Quartino

626 N. State Street
312.698.5000
Italian

I was pretty impressed with the food here. I was a little skeptical since it was right downtown and in the midst of touristy restaurants. The have smaller plates here so it is like Italian tapas. (That is a great concept!) We tried a bunch of different plates and my favorite was definitely the gnocchi. I think it was served in a basil/olive oil sauce and it was just amazing! Their slogan here "Where wine is cheaper than water..." and their wine is pretty good. We just got the regular table red wine and I thought it was decent AND I bought a bottle to bring home for only $5!
There were, however, two things that I did not like about this place: 1. It was SO loud. This place is big and it was CROWDED and you could barely talk to the person sitting next to you, let alone the person sitting across from you. I would not recommend going on a first date there. 2. They have a bathroom attendant. I just don't like places that have those. It makes me feel awkward b/c I don't need someone in the bathroom to give me soap and hand me a towel. I can do that myself.