Balducci’s Italian Restaurant

Their phone number is out of service, their website is no longer up, and the owner’s email address was rejected. Pretty sure this place is closed.

We had dinner a few nights ago, starting with the dates and sausage wrapped in bacon. My wife had the Balducci salad which was, «One of the best salads I’ve every had!» to quote her and she is quite the salad snob ;) The salad was full of grilled steak, shrimp, chicken and vegetables. My rib eye steak was prepared very well. :) The server was very attentive. All in all we had a wonderful dinner. When in town, this will be a MUST revisit.

Yum! What a cute little spot for a completely indulgent Italian dinner. My friends and I went on a Monday nite and it was empty… quite perfect for our purposes of a leisurely, eat until you have to unbutton your pants and then have dessert kind of evening. We had the caprese and some kind of artichoke thing for appetizers and both were very good. The service was outstanding, and the old house setting is very quaint. It’s in a unique location, but totally worth the trip for a special occasion.

WHAT A DELIGHTFUL RESTAURANT! I live in LA and travel weekly all around the U.S. I have been to my fair share of italian restaurants, coast to coast, this place is a hidden gem! Our server, Troy, was the epitime of outstanding customer service and the food was absolutely delicious. A very nice wine list too! Its rare these days to find a reasonably priced establishment with delicious food that provides an incredible customer experience! thanks Troy!

Maybe it’s because I’ve been in this restaurant before, a million years ago when it was called something else or was smaller or had different décor. Or maybe I’m just a restaurant snob. But I had very low expectations for a place in Willowbrook. Don’t get me wrong, I heart the ‘burbs, I grew up around the corner and down the street a few miles from this place, but having since moved away and resided in four major metropolitan areas, all famous for their restaurants in their own special ways, I had grown to think that all the truly talented restauranteurs flocked to major cities.
Boy was I wrong.
The filet vesuvio blew me away. You must order this. No questions asked.
Nuh uh, I said no questions.
My parents loved their meals as well — Dad’s was a different steak (probably NY Strip, that’s what he usually orders) and Mom had fish. But honestly, I didn’t care what they ordered because MINE WAS SO GOOD.
One star off because our waitress was less than stellar. Balducci’s, fix that and I just might move back to the suburbs so I can hang out at your place every night.

I came across Balducci’s after searching Unilocal for something new to try for ‘date night’ with the hubby.
The location is a little odd, and were it not for the very positive reviews on Unilocal,I can’t say I would’ve stopped in having simply driven by.
We found the restaurant’s ambiance warm and inviting. We had a 7:30 reservation for Saturday night, and I’m glad I called ahead — though the restaurant was full, our table was ready and waiting upon our arrival.
The menu was quite varied, and the food was excellent (our choices, anyway) — no two ways about it. I am a huge fan of creamy garlic salad dressing, and Balducci’s is top notch. I had spaghetti bolognese, and am embarrassed to admit I ate my entire serving (I am 8 months pregnant, but still…) — which was HUGE, but it was so tasty I couldn’t stop. Hubby had the lasagna, which he really enjoyed. Not that either of us needed it, but we were in the mood for dessert. They happened to be out of the chocolate cake offering we both wanted (which sounded mouthwatering), so we took a pass.
The service was friendly, though almost a little too unobtrusive for our comfort (didn’t think that was possible!!). We weren’t offered fresh cracked pepper for our salads, nor grated cheese for our pasta. We had to ask for a dessert menu, as well as our check. I can’t recall the name of the gentleman who served us — perhaps it was just his style, but we would’ve liked for him to kick it up a little!
The best part of the evening was when the bill came. Minus one glass of wine, our total came to $ 28 for house salads & entrees?! We felt like we were ripping the place off! We will return again and again, and have already recommended Balducci’s to family and friends based on our great experience.

I decided to try Balducci’s after reading the fab Unilocal reviews. I was VERY impressed. It is a cozy little restaurant great for both a romantic date or a family dinner. It was dimly lit and had a pretty glow throughout. Frank Sinatra crooned us as we pondered over the wine list.
We decided to try some appetizers (bonus, they were ½ off the night we were there!) We got the bruschetta (very good) and the Funghi Portabella (excellent, mouth watering, savory, couldn’t get enough!) we were so full we swore that we would only eat ½ our dinners at that! But, they were so good as well we cleaned our plates.
The service was beyond par. We cannot wait to go back!

Balducci’s is the Number One restaurant in Willowbrook, IL. I barely even want to write this review because I view Balducci’s as the hidden gem of my hometown. I grew up down the street and my family worshiped their bucket of spaghetti and pizza combo as carryout. R.I.P. giant bucket of spaghetti, as they do not use this as their spaghetti carryout container anymore. Anyways, I consistently choose this restaurant as a dine-​in spot to this day when I am back in town for the holidays, for my birthday dinner, and for any special occasion. I have a strict policy with any date I bring there: should the relationship cease, they are never to dine-​in at Balducci’s again. They are, however, allowed to carryout or purchase the sauce that is sold in stores. Again, it’s a sacred place. Additionally, I adore the owner, Mr. Balducci. He once offered me cooking lessons in the kitchen. I am not sure if this was a joke, but I might bring it up soon. Order the Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce (best leftover spaghetti I’ve ever had) or ravioli with Vodka cream sauce. The garlic dressing is awesome. And the hot Italian bread with fresh garlic is completely worth the carb intake. Although I have never been on a diet anyways.

