| rev:text
| - I've got to give Oregano's credit, the food was significantly better than I was expecting. I've long avoided this restaurant as given it's popularity, it is always slammed with customers. I figured that while the food was probably good, it wasn't THAT good. We did arrive early (around 4:00 PM) to get our name in the hat and ended up enjoying a two hour wait. In fairness to Oregano's, we were a party of 13 and they couldn't seat us until at least half the group had arrived. No one objected to that and in this instance, I didn't mind the wait.
The outside staff was courteous and it was nice to get full drink service while we were out there. Their beers on tap aren't outstanding, though they do have some microbrew stuff as well as the typical range of garbage beers and slightly less garbage beers so at least the liquor was drinkable. I couldn't get a Bloody Mary though because they were "out of Bloody Mary Mix" (note to self, never order a Bloody Mary at Oregano's). The free pizza samples were quite nice as well.
From the time we finally did get seated, to getting our food, to paying our bill, was two and half hours so in all our large group ended up spending around 4 1/2 hours at the restaurant with long waits to be seated and a long wait between ordering our food and getting our food.
Was it worth it? Ahh, the million dollar question. As I said in the beginning of the review, I was overall pretty surprised by the quality of the food. It was quite delicious. I ordered an alfredo dish with shredded chicken and it was very good. The sauce had a strong flavor without being overwhelming and Oregano's use of southwest peppers wins a gold star from me. They get a little carried away with the herbs (to much Oregano? yes!) which gives some of the food a gritty aftertaste but overall it was excellent.
I also decided to order a full-size pizza to take home with me. After waiting four hours, I figured it wasn't going to be anytime soon that I would venture these crowds again. The pizza, a southwestern creation with carne asade and more poblanos was also quite good. I love thin crust pizza so for me they have a real winner here with their basic design. Again the use of herbs was somewhat overpowering but the taste of the pizza was fairly rock solid. The larger pizzas are only $1-$2 more expensive than the small pizzas (though the pizzas themselves are fairly expensive overall) so after going with an 18'' I ended up with enough food to get me through the next several days. I was quite happy about that.
Overall the experience was very positive but it was mainly made so by having a great group of friends to hang with. Going in we knew the wait was going to be long (especially because of the size of our party) so we took it in stride and tried to enjoy the atmosphere. The food was definitely good and the service was decent but the food was not good enough that I would be willing to brave the wait times on a regular basis. I'm fairly sure Oregano's will go on the list of (very) infrequent special occasions. I strongly recommend you avoid the restaraunt if you are looking for something small or intimate.
Part of the issue with this location is that they built in an old fast food joint (long-time residents of the area will recognize it as the building that used to house a Fazolli's) and the building simply isn't large enough for the crowds the food draws. That's a shame because the restaurant easily draws enough business to support a larger building and larger staff. Oregano's, I love you but either open more West Side locations or relocate to a larger building, until then you won't be seeing me regularly.
Though, with the business they draw, they won't be missing my money either. Ahh well, at least the food is delicious.
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