Ricardo’s Italian Cafe

Love their chicken spiedini and beef spiedini lunch specials. The house salad is so fresh and delicious. Haven’t tried their lunch buffet yet, but will be back. :)

neatest little family owned place around. I really enjoy their food. nice and quiet even when full and great staff

Love this restaurant. We are regulars when we come to town. Try the gooey butter cake

So I’ll call this a 4.5 out of 5 stars review.
It really would have been perfect, except the online menu was wrong. The key points: you can get whole wheat and gluten-​free pasta. Cool! I call to confirm. Aaaaaaand, nope. No wheat or gluten-​free pasta. Bummer, dude. At the end of the day, none in our party NEEDED these, but I was very excited about some wheat pasta. And the menu had changed and they hadn’t updated the online menus. Alas. This would have been a much bigger deal to someone who is gluten intolerant, like one of our best friends.
That being said, the meals were delicious. Lasagna? Perfect. Mannicotti? Yes. Cannelloni? Oh hell yeah. And Penne Michelangelo? Yes yes yes. We also had the Beef Spedini, which was good but not great (not the tenderest beef, but hey, it was still good). All in all, excellent Italian. Would do again. Almost perfect, save for the menu glitch, which the guy on the phone acknowledged immediately. Great local Italian joint. Last note: we had take-​out, not dine-​in.

Tonight was our first trip to Ricardo’s, but we will definitely go back. We had the calamari for an appetizer and steak modega and chicken spiedini for entrees, and everything was amazing. I had seen the chicken recommended in previous Unilocal reviews and was not disappointed. It’s a great place for dates and semi-​fancy gatherings and a nice venture away from the Hill for Italian food. Hit up Square One for a drink before and Bailey’s Chocolate for dessert after, and you’re set!

I have now been to Ricardo’s twice; once with a group of aunts/​cousins and a second time for a graduation dinner. Each time, the staff has been incredibly attentive and accommodating. Both times we had larger parties and they were so flexible in terms of splitting dishes, providing extra plates, etc. They also allow you to order a half portion during their dinner hours which I really appreciated!
The food here is delicious! I have sampled their salads (House, Spinach, & Caesar), some of their appetizers (calamari), their entrees, as well as a few of their desserts and have been very pleased both times. Their menu provides a wide variety of basic Italian dishes. In my experience, there has always been something for everyone. Their seafood canneloni is delicious but definitely a little bit rich. I would recommend sharing a half or full portion with a friend. I have also really enjoyed the Linguine Louisa, being a big fan of red sauce, mushrooms, and eggplant!
So, in conclusion, I would say four stars for the food, but five stars for the service and the experience. The staff has made both parties I was with feel very welcome and taken care of. We never felt rushed to leave. Additionally, there is plenty of parking around the nearby Lafayette Park.
I’d definitely recommend Ricardo’s, whether for a small or big group!
**Tip: You can make reservations online ahead of time!**

I can confidently say, this is the best Italian restaurant I have been to! The owners, Mark and Michelle, are a delight to visit with as you savor the fettuccine Alfredo, lasagna, or pasta carbonara. Their Ceasar salad is the best Ceasar I’ve had and I always have a small bowl of it before the main menu. The main meals are always hot, fresh, tasty and worth every penny!

A wonderful neighborhood restaurant with pastas salads steaks and more! A very accommodating staff and the owner cares a great deal about your comforts and satisfaction! The pasta elizabeta with lots of seafood is yummy and the portions are large! They are very accommodating with any modifications or requests and the atmosphere is warm and inviting… a great place to go with friends for a casual but delicious evening out. You feel like you’re home with an Italian family!

This is a cute quaint Italian restaurant. We hit it one day during the lunch buffet on a Monday and it was amazing. Since then we’ve been back twice. The food is good, service is fast and the house salad is amazing.

This is my favorite neighborhood restaurant to go to. I love watching hockey or baseball in the bar while I eat. I live in south city but feel like I live in the Square as I know most of the people in the neighborhood.
The food is so delicious. I always recommend the Chicken Spedini to people who have never eaten there before.
The craft beer on tap is delicious as well.

What a great experience we had at dinner on Friday night. Good was incredible and nice to see a family run business where the family is actually there and working! We will definitely be back.

Well I feel this review will be light because of the time I attended, not the venue itself. On Mondays the menu offers a moderately priced buffet. The food was tastey and offered diverse and tradition Italian options. The service staff was attentive, polite and appropriate. I would recommend this as a nice business lunch option, the other patrons appeared to be from the same demographic.

