Sapori Trattoria

Best Italian food in the city. Awesome ambiance, exceptional service and unique wine selection. Make sure to make a reservation!

Sapori Trattoria absolutely lives up to its 5-​star review. Every dish I’ve had there has been spectacular. The Spaghetti allo Scoglio (23.99) was a huge portion with homemade pasta that was cooked to a perfectly chewy yet tender texture. The marinara was flavorful and garlicky with just the right amount of seafood taste without being too fishy. The shrimp, scallops, mussels and clams were all well cooked and there was more than enough food to take home as leftovers at the end of the meal. My only critique of the dish was that I asked for it to be spicy and it really didn’t have any kick to it. I then asked the waiter to bring me crushed red pepper flakes on the side and my need for heat was met. Would absolutely recommend!

Never less than perfect. Sapori has great food, fantastic service and a mellow vibe. We love the Zuppa Di Pesci but everything is great including the appetizers.
Definitely our favorite spot in the city to bring friends and out of towners.

Why can’t I give 6 stars?! Came here last night for restaurant week and I almost regret it because now I know how amazing it is and can already feel the additional 10 pounds I’m going to gain since it’s right down the street. Got seated right away with a reservation, ambiance was cute, waiter was fantastic. Now onto the good stuff — the food:
Wine: Waiter recommended the Montepulciano D’Abruzzo– it went great with our meals!
Appetizer:
Crostini d’Avocado– Mouthwateringly good. Working to recreate this at home. The avocados were extremely fresh and the flavors went together perfectly, was very happy our waiter recommended this instead of the bruschetta (although that’s probably great too). Came with two pieces.
Caesar Salad– Good. I’d get it again but the least stand out item from the menu. Good size.
Main Course:
Veggie Lasagna– I actually had a dream about this last night it was that good. I was debating between the veggie and the meat and again, our waiter led me to the holy land of amazing food by recommending the veggie. The sauce was incredible the vegetables complemented each other perfectly, and there may have been some secret drug in there too since I’m so addicted (just kidding… But seriously. It’s amazing). It was by far the largest piece of lasagna I’ve ever had. In general, the portions here were very large which you typically don’t see at nicer Italian restaurants.
Gnocchi– Boyfriend had the gnocchi and the pesto was amazing and not overbearing, and the sun dried tomatoes were perfect. Also a very healthy portion.
Dessert–
We got our prosecco with dessert and then he got a Tiramisu since I don’t love sweets. That being said, when he tried it he said I had to try it because was delicious. Not too rich or sweet– coffee flavor was strong but not overbearing. I’d definitely recommend it to any dessert fan.
This is my new go to Italian restaurant. And date night restaurant. And takeout restaurant. And any other food occasion. YUM!

Homemade pasta and sauces were out of this world, and our server was very attentive and helpful in deciding what to order. They even sent a handwritten, by chef, note with a gift card to encourage our return!

Wow! I am surprised by all the praise for this place. I will have to give it another try. As for my experience, it was average. Pasta was over cooked. Sauce was lacking. It seemed over priced. Service and atmosphere was great though. Good luck!

Fabulous dining experience! Worth the 50 minute wait. Excellent service and fabulous food.
Best spot for ethnic Italian food.

