Just like grandma's: Fantastico captures the flavors of Southern Italy

After eating at Fantastico in Batavia, I was tempted to sneak into the kitchen to see if my Italian grandmother had been resurrected to cook the wonderful dishes I'd so enjoyed.

As it turns out, the great, classic southern Italian cuisine and Chicago-style pizza are created by Egyptian-born and raised chef and owner Sam Abdelnour. After earning a degree in hotel management in Egypt, Abdelnour came to the United States in 1989 and started working at Luigi's in West Chicago, where he mastered the art of Italian cuisine. Then Abdelnour opened Fantastico on River Street in Batavia in December of 1997, moving the restaurant to its present location on Wilson Street in May of 2006.

"This is healthy, good food served in a casual, family atmosphere," Abdelnour says. "I came (to the United States) and really loved the Italian food here."

Fantastico's décor is what I call "old neighborhood" - clean, simple, unpretentious, maybe a bit "dated" for some, but it put me in a comfort zone of all the local, family-owned Italian restaurants that were scattered across Chicago in the 1960s and '70s.

The menu offers all the famous favorites that define Italian-American food - handmade ravioli, stuffed shells, chicken Vesuvio, veal Parmesan, baked mostaccioli, linguine in clam sauce. The family feel is clear: Abdelnour is at the restaurant seven days a week - cheerily greeting patrons, cooking everything from scratch and serving his guests. His brother helps out on weekends, and his young daughters visit the restaurant throughout the week

Starters include stuffed artichokes, stuffed mushrooms, baked clams and calamari. We decided to skip the regular appetizer selections and sample Fantastico's pizza. While the pizza menu offered a wonderful range of specialty options (including margarita, ultimate meatball, signature seafood, stuffed spinach and sweet basil pesto) and crust styles, we decided to go for the simple thin crust with just Italian sausage. The perfectly cooked pizza could not have been better - and it was what real Chicago thin should be: Ample amounts of cheese blanketed juicy mounds of spicy sausage with a rich sauce over a perfectly crispy and chewy crust.

My dining companion was one of the toughest judges of Italian food: my full-blooded Italian mother. She was impressed and delighted from start to finish, raving about the quality of the red sauce (or "gravy" as my grandma would say) in the entrees. She was also won over by the creamy garlic dressing on her salad; unlike so many other restaurant selections, this one was full of garlic.

My mother ordered the lasagna, and a huge portion of fresh pasta and meat came smothered in Chef Abdelnour's remarkable sauce.

I ordered the gnocchi with braciole and was presented with a large plate of tender, pillowlike potato-based pasta dumplings in a rich, hearty, flavorful red sauce. The braciole (flank steak wrapped around a stuffing of spiced ground beef) was tender and full of fresh flavor. A winner.

Full from pasta and pizza, we only glanced at the dessert menu of cannoli, cheesecake and tiramisu, and planned to try them on our next visit to Fantastico (which I hope will be soon).

Fantastico serves some of the most authentic Chicago-style Southern Italian food in the Western suburbs. It's a great choice for a belly-filling comfort-food dinner, a family pizza night, quality takeout or even date night.