Buona - Countryside, IL

I hope you like oregano and black pepper . . . 

Hit a Buona for the first time.  We were a Portillo's family after we moved to Minnesota, so I don't know that I'd heard of Buona until recent mentions by the jagoffs on the "Chicago Italian BEEFS" Facebook page.  Ha, you wanna get your chops busted, post anything there, anything at all, and let'em rip.  I digress

So the Buona in Countryside . . . suuuuuper corporate chainy and sterile feeling build.  Playing shitty annoying pop music.  Shazam says a couple songs were Camiila Cabello and Ali Gatie?  If you covered the signage and the handful of framed family/historical pictures, the restaurant could have been just about any Chain-by-Numbers.  Didn’t even have the aroma of a beef place.  Pretty dead at 5 on a Sunday.  One set of parents and their small kids on the patio, a table of older people in the front section, and two choads who had to sit right behind me in the back area of a near vacant restaurant

But how was the IB?  Not bad.  Used a HEAVY hand with the spices; especially oregano and black pepper.  I could see that turning people off, but once I got past the initial surprise, I dug it.  Roll was too chewy, and they play up the "baptized" dipping, but if it was dunked it was barely a dunk.  Wetter may have eased the chewiness.  Giardiniera was fine, but the sweet peppers were chopped up and lost in the giardiniera.  Practically non-existent compared to the slabs I’m used to.  Overall an acceptable beef, but nothing I need to have again over Portillo’s

Not for nothing, they're the first place I've seen advertise the dipping of an IB as "Baptized".  Chicago being a Catholic stronghold, it's not surprising that the term would be used colloquially, but it's another thing to use it as a term on a chain menu.  Sacreligious?  Strange

So, I wouldn't be opposed to downing another Buona if I was stuck at the airport or something, but dozens and dozens of other beefs to try in Chicagoland

 

Comments, Questions, Two Bit Opinions, and Whatnot are welcome:

tundrabites     @      yahoo.com

-

Buona - 20 W Plainfield Rd, Countryside, IL 60525

773-360-8873

IG #buonabeef