Venice Cafe

If you’re feeling cheap and lazy, especially if you work in the building, then this place is great. There are plenty of choices, but don’t expect anything fancy. I also enjoy that it looks and feels as though this spot hasn’t been remodeled in 30+ years.

Food is bland, sauce has no flavor, pizza is reheated. Not a fan of this place. They need to be a little more cleaner and have a bit more customer service skills.

Haven’t been here in a long time. I remember when they were located at 250 S Wacker Dr. Anyway, I was a big fan of the Cajun chicken pasta salad, it’s excellent but too much pasta for a growing girl! Came in today and I’ve never had eggplant but decided to try the eggplant mozzarella sandwich. Excellent choice and a huge sandwich with a side salad for $ 7.46 without a drink. I’m happy. Enjoy your visit.

The staff is very friendly and you get your food very quickly! I got the side of meatballs and they were pretty good. They even threw in an extra one for good measure.

Venice is definitely a great option for a quick bite for lunch, with quick lines and fast chefs.
This location is located in the basement of the Wilils Tower. It’s super open, plenty of room to look around at the menu and not bother the patrons waiting in line. There’s also MORE than enough seating, which is always a plus. There are two locations that are in the ‘Loop’ area; one in Willis (aka Sears) Tower, and one about a mile away from there near Canal. I’ve only been to the one in Wilis though; from what I’ve seen the one that is in a store front is slightly different in terms of the layout.
Venice is cafeteria style dining. They have a salad bar section, pasta section/​hot dishes section, and a pizza and calzone section. It’s pretty hard to choose from the multiple choices you have when you walk in. .
Personally, I always go for the Manager’s Special which is grilled veggies and grilled chicken. Both are super flavorful and actually pretty healthy for you considering the other options you can get at Venice. The veggies usually include red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, red onions, and zucchini. The chicken tastes like it’s marinated in an Italian dressing, then grilled to perfection. It’s also served with their fresh bread. The portion is definitely enough for two servings.
I definitely will be trying other options from Venice.

Good Classic Italian «fast food» type place. Good pasta and pizza. The service is fast and tastes delicious

If you like mediocre-​to-​terrible food (all the salad dressings taste like mayonnaise, and the pizza is lukewarm, limp, and greasy) and rude, ignorant staff, this is the place for you.

I would’ve preferred the spinach lasagna to have some sauce inside it as well instead of all dumped on the top. Was okay for the price. Have definitely had better. Yet to try their pizza. Let’s see how that goes.

Big portions, I always have left overs for later. The prices are reasonable, under $ 10. My favorite is the spinach lasagna, but I’ve had the pizza too which you get your choice of New York or Chicago style. There’s a lot of seating in here, it does get crowded around noon. I’ve eaten in here as early as 11:00 and there was hardly anyone in yet.

Good, quick, homemade italian food in the Loop at reasonable price, what more can one ask for. Trips to Venice with co-​workers are a weekly occurrence and the daily specials are always worth considering.

Never been to actual Venice (except Venice, FL), but I would hope if I ever made the trip abroad, the food would be as delicious as this cafeteria under the Sears Tower aka Big Willie Style. Ok I’m exaggerating (a bit), but this is a great place to grab a quick lunch for under $ 7.
The menu is a mix of pastas, salads, pizzas, sandwiches, and calzones, along with a rotating daily special list. You can’t go wrong with any Chef’s Special of the day. Also, the Cajun Chicken Pasta might be one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. They also have some healthier options too like the Manager’s Special, which is chicken and sauteed vegetables… although they put so much oil and garlic on it, maybe it’s not too healthy now that I think about it…
The service is fast and the pasta portions are huge, you will be in a carb coma for the rest of your work day, guaranteed.

If you are a member of the GLBT community or an ally, don’t patronize this business. I don’t appreciate the word «maricon» tossed over my food by ignorant staff. I did speak with the owner and he apologized but quite frankly, that’s not good enough. The Supreme Court has deemed me a full citizen and yet I am subject to derision by people who have not taken the free ESL classes @ City Colleges.

Now that I work upstairs I’m looking for good lunch spots. stopped by for the cheese tortellini special. NOT terrible. I couldn’t eat it all, that’s for sure! If you order the special it comes with one of their amazing garlic rolls. YUM!
Notes: I was surrounded by people ordering «to go» in the… not to go… line. I guess it doesn’t matter? Separate lines for salads, pizza, and «other.» The nice bus-​boy will come by and wrap up your food if you’re eating there and can’t finish. Then he’ll clear your dishes. Love this. The booths seem. off. The table is too high compared to the seat. maybe I’m just short, and should have chosen the chair side of the half booth I was sitting in. Otherwise, plenty of tables, TV with sports for the guys, great food, good for an on the go lunch in the loop. I’ll be back

Great food at reasonable prices. One of the better slices of pizza available in the Loop. The owner and staff are very friendly and helpful.

