Lino's

Wonderfully crafted cocktails! I love how their drink menu changes with the seasons. Most recently I got to try the Blackberry Lemon Drop and it was delicious! I also got the BBQ chicken wing appetizer as an entree. The wings are the best wings around! Very tender with a flavorful and sugary BBQ sauce, they are perfection. Also I love getting the baked cod, pizza, and special salad on other occasions. Very nice staff and great atmosphere inside as well.

Linos has become my home away from home. Since I moved to Rockford, Charlie and the entire Lino’s team have welcomed me with open arms. Not to mention the food is ALWAYS fresh and delicious. Highly recommend the Fettucine Vodka. Jessica is an expert when it comes to wine, Destiny is a wonderful bartender, and Charlie knows exactly what he’s doing when it comes with the direction of the business. 10/10

Very nice authentic Italian restaurant. Interior makes you feel you're in Italy. Big portions for pizzas and pastas. I expected the food to be much more tasty. The dessert was ice cream and I loved it.

Decent experience...server was very kind & polite, but was forgetful. Bianca pizza was great, Veal was dry and the chicken alla Francia was dry. Wings with spicy BBQ came out as buffalo sauce...the sharing bowl of salad was great as was the Gelato

I dined here last Friday evening with a friend, and it was the best dining experience I've had in decades. Our waitress, Laurie, was perfect- no hovering, no rushing or trying to flip the table, but available if needed. The food was mostly average but the homemade bread was great. The salad and chicken marsala could have used more dressing and sauce, both were a bit dry, but the service was so ideal and relaxing (in a FULL dining room) that I couldn't help but leave 5 stars. Next time I'll order pizza, which is superb. Also, their wine selection is great, and the chardonnay I ordered was chilled to perfection and so good I went out and bought a couple of bottles at the store. Go to Lino's if you need to treat yourself!!

The food portions are large and delicious, it is really economical and a great place for family and friends to dine together.

Rockford pizza is really something special, and Lino’s is the cream of the crop! Seriously, there are very few things that are more delicious than a piping hot fresh Lino’s pizza. It’s as good as it gets! 💯

Another one of my straightforward, honest reviews! Lino's was excellent the first time I went there with my father a month ago, and was excellent again when I had to pass through Rockford last week. Whether it be an Italian dish or pizza, it's is a great meal! Service was prompt and attentive. When you see people lining up at the door 15 to 30 minutes in advance of their opening, you know it's good!!

Stopped by Lino's when going to an ice hogs game. They did not disappoint. We ordered chicken Parmesan, veal Parmesan, pizza, a glass of wine, and spumoni ice cream, and Keylime gelato. I would say I'm an incredibly picky eater, and all plates were cleaned. Price was beautifully cheap compared to what I'm used to and the food was amazing, would be back great job Leno's. On top of that, we had not only a manager, but a chef, and our server come to check on us And they were packed.

I had the worst platebof food i can remember at Linos. I ordered veal piccata. The veal ( not sure if it actually was veal) came literally floating in some yellowish liquid that had a skin on top. I asked the waitress to take it back and pour off the liquid. She removed some. The meat had been cooked in the liquid which had no seasoning at all. Veal piccata typically has lemon juice, capers, and white wine. This had none of any ingredients. Only good point was the service.

good food, but every time we go the food is 10-20 mins late for pickup time and we have to wait. then on top of that, always have missing items.. they need to slow down and do better with order preparing double check your order and plan ahead of poor timing.

Very nice wait staff. The water tastes horrible, and that was the first bad sign. SpaghettiO's tastes better than the chicken parmesan. I've never had chicken parmesan without a coating on it. I don't even think it was pan fried. The house salad was wilted and warm. Terrible food.

When I think of Lino's, I think of a Rockford staple. I think iconic. Lino's has been a restaurant that I tell everyone about if they want great Italian food. They have pizza, pasta, chicken parmigiana, etc... all delicious things Italian. The service was wonderful. Usually you would need a reservation since they do get busy but today my Fiance and I were lucky to get in right away without one. The service was great as usual. The wait staff is pretty nice. I've never had any complaints when I dine in. The ambiance is your typical Italian decor but it gives you that feel like you are in an Italian town. Especially when you walk in and see the beautiful water fountain. Overall, Lino's is a go to for great Italian food, great ambiance and service, and now a go to for great gelato as well.