SO GOOD! I can’t rave enough. I know there are thousands of reviews like this one, but I had to add to the great feedback based on how the evening COULD have gone if not for their great staff.
We made a reservation through Unilocal for 7:30 on a Friday and arrived at the restaurant to tons of people standing around waiting. I would say around 10 – 15 people when we arrived. Their reservation system for Unilocal,OpenTable, etc. was down, so like half of the people arriving for dinner «with reservations» didn’t actually have reservations with the restaurant. The hostesses were kind, accommodating, calm and handled their shit like total bosses. The hostess, who was maybe 19 or so, calmly took our names and let us know it would be a little bit of a wait. I was expecting her to say like 30 minutes or an hour (which is not unheard of and would’ve been tolerable) but then she says 10 to 15 minutes. I’m just like oh my goodness that’s not even a wait compared to most restaurants. We waited probably less than the quoted time and enjoyed a WONDERFUL evening. The team continued their impeccable service as we watched them handle the stream of patrons with no fuss or issue. You could tell they were a little stressed and are typically highly organized with their reservations and seatings, but only when they thought the patrons weren’t looking :) They efficiently sat all the groups waiting, coming in, etc. throughout our dinner. We never saw any other groups wait too long or have any issues, all thanks to their team’s calm, cool, collected outlook and ability to run their operation efficiently. Our waitress was an absolute doll, the busser was SUPER efficient and kept my water full after almost every sip, and of course, the food was DELICIOUS. I had the lobster «ravioli» everyone raves about on on here and it totally earned all those kudos. The raviolis are obviously house-​made pasta cut and hand stuffed. Impeccable. And huge HUGE portions. My dish was $ 22 and I probably could’ve made 3 meals out of it. But, it was delicious so I just have leftovers for 1 meal. Cesar salad was on point too.
Oh, and they had a good cheap 6.50 house cab that was not bad at all. A total plus in my book!

I’d return if others wanted to, but not on my own. It just doesn’t stand up to the review hype!
The interior is very cozy and cute but it’s wasted on the food. The octopus appetizer was only okay… It was pretty chewy. And the lobster ravioli (cappellaci all’aragosta) was really rich and overly creamy, a much heavier dish than it needed to be. Reading back on the less-​than-​stellar reviews, here, it does seem that the food quality is where they fall down, which is unfortunate and in my opinion the most important thing!
Service was impeccable, but there are just much better places to dine in Lincoln Park!

Coming over for dinner on one of the coldest days of the year (1÷17÷16), it was instantly a wonderful warm atmosphere as we were seated upstairs (and the place was packed). We started with the Calamari Fritta and it was good, but there wasn’t anything to set this apart from the rest of the amazing Fried Calamari’s out there, still, would order again.
Since the place did have a lot of seafood listed, and the dish I ordered was listed under «House Specialties», I decided to try the Spaghetti allo Scoglio subbing a Pappardelli pasta … I kind of felt they were a bit skimpy on the noodles and while some of the seafood was delicious (the shrimp and clams), the mussels and scallops were a bit on the fishy tasting side. And given this was a bit of a pricey dish, I would not have expected the skimping or priceyness.
Others in our group raved about the Lasagna and the Spaghetti and Meatballs. The server recommended the «Milk and Honey Baby Back Ribs», and even though you don’t think of ordering them in an Italian Joint, they can be good (Calos in Andersonville comes to mind). I kind of regretted not trying them, but on the other hand, all of their pastas (Except for the Penne) are house made, so I wanted to stick with the pasta.
I would come back for the great service and atmosphere, but stay away from the Seafood — except of course if they are going to deep fry it.

Made a reservation here for a Sunday evening and the place was still very full. I really liked the ambiance. They basically converted the first 2 floors of a house for the restaurant and left all the cute niches and exposed brick walls with a nice combination of soft lit chandeliers and spot lighting (you can actually see the menus with the light placing despite the low lighting).
Our server that night, Patrick, was really awesome and made the experience over the moon. He was incredibly helpful and friendly throughout the evening (I loved that he made it super easy to figure out the vegetarian options on the menu :)).
We started off with a glass of wine each, the merlot was really delicious and I ended up with a nice crisp white with a hint of guava myself (I started with a white that didn’t suit and Patrick was great about getting me a fresh glass of something I’d enjoy). We ordered the asparagus salad — lightly dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and huge pieces of goat cheese over a bed of greens and it had some kind of nut. I would’ve liked a bit more lemon/​acid, but we really like goat cheese!
We ordered a creamy penne pasta dish for the 2 of us, and had it modified to leave out the chicken and have the hand made pasta (doesn’t come with that normally). It had a lot of fresh basil and extra veggies, we pretty much wiped the plates clean! Finally, we finished off the night with a large piece of tiramisu — great balance of the flavors, and really light fluffy mascarpone.
A really great dining experience, I’d definitely return!

