Enter and the garlic hits you before the warm smiles and friendly greetings at the host stand. Leave and the garlic has fully invaded the soft tissues of your mouth. Wake up the next morning and it matters not what toothpaste or mouthwash you used, garlic! Love the food here trumped only by the service. Gabby was terrific! I haven't had bar service here so no can't comment. Oh, and lead with the garlic cheese bread. We'll be back! Thank you! read more

If you're looking for a slice of Binghamton history served with a side of old-school Italian charm, Cortese Restaurant is essentially a local landmark. Since it first opened its doors in 1947, it has been a staple of the community, maintaining a vibe that feels like a step back into a more classic era of dining. Here is a breakdown of what makes this "East Side Institution" a must-visit: The Atmosphere & History Founded by Angeline Cortese and her sons, the restaurant has remained in the family for nearly 80 years. It's the kind of place where the booths are cozy, the lighting is dim, and the service is professional yet warm--making it just as suitable for a milestone anniversary as it is for a casual Friday night pizza. Menu Highlights The Homemade Sauce: This is the heart of the kitchen. Reviewers often describe the sauce as perfectly balanced--tangy with a hint of garlic and a natural sweetness from vine-ripened tomatoes. It's rich without being heavy, and it coats their fresh, homemade pasta beautifully. Veal and Peppers: A standout for fans of traditional Italian comfort food. The veal is tender, and the sautéed peppers add a sweetness that complements the savory notes of the dish. It's a hearty, authentic choice that showcases their "from-scratch" philosophy. Mozzarella Sticks: Forget the frozen variety; these are a fan favorite. They are hand-breaded and golden-fried, often served on a sampler platter or as a standalone starter. They are exactly what you want: a satisfying crunch followed by a perfect cheese pull. Baked Clams: Prepared in the classic "Oreganata" style, these are a sophisticated way to start your meal. They come topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and a touch of lemon and white wine, capturing that seaside Italian flavor. Tiramisu Cake: No trip to Cortese is complete without dessert. Their Tiramisu is light, airy, and layered with the right amount of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and creamy mascarpone. It's the perfect, not-too-sweet finish to a heavy meal. Pro Tips for Your Visit The "Hot Pie" Pizza: Cortese is famous for its unique rectangular pizza. The sauce is tangy, and the pepperoni is tucked under the cheese, which prevents it from getting greasy and keeps the flavor locked in. read more

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Today we had the pleasure or dining at Cortese's for the first time. We were warmly welcomed by the host and seated us right away. Our server was very attentive. We were quickly and kindly taken care of. We really liked the food with the only a couple of exceptions. Our breaded mushrooms were burned. They were so charred that we couldn't get a fork through them. Also the tomatoes on the house salad were pure mush. The rest of our dishes were exceptional. The fettuccine ignazio was decadent and had jumbo lumps of lobster in it. My husband loved the lasagna. The sauce was rich and perfectly seasoned. The New England clam chowder that was a soup of the day did not disappoint. It also had large lumps of clam in it and a nice thick base. We got a cortese special pizza to go. It is hands down one of the best pizzas you can get in Binghamton. Cortese's is definitely worth a visit. We look forward to returning. read more

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Had a hearty Italian meal with my nephews. Three of us got the chicken Parm meal (two regular chicken cutlets with sides of spaghetti and choice of side salad or other sides) and a one got the ribeye. Everything was delicious. Service was decent since they were very busy. This is a favorite local hangout and has different seating options. We were comfortable in the back area, but the main dining room is nicer and has the best ambiance. Recommend you try it for a special occasion. read more

We have been to Cortese literally hundreds of times over the last 37+ years. Usually the food is very good. We have never had a bad meal. Tonight was an exception. My wife ordered a steak, priced at $31. It was very thin ( 1/4 inch thick, more suited for a steak sandwich ) and very fatty. She could only eat 1/2 of it as the other half was all fat. Even I who does not mind a little fat on a piece of meat could not find even one bite of steak in the remaining meat. We pointed this out to the waitress when she cleared the plates and requested that she credit the bill for $15.50 ( 1/2 of the $31 cost of the steak.) The manager was consulted and she stated that nothing could be done as my wife had eaten 1/2 of the steak. The manager was unpleasant and argumentative. After further discussion, the manager reluctantly removed $3.25 ( the cost of the ice cream we had as dessert.) For an upscale restaurant, we feel that the manager was inflexible and rude regarding this situation. The waitress was good and we tipped her 20% as this was not her fault. read more

