Restaurant Review: Frankie's Scaloppine

Frankie's Scaloppine
Shops at 900 North Michigan
900 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 266-2500
http://www.leye.com/restaurants/directory/frankies-scaloppine

Frankie's labels itself as a "neighborhood Italian restaurant". It is part of the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises restaurant group. This location used to house a different LEYE restaurant, Tucci Bennuch, which I used to frequent quite a bit. I've visited Frankie's a few times now, for lunch and dinner. My waiter told me that the management and the chef is the same from the old Tucci, which is great. Since it's also a LEYE restaurant, I think they'd probably share the successful recipes from their other Italian restaurants like Maggiano's or Scoozi. Anyway, the Frankie's menu seems a little smaller than the old Tucci menu, but the basics are still there. They have appetizers, salads, pasta, and then their entree section is titled Scalloppine. They kept a bunch of the menu favorites from Tucci but their focus is on their scaloppine dishes. I tried a chicken scaloppine on one visit and it was excellent. I had fish and a few of their pasta dishes, and they were all very good. I'm no Giada DeLaurentiis (I'm not Italian), but I think the sauce/gravy is a little better at Maggiano's. Can't place my finger on what is really different about it, but I think their gravy is a little too sweet.

I've been there lots of times with my children, and they do have a kids menu. Items are between $4.95 and $5.95 and come with a soda or juice. They give kids a menu/placemat with a four-pack of crayons to color it with. The tables are covered in white tablecloth but they have brown butcher paper on top in case your kids want to color that too or, like mine, spill pasta and juice all over it. The noise level is not too loud, which is good because little ones can be heard and Mommy won't get a headache from all the noise. However, I had to hush my kids a few times because my son decided he wanted to sing songs from school and the tables around us weren't expecting live dinner entertainment. We didn't get any dirty looks or anything, the place is pretty casual, I just don't like to be a problem-maker.

Here's my likes and dislikes of Frankie's:

Likes:

• Kids menu available (buttered pasta, pasta with marinara, pizza)
• Give kids drinks in plastic cups with bendy straws
• Give kids crayons and menu/placemat to color
• Food is reliable, good, and affordable
• They validate parking in 900 N. Michigan garage. 900 N. Michigan garage charges $6 for parking if you enter garage after 5pm and leave before 2am. With the Frankie's validation ticket they gave us, though, we only had to pay $5.
• The mall setting is good to give you a break from your shopping. Mall setting is also good for kids to walk around if you're waiting for your table or to burn energy after their dinner.
• They have a takeout window in case you want to bring something home.

Dislikes:

• Not the best Italian food, not the worst.
• Kids menu could be a little more robust.