Mart Anthony’s Italian Restaurant

After reading so many great reviews, I thought we couldn’t go wrong with this one… wrong! We ordered fried calamari to start, which came out undercooked. I tried the stuffed gnocchi which was extremely spicy without warning on the menu or from the server. It wasn’t just a little kick… it was like a slap in the face of spice. I’m the type of person that I can pretty much eat anything, even if it’s not amazing and be fine, but this amount of spice made it inedible for me. My boyfriend got the lemon chicken and the chicken was on the dry side and not as lemony as I’ve had in many other Italian restaurants. The guy waiting on us was literally waiting on every table. I felt so bad, but he was at least very good at not showing how overwhelmed he was. Sad to say I won’t be giving this restaurant another chance.

We absolutely love this place! This is our go-​to Italian place in the city–
Everyone is so friendly and the food is DELICIOUS.
Great portions, great prices. Can’t rave enough. Definitely try the pink sauce on any pasta and the chicken parmigiana.

My friends and I love this place!
Let me start off with the food, classic Italian dishes are delicious and large! We’ve eaten here three times in the last few months we always try different dishes and it’s always amazing! The service is impeccable and I love that the owner Marty is always there greeting the guest. The ambiance is also great warm brick walls with in a nicely lit dining room.
I can’t wait to go back!

I am not sure what is better, the local charm or the lobster ravioli?
Mart Anthony is a destination for us, but there is a heavy local presence as well. No one should hold back on going there, because valet is free. Yup, free. And the dude never gives us a ticket, just asks our name and every time we have gotten the right car back. Nice.
The restaurant is not too formal, has a homey cozy feel about it. The owner is usually at the bar or nearby on the weekends. Service is attentive.
If you do not know what to order, as the menu is extensive, I would strongly suggest bruschetta to share and lobster ravioli as an entrée.

WOW that was fantastic! Good parking also.

I want to love this place. It’s in the neighborhood and I love the ambiance inside, but I just don’t think I can. We have had food from here twice. The first time we sat at the bar and had an appetizer and wine and then ordered two pastas to go. For the appetizer we had the grilled calamari. They warned as well as the reviews that it was smoky and they were right. It was good, maybe slightly overwhelming on the smoke, but after adding some lemon we really enjoyed it. The bartender was great and friendly. For our take out pastas we had a rigatoni arrabiatta and a tortellini Romano in a pink cream sauce Both were good. Not fantastic, nothing we would rave about, but solid. The pasta was cooked well and the sauces seasoned well. I felt they were a little expensive given that it wasn’t homemade pasta or anything spectacular but again, no real complaints on flavor.
Last night we did a take out order with a Groupon we purchased. We ordered a meatball, antipasto salad, and cavatelli. The salad was good, it was your typical antipasto salad. The meatball didn’t impress, it just didn’t have any flavor that stood out, but here is where the rating went down… the cavatelli… was total mush! I think it was probably too mushy even for a toddler. I don’t think I have had pasta that overlooked before let alone for a $ 14 charge.
Given that our previous meal wasn’t fantastic, after having the completely overlooked pasta I am not sure I will be back. Which is a shame because you want this place to be a hidden neighborhood gem.

A busy neighborhood place just off Grand on Racine. I like corner bar/​restauants and Mart Anthony is one of the few left in the city. All the usual suspect Italian dishes, with pasta and chicken and steaks very evident on the menu. Not terribly expensive, nice service, and a full bar and pre sports game ambiance and Mart Anthony will probably serve your food needs if in the neighborhood.

I just went here for the first time and loved it. My friend and I had a groupon for an appetizer, two entrees, and a bottle of wine for $ 45. You could only choose from two different kinds of wine but we didn’t mind. The food wasn’t out of this world, but it’s the experience and atmosphere that is worth 5 stars. It is so cozy and you feel so welcome right when you walk in. It’s a small place but so cute. We had to sit at the bar but who cares. The owner was very kind and so were all the employees.

Been around for 40+ years? Who knew, but… check.
Old world Italian by appearance, menu and otherwise. Check.
Loads of quality pasta by the serving. Check.
Chicken Vesuivo. It was ok. Have had so much better but each their own.
If I lived in the immediate area i’d be there early and often.
However, I live a bit further W towards the HP and as such i’ll come back… maybe.