Recently ordered the "thick" cut ribeye and was charged $56 plus $4 for mushrooms. Although it was very good, the cost is exorbitant. Why??? read more

Excellent food and GREAT service and a wonderful atmosphere. Will definitely return! Located on the boarder of a residential and industrial area. Waze took us right to the restaurant read more

Since I've been sitting here for over an hour without dinner, I figured I have some time to write this review. Ambiance of the space is nice, we ended up sitting outside on a cool October evening and were quite comfortable due to the heaters and semi-enclosed porch. Ordered garlic bread for an appetizer and it was very over done. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. It was well over an hour from when we ordered to when our food arrived. Food was mediocre at best. When asked how their meal was, our table of 6 each replied "eh, it was OK"; which for the price of the meal I was hoping to have something incredible. When I researched the best Italian restaurant in Binghamton, Cortese came up again and again. It is my hope that this was just an off night. That they were understaffed. Whatever the reason, we need these small businesses to survive. It is my hope that they get these issues under control. read more

3 of us ordered Prime rib with oil and garlic, very rare. The food was fantastic. Our Server was very attentive and pleasant. I highly recommend this restaurant. We went at 12:30pm on a Saturday (they opened at 11:30) read more

I was in Binghamton last weekend and was feeling like pizza. Cortese was the immediate choice. Fresh dough, quality toppings and cheese. It's a no brainer. Cortese restaurant is a unique place to eat. The pizza isn't round but rectangular. The pepperoni is under the mozzarella cheese. Everything is fresh. The sauce is unique to the restaurant. A little tomatoey and a little garlicky. Definitely a place to try if you have never been. The vibe inside is friendly and welcoming. Visiting the Southern Tier of NY? definitely worth a visit. read more

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Amazing food good service, the waiter, even box the food for us and she was so nice to us. read more

Cortese Restaurant - Really tender super good - Italian Near Me - Binghamton, New York

I love the food and atmosphere at Cortese, however on Sunday, March 22 when they delivered my food, it was not even lukewarm. This is the second time that I've had food at the restaurant and it had to be returned to the kitchen otherwise it's a great restaurant to go to read more

I was in on a busy night and the service and food were excellent. Good value through out the menu and I enjoyed the old school charm of the bar area. read more

So sad our family has been coming here since the 40s! But today was served browned lettuce on my salad and there were several pieces...Hoping not to be ill later. Way to much salt on the Salmon, sad to see this place in such a poor state... read more

Takeaway order: grandma-style pizza, plus chicken wings. Ordered 3 pizzas plus 18 wings (mild spice) to feed a family of 6 adults and ended up feeding us for 1 dinner plus 2 lunches from leftovers. The order of preference was pesto pizza, white garlic pizza and the cortese pizza. The wings were alright, but can probably go spicy next time. Overall, a solid meal. Would repeat the pesto pizza and try the spicy wings next time. read more

Seriously so delicious. The sampler app was so so but the the entire rest of meal was absolutely fabulous. All the dressings for salads were made fresh and delish. The marinara and Alfredo and pesto sauces all delicious. The veal parm and chicken pesto Alfredo fettuccine were tantalizing go the tastebuds and the pizza was just as great. Great atmosphere and the service from Nancy was top notch 5 stars. read more

Cortese Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Binghamton, New York

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Meal was good BUT, 2 members of our group got food poisoning after dinner that lasted all night. The only thing they had in common was the cream of broccoli. To bad because the rest of the meal was good. Doubt we will be back. To iffy for me. Im glad I chose the salad! read more

Excellent Italian food ! Excellent service! Good choices ! Can't go wrong with! Ask for Bob!

Delicious food: the steak Milanese is superb as was the veal piccata. waitress was very efficient and pleasan. great Restaurant !

I'm 85. Been coming to Cortese's since the 40's. It never disappoints. Love the new outdoor dining space. But most of all I love the bar area(the original part) that brings such wonderful memories of family dinners over the years read more

A year is up and we are back at Cortese. Our server was the best. She also had a party of 14 and a party of 8 in addition to us but kept up without a beat. The food is still as good as it was when I was growing up. I had the Veal Angelina with homemade Gnocci and my son had Veal Parmigiana. Cooked perfectly. Always friendly staff, not too noisy great place to go. read more

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phenomenal food. still awesome after 40 years. Shells Vincenzo is fantastic. Cortese pizza is best I've ever had. Pauline & Sarah at the bar were stellar. strawberry cheesecake to finish a great dining experience. there's no place like home!! read more

