This is your fine dining experience at Nora Restaurant. The ambience is impeccable located off Ontario St. Downtown Chicago. The decorating is very unique with a darker tone mixing in wood and patterns. This is a very cool dinner place with quality food and drinks. As well, the staff was amazing but I did have some pieces of the puzzle missing.

Menu

The best part about the menu was the ample amount of appetizers they had. However, after ordering we learned that the portion sizes were more for the individual and not sharing. I tend to share my appetizers more often than not. The quality of the food was great. There were about six salads on the menu but not many vegetarian options. Many of the dishes were meat dominated.

Apps- Burrata

For our starter we ordered the Burrata. I was a little disappointed when the burrata came out with only four tomatoes. The quality of the cheese was very tasty but the flavors did not blend well when you are only eating cheese. The yellow sauce seen at the bottom was okay, not too flavorful. As well, they only give you one basket of bread with four pieces in it. We tried to each the burrata with the bread but did not have much left. This was enough for one person to finish, maybe their appetizers are only for individuals. If I were to give one piece of advice, I would say to give more crackers and tomatoes to pair with the cheese.

Peach Spritz

I order the Peach Spritz and it was delightful. I don’t really even like peach flavor very much, but this was super good. This was nice mix of orange juice, peach flavor, pineapple juice, and all carbonated. This spritz was a nice refreshing mocktail.

Main- Piramidelli

The presentation was not the best for this dish. The mushroom sauce had great earthy flavors with a touch of spice from the Aleppo pepper flakes. I would only mark this dish down because it should have one extra noodle. The four presented here was not enough food for the price. The flavors were blended well together, with the short rib and mushroom sauce.

Dessert- Tart au Citron

This lemon tart was to die for. The tart was indeed, very tart. The lemon flavor is strong and blends nicely with the shortbread crumble surrounding the tart. Those little dots you see for decoration on the plate are very very tart. As well, it came with a vanilla gelato that I was surprised to see since it was not listed on the menu. The ice cream and tart worked well together to counter the tartness with the gelato. I would definitely recommend this dessert.

Final Thoughts

As a first time goer at Nora Restaurant in Chicago, I would not say I would go again. They immerse you in a nice authentic Italian experience, however I do not think you get what you pay for. The quality of the food is fabulous, but they drop the ball on some of the craftmaship for the dishes. I would go back for dessert and drinks. The ambiance it great for pictures. The interior designer had lots of ideas and tied most of them quite nicely together.