Toscani's - WOW!
 

If you want flavor, garlic and Italian opera - this is the place to go!!! We had about 5 of us at their "new" soft opening. By "new", I mean tablecloths, white dishes that show off the color of a variety of pastas and sauces of YOUR choice. More garlic? They gave it! The staff is competent and they are excited about their NEW table service. Fresh salmon and pork chop was the special of the day. The pizza? LOTS of toppings and generous. The aroma of this place is great. I will definitely return, especially with extended family coming in. What kid doesn't like pasta and pizza???? :ho: Hats off to the three owners of this place!!!

WOW - Nice review. I'll have to put that on my list of places to try.

I love pasta but the salmon is a great choice too. :smiley:

BTW - I thought Pia Toscano was a WOW contestant on Ameriacn Idol.

Is this in the same location as the deli? Mulberry shopping center?

Yes

They will also deliver. We're in Hadley and have had several deliveries since moving here. They just charge us a little extra because of the distance we are from their restaurant. Unfortunately, we've cut back ordering from there because their Taramasu is simply just too good to resist ordering!

Toscani's chooses Opera over Frank?????????????:1rotfl:

Give me Frank and Dean ANYTIME !!!!

:sing:

UU OH...now you have my attention. Do they make authentic tiramisu or "their" version?

Tweety! REAL singers? Are YOU gonna sing there? I hope?

Quite frankly I can't answer that question. I probably wouldn't know authentic from "their" version if you explained authentic to me. I only know that I like it and I didn't like tiramisu when I first tried it way back whenever, and that was well into adulthood. You probably got to try it to see for yourself. They price it by weight so you can probably try a small amount at first. They pack it into a small styrofoam container (like a takeout dinner salad) that I'd guess would be about 4-5" square. You could try asking for it to be roughly one quarter or one half the capacity of the box. If you order for delivery from there, ask for their latest menu be delivered with your order. There's no online menu that I know of.

hahahaha Gracie..I'm a eatin'!

Yes, I've also had Toscani's deliver. I had a large gathering...and thought...gee, 3 extra large pizzas! Ordered a clam pizza..which is to die for and two other different ones. I made my own Caesar salad for the crew and they were happy as "clams". LOL. By the way, regarding tipping, these guys drive 20 minutes to get to my house. That's 40 minutes shop time and I give a generous tip. They are using their own gas ya know.

If they are doing it by weight it must be reallllllly good. Real tiramisu is made with ladyfingers, marscapone cheese sugar, cocoa and espresso. There is just nothing like it.

TB, do you order bird seed pizza for yourself? BTW, I too give the delivery person a nice tip!

Where
 

Where is Toscani. Would really like to try it. Notes make it sound worthwhile.
:thumbup:

Up in Mullberry Grove Plaza at Rt 42 and the north end of Buena Vista.

We enjoyed Toscani's often when we were in Calumet Grove on the Nancy Lopez golf course.

It had been recommended to us. We always did takeout and ate it on the lanai at the house. Great pizza. If you are from N.J. you'd like it.

Since they make their own mozzarella cheese , I found the Caprese salad to be really wonderful.........my husband enjoyed their Italian subs....

I believe it's a Sicilian pizza..........the owners are from N.J. but are Sicilian............my grandmother was not from Sicily, but from Southern Italy, however a lot of her cooking was Sicilian style as she had some Greek in her family***..........and Sicily has a Greek heritage as well.

Anyway, anything we had was very tasty..........but don't expect it to taste like Pizza Hut or Dominos.

***Plus her eldest daughter, my aunt, married a fellow whose family did indeed come from Sicily; so that type of cuisine was familiar to me growing up. It is heavy on the garlic, but that keeps the vampires away.

Anyone who has seen the Godfather movie where Michael Corleone goes back to Sicily and meets his wife to be "who looks more Greek than Italian"....it's because of the Grecian influence...........(we just rewatched the trilogy last week; just love* Al Pacino in it......a real classic). (Not to forget Robert DeNiro of course as Michael's father in the "Little Italy New York" part of the movie).

Toscani's is a real classic also........

Toscani's is my favorite pizza. They make their own sausages. The pastries seem authentic Sicilian--risotto balls, lots of great stuff. Wish they were more centrally located, but then, it's probably best they are where they are! Glad to hear they are upgrading a bit! Best of luck!

Thanks for the review Tweety Bird.

Michelle, good luck with your restaurant! I will be down at end of April and will definitely go! Always extra garlic please!!!!!

Clam pizza...I tasted an authentic pie in New Haven, CT where it originates! I have never been able to find something similar in NYC...I am really looking forward to trying Toscani's when we move to TV in a few weeks! Yum!


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Will have to try it........thanks for sharing.

That's it! I'm moving to TV. Is there an additional charge for the aroma?

So glad they're serving on regular plates. DH would not go back even though our meals were really good....he hated the paper plates and plastic forks.

No one makes a better pizza then pepes and modern pizza in New Haven connecticut.. to die for.. I miss connecticut pizza..

Yes there is an additional fee, and if you don't pay it you'll be required to keep a clothespin clamped on your nose!
http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...Smiley25-1.gif

Yes, they have garlic aroma pots at the entrance with a donation box. hahahahahaha :girlneener:

Sweet!

I'll bet it keeps those dog-gone pesky little vampires out!

What???
 

I wanted to like it. I really did. I'm from Jersey and in GOOD ITALIAN FOOD withdrawl. We wanted an Italian dinner. Not just a sandwich. So tonight we drove for 30 minutes to visit Toscani's. What a disappointment. You said white tablecloths. Not one to be had on any table. You walk in and no one tells you if you should seat yourself or go up to the counter to order. It was our first time. So we sat down. No one is coming and we are discussing our strategy. A lot of people are walking through your dining area to pick up. Finally a young man come to the table to take our order. He had no idea what the soup was or if they had coke or pepsi. I ordered pepsi. Well they didn't have it so we agreed on Coke. We placed our order. People are beginning to come in and the tables are full. More people come and and stand around watching you waiting for you to get up. Another young man brings the soup. It was luke warm. Very good home made soup. By this time a very excited young women is running from table to table to try and take orders. She is loud and telling everyone they are short. You can see they are struggling. Don't really have a system for waiting on tables. I can't add to their problems so we eat the soup that is really cold. We shared a salad caprese. Don't bother with that. Not good. From the beginning we were told we would get garlic knots. Never arrived. Finally got our drinks but no straws. No one ever cleared the table between courses so the dishes just piled up. The loud young women aware that people were waiting in the middle of the restaurant for tables wanted to give us our check, but we had not gotten our entree yet. Garlic knots finally arrive. My eggplant parm was very good. DH veal parm not as much. Probably won't return. We're still searching for that nice Italian restaurant. Yes, I would like a tablecloth like the OP mentioned. I really wanted Toscani's to be the one.

I just want to say I do wish this family success. Perhaps my experience was their growing pains. Maybe they need more time. There's a learning curve with everything.

:bigbow::bigbow::bigbow::bigbow:

Yes, just give it another try. No, it's not a "fancy" place with white table cloths but it has a rust colored tablecloth with glass on top. I don't think they've hired an Italian violinist tableside yet. LOL. They just started serving folks. Give them time. When two major people are sick, you may not get the high quality service you may envision.

I agree. The food we had was authentic and excellent Sicilian Italian style food. We did takeout and ate it always on our lanai.

Illness happens. Had a phone call earlier from our daughter; her husband and son both have sore throats and the flu.......late arriving, but did a number on them.

If the workers had gone in to the restaurant sick, that would be also difficult for the customers............