One of my best buds had a Groupon for Sapori Trattoria so we decided to get a couple other guys and get a nice dinner on an otherwise boring Sunday evening.
We trekked up to Lincoln Park and were able to find parking nearby. Sapori doesn’t have any big flashy signs or anything, if you don’t notice the awning, it’s quite easy to overlook, but if you overlook Sapori, you’ll surely be missing out on an awesome place!
We had a reservation and were not surprised to find plenty of open tables around 8pm on a Sunday. This was nice because we were able to enjoy a fairly quiet, attentive dinner.
The inside of the restaurant is fairly small, but very chic. Works (with accompanying price tags) from local artists and photographers adorned the walls. Sapori is dimly lit, with classic paper table coverings, and seating so close you’re liable to make a new friend or two on a busy night. Furthermore, Sapori is probably not the place to spontaneously bring the loud, 20 person family for Uncle Guido’s 55^th birthday. It is the place, however, to bring your dashing significant other for an intimate date night. I would imagine that it gets quite crowded on any given Friday or Saturday, and a reservation would almost be necessary at such a time.
We started with a couple of appetizers. First was the fried calamari, and second was the burrata. The calamari was good, nicely breaded with a great red sauce to go with it. The burrata was amazing. The flavors and texture of the crunchy bread, creamy fresh mozzarella cheese, thick cut prosciutto and tomato were absolutely fantastic.
We did get a couple of drinks too. I opted for the Giancarlo Chianti which wasn’t bad, but perhaps a little underwhelming at $ 8/​glass. Decent sized pour, though. Another friend went with the servers recommendation of a French martini. I mooched a sip and holy cow, this was one quality cocktail! It was quite strong but so expertly mixed that the fruity flavors overshadowed the alcohol taste.
We were warned about Sapori’s traditional-​sized portions and even after we ate our share of appetizers and bread (with oil of noteworthy quality), we still opted for one entrée each.
Everyone thought their dishes were delicious. One friend had the buccatini carbonara, one the pennette cardinale, the other the cappellacci all’ aragosta, and myself the gnocchi al brivido. We all insisted on trying each others’ food and there wasn’t any dishes the four of us disliked. I can especially comment on the cappellacci aragosta, which was most similar to a lobster ravioli. This was out of this world and probably would be my go-​to item here. The pasta was done right and the lobster was so fresh and flavorful it literally melted in your mouth. The sauce was both creamy and a little acidic. I also speculate that some type of seafood stock was part of the recipe. It had a subtle fishy taste to it, but the good kind of fishy that complements the whole dish. My gnocchi was also quite tasty. I’d consider myself a pesto freak, and while this pesto was more of an oil-​based sauce and not a cream sauce, it was exceptionally flavorful and matched perfectly with the thick gnocchi, yummy dried tomatoes, and hearty chicken chunks. The unanimous decision was that the cappellacci was the best of all the plates, though.
Peter was our server and he was very good and quite knowledgeable. He was calm, cool and collective but definitely made some quality recommendations, helped us with pronouncing menu items, as well as threw in some grin-​worthy comments here and there. Service was spot-​on.
I would really be nit-​picking the finest of details if I were to report anything negative about our experience here. While Sapori is a little pricey, the quality of food here (made-​in-​house noodles and sauces, for example), the location, and the experience is definitely worth it. Not to mention, we had a considerable discount due to the Groupon we used.
Overall I really enjoyed our experience at Sapori Trattoria. I would summarize it as being more of an intimate, authentic and boutique Italian restaurant. Take advantage of the deals they offer on Unilocal and Groupon and your experience is sure to be as good as ours was.
Excellent!