Terrible service. Our waitress did not communicate with us. She brought my husbands dinner to both of us on separate plates and left before we could say anything. I did not eat my dinner, it didn't taste good, and the waitress did not ask if there was a problem. She just gave me a box. The ice cream cake has actual cake in it and not the cookie crumbs. It was like eating dry choc cake with freezer burnt ice cream. The whole experience was not friendly and I could have made a tastier dinner at home. read more

This place can never get it right. 30 minutes turn into 60 minutes and counting for take out. Unbelievable. read more

Cortese Restaurant - Scallop Marinara over Pasta tonight! - Italian Near Me - Binghamton, New York

So sad at how this restaurant has gone downhill. Unfortunately. as expensive as it is, I still tried again to order, and was disappointed yet again. Undercooked, overcooked gnocchi. No extra sauce that we requested. Every time I try they disappoint ! read more

Have you ever been to a restaurant and try the best meal you've ever had, only to return at a later date and be utterly disappointed with the same meal? What a Bummer! This is not the case with Cortese Restaurant's Haddock Parmigiana. An item that is not regularly seen on menus. Fish Parmigiana you say? Yes! If you love fish and you love foods in the parmigiana category, you MUST try Cortese's Haddock Parmigiana. I came back three times to have this same meal through the years and guess what? It gets BETTER & BETTER each time! When anyone asks me what's the best meal I've ever eaten, I'll always tell them the Haddock Parmigiana at Cortese Restaurant! Good job Binghamton! read more

Cortese Restaurant - The Haddock Parmigiana from Cortese Restaurant in Binghamton, NY. Quite possibly the best meal I've ever had.. - Italian Near Me - Binghamton, New York

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Just very bad pizza, idk about anything else. Cashier was very nice and a no complaints from him, just didn't like the style of pizza. Too oily for my taste. Fine flavor, good crust, too much oil. read more

I was taken here for the pizza. It's so unique and you either love it or hate it. We discovered there were happy hour specials, so we went between 3-4 to sit at the bar and order off the bar menu (kitchen closes). Most of the happy hour beer specials were not available, very limited drink choices. The caprese salad on the bar menu was not available either due to supply issues. We found several other things to try, including pizza! I believe in upstate NY they call this sheet pizza. It was amazing. I loved the crust (slightly thick), the sauce (not sweet at all), and the way it was cooked made the cheese nice and brown. Homemade mozzarella sticks with marinara was my second favorite- the absolute best marinara sauce I've ever eaten. The toscana bread came with sauce too, which I'm sure had meat simmered in it although it wasn't meat sauce. Also delicious. The antipasto was actually a full salad- and their Italian dressing is some of the best I've ever had as well. By the time we left, the bar and dining room were packed, so I highly recommend doing the happy hour special at the bar - Wednesday and Thursday! read more

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Great food, service and owner... best pizza in the area... you can go with steak/seafood or a pasta dish... large varied menus... a must go in Binghamton. read more

Went there party of 20 for Lunch Overall food is just ok at best, not awful, but various people ordered a lot of variety Chicken teriyaki wrap 1.0 Broccoli 1.0 Ravioli 2.5 Calamari could be crispier. 1.8 Cheese sticks..1.9 Service by Scott 4.5 The pizza looked ok but I saw a person eat only one slice so - unknown rating but 3.0 for style :-) They have an outdoor section kinda in a lot but it's outside. Nice neighborhood bar area, and it looked cozy. read more

THIS MUST BE A JOKE!!! Yesterday, I stopped in for lunch, had the meatball sandwich...it was cold. I ordered a half cheese/tomato, half pepperoni pizza for takeout, and this is what they gave me (see the photo). I was told this restaurant is a Binghamton "institution" and a must-do while in town?!?! A few months ago I stopped in for dinner and was told they were out of: -Salmon -Oysters -Clams -A whole ton of other stuff. I ordered the pizza, it was cold and under-done. The ONLY thing saving this restaurant is the bartender GLENN. Probably the BEST bartender I've ever seen, and I'm old. Sorry Cortese Restaurant, you're terrible otherwise. read more