First time here with a groupon. Free valet but don’t be a jag and tip the awesome man will ya! lol. It reminded me of a bar from the movie the a Bronx tale with no back door lol just side door. Ordered for apps the grilled calamari and it was just delis from just the standard fried ones so a must order. I ordered the lobster ravioli and it was ok kinda bummed that I only tasted lobster meat at the very end of my last 2 raviolis. We also got the friselle which is like a bruschetta sandwich with meat, which was also great if your looking for something different to eat besides your standard appetizers. Will be back and friendly service as well.

Everything we had tonight was delicious! We bought a groupon that included an appetizer, two entrees and a bottle of wine. As an entrée we had the fried calamari, the serving size was very generous! The calamari was light and crunchy, I really liked it! I ordered the lobster ravioli as an entrée and it was delicious! It had a great flavor and it was topped off with some grilled shrimp! We ended up getting a bottle of white wine! Definitely be on the look out for groups for this place, it’s a great deal! Our server was very attentive and made some great suggestions on what to get and he even added on things to our dishes to make sure we got the best bang for our buck!

First time here and it is only 1 block from home. For starters the service was excellent. Katy, our waitress (more like Hostess, Waitress, Bartender, Buslady, etc who was doing all of that) took great care of us and was a pleasure the whole time there.
Now to the food. I had the Linguini & Calamari served Al dente in a nice red sauce/​gravy. The Linguini was done just right, which doesn’t always happen in some places; the gravy was not over powering or too acidic tasting, and the calamari was done perfectly, not under or over cooked. The serving size was also plentiful seeing it was from the lunch menu when portions at places is usually smaller.
I had taken my Mother with and she had the Eggplant Parmegian which came with a side dish of pasta. She had a very large portion of Eggplant (with most of it going home with her), and she said it was the best she has had in a long time.
All in all I would have to highly recommend Mart Anthony’s to everyone and I am definitely coming back more often.

So we’ve lived in the neighborhood for a good 5 years and finally made our way inside this place. We got to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather as I sipped on my red wine, and waited for our food to arrive. The wings were pretty good here — I really like the sauce. I had the salmon special and it was very tasty. I also had my boyfriend’s baked mostaccioli and that was very good, too. This is actually how I imagine home cooked Italian would be. The service was really good and the place felt homey even though we sat outdoors. I’m disappointed that we haven’t come earlier. As I’ve eaten at most of the Italian restaurants in the neighborhood this one ranks pretty high up there.

There’s nothing trendy or hipster here… just a family-​owned, neighborhood joint that serves up authentic Italian cuisine. You’ll often see Marty, the owner, in the bar area talking to customers. It’s the kind of place you used to find on Taylor Street.
This restaurant has a loyal following. I’ve been coming here for a few years. Have tried several of the pasta dishes, and my favorite is the lobster ravioli with a rich vodka sauce. Yummy! When I have a taste for meat, I order the braciole because most restaurants don’t offer it any more… too labor intensive. And if I’m in a low carb mood (difficulty zipping my jeans), nothing beats the grilled calamari.
The service is efficient without being intruisive. My water glass and coffee cup never seems to be more than half empty. Dinner plates are not cleared until everyone at the table has finished. (It really bugs me when they take my plate away while companions are still eating.)
The place isn’t very big, and there can be a wait, especially on weekends. Best to have a reservation. A big plus is street parking and free valet service. You’ll have to look long and hard to find a better neighborhood restaurant.

This place is just precious. Great dive Italian restaurant. We found it on Groupon and based on Unilocal reviews tried it out. Very yummy. I had the stuffed spinach/​cheese gnocchi and added chicken. My husband had the lobster ravioli and added shrimp. We both had the vodka sauce with our meal — very yummy. We couldn’t even eat half of it it was SO much food but it was very delicious. We got the stuffed artichoke appetizer (based on Unilocal reviews)…i wish we had chosen something else. It was the only «meh» item. It was just stovetop stuffing on a artichoke… still had to peel it. It was ok but messy and nothing to write home to mom about.
Mart Anthony was sitting at the bar so it just made it feel so very «family owned and ran». Most of the customers there were all there using groupons. I hope this place gets return business b/​c it was good and should! We’d go again (but are out of towners)! Very, very nice staff!