I am actually surprised by all of the negative reviews. I have been here 3 or 4 times and have enjoyed it every time. I have only eaten pasta dishes but yum yum yum every time. Today, I had lunch there and it was during the lunch rush (12:30) and they are super fast anyway. I have the special which was penne pasta with italian sausage and the big yummy garlic roll. Delicious! My husband had an italian sausage sandwich which was also on special and that came with soup and today it was split pea with ham. I have had way better split pea soup but it was decent. The staff was friendly. The cost is fair. For the loop and the huge food portions, we paid $ 16. Yes please! The bathrooms, btw, were gross, don’t use them.

Eh, it’s a quick way to get a perfectly average tasting filling lunch in the Loop. The portions are pretty gigantic, like the pasta dishes and the infamous calzones. There is zero ambiance here — maybe negative. The fluorescent lights are offensive, but they do have a TV which will have the ball game on if there is one.
The prices are pretty Loop-​standard, and you’re almost guaranteed a food coma afterwards. Venice Café is a fine restaurant to include in your lunchtime rotation, but it isn’t somewhere you’d want to bring a client or friend.

Well the calzones are hit or miss. When they’re on, they’re really good (meatball and pepperoni are highlights). When they’re off, they’re pretty awkward. Unfortunately, the tomato sauce they serve with it is pretty weak.
The other option for me here is the penne bolognese. Their bolognese is actually pretty solid. For the life of me though, I can’t understand why its necessary for them to serve me a greasy roll with a bowl that is already full of carbs. Nevertheless, I use that greasy roll to scoop up all the remaining sauce in a fit of hedonistic gluttony.
Yeah, this place is alright.

Venice Café gets neglected in my usual lunch rotation. It’s a little bit (just the tiniest bit) further from the office than we usually venture, but not too far, by any means. And they do have a good variety of items — more than just the standard pizza and beef that most joints seem to have.
They’ve got good calzones, a pizza flavor (the name of which escapes me) that’s covered in hot peppers, and a big variety of pasta and other dishes, plus daily specials. The prices are reasonable, well within the $ 7 to $ 8 I try to stick to for working lunches. Plus a big eat in cafeteria that’s really pretty comfortable, including TVs to watch while you munch. Every time I go, I enjoy it, and then I don’t go again for like, 6 months. I should try and change that.

Yo, Venice! I’m disappointed in you.
I’ve gone to Venice on and off for the past 10 years, however in recent years it has been mostly off. It wasn’t the food that made me frequent Venice less, it was that my office moved a few blocks North — in other words Venice was now outside my lunch zone. Today, hungover from the Unilocal event the night before, and starving I made my way to Venice and like I said, I was disappointed.
I ordered the bow-​tie pasta with majestic sauce (half marinara-​half alfredo) and it was just so-​so. The sauce was bland and it didn’t help that the cashier left me high and dry — without parmesan or crushed red pepper. Luckily, my office had some parmesan, with that and a hearty amount of salt and pepper I was able to inject a little flavor into my meal. I was, however, given one of their garlic rolls, which I can live without. I don’t know what they do to these rolls, but I’ve never liked them and I am a big fan of bread. Seriously, I can probably polish off a whole loaf of Butternut bread like nobodys business.
In addition to taste I was disappointed in the portion size. Venice used to use these circular metal containers that seemed to hold a lot more than the plastic one I got. For the price (nearly $ 8) I expect more. I wasn’t still starving when I finished, but I definitely could’ve eaten more.
I’ve had a variety of items from here over the years ranging from mediocre to pretty darn good. The bow-​tie majestic used to be in the pretty darn good category, but after today it gets a big downgrade to «eh, save yourself the carbs and calories.» On my list of misses are the pizza (totally forgettable) and the *spinach* lasagna, which I think is a serious misnomer. When I think spinach lasagna I expect there to be actual spinach in my lasagna, but alas at Venice it means that you get cheese lasagna made with kelly green noodles. It’s really weird, I’ve never seen spinach noodles that shade of green before, it’s a little disturbing.
Since they’ve moved this place has the feel of a dressed up Sbarro with some better menu options. I miss the old location, where the Panera now resides. It was a dump, but it had that no-​frills charm; plus there used to be a bar and it was nice to pop in for a reasonably priced cold beer after work.
Bottom line: Despite my disappointment I haven’t written Venice off completely, I’ll give it another chance, after all we do have a long history. But Venice, consider yourself on notice, disappoint me again and we’re breaking up for good

Tried the baked (not breaded or fried) eggplant parmigiana which comes with angel hair pasta and a ginormous garlic roll. It may seem expensive, but I could not finish it, so spread across 2 meals, it was a good value. Two complaints: too much sauce, and it was kind of bland, could have used more salt and spice (which I remedied with a packet of hot pepper flakes).
Convenient and big portions, so I will give it another shot in the future.