La Madia

Who doesn't like pizza, but wanted to be classy about it? The tripod headed out to La Madia in River North just for that. It was a busy Friday night, but hence it being Restaurant Week, we waited patiently. La Madia was featured on Check Please! and has received great reviews on its contemporary style of pizzas and its delicious Italian dishes with an urban twist. After patiently waiting for about an hour, we kicked off with a nice bottle of wine and wonderful appetizers of Seasonal Wild Mushrooms Bruschette with Whipped Ricotta & Marsala Glaze and Spinach and Taleggio Fondue with white truffle oil and pizza bread. We also had side salads of Romaine Lettuce with crisp pancetta, shaved parmesan and creamy mustard dressing and a Chipped Italian Lettuces with gorgonzola, spicy walnuts, shaved pear and balsamic vinaigrette. Our pizzas were soooo good! We all shared 3 pizzas of the Carbonara with guaniciale (pig cheeks), cracked organic egg and melted leeks, Shaved Articoke with reggiano parmesan and garlic, and housemade fennel sausage and sweet onions with red sauce. My fave was the carbonara because of that cracked egg! Yum yum! We then ended our filling meal with Pistachio gelato and a crostata. Delicioso! Our food was amazing and so comfy, but the service could have been better. Understood, it was in my words hella busy, you just can't let the service fall through. Our server was a short and snappy and we waited for about 25-30 minutes after apps and salads for our pizzas. We watched bigger parties around us, who were seated after us, with their foods coming out in a timely manner. We made comments to our server, but nothing was done, not even a manager to come by and check on us and apologize. I even wrote an email, but no response. Unfortunately, the service was horrible for that Friday night during Restaurant Week, but the delicious food did help make it better. The tripod agreed we would come back and hope for a better experience.