Ok... I have been putting this one off for quite some time. I am biased due to the astronomical amount of memories and experiences in this business. Full transparency, over the years I have had birthdays, anniversaries, group parties, and my own wedding reception here. That being said, here is my (not really) short, sweet, and honest review of Lino's (on E. State). Sat at the bar on a weeknight with live music. I love the vibe and comfort level. Ordered the festa meal for one and wine. I know I'm fat and I won't apologize! Soup was minestrone and not really worth the stomach space. Next was special salad, pizza and garlic bread. All were fantastic! Next was the pasta plate of mostaccioli, tortellini, and ravioli. Pure starchy heaven on a plater. Sauce is very good. Next was the main course of chicken parm. Here is my only issue of the evening. If you order the meal only, you get a choice of potato or pasta. With the festa meal, they will only give you the potato. I BEGGED for spaghetti because the baked potato is gonna get tossed. I know some are thinking I'm weird but ain't no room for a baked potato when eating parm with red sauce. They gave me the spaghetti in the end because I must have looked like I needed more PASTA! Love you bartender I won't name. After all this comes spumoni ice cream and a coffee. All in all I love this place! The prices have come up significantly but most places have. As always, form your own opinion and try Lino's yourself and EAT LOCAL.

Exploring food in the area on a business trip and ran across this spot. Good food, great service, and a nicely decorated restaurant. Server was very helpful and gave us suggestions. Price point was good. Food tasted good and came out quickly. I had the New York strip with Alfredo fettuccini. It was well made and tasted good. We tried the rainbow sherbet for desert as it's an illinois staple and it was good as well. The house salad was different it came with sausage, egg, and balsamic, but didn't disappoint.

We love dining in. The waitresses are pleasant and enjoy all the pasta and the fish fry. My favorite lasagna in the world is at Lino's. We love ordering online and picking it up in the drive thru. It's so quick and easy.

Haven't had Lino's since college 25+ years ago...but it did not disappoint! Great crust and awesome sauce...the slight browning on the mozzarella was awesome too! topping were fresh with great flavor. And service was top notch.

If you're going to Rockford, you know you're going to need to stop for pizza at the classic Lino's. They have two locations, and have great takeout service where they bring the food right to your car in the parking lot. We called to place our order over the phone, and the girl who answered it was extremely helpful in getting our questions answered by the chef in regards to what was gluten-free and cow-dairy-free. Updates: the meatballs do have gluten from the bread crumbs and they do not (yet) have goat cheese or vegan cheese, but maybe that will change sometime in the future. They do have gluten free crust available for the pizza and a gluten free pasta noodle available for any of their pasta sauces. They are famous for their pizza, and allow you to split a pizza in half so you can get different toppings on each side. For our group, we went with one half pepperoni and the other half sausage & mushroom. Their classic tomato salad is also delicious and filling, with hard boiled eggs, sausage slices, cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, and Italian dressing. For takeout, they ask how many people will be sharing the salad, and then they put all of your servings in one large catering tray. Full of flavor, I recommend always getting a side salad with your pizza for some balance.

I really enjoy the food and ambience of this restaurant. I usually order the breast of chicken alla Francais. It comes with the special salad, a side of pasta or potato, then a scoop of ice cream and a cup of coffee for dessert. I suggest like the spumoni.

Went New Years eve, people standing outside waiting for opening. We got right in and were seated. Our waitress was very attentive and brought the food right out. The meal was very good, based on past reviews saying portions were quite large, we found them to be ok size not large. We would go back and try other items on the menu

Took our family here for our annual Christmas visit to Rockford. We had five of us and we all ordered either the tortellini with meatballs, spaghetti with meatballs or Lasagna along with the house salad with dressing and blue cheese on the side. The bread they served is really good. We were seated in a very nice little alcove room, very private. Our waitress was good but she forgot to mention if we wanted the blue cheese for the salad....we had to go out and flag her down to ask her to bring us the cheese. Not a problem, but with the enclosed room you're not really noticed. A couple of our group thought the salad needed a bit more dressing. The sausage on the salad is always great. I called to verify our reservations about 35 minutes before our reservation time just tp]o make sure they had it. Good thing I did as they did not have it down(I had made reservations about a month ago by calling in from SC). They put us down for 6:30PM and we were really surprised that we were seated immediately upon entering! Had a great meal and rook home tortellini and spaghetti leftovers. Even had several Spumoni ice creams for dessert .

Great ambiance. Megan T was my server and she was great! Friendly and attentive. The pizza bread and fettuccine alfredo with chicken were delicious and good-sized portions. You'll definitely be able to take leftovers home!

Everything the atmosphere, the food, the people. they have music is lovely, the decorations, a place to go to.

