J Rocco Italian Table & Bar

I think this place is closed now? Tried calling and the number was disconnected. Sad :(

Let me start by saying this– it is such a shame that I am limited to 5 stars.
J. Rocco is amazing. Jodi M. Is amazing. The food is amazing. The service is amazing. Everything. Amazing.
I spent no less than 10 hours scouring every appropriate place in downtown Chicago for a bachelorette party dinner for a group of 7. The bride is from San Francisco, so I knew that the restaurant selection had to meet her standards.
J. Rocco did not meet her standards. It far exceeded hers, and mine as well. First off, if you’re planning a private event, Jodi is THE BEST. I sent no less than 30 event requests for proposals and Jodi was the only one, the only one, to pick up the phone and call me. In fact, she was the only restaurant event manager who didn’t make our party seem insignificant in light of the fact that our party was only for 7 during the holiday season in Chicago. She worked with me to design a beautiful menu and she even made custom print menus for our table! Our space was ample and private, and frankly, perfect.
The restaurant was vibrant and packed but we felt like we were the only ones there. We came in and Jodi had so thoughtfully already put out cheese boards on the table with a beautiful, rustic presentation. Our table was beautiful, with the pre-​printed custom menus for our evening dinner at each seat.
The food was unreal. We had the meatball tasting, which was incredible! Moreover, the burrata with the gravy. Oh. My. God. I may have licked the bowl. I can’t recall. Jodi and her staff were also incredibly attentive to one of our gluten-​free guests and brought extra meats for her while we enjoyed the items that were unavailable to her.
We went on to the salad course, which was again, fantastic. My guests loved their entrees and all of their plates were devoured!
We finished up with the Sgrappino dessert option, which really locked in the experience. The dessert was made table side and served in flutes. If you haven’t tried this, it is a MUST. My guests were floored and in love.
All in all, I would never explore any other place for a private event before inquiring into J. Rocco’s availability. I had no idea that I could receive such a 5 star, first class experience without paying $ 500 per person. I won’t share the details, but our bill was extremely reasonable, such that I wanted to pay MORE because everything had been so superb.
Brava, J. Rocco! Thank you, Jodi, for giving my guests and I such a special, memorable experience. You are the best!

Really enjoyed my dinner here. The Server was very polite and professional, and the Hostess/​Manager lady was very excited to ask us how our dinner was and speak with us about the menu and wines.
Food was quite good — Pea Soup was excellent. Would like a few more (2 – 3) Italian staple options like Chicken Parm, and regular Pasta with Tomato sauce though.

Best best best Italian food in the city! Scallops, lamb meatballs & tagliatelle are amazing!!!
Go sit at the bar and ask for Les, best bartender in town!

Somewhat new to the hood, this smaller comfortable, rustic contemporary, cozy spot is rapidly becoming one of my favorite go to places for delicious regional Italian small places, pastas, fish/​meats, exotic Italian beers, nice wine selection, wonderful people and and a nice welcoming vibe.
The food, stemming from either the heel or sole of the Italian boot, I forget which, has a different flavor profile from the typical southern or Tuscan regional flavors, which I found refreshing.
The meatball sampler, beef, pork, lamb, chicken and shrimp, each in their own delicious and flavorful sauces is a favorite along with their homemade sausage flatbread (with a delicious crust), root vegetables and honey truffle scallops. We ordered 9 dishes for four people, ate them all, are they were all tasty.
Jodi the manager is absolutely charming and will make you feel like family. Just tell her Mike sent you!

We chose this restaurant because Open Table had it as the closest Italian location with an available table at the closest time. And can I say that it was serendipity that brought us here? Probably one of the best nights I’ve had eating out. Our waiter Chase recommended 2 very good wines — red for me & white for the bestie. I am really a «tastes good I’ll drink it» type of gal, so when a new wine is pleasantly surprising, I’m always happy. I had the scallops, special of the night, and bestie had the spaghetti, with the chicken & bacon meatballs. Dinner is served family style and we had bites of each other’s food. It was all incredible and just what we wanted.
After dessert discussions with our waiter, we were also offered the scarpino drink. Chase surprised us by making it tableside and I’ve got video of it posted to media, so I’m sure it’s going to go viral. The drink was awesome. J. Rocco makes their own limoncello, which is like saying our drink was made from scratch. We were also offered a cranberry-​lime limoncello, which delicious.
So not only was the food fantastic, but our service was outstanding. We made fast friends as well with Jodi, the manager. It’s one thing to have an amazing dinner, but it takes it up a notch when dinner is accompanied by making new friends who treat you like long lost family. Probably one of the best nights I’ve had in a long while.
I’ll be going back before I leave to go back home. And recommending J. Rocco to all my Chicago co-​workers and anyone who comes to visit.