Cortese Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Binghamton, New York

My husband and I have been coming to Cortese for many years for lots of life events. This evening we came for our anniversary, we ordered Alfredo pasta and chicken cordon bleu. The chicken cordon bleu was cold, with raw chicken on the inside, the cold cheese even fell out because it wasn't melted. We sent the plate back to receive a cooked one. As we received our check, we noticed the chicken was still on the bill, we asked if it could be removed as we waited an hour for our food and now an additional 15 mins for the remake. The server could only give us half off per the owner, we asked to speak with the owner. The owner came over hot with attitude "what can I do for ya?", we explained the raw chicken and the owner said "half off is more than enough" and argued with us about it. We were very disappointed with the way the owner handled things. He walked away mid sentence while we were still talking. Like come on, just take off the chicken from the bill, it was raw and ingested! I can't believe this is how a local family owned restaurant handles things... very disappointed. This is not the first incident of something going wrong such as brown lettuce in salads and giving away our on time reservation. We do know that this is our last visit, we do not feel valued or respected. I feel bad for the employees there, you can tell they are embarrassed and I hope they don't get spoken to like we did! BTW our server was amazing and we tipped him the appropriate amount considering the issues, he was thankful and apologetic, we told him unfortunately we cannot foresee ourselves returning here in the future. read more

The food ,the atmosphere and the service were spot on. This restaurant will be one of our go to spots.

To 'rest on your laurels' means that you get lazy or complacent about what you could achieve because you're too busy basking in the memories of former glories. The pizza is the only thing that is reasonably priced, and I grew up here. The menu prices are for a 5-star restaurant, and it's simply not that by a long shot. read more

Guy with the man bun, is so rude. Didn't even sit down for our meal yet and I was unimpressed. We had reservations for 8 for lunch time and were told they could accommodate us. Then we we arrived we were told we had to wait 25 mins to be seated. Watched him take a call and be nasty to a customer over the phone. read more

This was the worst meal. One dish was rancid. We tried to express it at the end but the manager said we ate it. Bold face lie. I flagged the waitress and said you saw the plate was full!! Please tell him he lied. She said he's her boss and that puts her in a bad spot. We didn't want to do that. But he lied. We couldn't eat that dish. In fairness to the restaurant, we should've said something earlier but the waitress never came back to our table until the end. That was our only chance to tell her the dish was not edible. What a terrible experience. We eat out often and have never left a bad review. I'm forced to give a star review. If I could, I would make it a negative read more

Very good pizza, but the service was slow, very disappointing. Not as good as it once was. read more

Cortese Restaurant - a crosswalk in front of a restaurant - Italian Near Me - Binghamton, New York

Toscano bread , is absolutely delicious ! My husband likes their pizza and we both love their salad with crumbly blue cheese, and Italian. There's really nothing that we don't love on their menu. But next time treat yourself to the Tuscano bread. It's absolutely perfect. read more

My husband has been talking about and craving this place for as long as I have known him! I was so excited to travel back to his home to enjoy some of his greatest memories first hand! Cortese is a long standing family owned, operated, business with tried and true recipes that my husband told me stories about as we enjoyed the evening. Scott, our waiter was genuine, gave great recommendations, and seemed to manage his section and time wisely. I loved hearing about the things have withstood the test of time, and the improvements and expansions they have made since he's been gone. The fresh bread to the table was divine. I would have loved to have some nice olive oil/Parmesan to dip it in, but just butter was good as is. Sangria was good and not overly sweet. Make sure you have the house vinegarette. Garlicky and delicious. Sizeable and fresh salad that comes with the entree. We shared the manicotti with amazingly light crepes surrounding a family recipe ricotta mixture topped with garlic, savory marinara. I tend to prefer sweeter red sauce with meat, but this was really good. We ordered a meatball and sausage, both made in house, to try. The sausage has my heart. You HAVE to try it!! We ordered a garlic/olive oil pizza and sausage pizza to go to take to our party. Again, I am drawn to white pizza, but am sure I will try to find ways to get back here to have more of that sausage pizza. Sooooo goooood. Rectangle, 8 pieces of cheesy pizza dreams come true. read more

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Unfortunately for us this was a big miss. The baked ziti was just noodles and sauce with melted cheese on top. No ricotta or anything in it. The manicotti was 3 shells for $20+. The shells were home made which I thought would be nice. Unfortunately it was way over cooked and mushy. The ambiance of the restaurant is nice. Nice bar area, well lit and well kept so no complaint there. The only down side was overhearing wait staff openly talking/complaining about customers. I felt that was very unprofessional especially out in the open. The best part was the service we received. I have to assume our waitress was new and training with someone but she was fantastic. Super friendly and very attentive. Very bubbly personality and always smiling. read more