Was in Rockford over the weekend. Stopped at Lino's. Half pepperoni, half sausage. Well done. This is "Rockford style", the first time I've had it. Pretty similar to Chicago style and I imagine thats what its inspired by. What supposedly distinguishes this style is a thicker thin crust and a lot of cheese. Place was packed on a Sunday night and we had to wait 20 minutes for a table. So seemingly a popular joint. The crust was thicker than the ideal cracker thin crust of Chicago style. However, it was no thicker than a lot of North Side thin crust, which is often too thick IMO. The flavor of the crust was good and buttery. Sometimes thin crust this thick has a bready or flour flavor. There definitely was a lot of cheese. The make it inhouse and it was excellent, but I think there was too much. Although the crust was crunchy at first, after about 5 minutes it began to get soggy and soft because of all of the moisture of the toppings. Sausage was fine. Nothing special but not bland at all.

Amazing.great taste,great people, great service.nothing but good.Thank you and looking forward to dining in and or carry out again.

Wow.... utterly disappointed. Got the Lasagna, and I can honestly say that Stouffer's is 20x better. There's no meat in it, and they charge $4 for a meat sauce. It was more like a "sweet sauce". It could have been used for dessert. $27 for a piece of Lasagna and a salad. Luckily it came with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. The ice cream was about the same amount of sugar as the sauce.

Tried it for the first time and was impressed' Consider splitting a meal between 2 people or carrying half out - portions are HUGE

50 years of excellence! Beautiful dining room, not overdone. Here's what we enjoyed Chianti Sausage and peppers Toasted ravioli_amazing House tossed salad Chicken Marsala Veal parmigiana Combo plates of two pasta, lasagna, fettuccine Electric atmosphere the Friday night we were there. Loud of local regulars and large holiday parties. Server was busy busy but efficient Solid 5!

Just make it at home, food taste like a t.v. dinner. The manager was nice offering accommodations but I just wanted to pay for my food and never come back.

Love this restaurant, I've eaten here plenty of times throughout the years. Not only is the service top notch the food is incredible. I love the scenery and decor, the pizza is always my favorite as well as the chicken parmesean. My favorite restaurant in Rockford hands down

Always busy and for good reason. My families favorite is the Chicken Parmigiana and Pizza. The special salad is great too.

The restaurant gets very busy on weekends so definitely make a reservation. The inside is casual and inviting. Our server was swamped but provided great service and was very attentive. The menu has a good variety of entrees and everything is reasonably priced. The pizza was excellent with homemade sausage and fresh mozzarella cheese. We will be back to try more of the menu.

Junk Italian food. The red sauce has so much sugar that it tastes like they poured an entire 5 lb. bag in the pot. I couldn't eat it. It was that sweet. Told the waitress and she just shrugged. Never again.

Stopped here for dinner with the fam before a Icehogs game and we loved it! Pizza was great service was perfect, we can't wait to go back.

I love linos, love the house special salad, they ussually serve family style and the layout is very unique. Intimate seating areas as well as room for larger parties. Great place for wedding receptions.

Laura was very disrespectful and rude. I explained that I didn't know the lasagna didn't have meat in it, and I didn't like it. She then said I was wrong and she's Italian and they never put meat in lasagna. Then I asked her name and she said Jill. Wow!!!

I'm on a work trip from San Diego and I will try to not be as harsh since I know this is a small town. The service was really good and I came here after seeing many great reviews. However, it might just be because there aren't that many restaurant in this city. I got fettuccine alfredo with shrimp which comes with salad, bread, coffee, and desert all for about $20. Although this was a good deal, restaurants that don't have good food tend to do these types of deals to get clients in, which limits them on the quality of food. The pasta portion was huge and the quality was not there. It tasted like the pasta I cooked when I was in college. Bottled sauce and that's it, no flavor. I'd rather eat less portion but better quality for the same price...I'd even pay more if the portions were smaller and better quality.

I haven't tried it yet but it looks great and I'm gonna check it out! Love the name reminds me of the catholic guy Lino Rulli

Amazing Italian food- very filling . Great customer service . It is one of my favorite restaurants.

The meatball and pepper pizza was awesome. We ordered 2 pizzas The value and quality was awesome. Service was great and friendly

Best Pizza and salads in town. Normally get the special to go. On special occasions it's worth sitting in the restaurant, just make sure to get your reservation well in advance. the place is always packed out on the weekends, so be aware of the crowd, but the atmosphere and food is worth it.

