Lake Zurich, IL · Italian · Family Dinner · Around $210 for Four
The Friday before Mother’s Day, the four of us drove out to LAGO by Fabio Viviani in Lake Zurich for our second visit. The plan was to get Vika out for an early Mother’s Day dinner somewhere we already knew would deliver. The first visit had set a pretty high bar, and the question I had walking in was whether the second one would hold up or whether we’d talked it up too much in our heads. It held up. The smoked filet mignon tartare came out under a glass dome with smoke pouring across the table, the truffled purses were as good as we remembered, and at the end the kitchen sent over a plate of cannoli with a giant sparkler stuck in the middle. Vika walked out smiling. That was the whole point.
This article is not sponsored. We paid for everything ourselves, and no one at LAGO knew we were coming.
The Room, on a Friday Night Approaching Capacity
LAGO sits in a freestanding building off Rand Road with its own lot, which is a nicer arrival than most strip mall Italian places around here. One thing to know going in: at dinner the lot is basically valet only. The valet is complimentary, just take care of the guy on the way out. The exterior is dark cladding with a steel canopy over the patio. We got there a little before peak dinner and the place was already filling up. By the time we left it was wall to wall, every seat at the curved blue tile bar taken, the patio full, and the host stand backed up. Make a reservation. A walk-in on a weekend night is a tough ask.
Inside, the room is taller than it looks from the lot. There’s a blue accent ceiling, big black pendant lamps, real olive trees breaking up the long banquette, and an open kitchen at the back you can see the line working through. The crowd was a mix of families like us, date nights, and a few larger groups doing what looked like graduation dinners. Loud but not screaming. The kind of room where you can hear the kids across the table without leaning in.
The Drinks: an Oro Puro and a Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned
I ordered the Oro Puro, which is built on Yellowstone bourbon with St. George spiced pear, fig jam, and lemon, finished with a dried citrus wheel. The fig jam keeps the bourbon from going too sweet, the spiced pear sits underneath, and the lemon pulls the whole thing back into balance. I’d order it again without thinking. Vika went the classic route and asked for an Old Fashioned with Buffalo Trace. It came out the way you want one to come out: a single big clear ice cube, Luxardo cherries on a glass pick, a long curl of orange peel. She knows what she likes, and Buffalo Trace is what she likes. The kids both ordered The Carousel, the house mocktail, which arrived in beautiful diamond cut crystal glasses and made them feel like part of the night, which is the actual point of a mocktail program at a place like this.
The Tartare Is the Move
If you go to LAGO and order one thing, make it the Smoked Filet Mignon Tartare. It comes out under a glass dome and the server lifts it tableside, smoke pouring across the dish. I’m usually skeptical of anything that needs a trick to land, but this one earns it. The smoke isn’t decorative, it’s actually flavoring the meat. Underneath the dome is a bowl of finely chopped filet with capers, herbs, and pickled vegetables, a bright orange farm egg yolk sitting on top, and a stack of thick grilled sourdough alongside.
You break the yolk into the meat, mix it through, scoop it onto a piece of warm sourdough, and that’s the bite. Vika and I both agreed it was one of the best tartares we’ve had, period. Clean meat, capers cutting through the richness, the smoke giving it a slight char flavor that the egg yolk softens.
It’s what tartare dreams are made of.
The Soup, the Pasta, the Tuna
To round out the table we ordered the Creamy Maine Lobster Bisque, the Truffled Purses, and the Bluefin Tuna. Plus a Steak Frites and the Chicken Fingers off the kids’ side for Josh and Emily.
The Lobster Bisque was the right move to start. Big chunks of actual lobster meat in the middle, sweet corn, fresh chives across the top. It’s deep and rich without going into chowder territory, and the spoon stands up in it the way you want a bisque to behave.
The Truffled Purses are our favorite dish at LAGO. We had them on the first visit, ordered them again on this one, and they did not disappoint. Filled pasta in a truffle parmesan cream sauce, finished with grated cheese and chives, mushrooms tucked into the sauce. The pasta is house made and you can tell. Each purse has weight to it, the filling is real mushroom (not just truffle paste flavor pretending to be mushroom), and the sauce coats without drowning. If you go to LAGO once and try one pasta, this is the one. We’ll be ordering it on every visit.
Don’t get me wrong, we really liked the Bluefin Tuna too. Peppercorn crust, sliced rare with a deep pink center, served over a warm caponata with a citrus balsamic gastrique drizzled across. The crust gives you the heat, the caponata gives you the sweet vinegar pull, and the tuna in the middle is buttery and clean. Vika kept reaching across the table for another slice and I let her. But the Truffled Purses are the ones.
Josh’s Steak Frites came out properly cooked, sliced, with a real pile of fries (not the kids’ menu portion of fries you usually get at a place like this). Emily’s Chicken Fingers were exactly what she wanted, breaded fresh and crispy, fries on the side. Two notes for parents: the kids’ menu portions are generous, and the chicken fingers are not the dump truck frozen kind. They’re hand breaded.
Then the Cannoli Showed Up
I had ordered an Ice Cream Sundae for the table, vanilla layered with chocolate sauce, candied nuts, and crumbled chocolate cookies in a footed glass. That was the dessert. Then a second plate landed in front of Vika with two cannoli, a giant sparkler stuck right in the middle of them, the whole table lit up. The kitchen had heard it was an early Mother’s Day dinner and they sent it over. That’s the kind of small, unsolicited thing that decides whether a restaurant is good or whether it’s the one you keep coming back to. LAGO is the second one.
The Price
I’m going to keep including this on every food article I write, because I think it matters and most places don’t tell you. Here’s what dinner for four cost us at LAGO.
For what we got (a tableside tartare, a bisque with real lobster, a real bluefin tuna entree, the truffled purses, two kids’ meals, two bourbon cocktails, two mocktails, and a sundae) I think that’s a fair number. Not cheap. Italian places that put this much craft into the food and the room rarely are. But for the level of cooking and the level of service, this is what you’d expect to pay, and the comp on the cannoli at the end made it feel like even better value.
What we paid: Our total before tip, with tax, was $207.36. That covered a tableside tartare, a Maine lobster bisque, a bluefin tuna entree, the truffled purses, a steak frites, the kids’ chicken fingers, an ice cream sundae, and four drinks for the four of us.
Did It Work for the Family?
This is the question I always ask, because Vika and I bring the kids almost everywhere. LAGO works for a family of four with teenagers. The room is loud enough that Josh and Emily can talk normally without us shushing them, the kids’ menu is a real menu (not a fallback), and the mocktail program treats them like guests instead of an afterthought. If your kids are younger and you need a quieter room, book the earliest reservation you can get and you’ll be in before the bar fills up.
The Verdict
Truffled Purses we’ll order on every visit, smoked tartare you’ll talk about on the drive home, a bluefin tuna we kept reaching for, a kitchen that took care of Vika without being asked, a kids’ menu that respects the kids, and a fair total for four at the end of the night ($207.36 before tip). Second visit landed exactly where the first one did, which is the test that matters. Already planning the third.
Want to see the tartare arrive under the dome and the Mother’s Day sparkler in motion? We’ll be posting a few short clips on Instagram. Head over to @travelandfoodguy and check them out.
Have you been to LAGO in Lake Zurich, or do you have a north suburban Italian spot we should put on the list for the next family dinner? Drop it in the comments. Vika and I are always hunting the next one.
