Chicago Bites #96
La Madia
What La Madia's roasted olives lacked in presentation, they made up for in taste.
You can't mess around with pizza in this town. Bridget and I have high expectations for our pie. Were they met at La Madia? Listen in and find out.
(24.5 M)
00:00 - 01:10 Keeping track of pizza
01:11 - 03:50 Issues with appetizers
03:51 - 06:20 Preconceived notions of pizza
06:21 - 08:08 Blandness of pizza
08:09 - 09:30 Fresh? Or Digiorno?
09:31 - 12:38 Mischief, mayhem. Our waiter, the service.
12:39 - 15:07 Desserts! Cookie controversy.
15:08 - 17:50 Twigs and wrappin' it up
La Madia
59 West Grand Avenue
Bridget's La Madia Ratings:
Food Quality: 3/5
Value: 2/5
Service: 2/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Overall: 4/10
Tammy's La Madia Ratings:
Food Quality: 2/5
Value: 3/5
Service: 2/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Overall: 4/10
Average price per person: $35 will get you sub-par pie, a good bottle of wine and cookies for dessert.
An example of La Madia's pie.
Related Chicago Bites Post:
Fornetto Mai
On-line Buzz about La Madia:
Metromix
The Stew
Yelp
Check out our La Madia photos on Flickr.
6 Comments
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Bridget Houlihan & 
Tammy GreenWe're here for 3 reasons:
- To meet people
- To expand our culinary horizons &
- To play with cool technology
1. Can I be a food snot for a second? Re: fondue. You should know better than to expect good "fondue" at an Italian restaurant... at least the folks at La Madia should have gotten with the "boot" program and called "fonduta." Sheesh. :)
2. Re: "Mischief and Mayhem." My dears, French Burgundy (red) wine is most commonly made from the pinot noir grape (although, sometimes Gamay). Burgundy is not a varietal, rather a region. It's more likely than not that "Mischief and Mayhem," a French Burgundy, was a pinot noir. Perhaps your server wasn't as clueless as you think.
u.e.
Hey Bridget and Tammy! Bob and I headed to La Madia the day that your podcast came out (this was his first time there and my 10th). We had excellent service. In all honesty, I've always had above par service there (Bridget you went with me once and we had great service then, too - I think they even gave us a free dessert!). The "grape pizza" is still my fav. The wine by the glass selection to me is one of the best in town! Thanks for reviewing!
Thanks for the wine lesson, u.e. It appears that more tasting may be required. Golly, gosh, darn! Suggestions on where to start?
As for your service comment Miss Amy... you may very well have a better sense of the service than we do. You and I did get better treatment when we were there to be sure, but I got the impression that was because you were with me. A frequent diner can often get the red carpet rolled out, and if they are very lucky free dessert too!
I listened to this podcast, and I can't even imagine how treachorous it must have been to wait on these ladies. You picked a wine because it had a cool name, and then you have the audacity to call the waiter a "dumb-ass". I'm sure if there was a wine called "dumb-ass" you would order it and think it was hilarious.
@Bill I've ordered wine purely on the basis of name before. A sense of humor does go a long way in the selection of wine, I find.
But seriously, we're pretty laid-back when we dine out. In the 2+ years we've been doing this podcast, I've sent a wine selection back only once. We listen to and often take recommendations from the waitstaff. We tip well, besides.
The "dumb-ass" comment was deserved in this case. Sorry.
Food at la madia is great !
Chef gianni thanks ;-)