Author's note: It is rare that I post a bad review, and I have received some criticism to this effect. Generally, when I don't like a place it is easily forgotten. These bad restaurants usually elicit indifference and inspire very few words. In short, they're not worth writing about. Rarely do I find bad results in a restaurant that I expect to enjoy. This is one of those cases.

Since I first visited Bruna's, it has been my "go-to" place for simple, fresh, Italian/Italian-American cuisine. I've been there a couple times with guests and I've sent quite a few people there with excellent results every time. The neighborhood is a bit of a throwback, and has always left me wondering about the other restaurants on the block: Ignotz, La Fontanella, and Bacchanalia. If Bruna's delivers such fresh, delicious food, then surely the other restaurants on the block must be in the same league. They have to compete, don't they?

During a recent trip down to the Heart of Italy, four of us turned our back on Bruna's for the evening and decided to give Bacchanalia a try. I am disappointed that we did. The service was just fine, the atmosphere was full and festive, but the food just didn't cut it. Bacchanalia is not in Bruna's league by a long shot.

I was able to try a couple appetizers and three different entrees, thanks to my wandering fork. The appetizers included an unremarkable artichoke and some stuffed mushrooms. The mushrooms were as tough as a well-done steak and stuffed with a mushroom-mush that wasn't particularly palatable. I cook with mushrooms often, and I really have no idea how you turn a white button mushroom so tough that it requires sawing with a knife to cut it. I suspect the process involves cooking, cooling, and reheating.

For an entree, I chose one of the daily specials: cannelloni stuffed with porcini, portabella, and asparagus. I envisioned a fresh mixture of diced and minced mushrooms and asparagus. What I received was the cannelloni filled with the same unpleasant mush from the stuffed mushrooms and a few limp spears of asparagus. Finally, the entire concoction was covered in way too much cheese.

I also tasted the chicken vesuvio which was basically just dry chicken covered in garlic. It lacked the blending and depth of a variety of flavors that you find in a good vesuvio. There were quite a few "vesuvio" items on the menu (including one of the daily specials), and I imagined a big tub of "vesuvio-sauce" in the back that gets slapped on whatever meat is around.

We also had a plate of gnocchi for the table to share. As far as I'm concerned, even the best gnocchi I've ever tasted was just OK, and not much more than a pillowy vehicle for sauce (I've never understood the appeal). These particular gnocchi were fine, smothered in a pretty bland vodka sauce, and elicited palpable indifference from my taste buds.

I wanted to like Bacchanalia. I wanted them to echo the qualities that Bruna's has, but with their own flavor and flare. I wanted to taste homemade flavors, made with pride, just like at Bruna's. What I tasted was food that seemed like it was selected and thrown together without care or interest. Perhaps I caught it on a bad night or simply ordered wrong, but I don't think I'll be going back.

Bacchanalia is located at 2413 S. Oakley Ave., 773-254-6555. Cash only.

Man, I thought you were about to turn on Bruna's and I was prepared to be completely shocked and upset.

Sorry about the bad meal, but I'm glad it wasn't at Bruna's.

Posted by: Mark at March 11, 2005 1:33 PM

i've gone to bacchanalia twice. aside from getting a big kick out of the neighborhood and its immediate surroundings, i was unimpressed both times. i've not visited any other restaurants in that italian pocket, precisely because bacchanalia was so unimprssively average and because i figured all of the others in the area were equally throback, italian-fare-for-the-1950s-american-palate type places.

you've turned me on to marketplace and bhabi's, much to my delight, so i'm anxious to go to bruna's, carrying lofty expectations ;-0

Posted by: foo d at March 17, 2005 9:40 AM

Granted, I've only been there once, but I think you either hit it on an off night, or you just ordered the wrong dishes. I have friends who also know good food and eat there regularly, they love Bacchanalia, too. I had a special--lobster ravioli in vodka sauce--that I'm still craving. Huge, fluffy pillows of ravioli that were more like hand-folded wontons than ravioli. The dish came with 8 or 9 raviolis, and we'd split a couple appetizers, so I was already fairly full, so I could only eat 2 or 3 for dinner. I had another few for lunch the next day and the rest for dinner the next night--that's how big and yummy they were. Hmmm, now that I'm thinking about it, I may have to venture down there for dunner in the next week or two.

Posted by: Jen at March 17, 2005 10:40 PM

Last night, after a wonderful time at Bruna's, we were wondering the same thing -- are these other restaurants on the street just as good as Bruna's? Thanks for the heads-up on Bacchanalia. Maybe we'll stick to Bruna's and let EatChicago be the guinea pig on the other places on S. Oakley. ;-)

Posted by: James at March 21, 2005 12:28 PM