it!

This place has excellent Italian food. I had the tagliatelle pasta and it was to die for. Their mushroom appetizer was really good as well. The wine we had was really good as well. The service was excellent as our server recommended everything we ordered and it was all really good.

Been back since and with the renovation of the concept, and changes, it’s went super downhill.
Servers have no idea how to make recommendations for wine with food, and when they do, they point at selections and say ‘guests like this one.’ Who is training these people on the beverage? Pretty lackluster showing.
Wine selections used to be much more diverse too and showcasing fun. Now it’s a lot of things that don’t really stand out. Too many brand names and not enough stuff that is unique or different. This place used to be awesome and a perfect date night spot in River north.
Now it’s just another average place with above average décor.
In river north there are much better options. Go elsewhere.

When did they add the Osteria? I leave town for a few years and everything changes! Well, the menu here has changed a bit, but the food is still good. But the service has gone down hill. I recently visited for brunch and for dinner, and in both cases while the food was tasty, the meal took much longer than it needed to. For brunch, the restaurant was only half full and it still took close to two hours. And for dinner it took a very long time (I estimate 20 – 30 minutes) just to get our appetizers (bruschetta, nothing complicated) with no acknowledgement from our server.
I hope they can get their act together, because their pizza is quite good (especially the triple pepperoni).

Back again. Menu had changed quite a bit with more pasta on there than I remember. We went on a Wednesday night with no reservations. Sat in the front bar. Service was good, timely, made good suggestions.
We split a mushroom pizza (as good as I remembered) and a salad that wasn’t. But the greatest thing was the wild boar with pappardelle noodles. That dish was excellent. I wish we’d had the full portion instead of half. It was really good.
House wines good as always.
Still one of my fav Chicago places.

Cool, rustic vibe in a big space. Not as crowded or expensive as some other River North options. The pizza is excellent but there’s lots of pasta and entrée options if you’d prefer those. Plenty of vegetarian options. Try the white pizza with roasted grapes… delicious! It’s nothing extraordinary but it delivers on what it’s going for and is a reliable option.

This place is GREAT. My friend and I were both from out of town, and I was leafing through a copy of Where Chefs Eat at Anthropologie, and one of the recommended restaurants was this one, a short walk from our hotel. We were tired and thinking of getting room service, but boy are we glad we didn’t!
The $ 1 bruschetta is a fantastic deal, and the mushroom one is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. As a Caesar salad connoisseur, theirs is one of the best I’ve had– the deep fried anchovies were a nice touch. I had the gnudi the first evening (yeah, we came back the next night) and the tagliatelle the second– both were amazing.
Eat here! The service was great, as was the wine list. I don’t remember which wine we had, but we requested it again the next night. Delicious.

I had the white pizza here and it didnt turn out to be good, i would rather go for the white pizza at Coalfire pizza which is 100 times better than this.
Just the fancy restaurant and prime location

I seem to have luck in restaurants that begin with Osteria! I will, however, stick to the Osteria at hand. This is my second visit here and this gets 4 stars for the pizza. We shared the tomato and the arugula salads, which both were good, but the pizzas were very flavorful and both times I’ve taken one to go.
Osteria literally means an establishment serving wine and simple food, and this is the perfect description, for both food and ambiance. Perfect spot for an early evening dinner.
I wanted to try a pasta but I can’t resist the pizza and I just can’t say no to the tasty delicious carbs. Ahh, next time.

Delayed Review: I Came here with a few friends back in May
Food: I ended up ordering lamb meatball And coppa picante and burrata puglia, The food was amazing. My expectation for this place was fairly high after reading the reviews. It has met the expectation. Nothing was overcooked, nothing was under cooked. that is a huge key for an italian restaurant to succeed. ⁴⁄₅
Service: Great staff service. Attentive to details such as cleaning the plates as soon we finish a plate, refilling water. Provided great suggestions. 4.5÷5
Atmosphere: I do wish this place was a bit more specious. When we went, it was fairly packed and the tables were so close to each other. Other than that, it was fairly well decorated and very neat design place. ⁴⁄₅

Not everything is great here but the great stuff is pretty darn good. Get the triple pepperoni pizza with truffle oil, side salad, and spinach fondue. The fondue is not conventional, more just bread with sauce, but the sauce is delicious. The pepperoni pizza is really quite good — a greasy thin crust personal alternative to deep dish.
We also tried the fennel sausage and burrata bruschetta. Neither was remarkable and I wouldn’t order then again.

