Nico Osteria
Chef Bill Montagne’s house-made pastas and fresh seafood, alongside Pastry Chef Leigh Omilinsky’s creative and approachable style are perfectly suited for the setting’s rustic elegance.
Salone Nico is a welcoming space, celebrating the European tradition of afternoon aperitifs and craft cocktails. The wine list features producers from Italy and Greece, as well as grower champagne. Grab a cocktail, sneak in a light bite or settle in for a night cap at Salone Nico.
We invite guests to contact us by phone for last-minute reservations or those hoping to reserve seats at the Chef’s Counter overlooking our open kitchen in the main dining room.
Mon–Fri 7:30 am–10:30 am
Brunch
Sat, Sun 9:00 am–4:30 pm
Lunch
Mon–Fri 11:00 am–4:30 pm
Dinner
Mon–Thu, Sun 5:00 pm–10:00 pm
Fri, Sat 5:00 pm–11:00 pm
Private Dining
Nico Osteria's private dining space, located on the second floor of the restaurant, is composed of three private dining rooms & a semi-private bar & lounge area. With floating walls, we can accommodate 100 guests for a seated breakfast, lunch, or dinner & 150 guests for a reception-style events
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Menu
Specials
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Sun 9:00AM - 11:00AM 5:00PM - 5:45PM 8:45PM - 10:00PM
Mon - Tue 12:00PM - 1:00PM 5:00PM - 5:45PM 8:45PM - 10:00PM
Wed - Thu 12:00PM - 1:00PM 5:00PM - 5:45PM 9:00PM - 10:00PM
Fri 12:00PM - 1:00PM 5:00PM - 5:45PM
Sat 9:00AM - 11:00AM
Fantastic food and experience!
Food was excellent but our waitress was disengaged and impersonal
Delicious meal! Great bread. Great ambiance. Only complaint is that the waitstaff cleared plates from the table while others were still eating their meals. And the person pouring water was touching the water pitcher to everyone's glasses...not very sanitary. Otherwise though, the food was great. Portions weren't very large though.
The stuffed pappardelle was the best we have had anywhere. All the apps and entrees were delicious. The waitress was fun and knowledgeable & that didn’t change after we had to return an oxidized red.
Great atmosphere, would highly recommend.
The food was excellent but it was slow to come out from the kitchen. The waitress was attentive and did her best to get things moving along but she could not control the kitchen.
Great food. Excellent suggestions by the wait staff and wonderful
Ambiance. We sat on the counter and watched the bartenders make wondeful cocktails and saw into the kitchen realizing culinary greatness.
Best tasting Italian we have ever had!! So full of flavour, typically only available in very expensive restaurants, but this was great value, not cheap, but stunning food for the deserved price. Wow, could have eaten far more. Would 100% recommend to anyone!
We went to Nico's 2 times. The first time was perfection. Our server was kind, and the food was amazing. The second time was awful. Our server clearly didn't like us (or maybe she didn't like that I was with my 8 year-old). The food was not good. I got the radish carpaccio for the 2nd time and it was really oily. My daughter got pasta with butter. There was so much butter it was indelible.
The Cacio e Pepe, charged octopus, hamachi, meatballs ... all so amazing!
Nico was delicious! Features diverse seafood and a deep wine list. Lovely for business or pleasure.
Nico continues to be the spot for fantastic Italian seafood in Chicago. Standouts were the Monterrey Bay sardines, the radish carpaccio, the meatballs (shockingly good), orecchiette with tuna sausage and the desserts. A fantastic negroni & great bread service too!
For the price of the food, you would expect to have a more private dining experience. However, the seating was communal which is fine for lunch but not ok for dinner. Also, I took one sip out of my drink and sent it back (first time in my life sending something back), and the waiter charged for the $15 drink. Food was good, but pretty standard Italian by Chicago’s standards.
Good outdoor seating available, located in a vibrant (sometimes loud) area. Dover Sole, Pasta with Tuna Sausage both very good dishes. The star item was a very unique take on bruschetta -a variation including crispy, fried Brussels sprout leaves (not heads) on light, cool, creamy stracciatella cheese which is refreshing in summer drizzled with lemon honey and topped with pesto & chopped hazelnut. Very poor service, particularly given reputation (and cost) of Nico for fine food. Disinterested / distracted / uninformative server really ruined the evening (botched order, long delay in correction - but manager did attempt to make amends after the fact).
ambiance was perfect. Location is perfect. the food was absolutely amazing. I will definitely go back again and try the items I didnt get to order
Overall this restaurant never disappoints. I've had better meals there previously but it was still pretty good.
Great food and wine. Outdoor seating was not desirable as the chairs were very uncomfortable. Getting seated was also overly complicated. Inside and outside hosts do not work well together. Overall I rate this a four star Rush Street restaurant.
This is my third visit to Nico and everytime has been great. Such a good variety in the appetizers and entrees. Keep coming back to try a new one each time. Waitstaff are great as well.
Fantastic food with an amazing server. We have been many times, and this is always a good choice!
