Marella’s Cucina

As Unilocal has on this page-Marella’s has closed.
Very sad and disappointed.
Wish it wasn’t so…
…but! I found a new, great «Chinese» place… more on that later…
If I can post a review without the annoying survey questions… lost a decent review on Beef Shack in Hoffman Estates… 5 yummmms! :D

While looking for some quick pasta for dinner, I discovered Marella’s on Unilocal and decided to give it a try as an alternative to Portillo’s/Barnelli’s quick pasta.
We ordered the homemade mozzi sticks, Pasta Marella, and bowtie with meat sauce and sat down in the clean dining area to wait for our food. Most of the mozzi sticks were great. Basically mozzarella rolled up in a pastry style wrapper and deep fried. An excellent twist on the breaded usual. Unfortunately, half of our sticks were overcooked and were missing much of the cheese. The pasta came out in to-​go boxes with lids for good reason. There was a LOT of pasta and they knew we’d be taking some of it home so the containers were actually convenient. The sauce, however, was very acidic. I suffered from massive heartburn for the rest of the night, which I partially attribute to an aging digestive system as well.
Overall, the food was decent and I think I’d try it again when I’m in the mood for some fast pasta. I just wish they would turn down the acidity a notch or three though. Maybe I’ll try their other menu items next time.

Our first visit but not our last.
A friend and I went there for dinner. She had the medium rare Ring of Fire Burger and I had the well done «Ham“burger we also had an order of fries, 6 motz sticks, two soft drinks and the bill with the coupon from the local advertising paper came to roughly $ 22.00. A great price for the quality of food. The burgers were cooked to order and done correctly. We both enjoyed the flavor of the burgers and great tasting buns. The moz sticks my friend truly enjoyed and wants them again, I enjoyed them but like the traditional ones better. They serve Coke via the fountain machine and had cans of Pepsi and other beverages available. They offer daily specials and a members card. We saw a couple of families enjoy the pasta and several people doing take out. BTW they have a kids menu and even Gyros a truly unique menu.
The eating area was basic wood tables and a few high top wood tables (no booths). There were four TVs, which caused a bit of conversation challenge at our table (we were right below one and the volume was on some to a race of some sort). The bathroom was clean.
It was a very casual place no one came around and said how was it but perhaps they knew it was great already :) You walk in place your order and they bring it to you and then you clear your stuff when your done. If your looking for great food and casual this is a very good choice. If you want to be waited on may not be what you want, but make sure you go when you want casual and a darn good burger.
BTW tons of parking in the strip mall.
Were both looking forward to going back

Been a few months since I’ve been here, just super busy. Came by on Monday for the ¼ lb hamburger special, great as always.
I also go the mozzarella sticks (half price on mondays). I don’t know why I didn’t write about this previously, but it is interesting, think Egg Rolls with a Mozerella stick inside, it’s decent but totally not the snacky things you think they should be. They are literally the size of an eggroll with an egg roll wrapper that is hard instead of the soft bread crumbs you normally would get. It’s a hit or miss depending on your own tastes, but try it on Mondays so it’s only 1.50 :D

Very disappointed in this place. I was excited to try it being that it is literally 1 minute away from my work. The menu looks good, but the food did not reflect that. First of all, the owner insisted on the other person I was with to get a combo because it would be «cheaper». Wrong, it was MORE than it would be to get it separately. He ordered an italian beef and I ordered the avo grilled chicken sandwich. And then we waited, and waited, and waited some more. 25 minutes later we finally got our food. Come on, this is supposed to be fast food. If I knew I was going to wait 25 minutes I would have gone to a nicer sit down restaurant. When we got our food it was bland. Nothing special or nothing worth going back for. The italian beef was on a white roll, what? And it was just plain roast beef with what seemed to be NO italian seasoning. The avocado on my chicken sandwich was bad and the bacon wasn’t full cooked. Not worth the time or money we spent there. Its too bad because you can tell its a family run business and i’m all for the mom and pop places! Hope they can work their kinks out!

My girlfriend and I visited Marella’s this evening. We had never been
there before, and wanted to give it a try. We each ordered the salmon
burger and beer battered onion rings. The burgers were very plain, with
a very thin, one half slice of tomato cut in two small pieces, one very small
piece of lettuce (Not even to the edge of the small bun), a teaspoon of tartar
sauce, and a perfectly round piece of salmon. I asked for additional tartar
sauce which they willingly provided. The burger was good, but nothing special.
And after a few bites, it was gone.
The onion rings we received, all six of them, were fair.
It’s too bad. The portions were very small and the food was average. There
is too much competition in the restaurant business to just be average and
hope to stay in business very long. I do not intend to return to this
establishment.