I had been wanting to try Mart Anthony’s for some time, so when I saw the Groupon I was thrilled! I was not at all impressed with the hostess… she could really use some customer service skills. Actually, basic eye contact and a half smile might help, if nothing else. She asked us the name on our reservation and walked away… then, as she was walking, she turned around and said follow me, motioning with the menus and looking at the floor. Then looked around the room as if she didn’t know where to put us. After seating us, we went back to sit at the bar and was on her phone until the next patrons walked in. Weird. Our server was a very nice guy. The bussers and other staff seemed to be just going through the motions.
As far as the food goes, it was decent. We had the shrimp and calamari appetizer. It was a large portion and tasted fine. For entrees, I had the black fettucine with shrimp and vodka sauce and it was really good! Great sauce! My sweetie had the spinach ravioli, which he really liked as well. They make some delicious sauces there! Not sure I’ll ever go back, just because there are soooo many great italian restaurants in Chicago, but Mart Anthony’s was ok.

My friends had the Groupon everyone is mentioning, so we decided to check this place out. We had the Stuffed Artichoke appetizer (okay, but not spectacular) and split the Stuffed Gnocchi Arrabiatta and the Fettuccini Carbonara pastas. The gnocchi itself was very good… nice and light… but the sauce was horrible. It was dried out, like it had been sitting under a heat lamp too long once plated. I’d like to try the gnocchi with a different sauce, next time. The fettuccini was pretty solid. Of course, how bad can butter and cream ever be?! So, all in all, a fairly decent meal, but I won’t be rushing to return.
And, as a side note… it would be nice if the young woman hostess could manage to tear her eyes away from her phone for a minute or two when «greeting» arrivals and showing them to a table. (I use the term «greeting» loosely… she gave the impression we were interrupting her screen time by arriving at the restaurant.)

After finding a great deal on Groupon, and spending $ 45 (+tax/​tip) for 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, and a bottle of wine, we decided to choose this restaurant on our visit to Chicago to attend a performance in the downtown area. This neat restaurant offered incredibly convenient «complimentary valet parking,» which saved us a lot of headache. This place had a nice bar and a peaceful atmosphere, with the jazzy stylings of Frank Sinatra playing over the speakers. We were seated at one of the many table in the restaurant.
We started with the offered white wine, and stuffed artichoke appetizer, which were both quite delicious. I ordered the white fIsh vesuvio which was garlicky and buttery, and the fish was cooked perfectly over a bed of angel hair pasta. She ordered gnocchi stuffed with spinach and ricotta, covered with a vodka sauce. Fresh, light, these were little pillows of paradise, and disappeared way too quickly!
As we were a young couple, we were treated very politely, and all of our questions were answered without judgment. New to the wine & dining scene, I felt we were treated like any other patrons, and left full and happy. We will be returning when we get the chance!

This place is a cute neighborhood gem. My boyfriend and I have come here a few times, since he lives down the street. It’s an adorable little place with some quality food and great service. This most recent time that we went, we got a Groupon that was a super good deal and came with wine, two entrees, and an appetizer ($ 45). I’d highly suggest that, but even without the Groupon, we’ve had some amazing food here and I’d recommend it to all. I really enjoyed the shrimp and scallops appetizer and I would definitely order the black linguini. This place is pretty small though, and can get crowded, so make reservations if you can!

Great neighborhood spot that was packed on Saturday night at 6 pm when I arrived. I sat at the bar next to where the owner, Marty, hangs out. What a treat it was to talk with him. Super charming man that really makes his guests feel welcome. As was evident by the number of people he knew in the restaurant, this is a neighborhood favorite and for very good reason. The place has a lot of character and the food is solid. It appeared much of the staff has worked there for a very long time and that speaks volumes.
I started with the grilled calamari based on the reviews I saw on Unilocal.I really liked it. The sauce is not your typical marinara. It has a smokey characteristic that I think is the result of paprika. It’s pleasantly spicy and really flavorful. It’s a large portion that can easily be shared by several people. I ate the entire order and honestly did not need the entrée I ordered :) The lasagna arrived, smothered in sauce and packed full of meat and cheese… delicious! I only had room for a few bites and had the rest packaged to go. I looked around the dining room at the other dishes being served and everything looked fantastic. Sitting at the bar makes for a bit of a wait because the bartender is pretty slammed making drinks but this is to be expected on a Saturday night.
The wine list is a little thin. Not too many Italian choices by the glass. They seem to serve a lot of vodka looking cocktails which are not my cup of tea so more wine choices would be a nice improvement but all-​in-​all this place is a keeper. I will be heading back again very soon and look forward to trying some of the other fantastic looking selections.
Last but not least… there was not a hipster in sight. A pleasant change in the West Loop.