Bar Ombra

I had been here when it first opened, and it was really good. Then, tried it again a year or so later and thought it was horrible. After adding the wood burning over, we decided to give it a try since they have a $ 10.00 Pizza & $ 5.00 glass of select wines on Tuesdays. While it’s not the best place in town, I was pleased with the product we got for the price. We had the calamari, Pizza and maybe one more thing. You definitely can’t beat $ 1.50 Oysters either!

Would recommend to anyone, tourist or local.
Food was fantastic. Had a few appetizers and the skirt steak, rare: phenomenal. My fiancé had a beer he enjoyed, I had the Castello cocktail (which was delicious and quite boozy). Get the devilled eggs, amazing. The asparagus was a mite too salty for my tastes. Zucchini flowers were as good as in Italy.
Our server, J-​flo, was the consummate professional. My fiancé and I are both servers. We respect and appreciate good service, because we know it’s a hard job on good days and an impossible job on bad days. He was soft-​spoken and informative without being overbearing. Served us promptly and had a natural flow for when we were finished or wanted more.

I had the Gnocchi and my gf had the orichette. Et T oen orichette was ok. The gnocchi wasn’t what I rshemembered. Much more salty and flavorless than last time I had it. They seem to have changed the recipe. Too bad, since it was the main reason I came. As far as the service goes, Jason, our server, was excellent. I wish I could say the same for the hostess and bus boy. The hostess didn’t notify our server that we had taken a seat at the bar for nearly 5 – 10 min. The same thing happened with the couple that sat next to us and they left out of frustration. There were quite a few loud crashes due to the bus-​boy dropping dishes. He threw a fork nearly 10 feet into a dish bin right in front of us, making a loud crash. In general, the staff seemed frustrated (not Jason though). I heard a waitress storm past us saying «I don’t have time for this!!» Not real professional IMO. The time and date of our visit was 7:00pm on 5÷7÷16.

I’ve had one memorable meal at Ombra since it added the wood-​burning pizza oven, but this week’s travesty of a dining experience wipes all points from my board.
Service was nearly non-​existent. And this was on a Thursday evening when the restaurant was maybe half full (and that’s being generous…) Our server rarely checked in with us, and when we eventually wanted our bill, it took more than 25 minutes to get it.
To top it off, the menu has changed (no more brussels sprouts?! Meat-​heavy pizzas…) and not for the better. My pizza came out heavily burnt yet with an inedible runny egg on top of it. I asked for the egg to be cooked longer (I’m talking they had literally cracked an egg and it’s clear snot was pooling everywhere) and yet it came back looking the same. I finally succumbed to the notion that I would not be having dinner this evening, and sent the pizza away. I wasn’t offered anything further. Not good.
I also had ordered a pizza to go for my wife at home… which was brought out with our food order. Shouldn’t there have been at least a 15 – 20 minute buffer between receiving our food and the take-​out?
Just overall really disappointed in the entire evening.

Best dining experience I’ve had in my 3 years living in Chicago! Food is AMAZING. Drinks are perfectly made (and they have some awesome specialty cocktails!). The atmosphere is so fun and romantic and exciting all at the same time. The staff and service is incredible.
We popped in on a Saturday night just thinking we’d grab a drink before going to the next bar and ended up staying all night. I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about this place, I’ll definitely be going back!

I’ve been here a few times. And while the food is consistently spot on, the service is consistently slow and disappointing. Maybe they’re consistently understaffed? I would normally give 4 starts from past visits, but our most recent visit last week was ridiculously bad for service.
We had a 7:30 reservation. After waiting at the door for almost 5 minutes with waiters and bar staff passing by, the hostess looked up from the bar’s cash register to wave at us and show she noticed us. Apparently the bar tender let her know we were there. She was incredibly friendly but busy. She took our reservation name then ran two checks to tables and passed us once more headed back to register with a paid bill, apologizing and saying our table would be ready soon. A male host usually there in the past is equally busy… but less attentive and with a snobby attitude.
Out waiter came to our table after maybe 10 minutes. Luckily we had water already. We never saw him again until after another person delivered our prosciutto pizza and crispy brussel sprout leaves appetizer. Both were incredible as usual. The pizza oven was a great add after their original opening. After the waiter refilled our water carafe, we never saw him again. We had to flag down the hostess — apparently as the other guests in our booth had to also — to get our bill.
Great food. Poor service. But we’ll be back as usual, hoping against hope that the quality of service eventually equals the quality of the food.

Always enjoy myself every time that I’m here. Thank you to the great staff that make it possible to order a thing or two from their connecting restaurant Acre.

