Garzanelli’s Supper Club

My favorite place to go for a good dinner! Chicken is amazing, ravioli is amazing, fries are amazing, the garlic dressing is out of this world! This is the spot I pick for birthday dinners too, See you this weekend to fulfill that tradition!

We arrived Sunday, February 28^th at 7pm. We had made reservations and were greeted by a friendly host and seated instantly. Our waitress Brandy was very attentive and cordial. She went over the special for the evening and got our drinks quickly. The restaurant was fairly busy an hour before closing but we received great service and attention. I ordered the Alfredo Raviolis which were amazing! They had great taste and were served hot. We decided to try the garlic bites for an appetizer and these to me, stole the show. They are served hot with sides of marinara sauce. These bites are heavy in the garlic department which I loved. In addition to this we got the house salad which is heavily garlic oriented. If garlic is not your thing, then this restaurant will not appease you. I love garlic and the whole restaurant resonates of it. The salad was perfect. Overall had an amazing time and will always come back. Over the years Garzanelli’s has easily replaced other favorite restaurants and has become the «one» I love to come back to.

A true supper club. Old school foods and the best pizza and most unique by far that I have ever tasted. Nowhere in the world has pizza like Garzi’s. No reservation? It’s ok. Hang at the bar for some sweet mixers and dine like a true Italian!

Four of us ordered cried chicken, fried walleye, cheese-​stuffed lasagna, and a baked chicken special with mushroom sauce. Each was absolutely delicious. Service was excellent. Nice atmosphere. Good value. We were quite satisfied.

Love the family style chicken and the super cheap price. Garlic dressing… awesome. Great service.

We ate there Friday night. I haven’t been there in 20 years, but it was just as good as I remember! Food was excellent, the staff was very attentive, and the atmosphere is perfect. Very family friendly. If you’re looking for that homestyle cooking, this is the place to go!

There were six of us that went and it took us over an our to get our food after we ordered! The salad was warm and so was the dressing. Pasta was not hot and the chicken was fried in just plain flour it seems, no flavor. The drinks are not free refills as we saw on our bill. Highly disappointed in this place and will not go back!!!

The food was good. It took forever to get it tho. Long wait for food and a table. Service was iffy. It took 20 minutes for drink refills. Had to remind the waitress several times for drinks.

This place is a gem. The owners are genuinely nice people, and this is evident in the fact that it has been a staple in the area for decades. I first heard of Garzanelli’s when some regulars at a job I had in Princeton (a town 45 minutes away) told me that they travel all the way to Oglesby regularly to dine there. I was not disappointed when I visited for myself. The bar and restaurant have an amazing retro feel, like you have stepped back in time. The bar churns out old school cocktails like manhattans and old fashioned’s. The food is great, I didn’t try the famous chicken, but I can vouch for the pasta being delectable. My favorite thing though, is the humble side salad and the house garlic dressing. If you love garlic as much as I do you will flip for it; tangy homemade Italian dressing with large chunks of fresh pressed garlic. Make sure you try a delicado for desert, it is a ice cream «drink» that is more of an ice-​cream mountain of deliciousness flavored with liqueurs and brandy.

Although we genuinely love this place, our most recent visit was less than, well… good. The food was good, as usual, but our server, for some reason was not clicking on all cylinders. Maybe she was new, or having a bad day or the drugs hadn’t kicked in, but she was awful. We were seated and she was pretty timely in getting us menus and asking for drink orders, but when she returned with them, she couldn’t remember who ordered which one (table of 5). After the customary apology, she asked if we wanted appetizers, which we ordered 2. We placed our dinner orders and she said she would put the app order in first while she readied our salads… fine. Again, she fumbled with the salads. Apps came and were very good. When the meals were served… same thing… who had what? Asked if we would like another drink and we ordered… but how long does it take to get 5 glasses of wine? Apparently, that night (a Thursday) about 10 minutes, in a half filled dining room, and yes, she forgot who ordered what. Again, meals were very good and then she wanted to rush us by asking for carry out containers, which we said would be fine, but a little later. When she brought them out, she asked if there would be any after dinner drinks. I asked if they had a certain ice cream, which they did, and then asked if the bartender could make a certain drink including that ice cream. She would have to ask and she came back and said that wasn’t allowed because the bartender would have to reclean the blender after making it. So, he doesn’t clean it every time he makes something? Oh, well, there were a couple brandy alexanders delivered and we got the check, paid it and left. Probably will be awhile before I set foot in there again… sorry.

