We had dinner at Toscana this past weekend for our Dad's 90th birthday. They sat our party of 10…read moreat a long table with a partitioned wall so it felt a little less crowded. 6:30p on a Saturday night and the place was packed! Tells you something! Our server was Jay and he was very accommodating. Once he found out it was our Dad's birthday, he asked his name and each time he came to the table to check on us (which was often), he made sure to make a big deal out of our Dad's special day. Let's get to the food. We had calamari as a starter - cooked perfectly but a little over-seasoned. Still good. The house salad sweet red pepper vinaigrette was SO good I'm going to try to recreate it at home. Caesar salads were also good. My husband and I ordered the Duck Cassis and it was excellent. The broccoli and zucchini that were served with the duck were underwhelming (zero seasoning) but the mashed potatoes were delicious. My Dad ordered the filet/shrimp special and really enjoyed it. Everyone loved their meals. Chicken parm with vodka sauce, Haddock Francais, Roman Caesar salad, Veal Sorrentino, and a couple of pasta dishes. One with gluten free pasta that was really enjoyed. We also ordered the house Tuscan - Montepulciano, the house white, and some cocktails that were all very good. We were too full to order dessert but Jay brought out a chocolate mousse with a candle and we all sang happy birthday to Dad. Overall, very impressive meal. It's a hike from where we live, but next time we're visiting our family in the area, we'll definitely make the trip back.

Great drinks, amazing food!!!!! Highly recommended! Chicken…read moreparm and manhattan was fantastic!

I had a very good lunch with a Salsicci panini. I was in town for a wedding and had spare time…read morebefore the fun madness begins. Great crusty ciabatta, nicely seasoned sausage (not spicy hot, well not for me! your mileage might vary), tasty chipotle sauce. It came with a house salad with a yummy lemon dressing. Discount for paying with cash!

Had two meals here, one at the restaurant and one takeout. Good variety on the menu and drink list…read more We sat outside and it was near the water. Make a reservation-it was crowded even on a weeknight. The charcuterie, pasta and panini were all good, as was the old school chicken parmigiana. Waitstaff was attentive. Parking could be a challenge.

Small town pizza right along the main drag. It's quaint and has a nice atmosphere…read more Unfortunately, the pizza is pretty average. It's NY style, which I like. But, there just wasn't a ton of flavor. For my fellow midwesterners, I'd compare it to Casey's pizza. In fact, the pepperoni tasted exactly like Casey's. I also tried the Everything But Anchovies (supreme). It was better as the toppings were pretty good. But still, I think I'd prefer Pizza Hut's supreme. One gripe - no delivery. It was snowing like crazy. I would've paid a fee to have it delivered 1 mile up the road. I'd definitely eat here again. But, it's not the best pizza in America that's for sure.

Best pie this side of Pavone's in Manlius. And ice cream and a barroom too! Who could ask for more?read more

The chef is amazing. The food is beyond anything I have ever had. Especially the soup. This was…read morean eight course 5 star meal. I also like that you BYOB, so we brough a couple bottles of wine from home. This can really help you save a lot of money. The food was endless. It was like you are having Sunday dinner at your Italian grand mother's house. You need to make reservations a few weeks in advance. He is only open on Friday and Saturday. I really can't say enough. If you're in the Utica area consider yourself lucky to be able eat here. Great food in a unique setting.

Talk about hitting the Italian Food Lottery...in Utica!!! One seating at 6PM, no menu, byob, cash…read moreonly. You eat what Dan serves...and what a character. Seven courses, 35 US Dollars! The food is amazing!

Everything about this restaurant is absolutely EXCELLENT!! 5 stars on all levels. Chicken Parm, oh…read moremy gosh, so so good! Hands down the BEST!!

