Giacamo's

Lasagna

We went to dinner at Giacamo's in Des Plaines.  This restaurant has been featured on both Check Please and Chicago's Best. We made reservations a day in advance and good thing we did because it has a smaller interior and there was an event happening in one room.

Mushroom Soup

Salad

We didn't order any appetizers because we saw the entree portions coming out to the other diners - they are quite large and in fact we took half of both our entrees home with us and we were still stuffed.

The entrees come with a cup of soup or salad.  Nick got the salad and Natalie got mushroom soup.

Entrees:
The lasagna had recently been featured on Chicago's Best so we tried that.  It was a massive piece of lasagna and what they do differently is that they have a layer of polenta in addition to the layers of meat, pasta and cheese.  The polenta gave it a sweet taste that was a bit unique.  We thought it was a good lasagna but not worth the 40 minute drive from our house.

Braciole

For our other entree we had Braciole.  Braciole is beef stuffed with Italian meats and cheeses, covered in tomato sauce.  This is an Italian dish we have never had before so it was interesting and unique for us.  It probably is featured at other Italian restaurants we go to but we never had ordered it before. Nick loved it and if he sees this entree at other places he will try it again.

Final thoughts on Giacamo's:
Food - Good down home Italian fare.  Super large portions so a great value.
Service - We went to Giacamo's on a Saturday night. It was super busy and even with a reservation we had to wait a bit. (We think there was a bit of an "after-mass" effect due to the time we were there on a Saturday night.) We were sat at a table right in the middle of the dining area.  So despite the service being good we felt like we kept getting bumped into by other people getting to their tables.
Atmosphere - family owned restaurant.  Most of the other diners seemed to be regulars. It was very full (elbow to elbow) when we were there.