The most horrible service i have had. Our server hipsterish, snobby, unfriendly guy was rude! We felt like we weren’t welcome and rushed.
The food was ok and portions are very small. We asked for bread with parmesan cheese which was brought by busboy. That bread was dried out like 5 months old. Very disappoint ing-(

Did I die and go to food heaven here? It’s possible. We tried to get into Anteprima at 6PM on a Saturday night and they couldn’t take up so they directed us to Ombra. All I can say is Spaghetti Carbonara. Get it. Don’t think twice about it. The portion was some would deem as small but really it’s probably what a normal portion of pasta should be. None the less, I could have licked the bowl. Perhaps next time I will?
One thing that would keep me from going at a peak hour is you sort of have to share the tables. The table that we sat in was essentially a long booth with some kind of partition in the middle of it to make it two tables. That’s a little too close for comfort for me.
So I plan to keep it early and keep coming back to Ombra for some Spag Carb.

We were at Ombra for the first time, earlier this month, with friends. It was a very disappointing experience, to say the least. When my «pizza» was served, it was clearly burned to a cinder like object. The waiter was nice, and apologetic, and comped the pizza and offered a substitute appetizer, and Limoncello shots for the 4 of us. This was handled properly, but still made for a miserable dinner for all of us.
Also, the atmosphere is absolutely hideous and makes no sense. Uncomfortabel and claustrophobic seating, and just really an unpleasant environment. It’s hard to believe that it has any relation to Anteprima or Acre. To be clear, I felt the service, though somewhat slow, did handle the situation in a proper manner.

Tried the red pizza — amatriciana, and love the crispy wood fired style of the pizza. Not sure if the rest of the group liked or wanted to try the pizza though as we had a lot left over and it was fairly small, yet we had a group of 7 of us. The orecchiette pasta dish was OK, but a bit small for the price. Service for us was decent. I think if we go back, again, (not sure if my friends were crazy about the place), I would have small plates and skip the pricier entrees which are really not much bigger than the small plates.
For dessert, the Chocolate Salami, looked awesome, but was a bust when it came to taste. A bit dry… again, a lot left over so this was a case of presentation outdoing the taste.

The food was okay-​to-​good, but the service was very inattentive – when does a waiter not check whether you want another drink?! – and the space (while aesthetically pleasing) is not air-​conditioned.
I would say: definitely don’t go if it’s more than 75 degrees, and other than that only go if you’re in the neighborhood, and it’s convenient.
The best thing I tasted (and I was at dinner with 10 people, so I tasted many things) was the mercato pizza. Which was good. But you shouldn’t go in the summer, and I imagine it’s not available in the winter (since it features summer squash). So.

Food was very tasty and homemade pasta dishes (gnocchi yum!) were fantastic. Polenta fries (looks more like a bread stick) were delicious and a bit of spicy kick! Salads were average but were very fresh. Pizza was pretty good and chewy crust as coal oven style.
Service was spotty but overall pretty good.

Very tasty food, a little on the expensive side. I would recommend the baked goat cheese. It was super delicious. This place is also perfect for snacking on lots of different dishes since its tapas style.
Unfortunately, the server was fairly rude to my friend, which is why I am giving this review three stars instead of four. I think he may have been upset at first because it seemed like we were just having drinks, but we all ended up ordering fairly generous amounts of food. His mood lifted the more orders we placed, but it would have been nice to be treated well no matter how much money he thought we were spending there.
Because I didn’t feel valued as a customer, I doubt I’ll return — there are so many other places to go in Andersonville!

Meh. This place was just okay. The pasta was fresh and tasty, but the service was a little… strange. Our server would randomly be absent for extended periods of time and seemed to be too busy flirting with the other servers to really care that we were there. Based on the somewhat upscale atmosphere, I expected a little more enthusiasm. And crappy coffee to top it all off? C’mon! If you’re going to serve fancy-​ish dessert, you need to at least serve a decent cup of joe. Not some crap that comes out of a Mr. Coffee machine.

We came in 15 minutes before the posted closing time. My bf found this place after our New Orleans trip !!! He knows that I only ate oyster that time in New Orleans!!! The staff who attended to us that night was super friendly and very much attentive. She sat us up and was able to get our order before the kitchen closed .
The oysters were good !! The selection of wine I would say is great. Well even though I’m
Not a wine taste authority but I can say if the wine is good !!!. The ambience is eclectic with a twist of musculinity. There are fusion of leather everywhere. Which made the place sexy and hot !!!

