Gabriel's

310 Green Bay Rd. (Highwood Ave.) Send to Phone

Elegant, showy North suburban restaurant that also boasts a connoisseur-caliber wine selection.

Cuisine

Open

Dinner Tues.-Sat.

Features

Wine

Great Wine List

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Gabriel Viti, who at one time trod the kitchen boards across the tracks at Carlos', is the conductor of this culinary performance. Fortunately for us, his work is usually quite good. The room itself is nothing special, but the food is another story entirely. With one foot in Italy and one in France, chef Viti has plenty of room to stroll. And he does (with a bit of a swagger) with his pasta creations, which are always creative and flavorful. Then again, the papillote of sea bass is topnotch, and the kitchen works wonders with risotto (think morels, English peas, asparagus and Parm). A good way to sample a cross-section of the menu is to order the dégustation menu ($75 or $105 with wine). The service is quite good, the noise level is low, and the comfort level is high. The wine cellar---manned by sommelier Bob Bansberg (Pump Room, Ambria)---boasts 1,400 selections with more than 11,000 bottles on hand, priced from $25-$3,000, including many of the finest wines from both major vineyards and smaller wineries.