I love this place. Retro bar making old fashioned drinks. Food is excellent Italian dishes. My husband had the ravs in red sauce. I had spaghetti and meatballs. Nothing fancy but very very good. Huge portions. My favorite part is the homemade garlic and oil dressing. Amazing!!! Finished the meal with an old fashioned grasshopper.

VERY DISAPPOINTING!!! We went with another couple last night. It was 10 minutes before anyone ever came up to us after we were seated. The waitress finally showed up and asked us if anybody had waited on us yet. After another five minutes later she came back and took our drink orders and asked us about appetizers. My husband ordered an Arnold Palmer and I ordered a sprite along with deep-​fried cauliflower. Another 10 minutes later she took our order. My husbands salad dressing came wrong. After waiting a long time for our food only three of the orders came out. I was told mine wasn’t quite done yet. Another 10 minutes later my quarter light came out, but after sticking my fork in it, I found that it was raw inside! After waiting five minutes to find the waitress I finally showed her that it wasn’t cooked through. No apologies, hardly a response, nothing! She just took my plate and said she would replate it! Which turned me off completely since I wasn’t too thrilled to eat the wing or fries with what might have raw chicken juice on them! She never even asked me what I wanted to do with it. By the time my chicken breast came out everyone was already done eating their food. So I told her I would just take it to go. She handed me a doggie bag. :(
Meanwhile, my husband decided to just have lemonade instead of the iced tea added to his drink I.e. Arnold Palmer. The waitress told him it would be charged as another drink! No refills here! The bill came and there was no complimentary anything! Not even an apology! No offer for free coffee, nothing! I’ll never go back. We never did see the waitress again to even have an opportunity to complain. First time ever that I left a mere 10% tip.

OK, the people here were very friendly. We went on a Friday night and they were very busy. Our meals were very disappointing. It took almost 40 minutes to get our meals. The ‘tasty salad’ is chopped salad only. The tortellini was very over cooked and tasteless. The broiled fish was dry, very over cooked, and rubbery. The chicken Parmesan was cooked adequately but the marinara sauce tastes to be from a jar.
Overall, this is not a restaurant I would recommend getting off the interstate for.

Tasty and fun. A little loud, but I mean I can’t complain too much about a crowd having a blast on a Saturday night.

I know this is a small town but come on! Does Oglesby not have on decent restaurant? I expected better food base on the previous ratings, boy was I wrong, our whole group was very disappointed. Just wait for my review on The Rootbeer Stand, what a joke.
Was with a group of 4 adults and 1 child and were sat in an aisle against a wall in at round table. Luckily the boy was only 8 and fit in the corner…
1. The salad was only lettuce and drenched on dressing. Now I like my dressing like any curvy girl but this was too much for even me. And how can you call this a salad, there was no other vegetable or even croutons. Only Romaine lettuce smothered in dressing.
2. The table was given bread, I asked for butter or oil (as this is an «Italian restaurant» I thought the Parmesan was for oil and dipping. I was told «The bread is pre-​buttered with real butter» and therefore I received no oil or additional butter. They buttered the bread sparingly, I might add.
3. Our food took at least 30 minutes to arrive and my husband, who ordered fries, didn’t get his fries until he was finished with his baked cod. They don’t served mashed potatoes either. The fries arrived about 5 minutes after I reminded the waitress that they were never brought to the table. They were not salted and cold.
4. I ordered the Fetuccini Alfredo, I think the sauce was from a jar, it had no flavor even with me adding salt and pepper.
5. The boy ordered spaghetti and Meatball, yep one single meatball. The sauce had minimal flavor and his fruit salad that came before the meal was from a can. You could tell by the soft grapes and perfectly square fruit, again lousy food.
The waitress was absent the entire meal and when we were ready to pay, no discount for forgetting the fries and being absent, she was chatting with a couple at the table with her back to us for what seemed like forever.
Travel 20 minutes to Peru and visit Olive Garden, its worth the drive.