We used to go to Devil Dogs back in the day — especially if we wanted some of their delicious mozzarella sticks. What they sold weren’t your normal, average breaded mozzarella sticks that everyone and their brother dunks in a deep fryer and shoves your way.
Marella’s Cucina is apparently owned by the same owners that used to own Devil Dogs. And they’ve kept the delightful mozzarella sticks. The mozzarella is rolled in a flour tortilla, then deep-​fried and served with their delicious homemade marinara sauce. SO GOOD.
Their chicken sangwich (yes, with a «g,» not a «d,» proud Italian establishment that it is) menu is pretty extensive. They also have a variety of burgers, including both salmon and turkey burgers. Some other sangwiches are available as well.
I tried the Pig On Your Back, which is a chicken sangwich with some thinly sliced ham and nicely melted Swiss cheese on top. Good sandwich roll; I really liked it. You have a choice of broiled or crispy chicken, as well. Nice. I definitely want to try the Avo Chicken sangwich next time — chicken with avocado slices and bacon. Sounds like a winner to me.
I also like the giant fork on the wall. I’ll take a picture next time I’m there.

Good news, Marella’s – you’ve done it again (and again and again).
I have gotten a variety of things from their menu now. I have probably been here 15 times and gotten catering from here as well.
Catering:
YUM! The person I was talking to on the phone was very knowledgeable about their menu, the pricing, and the side options. We ended up ordering a large tray of Rigatoni w/​meat sauce, garlic bread, and dessert for 50. The food was ready right when we needed it, it was fresh, and EVERYBODY loved it. Plus, we were eating leftovers for days, and we had 30 people at our celebration!
I have tried MANY of their options now!
My favorite is still the spaghetti w/​meat sauce (EXTRA meat sauce!)
Their cream of rice soup is HA-​MA-​ZING! (every soup I’ve gotten from there has been wonderful, actually!)
The fries are still just as good as the first day I got them!
Their burgers are made with high-​quality meat and the BBQ sauce on the burger was delightful!
The Gyro was sooooooo good!
The cheezy beef sangwich was awesome
The Mozzi sticks are different, but completely delicious! I have gotten these a few times now
They have delicious homemade desserts, and they are always different. Plus their cookies are the size of my son’s head. Nothing wrong with that! Oh and the peanut butter bars are to die for as well!
Like I said, I’ve been here a couple times ;) I am hungry even talking about it! It’s just all so good!
I will definitely be looking to Marella’s for my catering needs again. And my regular dinner needs until such occasion may arise!

I went in this past Saturday afternoon with my wife to get some quick tasty grub. Never been here before so I was worried if my cravings for good food was going to be fulfilled or not. Before going there I check out an online menu @
. Surprisingly they had a variety of menu choices that sounded very intriguing to try out.
I settled on ordered the Big Italian Sandwich which is Italian beef, sausage, & meatballs smothered in mozzerella cheese and marina sauce. I come from a big Italian family were taste in food especially Italian food is critical. I was truly surprised that the beef, sausage, & even meatballs were very tasty and authentic. My fav meat from this sandwich was the sausage, followed closedly by the meatballs, & than the italian beef (Its kind of hard to be top italian beef in my book when I’m comparing you to Portillo’s & Johnny’s Beef).
My wife ordered the Avo Chicken Sandwich which I tried and it was really good too. There are not many places in the area that can deliever outstanding fast food with such a variety in choices. We plan to go back sometime but I wanted to share my experience with anybody else who is tempted to try this place or not.

Decent for a quick serve casual italian/​american restaurant. Not sure if the math was right on their baskets though. It wasn’t worth the dollar to ask though.

I came here with some coworkers because we were looking for something cheap and quick. The prices looked reasonable, so we decided to try it out.
There was a line to order. When I got up to the cashier, I was a little confused since it was my first time. She told me to order the combo since it came with a drink and fries. I asked if there would be an extra charge for sweet potato fries and she said no. But there was. And I wish I knew because I don’t normally drink soda and I thought it would end up being free with the combo.
It ended up being an additional $ 1.50 to get sweet potato fries. My $ 6.95 sandwich was almost $ 12 out the door. I wish I would have gone to a nicer sits own restaurant an paid less for a lunch special.
The food was good, but nothing to write home about. I got the crispy chicken sandwich with honey mustard, avocado and bacon. It was good. I was disappointed by the small amount of sweet potato fries I got. I also asked for a side of ranch which they forgot. My coworker complained about the small amount for fried mushrooms she got as well and they also forgot her side of ranch. And charged her extra for the side even though she was told the same as me.
When we asked the manager he was like oh well she was wrong. I felt a little brushed off, but it was only a couple dollars and I wasn’t about to arise. It just annoyed me.