I went here with a group of four on Sunday during the Lafayette House Tour. We came in shortly after they opened to beat the rush, and we were sure glad we did: the place was full half an hour later. We picked where we sat, which was two rooms over from the front door, away from the all-​too-​sunny window.
The menu was a special one for the house tour and probably more limited. I still found two things on a single page that I wanted: cheese manicotti and capellini pomodoro. It was a rough decision, but the manicotti was recommended as more delicious as I would have asked that the capellini not come with a meatball. It was only $ 7 for a half order and that included two manicotti. That’s a pretty good deal, even for a lunch special, so I went all out and ordered a house salad too. I think the dressing was a red wine vinaigrette. Normally, I’m not all over vinaigrettes, but this wasn’t so strong. The cheese was Provel (yay!), and even though it wasn’t overly cheesy, the salad was still good, and I think I’ll order it when I return for the capellini. The manicotti? Delicious! So soft that I nearly slurped them up whole! Everyone else in my party ordered salted caramel ice cream for dessert and enjoyed it. (I was saving room for the free ice cream on the tour.)
Minus one star for the bathroom situation. It’s clean and functional and all, but it’s pretty small, there are only two stalls in the women’s room, and it’s not quite as cute as the rest of Ricardo’s.

I’ve been coming here for years, and the best compliment I can give is this… coming to Ricardo’s always feels like coming to a friend’s house.
I’ve watched many ballgames at the bar while striking up a conversation with someone new or laughing at the regulars telling tall tales. I’ve hustled in the front door 10 minutes before the kitchen closes to place a ‘go’ order because we were too tired or too lazy to cook. We’ve trudged through 8 inches of snow to get the table by the front window so my wife and I could drink wine, eat pasta and watch the snow fall on Lafayette Park.
My go-​to dishes include the Eggplant Parmesan appetizer, our secret ‘off menu’ Chopped Veggie Salad, and the thin crust Mushroom Pizza.
I understand the point of Unilocal is to tell others what happened during your visit. Have all my visits been flawless? Of course not because we’re all human. However — I’ve never left feeling cheated or hungry or angry. All I’m trying to say is this… I’ve been a regular here for almost 10 years and can’t think of a better place to spend an evening or have a nice Italian meal with wine.
Stop in, order a drink, strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you and order whatever looks good. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

A party of 8 of us went on a Friday night and the place was empty. Food was meh; and overpriced.
But the service was awful. Our waitress seemed awkward and highly annoyed. Was always «around» but not helpful. And interrupted our lively and fun dinner an excessive amount of time; in a way that made everyone uncomfortable.
Will not go back or recommend.

Went for dinner on a Tuesday night (relatively empty). Food was alright, not the best, but good. Service was not great. Server was attentive, but didn’t get my order right. She did make things right by leaving the incorrect order for me to take home and brought the correct order to me without charging me for the incorrect order. Main downside to the service was how long it took to get the food.
Also be aware, the Happy Hour specials are in the bar only.

As a person who was raised Italian, I rarely (and I mean never) eat out at restaurants that claim to serve Italian food — because most do not get it right. General consensus at my table was that everyone loved their food, especially the one who ordered Manicotti. I really enjoyed the house Italian salad and the Writer’s Block petit syrah complemented my food quite well.
My only «thing» was that my Chicken Spiedini was… delicious… but the breading was just slightly burned and it made the chicken a bit chewy (Yikes!). Also, when being served a baked potato, its generally expected that a dish of whipped butter be served with it, however, in this case we had to open a ton of tiny packets and it got messy quick.
All of this being said, the service is not by any means sub-​par. You are greeted, seated, and then treated as though you are of great importance without being pestered incessantly. They trust that you are going to enjoy your service without the need to «perform» for a tip. Ricardo’s is family-​owned and they treat you as such.
In the rare event that I would go out for Italian, this would be one two places that I would patron more than one time.