I was really excited to give this place a try based on so many really outstanding reviews, unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations
For an appetizer we ordered the grilled calamari. It was okay but we certainly have had better. The texture was a bit off. Just too chewy. Two of us ordered the Cappellacci all’Aragosta, lobster ravioli. Reviews had said it to be light but not the case. This dish is very rich and heavily creamed. It was good but not what we were expecting or really wanted. The ravioli were had lots of lobster in them which was good, we just would have preferred a lighter sauce. Another of us ordered the linguine with clams. The person who ordered the dish was very unhappy with it because he said it was way too salty. I tasted it as well and he wasn’t wrong.
The one thing I can rave about is the service! Everyone from our waiter to the busboys were friendly an point!

If you’ve ever spent time in Italy and have been struggling to find an authentic Italian place in the States, give it a go! Excellent homemade pasta with a number of traditional sauces (a few added ones for the American Pallet). Nice and quiet if you’re in the back seating area as well. They still serve food in American order unless you specify and the cappuccino was also not traditional (massive American sized coffee).
Dessert: I had the lemon sorbetto, though it’s more of a Spanish thing, it’s the first time I’ve seen it served inside a frozen lemon outside of Europe and was very very impressed with it! Careful on the limoncello, you get a hefty serving. Lastly, no relevance to the food but keeping traditional… should be Trattoria Sapori if we are going to get technical. Loved the food, try it out!

Father in law took us here as he claimed it was one of the best Italian in Chicago. I agree.
Ordered the lobster stuff shell pasta with a nice pink sauce. Very good. Partner had the carbonara which was excellent. Had a taste of the FIL’s ossobuco which was very moist and delicious. Would love to come back and try anything on their menu.
I hear the cook is super friendly and takes good pride his product.

Been looking for my go-​to Italian spot and this is it! True neighborhood gem with authentic eats with reasonable pricing. I was skeptical as I had a Living Social deal and have seen this place listed a few times for deals, maybe suggesting that there was a reason for such deals as with some other places I’ve tried that turned out to be mediocre… but not Sapori Trattoria!
Had reservations Sunday evening at 6:30 pm. We were seated promptly but this place was still pretty busy. The space was a lot larger than it appears with various seating areas that extend to the back which was where we were seated. Right away, there was a lot of rustic charm in its ambience.
Boo and I got the grilled calamari to start. Get this! This was so delish. Perfectly cooked, beautiful presentation and awesome unique flavor. I got the lobster stuffed pasta as the bf got the meat lasagna. Our server was very nice and helpful and explained to us that their pastas and sauces are all homemade. Both were sooo good. Nothing was too salty, all the flavors meshed well together and were robust. Super tasty. Even the complimentary bread was good… it was perfectly toasted on the outside and chewy on the inside. The olive oil even tasted of higher quality. Already stuffed at this point, I finished with the lemon sorbetto. Such beautiful presentation as the sorbet filled a huge frozen lemon sitting in a martini glass. The sorbet was perfectly sweet and tart with a slight creaminess to it. Boo enjoyed his bread pudding.
Overall, definitely coming back for my next Italian cravings. Better food, prices and service than most other Italian places especially in LP.

The owner of this intimate Italian spot goes out of his way to personalize your experience. Not only do they do tons of advertising, but just last week I received a gift certificate in the mail for my half birthday. As if that wasn’t nice enough of a touch — the entire envelope had a HAND WRITTEN (font, but it really had me fooled) note about them appreciating my business and how everyone notices your birthday but not half birthdays. That alone just floored me!!!
I went on a Monday night with a friend and we were surprised to learn that Monday nights for $ 20 a person you get a four course, family style meal. It was such an unbelievable value. Between the two of us, we had leftovers for days. The food was really excellent too and you were not limited in choices for the $ 20 special. We were even able to order lobster ravioli that was by far our favorite of all the yummy dishes. Our server was extremely friendly (my friend felt he might have been a little too friendly, but who am I to resist the flattery?!).
Our friends were even so impressed with the staff; service, wine selection, and food that they’ve decided to have their wedding reception here in May so I can’t wait to see how this restaurant manages to blow me away in this capacity.

