The most revealing question about an Italian dinner in Chicago may be what kind of pasta you want to notice. At Monteverde in the West Loop, a raised pastificio makes rolling, filling and shaping part of the room’s activity. At Osteria Langhe in Logan Square, a hand-pinched plin concentrates the meal on Piemonte. Both take pasta seriously, but they give it different contexts: one follows shapes, seasonal ingredients and wider influences; the other uses a regional focus to organize the food and wine around the same territory.
Sarah Grueneberg and Meg Sahs opened Monteverde in 2015. Bailey Sullivan, executive chef since February 2025, continues a kitchen approach that combines an Italian foundation with Midwestern produce and influences from travel. The current menu separates filled and hand-cut pasta from bronze-die-extruded shapes. That distinction is useful at the table: a stuffed pasta carries the relationship between wrapper and filling, while a larger extruded shape gives sauce another surface and structure.
Ricotta tortelli bring cherry-tomato confit, olives, pecorino and mint-pistachio pesto together. Chanterelle tortellacci use mushrooms, La Tur cheese, pancetta and onion. Cacio Whey Pepe takes fusilloni into a combination of pecorino, lemon-ricotta whey and peppercorns. A shared order can compare one filled pasta with one different shape, leaving room for vegetables or another small plate. The visible pastificio gives the choices a concrete frame: the forms on the plate are the outcome of distinct kinds of handwork.
Osteria Langhe’s plin takes a more concentrated route. La Tur cheese fills small, hand-pinched agnolotti, served with thyme and butter. The restraint lets the pasta and filling lead. Carne cruda with Piedmontese beef and a house version of vitello tonnato widen the beginning of the dinner; fettuccine with a northern meat ragù gives another pasta choice. Owner and wine director Aldo Zaninotto’s Piemonte selection makes the restaurant’s regional idea continue through the glass.
For a fuller main course, the prosciutto-wrapped rabbit loin comes with pork belly, mushrooms, polenta and Fontina Val d’Aosta. Wood tables, Italian art and a seasonal patio support a neighborhood setting. The house’s July 2026 change added a 3.75-percent administrative fee to checks; Monteverde separately publishes a removable four-percent surcharge. Those details affect the bill, while the more meaningful culinary distinction remains the regional focus at one table and the wider pasta vocabulary at the other.
Choose Monteverde when the craft of different shapes and the kitchen’s contemporary combinations are the main attraction. Choose Osteria Langhe when you want pasta, a main course and wine to develop a clearer Piemonte thread. A comparison need not become an oversized dinner: one filled pasta, one contrasting preparation and enough space to notice the difference can be more rewarding. These two Chicago restaurants offer an Italian meal with a direction that the diner can understand before taking a seat.
Explore the profiles: Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio · Osteria Langhe
Recommended restaurants
The profiles below explain each restaurant’s cooking and give practical details for planning a visit.
Sarah Grueneberg and Meg Sahs’s West Loop restaurant connects a visible pastificio with filled, hand-cut and bronze-extruded pasta.
Handmade Italian pasta, ricotta tortelli, chanterelle tortellacci and Cacio Whey Pepe.
Osteria Langhe gives Logan Square a Piedmont-focused table, pairing hand-pinched plin, rabbit and regional wines.
Piedmontese cooking, La Tur-filled plin, carne cruda, rabbit loin and regional wines.
Sources & references
Sources for the information and reporting discussed in this guide.
- Monteverde: restaurant and contact ↗ Primary source monteverdechicago.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Monteverde: history, pastificio and team ↗ Primary source monteverdechicago.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Monteverde: current menus ↗ Primary source monteverdechicago.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Monteverde: current food menu ↗ Primary source monteverdechicago.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Monteverde: reservations and exceptional dinner closure ↗ Primary source monteverdechicago.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio: Google Maps listing ↗ Primary source www.google.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Osteria Langhe: restaurant and contact ↗ Primary source www.osterialanghe.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Osteria Langhe: history and regional approach ↗ Primary source www.osterialanghe.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Osteria Langhe: menu and current administrative fee ↗ Primary source www.osterialanghe.com · Accessed September 28, 2026
- Osteria Langhe: Google Maps listing ↗ Primary source www.google.com · Accessed September 28, 2026