Lauro's Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria in Canastota, NY for lunch today and we are both glad we…read moregave it a try Service was friendly, very good and the food was also good. I ordered Sausage Parm - local Basilo's Sausage with onions, sauce & mozzarella Cheese $ 7.99. Sub Bread was home made and tasted great which added to the taste of my sandwich which was also very large. Friend ordered their Italian Trio - Salami, Capicola, & Loads of Fresh Ham $8.99, All Quality cold cuts and extremely large. My next order for lunch. Even though mine was good, I was Jealous We both brought home half our subs. Nice Draft Beer - Craft selection. Tried their meatballs personally everyone has different taste for their meatballs - 6.5 out of 10. So in summary for lunch this could be a 'HOT' Hidden Gem in Canastota. For dinner if you are looking for Pizza, Subs, but want Beer, wine etc. Try them. Entrees are limited.

https://www.bellacucina.org/ What a dinner last night and…read morecelebration of friends anniversary. Place is small and cozy. 2 servers and the care and attention fantastic.  Call for reservations. FOOD was and is amazing. Fried Calamari was some of the best.  Scallop special was cooked perfectly.  Chicken dish with cream sauce yummy.  Sausage and pasta dish spot on. Rigatoni Peppernotta Roasted peppers, sausage, marinara and fresh mozzarella  Shrimp Firenza Shrimp sautéed with onion, garlic, hot cherry peppers, and marinara over linguine with fontinella cheese excellent but for my taste more spice. Desserts were homemade and good. Small equals a little noisy but well worth the visit.

Tl,dr: do yourself a favor and GO EAT HERE. PRONTO…read more We stopped in on a Saturday at 4pm for my FIL's birthday. I now know that this unassuming restaurant has some of the friendliest staff and best prepared food in the Utica area. I can't wait to go back. With a full roster of reservations scheduled for their dining room, the four of us walked in and slotted up at the bar for dinner with front row seats to the action in the kitchen. First up: spicy and flavorful Utica greens covered in a healthy sprinkling of cheese. Would order again. After chatting with the owner, we ordered two scallop pasta dishes, a steak sandwich, and chicken Parm (which they were kind enough to make with fra diavolo sauce for my spice lord husband). EVERYTHING was impeccable, and I was honestly tempted to pick up my plate and lick it clean - that's how good the seared scallops over linguine were. Pasta was cooked perfectly, the sauce was light, well seasoned and well balanced (and not actually on their menu, so bonus points for being willing and able to pull that out on the fly!). In and out in about an hour, though we never felt rushed. We're looking forward to trying more apps and staying for an espresso and dessert next time!