Great foods, great services, great atmosphere.
Sweet potato fries are bit spicy and we’re the Mexican’t. The gyro, burger, and pasta they served were not so bad for the price. Husband love the gyros, wife love the mozz sticks (their dipping sauce is delish!!) We would come back again.

What a fabulous place — you have to check out Marella’s as soon as possible.
My sister suggested we do a fun Fri dinner here. My husband opted for the hamburger and fries — the burger was huge and he loved it. I went with the meatball sandwich. The meatballs were flavored and cooked perfectly. The bread was super fresh. The most important part — the sauce … it did not disappoint … a nice bright red color with a light and fresh flavor.
If you go, and you will, you must try their homemade mozzarella sticks. They are chucks of cheese (yum) wrapped in a light dough, not breaded, and fried. So amazing!!!
The prices here are also great for such top notch homemade food. They have specials every night.

Marella’s Cucina’s catering rocks! It’s really that simple. Mario is super helpful and knowledgable about helping you to build an appropriate menu for your ‘audience’.
My boss has decided that I am the official party planner/​menu decider/​organizer of all things food of our office. This can be good and bad. It’s good when places like Marella’s Cucina make me look like a food wizkid through a fabulous catered lunch menu! Not so good, when I’m in a rush and do dopey things like pick up stale bagels or make some other office food faux pas.
A couple months ago, I worked with Mario to plan a lunch menu for about a dozen people including executives visiting from another company. Bottom line? He did exactly what I asked of him and beyond! Lunch arrived and was setup when promised. Everything was hot and ready to go. He sent plenty of plates, plastic wear and serving utensils, too.
Here’s the lowdown on the catered food:
Zucchini Rollups. They were loved by all!!! Except me. But I am a royal pain who doesn’t like a lot of cheese. I know this and I ordered these with everyone else in mind. Score!
Kiaja salad. I am probably spelling that wrong, so my apologies. We had the blue cheese crumbles on the side. The dressing was unique and flavorful. The mix of bacon and nuts was fun and a real treat. We would do this again.
Chicken lemone. The chicken breasts were moist and large. The sauce was good without being too lemony. It was an excellent choice!
Penne with vodka sauce. There were rave reviews about the vodka sauce. Do it! Just do it!!! This was out vegetarian option and it worked out really well. Mario was kind enough to send a half pan of garlic bread that I wasn’t expecting, but really did appreciate. It wasn’t greasy and was even good for the next day or two. A perfect pairing.
Finally the cannoli and dessert tray. The cannoli were great! My only complaint is that everyone was so full from lunch that we didn’t even make a dent and we were eating cannoli for a couple days after. I may have even had one for breakfast the next day. Hey! Don’t judge. The rest of the desserts were okay. Everyone else was happy, but I had visited their restaurant before and had some to-​die-​for-​homemade-​treats and these were not as exciting. Like I said, we were full, so we really didn’t start to eat these until the next day. Maybe we should have saved room and the chocolate dipped biscotti and cookies might have been better on the first day. Who knows. I do know that when I have gone in that I have really enjoyed the ooey gooey caramely nutty cupcakes and unique brownie varieties.
So overall, the meal was a huge success. Marella’s Cucina, Mario and his staff were great. And, we will definitely order again.

Great little family run restaurant. Love the Popeye Salad, fresh baby spinach, apple, raisins, topped with a delicious bacon dressing. The burgers are awsome, and they cook them perfectly. I had the Italian Burger tonight, topped with pepperoni, mozzarella and marinara sauce. First time I tasted the marinara and I had to ask for extra to dip the burger in. Well actually I wanted to drink it, it was so delicious! The owner makes her «gravy» (sauce) from scratch, starting with fresh tomatoes. On my next visit I will definitely try the pasta.
Both owners came out to check on each table and stopped to chat for a bit. They were both very friendly and made us feel welcome. I agree with Drew L., support your local small businesses and give Marella’s a try.
I think we found our new favorite restaurant!

