Ballaro: Service trips up a great menu

Think about this.

How is a restaurant like a football team? If their performances are not in synch, the outcome is less than desirable.

Which was the case during my recent visit to Ballaro, 214 Green Bay Road in Highwood.

While the food was really quite good, the performance by the staff along with the less-than-ideal atmosphere would have, had this been a football team, resulted in a loss, or a failure to make the playoffs.

Ballaro, which is approaching its second anniversary, offers unique selections from pizza to sliced Bavette. Entrees are in the mid-$20 range and are presented nicely. I had the wild Alaskan salmon, which featured Fava beans, glazed baby carrots, shaved carrot & parsley salad. A nice dinner portion with the flavor of the salmon augmented well by the fava beans, etc.  My wife had Pappardelle, with short rib bolognese, parmigiano Reggiano, which was flavorful. Available in a large and small portion, we opted for the large portion and found it more than adequate.

We, along with the couple we were dining with shared a roasted mushroom pizza as an appetizer and found it to be exceptional.

So, what went wrong?  While the quarterback, and I consider the food at the restaurant to be the quarterback, performed well, the offensive live – in this case the service – failed miserably.

We had four different people attend to us, which at most restaurants would be considered classy.  Unfortunately, the effort was far from coordinated.  What we assumed was our main waiter seemed overwhelmed and not as attentive as you may expect from a busy restaurant on Saturday night.  This was re-enforced when another waiter, who was very personable and attentive, came by to take our orders because, he said “your waiter is really busy”. 

Two other staff members attended to us, one of whom brought our pizza, but did not take used dishes or an empty wine bottle.  Another staff member brought what we assumed were our entrees; looked around and then realized he didn’t know who got what – and apparently went back to the kitchen with all four orders.

He soon came back, and it was apparent that our plates had been heated up.  Fortunately, the return trip to the kitchen did not impact our meal.

We didn’t order dessert, even though Ballaro had several nice offerings including a chocolate tart and ricotta cheese cake.  All dessert items offer a suggested pairing of after-dinner liquors. 

Speaking of liquors, Ballaro offers an impressive array of wines.  Glasses run between $9 and $19 a glass.  Spirit prices are in the ballpark of other similar restaurants.

A couple of final notes – because the building has high, open ceilings, conversation reverberates to an almost deafening level. It’s a design issue, which is probably accentuated by a Saturday night crowd.  As we were not rushed, by the time we left, the noise level had subsided.

Would I go back?  Absolutely.  My guess is the lack of coordination in service is more of fluke and not the usual Ballaro standard.

One final note about service – and his is directed toward Ballaro’ s management and/or owners.  It’s a nice tough to have some say “thank you” as diners leave.

It’s a little thing, but a missed block by the offensive line can wreak havoc on the quarterback.

Rating based on this visit:  3½  out 5.

Full information about Ballaro can be found at its website, ballarohw.com.  Reservations can be made by phone at 847-780-3396.  Online reservations can be made at Opentable.com