Wonderful food and service
Sit at the counter to watch the chefs! The Brussel sprouts bruschetta is incredible!
Excellent crudo sampler and the burrata was delicious. Took a bit longer to get a table than I would have expected with a reservation.
The food was horrible and 4 out of 6 of us got very sick. The menu is limited and the fish was not eatable. The server did not refill our glasses with the bottle of wine we purchased nor did he leave it at the table. I doubt we finished the bottle between the 2 of us who were drinking it. I could go on and on about how bad this restaurant was, but I hope this will be enough to stop you from going there when Gibson's is right across the street.
The bartenders were totally indifferent. We did not feel welcome, nor were the drinks spectacular. Even with a reservation we were given a table near the front entrance, however we asked to have it changed and they complied. The starters were very good, however the entrées were average-, There are plenty of better restaurants in Chicago, and we will not be back.
Excellent. Really good food, causal but elegant. Very friendly service.
Would highly recommend
The service was good, as was the coffee. The food, not so much. If they can't do brunch very well, we certainly won't be coming back to try dinner. Sad for the captive hotel audience.
6/23/18
Amazing dinner fabulous support staff our primary waitress wasn’t very engaging- my husband commented she got the job done with efficiency but no personality. Having said that everything came out perfectly timed and presented fabulous flavors and empty plates promptly remove by support staff. We had chefs Crudasampler, roasted Octopus sardines I had Orachetti
With tuna sausage Wow!
My husband had Trullel spaghetti
Would definitely recommend
First experience at Nico Osteria, had heard about it from my previous sous-chef from Avec since I already worked for ONE-OFF restaurant group I expected my experience to be good and it was! Great service and food was great for a brunch menu, my favorite was crab Benedict and the dirty banana gelato with biscotti.Thank You.Follow @you_are_kind_of_a_big_dill on instagram to see my food journey.
Out of town guests
Food was excellent. We tried the meatballs, gnocchi, cacio e pepe, and the veal. I would highly recommend all those dishes. The drinks were excellent as well. The service was not great. Our waitress never came to check on us, I had to flag her down to order our food and just generally seemed like she didn’t want to be there. Thankfully the food made up for the service
Food, service and ambiance are superb. Small plates offer quality and varied options. Great restaurant - we were all very happy with our entrees.
Great food! Good service, and good ambiance
Note: (A restaurant experience is not all about the food). I called ahead telling Nico this was for a suprise post engagement dinner. They told me they would have a special booth reserved, however they sat us next to a family where the little kid kept screaming. Second the waiter was the most unenthusiastic waiter I have witnessed in my entire life. He was extremely dry, unattenative, and our food took forever to come out. I did NOT expect anything other then being polite. I did NOT expect him to go out of his way to be different for us, because of the special occasion. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone celebrating a special day. This place is great for your average date night, especially if you want to bring your kids.
We love Nico! That Brussel sprout Bruschetta is to die for. Also we order 2 octopus apps and I ate both! The pasta is so good and fresh, the stuffed Poperdelle melts in your mouth. Also the branzino was amazing and so fresh.
Our waiter on the other hand was so weird and inattentive. It took him over 10 minutes to come to the table and he was just off. Funny how having a good wait person makes such a difference in the dinning experience. Also, a bus person was taking away plates that had food on them and we were still eating, that’s just rude. The bill is alway over $300 when we are there, I would expect them to have more vetted staff.
Great, fresh food in an upbeat and classy environment.
The food is inconsistent... it used to be very good. Service mediocre.
Service was horrible. They were "out" of pizza of the day at 11:45 and "didn't have" sparkling water on tap -- only by the bottle. The food was mediocre at best and the Brussels sprout sandwich had huge chunks of extra spicy peppers that made two of us choke and tear up. Certainly not tasty. The dessert -- scoops of gelato -- took 20 minutes to arrive. Would not go back.
The space is very handsome with tons of nature light. We went for lunch and it wasn’t very busy. Our wait staff seemed a bit off while we had to wait for an extended time for ice tea and even longer for a cocktail. Our food was for the most part delicious- the comp bread platter and olive oil is worth the trip. I was only disappointed in my crispy chicken not being “crispy “ enough and quite fatty.
Great food as always, but service was a little slow.
It was wonderful! We enjoyed everything about it. We asked our server what she recommended because there were so many options we could not decide. Her recommendations were great. Also, dessert was fantastic! Great Manhattan’s, too! If you are in Chicago, you need to dine here you will love it.
So, again, we had another lovely meal at Nico Osteria. Our server, Matthew was great--attentive and helpful--and with a nice sense of humor. He selected a great bottle of wine for us.
We enjoy sharing dishes, so that we can taste more of the delicious seasonal options, but always end up splitting the sea bass as part of our dinner. Really, I cannot make anything this good at home. It's just fantastic.
Oysters were super briny and fresh--and with some of the best focaccia I've tasted (I'm a total fan of the olive version).
Shared pasta, yum, the fish and had wonderful house made sorbetti.
We'll be back again!