Restaurant Review
I may have found a competitor to Portillo’s! I ended up bringing my family to the restaurant after reading a review from a fellow Unilocaler and I was not lead astray. The menu is quite diverse including burgers, gyros, pasta, and other unique items such as salmon/​fish burgers. Service is super friendly and they even have combo meal items that include drinks and fries. I was surprised how quickly the meal was cooked and it came out pipping hot. For my first meal I ended up trying the gryo sandwich combo which was AMAZING. The gyro meat was freshly slice from the spit and heated up with ample amount of meat. The fries are to die for, super crispy and hot. I would say their fries are better than any I have had before. During the meal the manager even stopped by to check in on how we were doing. I will have to try the unique items such as the big fat greek italian sangwich… The other thing we had was the mozzarella sticks which were free with Unilocal check in and 20 dollar purchase. They were the typical cheese sticks, however wrapped with egg roll skin. I would say that the fries were significantly better.
Pro– super friendly service, if I lived close by this would definitely be a great local hangout, alcohol served as well, amazingly fresh food with good portions, combo meals available as well
Con– Located in a small strip mall that is hard to spot. The owners should consider getting a bigger sign to attract business
Hidden deal– Unilocal check-​in free mozzarella sticks with 20 dollar purchase. Four square with amex check-​in deal, check to see if still available. Check your local mailer for coupons, BOGO pasta bowl

I was scouting for a new place to eat out and found this place, I ordered, three ½ pound burgers, they are very willing to customize it to your craving needs, i had 2 BBQ Burgers and 1 Classic, they even ask how you like your burger done, and i had all my 3 medium rare, this is very rare, since everyone makes theirs usually Well Done, unless you go to higher place restaurant, they never ask. Also the staff is very friendly.
They defiantly satsifed my big meat eater cravings, and is on my list now for local places to go when meat cravings hit.
My only negative is they can be little bit expansive, when your really hungry, cause their so much good food to eat here.

Based on the flyer we received I expected a casual restaurant with PASTA, burgers and salads. Wrong.
Walk in, you order at the counter, a little more casual than we expected but we still had hope. Then I saw the pasta menu: the only pasta is farfalle (bowtie) or rigatoni. Sauces are marinara, vodka or bolognese. I wanted marinara but they were out. Out of marinara at a cucina??? So I settled for bolognese and was charged the extra dollar for it, should have been comped since they were out of my first choice and they only had three.
They don’t have their liquor license yet so I just wanted tap water. She charged me $ 1.69 for it. When I questioned the charge they couldn’t figure out how to process the refund on the register. Finally they just gave us the cash back after trying to convince me to get a soft drink or take a cookie. Hey, I just paid an extra buck for sauce that wasn’t my first choice. My husband ordered the Italian beef combo. We had to ask for glasses to get our soda/​water.
The pasta came in a to-​go plastic container, plastic silverware and no cheese on the table. Oh did I mention we had to pick the food up at the counter? The sauce was watery and acidic. The bread stick was cold. The Italian beef was not homemade and was flavorless and colorless. It was served on a white bread bun, not even Italian bread. The fries were coated fries and they tasted like shrimp.
To top it off we sat by the window and there were dead bugs along the window and floor. The floors could have used a good sweeping and it didn’t look like anyone had wiped down the tables in awhile. All in all, we wasted a Saturday night out and $ 18. I’d have rather spent $ 100 and gotten a good, satisfying meal. Oh, and we had to clean our own table off and nope, didn’t get a ‘thank you for coming’ as we walked out either.

Had the «Big Italian» — true to it’s name — italian sausage + meatballs + italian beef + mozz all on very soft bread. Amazing sandwich, perfect spice, reasonably priced and generous portion. could easily feed 2 normal people, or 1 average american.
my wife had the «Fish Sangwich» — (yes, that’s how they spell it) — very tasty, she had no complaints (which is an amazing accomplishment)
atmosphere is decent — flat screens in every corner, ample indoor seating.
staff was nice, service was average.
all in all, i’m very satisfied and will return.

If you remember the original Devil Dog (formerly in this same location), the ORIGINAL owners have returned and the menu has matured (Devil Dog also transferred ownership several times, so I’m referring to the pre-​1995 Devil Dog). Excellent sandwiches, and they’ve added pasta to the menu as well. The mozzarella sticks are unique and truly delicious. For a change of pace, try the «Crazy Italian». I would describe it is a cross between a Philly Cheesesteak and an Italian Beef on garlic bread — terrific. The owners care about quality and that shows itself in every menu item. I’ll be returning frequently!