Delightful supper club. Took me back to my childhood. The garlic dressing is simply amazing. Parmesan chicken and the spaghetti with meatballs were delicious. Don’t look for trendy, this is a good local mom and pop classic.

I second many of the reviews already on here. Yes, Family style chicken is wonderful. Yes, only order garlic salad if you are a garlic lunatic. Yes, have a Grasshopper for dessert. I recommend their pizza as a shared appetizer for four.

My wife and I love to travel the midwest and especially like the supper-​club circuit. While we were staying near Starved Rock, I was browsing Unilocal and ran across Garzanelli’s Supper Club. Now I’m not sure that the true supper-​club experience can be found south of the Cheddar Curtain, so I took this as a challenge, especially noting that the menu leans strongly toward Italy.
Yep. These guys have nailed it. My better half reported that her brandy old fashioned sweet must have been made in Wisconsin, and their menu, Italian-​leaning as it is, still has all the earmarks of a Northwoods supper club. We ordered ravioli and a broiled walleye — the ravs were excellent despite a somewhat-​pasty alfredo sauce, and the fish got five stars plus from this reviewer.
Great food, great drinks, great ambiance, and great prices. Now we’re talkin’ supper club here. Garzanelli’s gets it right all the way around.

Yes, yes yes yes, a thousand times yes. If you don’t like this place, go back to Macaroni Grill or wherever it is you came from. This is food and drink from a time most people don’t remember and many don’t even get a chance to experience in our corporate suburbs. My advice: get off the interstate and get some good food.
Vintage — and operating — neon from Lasalle Neon with alternating SUPPER CLUB and COCKTAILS with martini glass decoration. I’d buy a drink from this place just to make sure that sign keeps flashing.
Pulled up and was absolutely drawn in by the smell of fried chicken. Knew right away coming here for dinner was going to be a good choice. We walked in off Rt. 71 to a retro classy bar: terrazzo floors, curved bar topped with vintage laminate and padded arm rest. Great old lamps hanging from the ceiling. My grandpa would have LOVED this place. Hell, he probably had been there. I learned this from someone…
It’s funny, all the middle aged guys were drinking Miller 64 and their dads were drinking martinis and manhattans. Reminded me of just how far we’ve fallen. Luckily, dinner made us all equals: first timers should just say «family style» to your server. That’s 3 pieces of chicken, spaghetti with meat sauce, raviolis (erm, tortellini, but I’m not complaining), potato, buttered bread, and salad. All this for $ 12. For potato, try American: sliced up and fried in butter. The salad is a simple plate of lettuce. My advice… Go Garlic: this stuff is addictive. We went home with a bottle of it! My only regret is not ordering fritta bites: fried pizza dough with marinara sauce for dipping. Spied those on many tables.
Honestly, at this point, I’m smitten. The food was very good — got white and dark for our chicken, I liked the breast best. The potatoes were awesome. The ravioli and spaghetti reminded me of my great-​aunts… there was something homey familiar about each bite. You get a crazy amount of food, as you might guess. Maybe it’s good we didn’t get the fritta bites, I don’t know where we would have found the room. We went home with lots of leftovers.
Drinks are cheap (the menu offers: Have a Highball!) and they have a couple of Italian beers on draft too. All the staff is friendly, good with questions for supper club newbies, and attentive. The place has more seats that you’d think from the outside, but expect a wait — it was steady the whole time we were there. If you must, they do have carryouts for phone orders, but do it right: park the car, give ‘em your name, have a seat at the bar… and for the love of America, order something stiff. Your grandfathers fought for that right.

Garlic salad. That’s all I have to say.