We made reservations for Sunday night dinner. Lovely little space with nice ambiance. It’s cozy and great for a group.
Everything was superb. The bread was hearty crusty and fresh.
The lobster ravioli was exceptional, meaty with a hearty saucy. It’s not an overly pungent or powerful flavor.
The cauliflower sausage Contadino was savory, tasteful and unique. Excellent combination.
We ordered half portions of each pasta and we’re glad we did! These were plentiful so I’m sure the regular sizes are huge.
Bucatini Carbonara is very rich and creamy. Perfect flavor.
We also tried tiramisu which was light but had a distinctive coffee flavor. Very good. Service was wonderful.
Overall we had a delicious fine meal!

Okay so no wonder this is rated one of the best and most reviewed Italian restaurant in Chicago, it definitely has its merit and we definitely enjoyed a nice Saturday evening with another couple here as well. The atmosphere is very nice and they have two floors and can accommodate you on a date night or if you come here with a large party for a big birthday bash. There were four of us there and we got a nice quaint table upstairs by a window and I almost felt like I was in a little Italian village enjoying some comfort Italian food.
Now onto the important stuff, the Italian goods. We decided to share the fried calamari and it was tasty but a little on the harder side so I would have preferred it to be softer but honestly, most calamari is pretty edible, it’s fried after all. After seeing all the reviews, I know that the lobster ravioli was a must item to order here so that is one of the three pasta dishes that we ended up sharing. It was seriously divine, I wanted to lick the entire plate of that yummy orange sauce. I mean they didn’t skimp out on their lobster and I would absolutely come back here just for this lobster ravioli as it’s the best one I may have ever had anywhere. Then we ordered the gamberoni e broccoli dish which is a a seafood linguini essentially with two giant shrimp and tons of fresh veggies in this yummy and simple sauce. The pasta may have been my favorite of the night as I could not stop getting it so if you want one unique dish here, I would absolutely get that. We also tried the gnocchi with the basil pine nut pesto sauce and it was a little too green for me like not sure if they over did it with the pesto or basil, but it almost lacked actual pasta flavor as the flavors were a little over done for me so I would not order this particular dish in the future. So I had to save room for my capuccino (pretending I was in Florence) and the hazelnut pana cotta with chocolate sauce. The dessert was definitely tasty but not the best thing I’ve ever had as I’m not the biggest fan of the jello like texture of panna cotta as I’m more of a crème brûlée kind of girl if you know what I mean.
Overall, we had a fantastic night and I will definitely be back. Our server was nice, kind of rushed us in the beginning but overall turned out to be nice. The pasta dishes were some of the best I’ve had, it’s not a pretentious place, you don’t have the trendy element like in RPM Italian but it’s just some good old comfort food Italian and I will absolutely be back for this gem.

After many years of walking past this restaurant I FINALLY decided to try it out. First I must say that the outside appearance is deceiving, I always thought it was probably small inside but I quickly learned I was wrong. There are two floors! (I would’ve never guessed.)
I made dinner reservations for my Mother’s birthday on a Friday night. I should also add that I was able to make them straight from my Unilocal app which was super easy and convenient!
Once we arrived a young lady working alongside the host cheerfully led us to our table on the second level. There isn’t an elevator which leaves quite a few stairs to walk up, if stairs are a problem I would definitely call in and try to get a table on the first floor.
After we sat down to look over the menu we noticed that they all had a lovely birthday greeting with my Mothers name at the very top. (Great touch Sapori Trattoria!) I could tell this was one of the highlights of her day. On to the food, they do bring out the traditional bread, oil, and parmesan cheese for you to snack on before your meal. My table ordered the lobster ravioli, lamb chops, salad, bruschetta, and spaghetti. Everything was delicious and well portioned. Our server was very kind and patient, he let my Mother sample a few different wines to find one she really enjoyed.
After we were done and our plates were cleared away the server put down four new plates and then surprised us with birthday dessert on the house. The tiramisu and hazel nut panna cotta was the best I’ve ever had, and a perfect ending to a great dinner.
Thank You Sapori Trattoria for making my Mothers birthday one for the books!