perhaps its an off night but I just ordered food from J rocco tonight and its the worst Italian food I ever had in my life
I ordered the pizza with Prosciutto, apple, pecorino (salty, uninspiring), Grilled Octopus, Lemon Dressing (probably best of all the food I ordered tonight but I can name other restaurants in town that makes it better), Tagliatelle with pork belly, veal, chuck, red wine sauce, pecorino (this is the worst, the pasta was gummy and way overcooked mushy and the sauce was gamey tasting), pork chop (salty and saturated with oil).
I took couple bites from each plate and literally have to toss the rest… Sorry J Rocco, I will never order from there again

This restaurant is one of the best places in the city.
I ordered the gnocchi and it was absolutely phenomenal. It tasted fresh and the sauce was absolutely delicious and I would pour it on anything and eat it.
We ordered the pork, shrimp, and chicken meatball. What I liked most about it was they don’t use breadcrumbs. It’s 100% percent meat! The sauces that come with the meatballs are amazing.
I would recommend this place to anyone in the city looking for an awesome Italian food experience

SO FREAKING GOOD! We had a group of 7 on a holiday weekend and had no issue getting in (but did call a couple hours ahead). The waiter was hilarious, loved him. And the food was incredible. A friend and I split the gnocchi and lobster ravioli. They were very accommodating on trading the sauce that went on the pasta. The lobster ravoli was hands-​down the best. Lumps of lobster on it, and the vodka sauce! The half chicken was also a favorite amongst the table. Would definitely recommend!

Nice location on Clark and cute atmosphere here. I was expecting more overall though.
Though the (pork for me) meatballs were super fresh and comforting, my 2 gripes with the dinner experience here were:
1) the mussel soup I ordered, which came with 10 large mussels, wasn’t served with a side bowl for the mussel shells, which I thought odd and a rookie mistake. The broth was also less flavorful than I was expecting it to be with the plethora of chunky veggies in it.
2) the table tops are rather small for a party of 4. We had to do some shuffling to make all our plates fit.

J Rocco, you magnificent SONUVA BITCH! Your rosemary bean soup had me at «braised pork».
Your cioppino was delivered to my table not by the Caucasian man who was my waiter, but instead by a tiny Italian man you clearly had in the kitchen specifically reserved for such purposes. Bravo, sir (s)! Bravo!

I really like this place, which is inconspicuous in River North. Unlike other places in RN, it is very reasonably priced. It has awesome meatball appetizers made of pork, shrimp, beef and chicken. They come in a pair but are as big as a tennis ball each, so don’t order two!
The food is southern Italian and plenty for anyone. The wait staff was great and it is easy to get into without a reservation. Especially if you live in the area, you owe it to yourself to stop by. Great Italian food without the huge price tag.

I went to J. Rocco tonight hoping to recreate last year’s magic. It didn’t happen. Apparently there have been some changes to the menu and they are not improvements.
I ordered the same thing as in my previous visit: chicken meatballs and gnocchi. The chicken meatballs came out very quickly and I had started eating them before I realized that they were a bit hard and not freshly made. The flavors largely were there but because it was not hot, they weren’t as enjoyable.
The gnocchi came out looking very different from what I recalled. There were tomatoes and spinach in the dish, and I don’t believe that those additions were indicated on the menu. The waiter and cook explained that they are using a new recipe but they graciously offered to prepare the gnocchi the way they used. It was pretty though not as good as before.
It’s too bad…

While walking to my hotel, starving and in dire need of food I stopped here. The head cook is awesome. He brought me some burrata to ease my hunger pains! So nice of him! The bartender was awesome! Very helpful with the touristy spots and even gave us tips on where to venture off outside of downtown.
The chicken and spinach pizza was absolutely delicious! The pennette pasta was a very good dish with a slightly sweet taste. It’s family portions so totally enough to share. If you’re downtown, stop for a bite to eat!

