Lina’s Chicago Kitchen

I think this place is closed now… I tried calling for a carry out order yesterday with no answer. And then walked by it today and the patio seats and area were no longer out…

I do not live in Chicago but I had always enjoyed visiting Leona’s anytime I was in town. Last weekend over the fourth of July holiday I went to visit Chicago and was excited to go eat at Leona’s as always. When we arrived we noticed the name had been changed to Lina’s but thought we would give the new place a chance. It was about 3:00pm so I didn’t expect them to be busy but when we walked in there were no other customers in the restaurant. After standing and waiting because we didn’t see any workers my partner went to the restroom while I continued to wait. We could hear people talking back in the kitchen but no one came out. Finally a lady came out and asked if she could help me. I was kind of confused by this because what do you usually want when you come into a restaurant and stand and the hostess stand? Maybe to be seated so you can have a meal? We were finally seated and then it took equally as long for our waitress to come out. We told her we were still looking over the menu so the brought us water and disappeared again. Finally, after not seeing her again we just got up and walked out. Even though we never even ordered I was highly disappointed in the service we received at Lina’s.

Genuinely disappointed by my most recent experience at Leona’s, Lena’s, LIsa’s, or whatever it’s called now, the food was just sad.
I ordered pasta… Ehh, it was offensively bland. The bread that came with it was ok. The best part of the meal was the side salad, and that definitely wasn’t anything special.
I’m upset! I use to REALLY enjoy Leona’s (The one near Chicago Avenue) but this one is awful. I hope the other one hasn’t gone down hill as well.
OH, OH, OH! Why does it take SO long to bring out the food when you have like 2 customers? Please, if you know better, do better.
The saving grace is was #Groupon.

As others have stated, Leona’s is now Lina’s. Although the other locations have been sold, this restaurant is owned by the original people. In reality though, they did more than just change the name. Seriously, not impressed anymore.
We used to love coming here. The menu is the same and the portions have remained enough for two meals, but sadly the food is just bland. They must have changed their recipes. I mean really — no flavor at all anymore. What good is that much food if you don’t want to eat it?
How do you make an alfredo sauce that doesn’t even taste like a blend of parmesan and romano cheeses? The mac and cheese was decent, but needed salt. In fact, everything needed a lot of salt. My burger was dry and the meat was barely seasoned. The grilled onions were slightly slimy and the mushrooms were spongy and had an odd texture.
Our waiter was pleasant enough (I think), but even he was kind of bland and boring like the food. He didn’t even make small talk. Overall, just not engaging. Less importantly, the restaurant had one other couple in it and our food took 45 minutes. I’m not impatient and don’t mind the wait, but honestly I think that’s a little much.
On that note, the whole place is always quiet. It seems that whenever I go in or pass by there’s never anyone inside anymore. I guess I can see why.
I can totally see Lina’s on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares trying to figure out why the locals just aren’t interested anymore. In my opinion, whoever the chef is needs to go — or at least step up their game. Leona’s used to be so good. We’re both just very disappointed.

Meh but with potential.
Leona’s is now Lina’s. Grubhub didn’t update the name, and we had no idea the switch had already happened.
The new logo after many recent Leona flops (after years of Leona’s absolutely delightful magic), there was a little hope. It increased when I saw the wedge fries (one of my only remaining Leona’s loves) had been replaced with these… Massive crinkle-​cropped potato chunks. My first tater brick was delightful, with all the same spices as the old models and they started including sour cream with them again! My next potato left my mouth as quickly as it entered, as I experienced the single saltiest SALTY SALTY SALT BOMB I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE. It is like someone had a seizure while holding a salt shaker. Gross. I managed to wipe some of them down but I gave up.
My burger… Again, hope followed by a crash. The burger was HUGE. I asked for my burger medium well, with pepper jack, bacon, avocado, spinach and sauteed onion. The burger spanned medium to medium well, to slightly under medium, to overcooked as heck. The toppings… What the heck? Half of an entire sauteed red onion (not raw, not soft enough), a pile of sauteed spinach (very tasty), four slim slices of very ripe and perfect avocado and a handful of limp bacon slices on the left quarter of my burger. Half the toppings were wasted. I get wanting to give us our money’s worth but it was a mess, and impossible to eat. The bun? It looks like a pretzel bun, tastes like a grocery store croissant mated with a hamburger bun.
And the tiramisu was attacked by the same bandit who ruined the fries… Only this time, he seized up while using the cinnamon. I have never had cinnamon on/​in tiramisu, and there was just so much of it. Not a fan at all. A light dusting without warning people? Fine, but that amount of cinnamon needs a warning for those looking for a traditional experience from an Italian inspired American restaurant.
In short, would I have ordered if I knew it was no longer Leona’s? Probably — menu looked promising.
Will I order again? I will give anything a second chance, especially when new and obviously trying. There’s some really good potential but definitely not a winner this evening.

