Traverso's Restaurant

Pizza from Traverso's is one of the highlights of visiting fam in Naperville. The sausage pizza is freaking great, but I like cheese the best. Sometimes simple is the way to go.

Traverso's is a win every time I go. The food is great and plentiful. I love their chicken marsala (very tasty). When I'll only interested in a basic meal I go with the spaghetti & meat sauce (packed with good flavor). The staff is great. Since the pandemic I usually do take out but the company does have a solid COVID protocol which makes me feel even better. I will return to dining in eventually. I almost forgot, their homemade cheesecake...OMG! Terrific.

Make sure when you order Scrimp Scampi from the menu. They don't give you Scrimp Devil. I ordered scrimp dinner to go on 8/13/21 I anticipated Scrimp Scampi from the menu. I got home with Devil scrimp. Totally uneatable fire hot uneatable junk. Who in their right mind would coat scrimp with three or four different hot peppers and think it is good. WITHOUT telling the consumer. I wanted to take it back and have the cook eat it. My wife suggested strongly I didn't.

This "Italian" is much like the kind I grew up with. --before the US as a whole became more internationally traveled. Decent food for what it was, but not Italian in the real sense. It felt like a very homey environment though. Food served, much like I imagine my mom would have made, had she have known how to cook. Sadly however, I grew up with a mother who cooked eggs in the microwave , so this was not even the "Italian" I was served at home growing up. --Italian in my house was Chef Boyardee. ;)

Judging Italian restaurants is tough for me. Am I rating it on real Italian (that I've eaten here and in Italy) or am I rating it on "American Italian"? This review is strictly "American Italian"; their food was so Americanized, they should just call it "American" and be done with it. ;)

I give the food my husband and I ate 3-stars. The gluten free food my brother ate 3-stars and Wendy our waitress earned a 5-star. The fact that it is a family owned business is a 5-star. All together and Traverso's get's a 3-star from me.

We will be back for sure. Why would we come back for what I consider to be "A-ok" food that also happens to be 5 miles from my neighborhood? Because my celiac brother was able to eat a heaping plate of gluten free fried chicken. His very first fried chicken since being diagnosed 2 yrs ago. He also was served GF bread and as GF breads go, he really liked his.

I ordered the gnocchi with meat sauce. Would have preferred gnocchi with cream sauce but after having eaten a doughnut the day before, red sauce it was. Gnocchi was slightly gummy and a little too dense. They were not melt-in-your-mouth fluffy, like they should be. I still found them to be "A-Ok" though. Meat sauce was made of very fine ground meat, definitely had a fair amount of sugar added to it and very reminiscent of my grandma's cooking. --Close enough that I could have sworn she was back in their kitchen! My own red sauce only has enough sugar to cut the acid and full of sausage and short ribs. Good enough to elicit a marriage proposal I'm told. Theirs was too sweet and just not meaty enough with the very fine ground meat. Not bad, but nobody would propose over it.

My husband really liked his spinach and feta stuffed chicken breast. I tried it as well. Chicken was cooked very well. Juicy. Had very nice flavor. His also came with polenta, which was completely swimming in sauce and just not visually appealing to me. --When it came out, I couldn't even tell what he'd ordered. I still liked it enough to steal an occasional bite from his plate though, but should I order polenta from there, I will be sure to ask them to only add half of their usual amount of sauce.

Wendy might be my favorite waitress I've ever had. I liked Wendy's attitude and humor so much that I'd like to take her to lunch just to keep listening to her speak. She was exceptionally helpful; very knowledgeable of the gluten free menu; very patient with our table's questions and stayed on top of our table's needs without being overbearing, all while delivering comedic comments. If all wait staff at every restaurant could be that fantastic, dining out would be so much better for all. She earned the biggest star of the night; although, my brother might say she tied with the GF fried chicken. ;)

UPDATE: changed to a 5 star review after the owner respectfully reached out to me to address my concern. I love their food and the waitresses I have had have always been excellent. When a mistake was made one time when I was there for a birthday celebration the manager came over and offered to cover the appetizers. I wanted to give 5 star review but reduced it to a 4 star because I was very disturbed by the owner/managers response to negative reviews. The responses are defensive and demeaning in nature. We live in a world where you can't please everyone but how you respond to negativity makes all the difference.

Great neighborhood restaurant! Best thin crust pizza in Naperville and the pastas are all excellent.

It's been hard to find a true authentic Italian restaurant. Usually, you find one that has one or two pieces but never one that has delivered on every single course. They did just that here. We were not disappointed. Sorry Biaggi's, apparently you don't come close to Traverso's. Sorry Maggiano's, you will have to step your game up big time to compete. This was the best Italian experience I have had in a long time. Can't wait to go back. Hopefully, I'll catch the crab dip appetizer before it goes on hiatus. Thank you to the chef, our waitress and the owners. My family and I truly enjoyed ourselves.

A staple pizza place in Naperville. Excellent food and pizza, whether you dine in, take out or order delivery. My family and I have been customers for over 20 years and will continue to frequent this local gem.

Meat ravioli is delicious! Its a family recipe but you have to ask if you want it Paul's way with some kinda garlic oil instead of the red sauce.

I enjoy eating at the bar watching sports on tv. I wish they were open Saturday afternoons. Minestrone soup with parmesan and spumoni is very good. Crinkle Fries ok. Same quality as the Orland Park location, Traverso's has been a weekly meal of mine for the last 35 years except when I lived out of state.

Pizza: The thin crust coated lightly with red sauce may be a bit bland and dry but I like it. Loaded with sausage it can be a bit greasy and too much meat but I like it with the cheese that sticks together.

Stopped at Traverso's for the first time eating in for an early dinner. We were apprehensive given the prices. We ordered chicken parm, cheese ravioli and chicken marsala and all were excellent and huge portions; enough for 2-3 meals and felt that it justified the price. The soup, salad and particularly the bread were very good. Our server (unfortunately we forgot her name) was great. It seemed that there were a lot of regulars dining given the welcomes and friendliness with the servers, bartenders and host. A good sign.

Prior to today we ordered a take out pizza which was good but average. I will most likely stick with the meals in the future.