It was very important for my family to seek out a delicious and affordable family style Italian restaurant upon arriving in our new hometown, because Italian is our comfort food. Back in El Paso, House of Pizza was just up the street and at any point we could run a few blocks and eat amazing meatball sammys, anchovy and onion pizzas, amazing lasagna – you get the picture. So when we got to Evanston, we asked around for recommendations on yummy, family style Italian dining and everyone pointed to Dave’s on Chicago, which furthers my theory that people in Evanston are really bright.
You can count on spending about $10 per person for a good meal as most of the plates run $7-15. I can highly recommend the following dishes; spaghetti with meat sauce, eggplant parmesan, lasagna, any calzone on the menu and the Italian salad. Although I have only eaten at Dave’s twice, I eat off of other people’s plates at my table and I’ve tasted everything listed above.
Because I know how to make an amazing marinara sauce, I always seek out something more delicious than mine, and at Dave’s Italian Kitchen, they deliver on marinara. Just typing the word out is making the back of my tongue water. Why is it so divine? Dave’s marinara is chunky so there’s just enough texture to prevent the sauce from running all over your plate and away from the food it needs to be covering. Also, the sauce is perfectly salted leaving room for the flavors of tomatoes to be the primary taste. I have said this about queso fundido before, a good sauce can make a brick taste delicious and I have a hunch Dave’s marinara would make a brick pretty yummy.
The dining room is in the basement, dark and loud – the perfect environment for hunkering down in front of a big plate of lasagna and getting to work!
Dave’s is located at 1635 Chicago Ave. in downtown Evanston and is open seven days a week. Visit www.davesik.com for hours of operation and directions.
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Thank you for reading my new blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni
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