Had high hopes and was really looking forward to trying one of my neighborhood restaurants, however I left disappointed.
Went with a friend on a Wednesday evening around 6:30. We were seated by a hostess with a pair of white sunglasses on the top of her head. Not what I expected for a first impression of what I thought was a nicer restaurant. There were two other parties in the first room where we were seated by the window. Shortly after being seated a girl came by with water and bread. Then a different girl came by to see if we wanted anything to drink besides water. After my friend got his tea and we ordered an appetizer from girl #2, the hostess came by to see if we wanted wine or a drink from the bar. Throughout the whole experience I honestly couldn’t tell you who our server was because between the three of them they all brought us food, filled our drinks, checked on us, brought us a dessert menu, brought us the bill, etc.
Now on to the food, which seemed to take longer than it should for a restaurant with three tables. I must say that we got to «enjoy» each course before the next one arrived instead of getting less than half way through your salad before your entrée arrives.
Ordered the Calamari for an appetizer, the sauce was good but the calamari was way over cooked and were leaning towards the burnt side.
We ordered a large House Salad with chicken & large Pasta Primevera to share. The waitress offered to split the dishes on two desperate plates so we didn’t have to do it on our own. Since she was doing that I asked if my friends plate could have the cheese & onions held on both his salad & pasta. She said it wouldn’t be a problem.
The salad plates came out after we gnawed through the calamari. They came separate with mine only having the cheese and onions. The salads looked pitiful and both plates were missing croutons (which we couldn’t figure out what was missing while we were sitting there). At one point my friend picked up a piece of lettuce and dressing was literally dripping off the piece of lettuce. Needless to say it was way over dressed.
Now on to the pasta, which we also asked for no onions or cheese on one of the dishes. Well the salads were too good to be true, because both of the pasta dishes came out with onions and cheese. My friend didn’t want to be a pain so he ate it anyways and I’m sure paid for it later. The pasta had plenty of veggies in it but it was swimming in olive oil instead of being sautéed. Neither of us finished and turned down her offer when the hostess came by to see if we wanted boxes.
Girl #1 (the hostess) came by to see if we needed anything else and then brought us a menu so we could look at dessert. Unfortunately they didn’t have Sorbet for my friend so we didn’t end up getting any dessert even though I’m sure I could have polished off a plate of tiramisu on my own.
Again I was under impressed and disappointed with my first visit to a neighborhood restaurant. I’ll go back and give them another try, but it’ll have to be on somebody else’s dime.

Ricardo’s sure did aim to please the other night and I am clearly a fan of this little Italian place located in Lafayette Square.
We had dinner reservations for 7:00 on a Friday night; however, our group was running a little late and so I called to see if we could push back our reservations 30 minutes and the hostess was more than happy to accommodate my request! How awesome is that?
Our group arrived just around 7:30 and we were greeted immediately by a hostess. She brought us to our table and introduced our server to us. We had water on the table almost immediately and also a basket of bread was brought out right away! Our server came over and explained the menu to us and made some recommendations. I wish I could remember his name because he was really great! We placed our drink orders and then he gave us time to review the menu.
By the time he came back with our drinks we were ready to order. I asked for a small order of the manicotti. Others at the table ordered the lasagna and I believe my boyfriend ordered a steak with a side of pasta. We also ordered individual salads for an appetizer.
The salads came out rather quickly and I was actually really impressed that they did keep the dressing on the side as I hate when a salad is pre-​coated with dressing. Our server offered cracked pepper as well as Parmesan cheese for a topping as well. While we were eating our salads our water glasses were being refilled and a new basket of bread was being delivered.
Once we were done with our salads the meals were delivered to our table and it all looked and smelled delicious. I couldn’t wait to dig in. The small order of manicotti was just perfect for me. Our server offered Parmesan cheese again and then he allowed us time to try our meals before coming back to check in on us. I could tell we were all enjoying our meals since we didn’t talk much. I also think we all ate everything on our plates-​this is a good sign! The meals were delicious.
Our plates were cleared and now it was time for the dessert order; yes, I was excited to try dessert too! They had a long list of items to try including gooey butter cake, tiramisu, ice cream, and of course a cannoli. I ordered the chocolate chip cannoli and others at the table ordered the ice cream (handmade by Bailey’s Chocolate Bar next door). All the desserts were fresh and I really enjoyed the cannoli. I opted to share a few bites with my boyfriend as well and I think he enjoyed it too.
At the end of the meal our server came over and made sure we had everything we needed before bringing over our check. What I liked most about this place is that we were never rushed to do anything. It was a very laid back experience for all of us.
Overall, this was a great dinner and I can’t wait to go again! Who knew I would find such a great Italian restaurant not in the Hill? I recommend checking it out.

We have now tried this place 3 times. It gets worse each time… And everyone that has eaten there says the same thing.
No one knows why they return, but they do.
It was gross. Truly gross.
Will not be returning.