There’s a friendly new Italian restaurant in the Ravinia district of Highland Park, and despite the noise level, we enjoyed a recent evening there.
The tables are packed in, and it’s quite crowded at night, all of which adds to the general din. But chef Joe Farina’s menu is a crowd pleaser, with choices ranging from red-sauce Italian restaurant favorites like thin-crust pizza and Penne alla Vodka to Chicken Parm.
You can’t go wrong with the pizzas ($12), brick oven-baked beauties with standard toppings (spicy sausage, pepperoni, or Margherita style). We ordered the Prosciutto & Arugula, which arrived with a nicely blistered crust, the salty prosciutto baked under a layer of oozy mozzarella cheese and topped with a sprightly salad of arugula and Parmesan tossed lightly with lemon juice and olive oil.
Many of the salads here are meant to be shared, especially if you order the “large.” Or you could order a smaller portion and top it with grilled chicken, shrimp or salmon for an additional fee (I’m hoping that it’s a hefty portion of salmon at $14 a pop!). The Merlo’s Salad ($7/$12) was a pleasant mix of greens, chickpeas, hearts of palm, pepperoncini and raw chopped veggies, but it was overdressed and under seasoned. A basket of thick-crusted Italian bread is served with a bowl of room-temperature marinara sauce. If both were warm, we’d be thrilled.
Fingers crossed that when you stop by the house-made Burrata ($17) is a special. The creamy white orb, tied off in a knot (just like in the old country!) was terrific, especially when drizzled with a substantial olive oil, flecked with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and served with roasted, marinated red peppers and an heirloom cherry tomato salad.
Merlo’s is aiming to please with their pastas, so whole wheat and gluten-free choices are available on request. I can recommend the Linguine Fra Diavolo with Shrimp ($21), a generous portion with five plump and juicy shrimp; the sauce packs a bit of a wallop but I like a good spicy diavolo, especially when made with the justly famous San Marzano tomatoes.
We had wanted to order the Brick Chicken ($12/$21), a house specialty, but the half-hour cooking time was a deal breaker. Would that our server had returned to the table for our order more expeditiously. We had numerous service issues during the evening, including an egregious wine error.
So we went with the Boneless Chicken Vesuvio ($18), a large plate of well-seasoned chicken breasts, and roasted potatoes and bright green peas in a Vesuvio-style gravy. Less successful was the Veal Piccata ($22), two pieces of breaded veal cutlet in a thickish lemony sauce with plenty of capers. Here’s my issue: piccata style (chicken or veal) is classically not breaded, but merely dredged in flour to add a little body to the lemon-wine sauce. This veal had half an inch of breading on both sides; it overwhelmed the dish and tasted gummy. Easily remedied by going back to the basic classic preparation, which would also make for produce a much lighter dish.
The Blackened Salmon ($25), a special that evening, was a beautiful piece of fish swimming on a sea of extra-cheesy risotto—it was actually more reminiscent of mac and cheese—that threatened to overwhelm it. Eaten on its own, the fish was a winner. The risotto was a surprise as it went uncredited on the specials board and our server didn’t think to mention it.
You can skip the Brussels Sprouts ($12) appetizer, roasted sprouts covered with a mélange of capers, bacon, Parmesan and shaved raw red onions. It really didn’t work at all, and that’s coming from a sprouts fanatic. Color me disappointed.
Dessert choices are standard issue: tiramisu, gelato, chocolate lava cake, cannoli. Happily, all are made in house save the gelato, which ups the ante a bit. The Tiramisu ($6) was decent, but had the taste of being in the fridge a smidge too long. We devoured the well-executed version of Lava Cake ($8), rich and chocolatey with a huge scoop of vanilla gelato gilding the lily.
Owner John Merlo is an amiable presence in the dining room and is dedicated to customer service. When my niece left the restaurant without her purse, he got my phone number from our reservation and quickly called us in the car. Crisis averted!
It’s those little touches that create a repeat customer.
3 out of 5 stars (B)
Merlo’s Restaurant
581 Roger Williams Ave.
Highland Park
847-266-0600
