Bar Toma Chicago 110 E Pearson St Chicago IL 60611

The best thing that we tasted at Tony Mantuano’s new Bar Toma restaurant was the pepperoni pizza.  Thick, quality Vermont artisan pepperoni added robust flavor.  Our specialty pizza, which came out minus two of the ingredients we ordered, tasted like overcooked mushrooms and garlic.  I will say that the crust was perfectly chewy and salty.  They did not bring us the correct pizza, so we ate the unaltered uova e funghi pizza.  I expected a little more flavor from something with two sunny-side up eggs on top of it.  The server was kind enough to remove it from the bill.   The Bar Toma Salad was really nice, with a price tag to match.  It had robust spicy fresh veggies, capers, and a really tasty Toma cheese.  One of my favorite things here so far was the wine glasses.  Huge, fun, real crystal goblets that always, for some reason, makes wine tastes better.  Our server’s recommendation from the over sixty strictly Italian wines list was okay.

House made mint gelato and blood orange sorbet was amazing.  I still want to try their dark hot chocolate from what looks like a full Italian style coffee bar, barista and all (it was closed during dinner).  An air of high-pressure nervousness was evident, being one of the first nights open.  Regardless of the circumstances our server went above and beyond to be accommodating, and incredibly kind to encourage us to return.  We are looking forward to the open garage door patio in the summer.