When I asked a few people for advice on where to eat near the Willis Tower for a work lunch, all 3 of them came back with Pazzo's as their #1 choice. To me, finding a nice client friendly restaurant near the Willis Tower is like finding a nice client friendly place near any touristy place - it usually means fast food places or other not so great chain restaurants. Even though Pazzo's is a chain, it was a definitely a very appropriate client facing restaurant in addition to having tasty food.
Firstly, it's located in a beautiful atrium inside the an office building. It was bright, airy and almost made me forget that it was only 60 degrees in August in Chicago. Inside there is a larger extension of the restaurant that's a bit dated compared to the outside decor but it was totally fine for the purposes of having a casual work chat. The menu here is old school Italian and there was lots to choose from: every kind of pasta dish you can imagine, nice big salad options, sandwiches, and a nice variety of secondi type dishes. I was torn between getting pasta vs. an entree but I've always been a sucker for a good tuna steak so I opted for the pan seared tuna dish. One of my clients got the seafood risotto which looked amazing and the other got a salmon penne pasta which looked rich, creamy and most likely very delicious. I asked for my tuna to be as close to rare as possible and they did a great job of hitting the mark - it was definitely very pink on the inside but nicely seared on the outside with a good salty crust to it. It was paired with roasted fingerling potatoes and grilled asparagus. The asparagus was a bit on the wimpy side - I prefer them to be more al dente with a crunch to it. These were a bit overcooked and soggy which is easy to do when the asparagus is on the skinny side as these were. The potatoes were totally fine too, although I would have preferred a mashed version with the dish. For some reason, I've always liked pairing a tuna steak with mashed potatoes - maybe it's the balance of something creamy with a "tough" steak.
Overall, this was a lovely place to have a casual but still work appropriate lunch. It wasn't stuffy or too corporate feeling which I liked but it was still formal enough that you could still talk shop and not feel like a douche. A lot of the food is a bit on the heavy side for lunch but you can still chose wisely and get something that won't make you want to take a nap in a few hours. Total bill: $65 for 3 people with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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