I was never too fond of Leona’s, to be honest, but was blown away by the pizza I ordered from here via Grubhub. The sauce was fantastic and flavorful, the crust was crisp, the balance of toppings felt pretty much perfect. The order arrived promptly and was hot. Though I can’t speak to the dine-​in experience, I was surprised to come here and see the 1 – 2 star ratings. I think Lina’s is a big improvement over Leona’s and I’m so thrilled to have a new go-​to local pizza delivery place.

The atmosphere is great, big lively place but the menu is terrible. It took me 15 minutes to find something I might possibly like to try and as it turns out… I didn’t like it. A very strange hamburger menu, it is small… build your own is there idea because they can’t seem to understand what makes a good burger… the preselected burger menu looked a mess… Swiss cheese and blue cheese dressing is the «Blue Moon» burger, sounds gross. Not to mention this is supposed to be a pizza joint that is oddly enough promoting burgers, it looks to be an effort to be all things to all diners… it doesn’t work. All the Italian dishes looked extremely basic or with some strange twist that didn’t make sense either — garlic bacon parmesan chicken… bad, I ordered this and the sauce was cheap and tasteless probably a large institutional supply sauce straight out of the can. If you’re drunk after a cubs game this place might be okay but if you want a decent meal, look else where. Maybe it’s a pizza place, I won’t be back to try it though… once is enough.

I was weary after spending nearly two hours in traffic on my way home, and a delivery man rode the elevator with me. He asked: «Have you had dinner yet?» I said: «…no.» He handed me a menu for Lina’s, and told me they served delicious and healthy food.
So naturally enough, I ordered a pizza and salad from them a few minutes later. The caesar salad was mediocre, accompanied by some very good garlic bread and a mysterious few slices of tomato and mozzarella cheese. The pizza was worse than that. Dry, cracker-​like crust, solidified mass of mozzarella cheese, overabundance of black olives, shortage of other vegetables. Maybe the «healthy» part was that I didn’t want to finish it.
Then again, they delivered promptly, and their marketing is first-​rate!

Very disappointed. Ordered via GrubHub after they changed from being Leona’s. Order was messed up — I didn’t even get the pasta dish I ordered. I tried the one I did get and it was bad. Swimming in heavy cream sauce, yuk. When I got an email asking how the meal was, I told them about the screw up and nobody bothered to respond. Bad business to do that. Taking our dining dollars elsewhere.

GRUB HUB ORDER: Delicious thin crust pizza. Delivery was fast, but I live pretty close (about half a mile). They also deliver alcohol so it’s perfect if you’re hungry, lazy, and want to get drunk.

We ordered Lina’s Kitchen last night for delivery. They said delivery was an hour — so we placed our order and waited… and waited. The delivery guy was over 45 minutes late. He also didn’t follow instructions for the building to find our apt.
When he finally arrived, we told him we weren’t sure we wanted the food — because it was 45 minutes late. He took a very defensive attitude and said, «we are super busy» over and over again as an excuse. I said, that’s fine, but then don’t tell me my order will be delivered in an hour. We were going to cancel, but he kept assuring us the food was hot, so we took it. Before he left we opened a couple containers and food was warmish. it was late and we were hungry, so we took it.
We should have canceled. First, our our order was incomplete. We were missing side items and only some of the food was warm. We had a pasta dish that had obviously been done before some of the other items – it was room temperature and somewhat congealed. We also ordered an appetizer that was stone cold.
I guess in a city where you can have everything on their menu delivered from somewhere else, I would avoid ever having them deliver again.

We came here thinking it was Leona’s. It is not. Different recipes. The staff is very friendly, attentive, and kind… made us feel very welcomed. I was so looking forward to the Minestrone soup, and it was good and hearty, just not Leona’s deliciousness. It does take a second look to see that it is «Lina’s» rather than «Leona’s» I think it would have been better to just re-​brand with a different name that isn’t so confusing making people that they are in one place rather than a new place.