hit it last friday, and had a reasonably good experience. the real reason we ended up there is that my steady betty has been sitting on a large pile of lettuce gift certificates and we're essentially out of options, besides frittering away $6 every once in a while at Bao.
concept is, $35.95 for a pretty generous round of antipasti, two tastings of pasta, and a main course, which you choose from a list of 6 or so. each thing was pretty good, if unexciting, and the service was seemless: quite impressive for the 3d day open to the public. It is too much food, but that shouldn't bother too large a segment of the chicago pizza and ribs crowd.
antipastis included marinated salmon, thinly sliced sausage which I believe was soprasetta (when asked the waiter simply said "salumi," providing no help), prociutto, braised fennel, and a nice, bracingly bitter radicchio salad. when we noted how nice the prosciut was, they brought us more.
pastas were not very impressive, some manicot-type thing, and then orrechete with spinach and sauage. they brought these around on family style plates and put the second on top of the remains of the first, which seemed odd since there were remnants of the tomato-sauced first that clouded the garlic-oil taste of the second.
for mains, i ordered a really nice braised pork shank, which curiously shared the menu with braised short ribs (curious to have the two braised meats on such a short menu). this was a really nice preparation, coming in a little cast iron pot with lots of juices and braised roots. We also had swordfish, grilled with a tomato compote and braised fennel. It was also nicely done, and was one of two seafood offerings (the other was monkfish osso buco, which sounded good except for the monkfish part). Other offerings were a chicken breast, and steak.
The wine service was very competent, and the list was long if not terribly interesting. They also provide quartino and (forget the word mezza-something) options that provide more flexibility, which will come in handy up front at the bar when ordering lots of little plates. There were also pairing options, priced at $15, $28, and $50 that gave 3 glasses for the 3 courses. We chose the $15 option and got 3 interesting glasses each, which the server and sommelier worked with us in choosing.
All said and done, it's too much food, and at $140, too much money for the quality. nonetheless, I would return and maybe even spend real money to sit in the front and order individual antipasti and drink.