Gia Mia - Downers Grove, IL - Restaurant Review

I love Italian restaurants. I am always on the lookout for restaurants that offer the total package in my dining experience. I look for great food and great service in a comfortable aesthetically pleasing environment. I have found such a place and it’s called Gia Mia.

outside restaurantPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

I have heard quite the buzz around this restaurant lately and had to try it out. Gia Mia has three locations in Downers Grove, Wheaton, Geneva, St Charles, and Elmhurst. I chose to try out the Downers Grove location because I have heard that the Elmhurst location is more of a young patio bar scene and I am not really into that. I wanted to concentrate more on the food side than the socializing aspect.

I arrived with my wife at the Downers Grove location with my wife around 3:00 pm. The restaurant was not horribly busy. The hostess immediately greeted us in a friendly and warm manner and asked if we wanted to dine outside or inside. The weather was extremely hot and had a possibility of rain so we opted to dine indoors.

Inside main dining roomPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

Bar areaPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

Inside main dining roomPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

wood fire ovenPhoto by Owner.

The restaurant is so aesthetically pleasing. If you look around, a brick pizza oven sits in the open for the patrons to watch pizzas being cooked. Various pictures of cooking and pizza making adorn the walls.

Pictures on the walls of pizza makingPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

I looked over my menu and was greeted by one of the most enthusiastic waiters who could not wait to tell me all the great food the restaurant had to offer. He explained his favorite dishes and what is popular amongst customers.

I wanted to try a couple of items and was very happy to see they had a menu section for small plates. One of the small plates that I ordered was the ricotta and honeycomb with grilled ciabatta toast. It was absolutely delicious. We also ordered the fried eggplant parmigiana, which was great. We also tried the calamari, which was super fresh and perfectly breaded. It had a wonderful lemon aioli dipping sauce.

Ricotta on honeycombPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

Crispy eggplantPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

CalamariPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

Ceaser saladPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

For our main dishes, we both ordered their famous Neapolitan-style pizzas. I tried their specialty pizza - the Livia. It had spicy soppressata and onions. It was fantastic. My wife had the four-cheese pizza, which was also great.

Soppressata pizzaPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

Four cheese pizzaPhoto by Frank S/ChicagoFoodKing.

I really enjoyed everything about this place. The service was very good and the food was fantastic. Our bill with everything was about $75 dollars, which was a bit pricey, but worth it.

Something to take note of, on Mondays, they have half off their pizzas. I will definitely be back for that.

I really loved my experience at Gia Mia and highly recommend this place. I give this restaurant a rating of 9 out of 10.

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