I love Balducci’s. I work in the area and have been here many, many times. They serve consistently good food. Interesting review above about the grilled calamari — i was just there last week, had that to start and thought it was very good– nothing like described.
Favorite starters for us are the bruschetta, and now and then they have a version of bruschetta on special w/​goat cheese that is awesome. Also love both the grilled and fried calamari. Of course you always get warm bread with oil as a standard.
All entrees come with soup or salad. I am a soup person — and I love their house soup — chicken pastina. It has big pieces of pulled chicken. yum.
I have tried many different entrees — but you can be assured whatever they have on special is a winner. We’ve never had a bad «special».
One of my fav’s is Luciano’s Angels. There is a marcapone stuffed chicken dish i like too. Too many to list. The other reviews that mention large portions are correct– you can usually take home a whole dinner portion.
Desserts are good but I don’t usually have room!
To me; this is a cozy, «neighborhood» type restaurant… oddly located and not fancy, but nice, cute and solid food & service! We have always had good service.
Honestly; its probably my favorite italian place in the western burbs… so if we aren’t eating in the city and want italian– this is where I’d go.
One last note. We have done catering for meetings & luncheons and that has been well received also.

I had a good experience at Balducci’s. My friends and I started with the mozzerella cheese. It was lightly breaded and topped with maranera. Very good! I had pasta with Bolonese sauce which was very good. The portions are huge plus you get a choice of soup or salad. The have a wide variety of specials that sounded delicious. My friend and I split the chocolate gelato. The food was great. The service was great. The only thing I will complain about is, I ordered a pop, which was $ 2.50 and it was NOT free refills. I was unaware of this since the waiter just brought me another one. So $ 7.50 of my bill was in a fountain drink. So much for trying to save money by not getting a glass of wine. But overall, it was a good experience.

There are several things that inspire my reviews, mostly positive experiences all around, from service (#1) to quality of food to value. But I, too, can be easily inspired by negative experiences, like the one that I had last Friday at Balducci’s. That’s why it took me so long to write it. It’s always a good idea to avoid writing a review when you are angry. It’s never objective.
Now just a little history… I met the owner while doing a hiatus side job at a local department store. He was a generous and friendly man, and he invited me and my Hub to stop by his restaurant. Now get this… this was back in 2001. I never gave it a thought until last Friday and only because we were in the area.
I was very excited because I finally remembered this restaurant and I was looking forward to a really good Italian meal. Everything about the menu looked really appetizing, from the wine selection to dessert. While there was no sommelier on staff, our server was extremely helpful in giving us some options. We started dinner with the grilled calamari appetizer. It’s grilled and basted with a balsamic vinegar/​olive oil mixture. I know… most Italian restaurants have this item on the appetizer list, but you can really tell a ‘good’ restaurant by how they serve their calamari… which is where everything almost went wrong. When we got it, it was this brownish mess with really small calamari pieces. Some of the squid wasn’t covered, and it was clear that they may have overgrilled it. Sure enough, the calamari wasn’t ONLY overdone and thus, very rubbery, but the flavor was almost nauseating. I’m not exaggerating! Now very rarely do I spit out my food at the table. I at least attempt to chew and swallow what I have and just avoid taking in anymore. However, it was such an unpleasant surprise that I couldn’t help myself. My initial thought… how could anyone screw up grilled calamari? OK, other than possibly overgrilling it. Oh OK… and putting it in a basic vinegar and oil mix that ends up tasting really off, almost like it was spoiled. Of course, neither me or the Hub liked it and we returned it. When the rest of our food arrived, we were relieved that it did not repeat the same performance as the appetizer. The chicken pastina soup we had was pretty tasty… just the perfect temperature and great flavor in the broth. I had pork chops, and while I avoid white meat due to it’s tendency to dry out when overcooked, I was relieved that someone knew how to cook pork chops without drying them out. They were thick and meaty. My only criticism was the burnt crisp outline on one side… kinda left an ashy aftertaste, but the wine overcame the overall ashy flavor. The Hub had fish over linguini in a cream sauce and it was really tasty. We had a cannoli and a plain cheesecake for dessert. The options for dessert were limited due to some unfortunate breakdown of one of their refrigeration units, but both selections provided for a decent meal. My criticism with dessert was the cost of the cannoli… who expects to spend $ 4 for a single average-​sized cannoli? I mean, I didn’t need more, but it wasn’t so great that it was worth $ 4. But whatever… all in all, a fairly decent meal.
Here’s where it gets all negative… when we received our bill, we noted that the calamari appetizer was not removed. When we asked our server, Joanne, why it was still on the bill and I was appalled at her answer. Apparently, the owner said that since this appetizer had been ordered many times during the evening and no one had any issues with it, he did not feel that our dissatisfaction was justified and would NOT take the item off the bill. Now, let’s just forget that the service industry is all about service for a minute… and that INCLUDES serving something that some may not find edible. And let’s forget that the item was a whole $ 8.95. I can think of so many other fine dining establishments that will not even blink an eye if there was ANY complaint about any item that was ordered and not desired. What was more disturbing was it totally ruined my impression of the owner and the ‘generous’ character that I had once used to describe him. Oh well… in all honesty, the restaurant ambiance is really quaint, kinda cozy, almost has a neighborhood feel even though it’s location seems to be in the middle of an industrial park of some sort. They played that old time Sinatra, Holiday, Como music that I grew up with and it was just really quite romantic.
The question is, would I recommend this restaurant to anyone? I think the answer is pretty obvious. There are so many OTHER Italian restaurants that are just as delicious AND they provide EXCELLENT service, including taking $ 9 off a bill if the item wasn’t to the expectation of the customer. Shame! Shout out to Joanne on the excellent service, though!

Very cozy little restaurant! Some of my favorite dishes here are the rigatoni with sausage and the chicken marsala. Good prices. Nice place to go for a quiet, romantic dinner!