Here’s the skinny on Bar Ombra.
They have wood-​fired pizzas. I LOVE wood fired pizzas.
They have a seriously solid interior. The booths are all made from reclaimed leather scraps and it looks cool as hell. Excellent music ranging from Ellie Goulding to Passion Pit to Lana Del Rey — dig it.
Very, very friendly service.
So where did we go from cool to mediocre?
Well… a few things. The Three P’s, if you will.
1. The pizza. While I appreciate a good wood-​fired pizza, the crust wasn’t all that. It was kind of doughy and didn’t get any kind of crisp. And while I liked the house-​made sausage, I didn’t think it had any heat or spice. Kick it up a notch, chefs. I also think I would go vegetarian and just avoid the meats.
2. The pacing. Everything came SUPER fast. Like, so fast that we had apps, drinks, dinner and dessert and were out of there in well under an hour. On a Friday night. Let me enjoy my meal. Don’t force the food on me quite so quickly.
3. The pricing. Everything was just a little overpriced. Several bucks more than I would expect for a pizza. Drinks were a lot. But most insulting was the pasta. A meatless pesto cavatelli was $ 14. For the tiniest serving ever. My fiancée and I had one spoonful each of pasta (we shared) and that was it. I mean… I’m clearly not cheap by any means, but a fair warning to all: The value isn’t there on the pastas.
Would I go back? Yes. They have $ 10 pizzas and $ 5 wine of Tuesday, which is great. I live about a block away. And let’s be real: I LOVE wood-​fired pizzas. It’s just not as good as some other options.

My gal pal asked if I wanted to go with her to Bar Ombra in Andersonville. I’m always game to try out a new place, so we agreed to go on a somewhat mild Sunday evening with the slight hint of a drizzle falling. I was surprised at the light crowd inside Ombra at this time, and I am sure that the tiny drizzle was not holding down the attendance but rather the Bears-​Packers blowout that we were fortunate to have missed. The booths are decorated with a cowboy bar — meets — retro Italian look, as the Italian newsprint wallpaper jockeys with the custom leather seating pieces for your attention (am I sitting on a fragment of a leather jacket — including what looks like an old pocket?).
Our hipster-​ish waiter is apparently an acquired taste, for although I did not mind him too much, my gal pal developed a distaste for him. The «cicchetti» is a list of small bites, and perhaps we selected the largest of them — the arancini. The plate came with three rice balls, with a crunchy fried shell on the outside and the tasty rice ball with mushroom and porcini cream inside. We selected one red and one white pizza, and the two wood-​fired pizzas came out in rapid-​fire fashion. We both agreed that the red boscaiola was the better of the two, with a slew of toppings (mushroom, tomato, fontina, prosciutto, arugula, parmigiano). The overall taste was good, though all of these loose ingredients resulted in a virtual salad atop a crust rather than a pizza. The white ortolano also had a heap of ingredients (roasted garlic, fontina, asiago, mixed greens, parmigiano, balsamic) but it surprisingly did not add up to much in the flavor department. For dessert we shared a slice of an apple tart-​like dessert with cranberries, caramel sauce and a dab of cream (and we think the apple peels were retained in the filling). It was fine but not memorable, as this dessert did not quite hit my cavity-​ravaged sweet tooth.
All in all I liked Ombra more than my dining companion. The pizza is fine but does not come close to that served by places like Spacca Napoli or Forno Rosso.

Service: Ask for the server, Ryan. He’s great! You can’t go wrong with him. He was attentive, helpful and friendly. We had a little one with us, and he was good with kids and made sure he was taken care of.
Food: It was ok. It was not amazing. I did, however, enjoy the Goat Cheese Truffles. They had three different flavors served with arugula and thinly sliced and toasted bread yummies. The salmon was cooked nicely and juicy. It was served on a bed of mushrooms and asparagus. It was tasty, but not amazing. My friend had the pizza, and it was «ok».
Wine: Ryan had great suggestions, and I enjoyed the one he recommended.
Ambiance: The place looked like it has been repurposed. It’s not fancy. It was a casual ambiance and it felt welcoming.
Seating 411: While we had our own table, there were some folks who are seated together at the larger tables in the middle. They had some space between them, but they shared a long table. That wouldn’t be my preferred seating arrangement.

Impressive!
Bar Ombra, while definitely, trendy and for the younger crowd, was pleasantly friendly towards the 50+ visitors. The food was tasty and seasoned well. The atmosphere was very eye appealing, and the noise level rather bearable. The only down side of the evening — was the price of everything. Ok, call me cheap. I have no problem paying a well earned dollar for a high quality meal, however, what it was, was rather pricey.
Why, is that every nice place out there now a days; has to seemingly — price gouge. Whatever happened to the day when the goal was to get customers to return because the quality of the food was outstanding and complemented the atmosphere?
Is the goal only to get while the getting is good and stand and wait for the next sucker — I mean customer. (Yes, I am referring to myself and hubby as suckers). We should have seen this one coming a mile off, but since it was a birthday gathering… You get the picture. The neighborhood is interesting and nice to walk around in — it’s rather quaint.
If you’re looking for a nice restaurant to impress someone — Bar Ombra would definitely make the list. However, it’s good enough, for turning around and marching right out the bar after viewing the menu …