This is my friend’s absolute favorite pizza place in Chicago and I was glad to get a meal here on my short visit!
La Madia’s definitely got a cool, sleek vibe. The lighting is dim and you feel like this could easily be turned into a happening lounge late at night with its modern, tasteful décor and a bar area that looks like the place to hang out. Yet you the kitchen is pretty visible, mostly out in the open, separated from the tables by a low counter. I had a full view of the pizza oven.
Our reservation was for 5:30pm on a Monday night, which was unnecessary as only a few other tables had customers. We had a very professional, responsive, and efficient server, and overall had a great dinner here.
PIZZA
* Parma Classic (red. arugula, prosciutto di parma. $ 19) — 4.5 stars
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The best pizza of the night in my opinion! I tend to like reds so I may be biased, but even for a red I thought the prosciutto was sharp and complemented the arugula and fresh tomato sauce really well. Their crust is thin and soft with a crisp, though not quite as fresh-​out-​of-​the-​oven as I’d prefer. The outer crust could’ve done with being a little more stretchy when I pulled it apart, but this is me being picky on a 4.5 star pizza!
* Wild Mushroom (white. smoked mozzarella. $ 16) — 3.5 stars
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Not a huge fan of white pizzas, and not a big lover of mushrooms, so this wasn’t a winner for me flavor-​wise. But it was well made and I will say the mushroom wasn’t too overpowering and had a fairly well-​balanced flavor. Overall I found it a bit bland though.
* Moroccan Spiced Lamb Sausage (white. mint pesto. $ 17) — 3.5 stars
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This was my pizza and it wasn’t as impressive as I’d hoped! The sausage wasn’t very spicy, and its texture was a little chewy, reminiscent of chain-​restaurant delivery pizza.
ENTRÉES
* Tagliatelle (foie gras meatballs. $ 14 half) — 3.5 stars
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This was exciting for me because foie gras isn’t allowed in my home city of SF anymore. I couldn’t really taste the foie gras to my disappointment though — if I hadn’t been told what this was, I would have thought it was just regular meatballs. The tagliatelle was not as wide as I’ve had at other restaurants, but had a texture that was balanced between being soft and al dente. I found the sauce to be a little plain, and rather watery. It was nice to have the option of a half order.
Menu:

I love this place! It *might* be because I had an awesome birthday party here, but everything about the experience was wonderful. Even if you don’t come for an event, and if it’s a small group or date night… you will NOT be disappointed with your experience. Put it down.
Let’s start with the private event coordinator, Julie. She is the most professional, friendly, efficient, event coordinator extraordinaire! And she made planning (for my boo) so incredibly easy and smooth. From what he told me, she was quick to respond to emails and answered all his questions and made all the requested accommodations as best as she could. She deserves most of the credit for this beautiful experience (and maybe a little credit should go to my boo. Good job, honey!)
We pre-​ordered dishes from the menu for the party and we had dinner family style. This was a genius idea, since we all love to try a variety of dishes, and this way, we were able to try all of the delicious dishes that La Madia is known for. I have to say, all the food that we ordered were phenomenal. I can’t wait to go back and dine, again!
For starters, we enjoyed the Steamed PEI Mussels, cooked with melted leeks, fresh fennel, garlic, and white wine Brodo. OMG, we all wanted to drink the soup!
We had the Beet Salad as well as the Romaine Lettuce Salad. Both were refreshing and delicious. I highly recommend them both! If you had to only pick one, though, I would probably go for the Romaine Lettuce again.
I’ve listed the pizzas in order of most to least favorite, but I just have to add this disclaimer that ALL of them were really really delicious! Slagel Farm Wood Smoked Pork Belly (Tuscan kale, garlic, caramelized onion, caciocavallo cheese), Seasonal Wild Mushrooms (smoked mozzarella), Parma Classic (Mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, prosciutto di parma, arugula), and Clam & Fresno Chilies (Pecorino, garlic and fresh thyme). I think some of them are a tie… I don’t know. They were all delicious in their own way!!~
I was too full to try the Tagliatelle and Shrimp risotto… but everyone agreed that it was delicious as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back again soon to try a couple new dishes, as well as a couple favorites that I’d like to eat again.
One more note: if you order the limoncelli, it’s pretty strong! Sip!