Excellent waitress with great service, attentive,terrific fried cod,special salad,mostacholi & dessert. Huge portions & enough for another meal. Very busy & longer wait at 7.

Ann old favorite for generations, food is great, weekend need reservations for sure. Ambiance is old Italian. Enjoy!!

This restaurant is run by prejudice employees let alone the owner. It makes me sick to see a restaurant treat employees that way. No respect for the workers. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and the chicken Parmesan is a frozen piece of compacted chicken parts pressed together. How they survive I will never know.

Went here while traveling through the area. Made a reservation and arrived early and we were seated early. Surprising since it was Mother's Day and they were packed. The hostess was very friendly and pleasant. Our waitress was very nice and efficient. The food was very good and reasonably priced. The portions were nice sized and came with salad and dessert. Parking was not the easiest. The noise was loud at times but not to bad for the number of people in there. We would go there again.

I revisited one of my old haunts from over 35 years ago and found the business is thriving. I strongly encourage you to make a reservation on a weekend. We were able to secure a spot in the bar. I started with a Bullet Old Fashion. The drink had muddled cherries and an orange slice topped off with a generous pour of bourbon. I order a Special Side Salad and a large A16 pizza. The salad was wonderful, the pizza just as I remembered. Again an excellent pie. We topped off the meal with a S'mores and Tiramisu gelato. Both really hit the spot. The bar and restaurant were at capacity and the service was very good. You won't be disappointed.

Always a favorite of my family's. Pizza is amazing. I made my wife try it after she took me on a date to their little side restaurant of Gelato Joes. Loved the gelato as well! We got pizza and they gave us information for the Italian market/Pasqua, which we also tried out. I thought they would had more selection but always love getting pizza and cannolis to go!

The best pizza in town and everyone knows it! They fix their mistakes and are overly gracious when so

Passing through Rockford and stopped in at Lino's Italian restaurant. WOW! Very nice experience. The food was quality, the ambiance with the bonus of the quintet playing beautiful music on the courtyard. Our server Natalyia was pleasant and delivered excellent service. The salmon was perfectly cooked and my husband's veal franchise was delicious. The evening was topped off with an amazing hazelnut gelato and top notch wines. All reasonably priced. Thank you

Absolutely amazing, I love the ice cream and the steaks they serve. We've also ordered pizza from there...tastes like how every pizza should! Minus one star for the chef who managed to give me steak that was simultaneously raw and overcooked last time I was there. Steak is usually pretty good except for that single incident. Very nice atmosphere

Favorite Italian restaurant, I've never had anything here that I did not enjoy! The staff is always friendly with smiling faces. I would definitely recommend!

Pizza is okay, pasta sauce is reminiscent of Ragu from a jar. 'Special' salad is nothing to write home about. I don't understand how this is a Rockford go-to. I make better pasta sauce at home.

Have lived in Rockford for over a decade & have finally made it to this gem. We arrived prior to closing, about 30 mins & were seated right away. Ordered a couple appetizers and came out pretty quick. The fried ravioli & and graze board were yummy & very shareable for my little family of 3. I had half order of their famous lasagna & their fettuccine Alfredo. My hubby had their lasagna & famous spaghetti. My son had their gnocchi and Mostaccioli. All was delicious. We all shared our entrees, so we were able to try a little bit of everything. It was a lot of food, so we ended up taking a little bit home as our meal also included their bread & butter, their house salad & ice cream. Very cool interior & design inside for a nice date environment, hanging out with friend's and or family. Service was great & food portions were decent for the price we paid. Will definitely plan to dine in again. You must come here hungry.

The only thing better than a fresh hot Lino's pizza for dinner is having it cold for breakfast the next morning. We always order plenty to make sure we have leftovers.

Food is just average. I think everyone likes this place so much because it's been around forever.

The food is 100 QUALITY you can taste the difference! There is love in it too. The pizza is always perfectly done, their homemade sausage is to die for their SAUCE is on point. The minestrone soup is my favorite ever, and their homemade bread I sigh for! The lasagna is the only lasagna I'll eat, and their ice cream is fresh. Their chicken alalino is moist the chopped steak with mushroom is juicy and flavorful. Their special salad is scrumptious with homemade dressings. Been going here since I was a baby, can't get enough.

I love Lino's. Il only lived out here for a few years but I come here for many of my special occasions. Bring my family when they're in town they're from Chicago and they know pizza and they also say this pizza is really good. Atmosphere is good too. We always seem to get those little grotto tables which are very cute and cool. I saw something on the check last time I came that said they give you a 3% discount if you pay in cash. That's awesome.