Café Bionda’s Valentines Day Menu Delivers

Ahhhh….The Hallmark Holiday…a special day, with special meanings created by corporations to make some money. Although we’re not generally down with this concept, we still seem to celebrate it annually. We try to avoid the traps of chocolate and silly stuffed animals and rather focus on the benefits of the holiday…

And by benefits we mean a great dinner. This year we decided to try out the much raved about Café Bionda, located at 1924 S. State street (not to be confused with it’s sister restaurant up in wicker park). As imagined it was packed with various couples and parties enjoying the ‘holiday’.

Upon walking in we were greeted warmly and settled in for a quick pre-dinner ‘valentine’ martini. Like most flavored martinis, half the appeal is the presentation and this one was no exception. Although I’m not a fan of sweet drinks, this was actually pretty good. I personally opted for the house cab which hit the spot.

The seating was cramp, but thankfully that didn’t backfire for us as the people sitting next to us were nice and actually offered some recommendations on appetizers. The atmosphere overall was lively with traditional fixtures, but contemporary art sporadically placed throughout the restaurant.

It was relatively late, so we focused on our main courses which were both on the special Valentines Day menu. The decision: Parmesan Encrusted Chilean Sea Bass and Jumbo Stuffed Tortellini. The sea bass was definitely the highlight as it did a great job of blending flavor with the tenderness typically found with the fish. Although the tortellini was solid, we weren’t as impressed with this dish.

The service was prompt and seemed well educated about the menu. We did suspect that there was some mix-up in the kitchen since the people next to us received their entrees much quicker then we did, but overall it didn’t take away from the experience. With that said, no doubt we will be hitting up Café Bionda again…probably before the next Hallmark Holiday.

Don't trust us...checkout Cafe Bionda reviews on yelp and metromix.