+: large upstairs dining area for several groups and a private bar, no reservation minimums or fees
: The scallops.
—: the rest of this review:
Our entrees took half an hour to come out, in fact we thought they had forgotten to serve them to us because no one gave us any status updates.
The servers also forgot to bring out a birthday dessert, but we were already short on time because of the extremely delayed dinner and didn’t bother reminding anyone. Entrees were confused between diners.
The taste of the food was decent. The lamb meatballs had so much bread in them you could actually taste it, couldn’t taste the lamb at all, could have been any other meat.
Quite a few items were not available, because of which we chose to dine here.
Pizzas are big, entrees are big, drinks are OK.
If you want moderately priced Italian food there are a ton of alternatives in a 1-​mile radius.

nice little place that I enjoyed a few days ago while killing time before a date.
I enjoyed the flatbreads with some veggies and cheese because i dont eat sausage or meat right now or at least I did not feel like it.
Ideal for small groups of people to share wine and small bites.
Interesting cuisine and I could hear myself talk. An added bonus.
the wine is reasonable priced unlike other places in the river north area.
You can come in with jeans and a nice shirt. You won’t feel out of place at all. Nice décor if I must say which i do :)

It seems like new eateries are popping up in my old hood everyday. Typically I leave wishing _​_​_​had opened a year earlier back when i was a city gal. Back when I had 1 (instead of 2) munchkin and (slightly) more time and energy for meals out.
I left J Rocco satisfied, but didn’t feel like I was missing out by not having this down the street. The wine hit the spot, but after a long stressful week any glass of wine would do. Props to our waiter for keeping our glasses full throughout the night. The pizza was probably the best part of the meal– crispy and tasty (all of them– we tried a bunch). And the variety of pasta dishes were good too; the ravioli was the favorite among the table.
I’m not really a meatball type of girl so perhaps not fair for me to judge them, but the one I tasted didn’t do it for me. And even the meatball fans at the table exclaimed that the chick pea meatballs were pretty gross. Then again chick pea meatballs just sound plain gross.
Perhaps worth a visit for those in the neighborhood (I’d stick w/​the pizza & wine), but not quite worth a trip back for those of us who have moved on.

Nothing short of five stars.
Meatball appetizer was mouthwatering delicious. Gnocchi was best I have ever tasted. Pizza was perfect as well. Crisp crust with just right mix of sauce cheese an toppings.
Wonderful. Simply wonderful.
I hope this place stays open forever. It is fairly new and the location is several blocks off popular shopping Mecca of Michigan avenue, so I hope it makes it!

I cringe as I write this, as I was so looking forward to trying J. Rocco. I can honestly say the wine was the only good part of the meal and the only thing delivered in a timely fashion.
We arrived at 6:30 (the second table of the evening) and ordered the meat and cheese plate. It took about 25 minutes to arrive and when it did the grilled bread was cold and unappetizing.
We ordered the caramelized cauliflower and an order of scallops afterwards. After waiting 30 minutes we got the cauliflower (much too salty and garlicky) and an order of ahi tuna. We were told the scallops were sold out so they had selected a substitution for us. Unfortunately my dining partner doesn’t eat tuna so she was stuck with the cauliflower dish that was soggy and unappetizing. The empty meat and cheese plate was never removed from our table so we had to stack our meal on top of it as we ate and decided to just leave at that point.
We waited another 20 minutes for the bill which came back incorrect. Our waiter took our wine off the bill for the error but it couldn’t make up for such a disappointing dining experience.

omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg!
This place is delish! I am so happy I went here… finally! It has been on my short list for awhile.
So we were sat in the back at a huge table with lots of space. Bonus for a large party of girls.
We started off with the lamb and chicken meatballs and then burrata. The meatballs were BOTH AMAZ_​BALLS. omgomgomgomgomgomgogmomgomg. The burrata was good, but nothing amazing.
Everyone got something different (stracci, salmon, cioppino, gnocchi, etc) and it all was fan-​freaking-​tastic~! The definite winner of the night was the gnocchi. Rich and creamy… uuuuhhhhhohhhhhsogoooooooddddddd! Cioppino had a TON of seafood and was cheap as hell! I also loved the complimentary rosemary focaccia. Mmmmmmmmm Also, all of the pasta is house made except for one… AMAZ~!
The chocolate cake was perfect-​o especially with the chocolate chip gelato.
Everyone loved their cocktails. Lots of choices!
Service was great. Very personable staff.
I most definitely am going back here. Lets not forget, the great price point for the area. WOWOWOWOOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOOOOOOWWWWWW!

Endroit sympa mais un peu bruyant. Le cadre est plutôt class. Le service est très bon, nous avons même eu droit au chef qui nous a présenté nos plats.
Le plat Cioppino est très bon, surtout les noix de saint Jacques fraiches.
La pizza canard, fromage de chèvre et pistache est vraiment étonnante et la pâté croustillante.
En revanche, les gnocchis, bien que fait maison, sont horriblement trop salés.
Nous avons manifesté ce désagrément et en compensation, les desserts nous ont été offerts! Et ils sont excellents, très fins: fondant au chocolat, gâteau au citron avec framboise fraiches et cake à la pistache sa boule de glacé.
En conclusion: nous vous le recommandons!!!