Piccolo Sogno
Piccolo Sogno had been on my list for a few months at this point. My parents had been to it over the summer, sat on the patio, and ate delicious pasta. It was getting nice in Chicago, at least some days during the week, so I was super excited to sit outside and eat.
The meal started off with a bread basket (as per ush) with focaccia, bread sticks, and some plain bread. The focaccia was so crispy on the outside and it was delicious, the bread sticks surprisingly had flavor, unlike most breadsticks. And the regular bread was also good, but nothing too special. A few girls ordered there shirley temples and “virgin mojitos”, while I ordered a hot tea. No jokes here, it was cold, but also I had too much caffeine that day and I was super anxious. A few minutes later I was greeted with a giant selection of teas, in which a friend thought they were complimentary hot towels with different scents (at an italian restaurant). Teas like chamomile, jasmine, earl gray, but ultimately I went with peppermint. It was a weird choice for it being mid-May but I was satisfied.
We sat outside on the patio that night. It was a little chilly, but nothing too bad. It was lively, and well decorated. Decorated with flowers, tall gates enclosing the patio, it felt isolated from the rest of Chicago, which was a nice change. Soon a few apps arrived, including burrata (every teenage girl's staple appetizer), a caprese salad, and calamari. I’ve had a pretty mediocre experience with burrata lately, some restaurants it's great, but others it’s just mozzarella. Maybe I’m just tired of seeing burrata on every menu and deciding to order it, but this burrata was how the dish should be. It was seasoned, and it was real burrata. Unfortunately I’m not a tomato girl, so I honestly have no idea how the caprese salad was, but for a girl who does like tomatoes, it looked great. And the calamari was the showstopper. It was so perfectly made and the lemony flavor was spot on. Everything was delicious.
For my main meal I ordered the Ravioli “Piccolo Sogno”, thinking it would taste like some pumpkin ravioli from LA, boy I was wrong. (By the way, pumpkin ravioli is my life). It was a four-cheese ravioli topped with a thick and salty butter sauce, maybe a little too salty. It would have had nice flavor if the sauce wasn’t so overpowering, but it definitely has major potential. I tried a bite of a friend's Paglia E Fieno, or “straw and hay” pasta. It was delicious. It had a meat sauce on top, veggies, and looked stunning. Overall, Piccolo Sogno was absolutely delicious and the setting made it even more spectacular.