I recently filled in a major gap in my CNY dining résumé with a visit to Rosalie's Cucina. I had…read morebeen reluctant to try it because most places that are hyped as much as Rosalie's has been over the past 30 years tend to disappoint, in my experience. Nope, not this time. Rosalie's is the rare exception that lives up to the hype and more. We arrived early for our reservation to enjoy a cocktail at the bar. From my brother's well-made Manhattan to my perfectly balanced Sidecar, the barmaid had some serious chops. And the impossibly long, thin, and crunchy breadsticks were unlike any I'd ever had. Addicting. Although it bills itself as an "Authentic Tuscan dining" restaurant (which the décor lives up to), the menu at Rosalie's is more Tuscan-influenced or maybe Tuscan-adjacent than strictly authentic Tuscan cuisine. There were grilled polenta and grilled, prosciutto-wrapped shrimp panzanella appetizers (which my sister-in-law ordered for her entrée; see below), but no baccalà or cacciucco or polpo. There was veal piccata, but also Sicily's veal Marsala and Southern Italian/Italian-American staples like manicotti and pizza margherita. I mention this to inform prospective diners, however, not to warn them off. The food at Rosalie's is amazing. One word to the wise: the serving portions are enormous. We were a party of three and ordered the carpaccio and grilled polenta appetizers and the antipasto affetati e formaggio as starters. That could have been our entire meal and we would have been very happily well-fed. We literally had trouble fitting all three on the table. The carpaccio was a huge portion and came on a gigantic plate. It was amongst the best I've ever had. The polenta had a perfectly char-grilled crust, yet remained nicely moist inside. But the antipasto easily stole the show. It came on a giant board that took up a quarter of the table and had enough "nibbles" to feed a family of five. Everything was superb, from the cured meats to the aged and fresh cheeses to the massive mound of shelled pistachios, but the little jar of honey was exceptional, especially when slathered on a hunk of the oven-fresh loaf of bread that was brought to the table as soon as we sat down. For the primi piatti we skipped the insalata and went with the zuppa del giorno, a deliciously rich cream of wild mushroom. The funghi were puréed, not whole, and the layers of flavor (was that a hint of sherry?) were sublime. That soup could easily do double duty as a sauce for game dishes, like venison or wild boar. For the secondi piatti, my brother and I went with the Maiale alla Milanese (pan-fried pork loin, roasted fingerling potatoes, wilted spinach, prosciutto, oven cured tomatoes, green beans, with a Dijon crab cream sauce), whilst my sister-in-law chose the Gamberi Grigliati di Panzanella appetizer (three grilled prosciutto-wrapped shrimp, panzanella salad with tomatoes, onions, olives, anchovy croutons, feta cheese, basil, lemon vinaigrette) mentioned above, which was easily an entrée-sized serving at most restaurants. The pork cutlets were served hot and had a perfect crispy crust while remaining juicy and tender inside, which is hard to pull off with cutlets hammered to a centimeter thick. My sister-in-law reported that, like the polenta, the shrimp had a nice char from the grill, but remained tender and succulent. My brother and I are notoriously big eaters, but we had already been served so much food that we needed to take home half our entrées if we were to have dessert. And you MUST save room for dessert! Alas, although we originally intended to try a selection of desserts, like the rest of the dishes, the portions were ginormous, so the three of us split a banana budino...and ended up taking half of it home! A word about the budino: although I was accustomed to budino being a cross between a soufflé and a lava cake (with lemon curd or gooey chocolate filling) cooked in a Bain Marie, this dessert was more akin to a mousse. Described as a house-made cinnamon-sugar phyllo shell filled with layers of fresh bananas, banana cream pudding and almond cookies, finished with caramel sauce and almond cookie garnish, the best word for this is decadent. The best word to describe the ambiance at Rosalie's is vitality. While some people think it is "loud," I think that's overstating it. The restaurant is small and is bustling with life. There were couples dining alone and two large, multi-generational families filling long tables set for ten and fourteen, respectively. Between the décor, the exceptional service (thank you, Eric!), and the other diners, I felt like I was back in Northern Italy for a few hours. This was one of the best meals I've had in my life and I strongly recommend you go out of your way to dine at Rosalie's.

Not sure what happened but the water tasted terrible. It smelled and tasted like chlorine…read more Absolutely disgusting water. They honored our reservation and the Service was very good. I loved the Christmas decor. There is a parking lot with ample parking. The writings on the wall are of people that dined there over the years. We ordered the brick oven pizza and it was tasteless. Not as good as tiktok said it was, I would not recommend.

Had a fabulous dinner with friends while listening to the Irish sessions musicians. The food was…read moretop notch, including the.Cullin Skink soup, thick and creamy and smoking and just perfect. It was served with two large pieces of toasted bread, which was a sort of ciabatta. In fact, this soup was better than anything I've had in Scotland. I also ordered.the shepherds pie which was Delicious and full of small and tasty pieces of lamb. The gravy was dark and thick and the potatoes on top just perfect! Had I known the soup was so rich, I would've ordered a salad to go with it. So I am now stuck with a half of a shepherds pie to dig into for dinner tonight, such a problem to have. The atmosphere is simply lovely and this is a restaurant that I could imagine. My parents dining at back in the 1950s. There is a small gift shop, which is really fun to go through. Service was attentive, but not invasive, and all staff were welcoming.

Party of four... we made it here on a Saturday night on a whim, no reservation... staff was very…read moreaccomodating and helpful in getting us a table and the service by the waitress was very good as well. Over the course of dinner, the place never really filled up. And as the evening went on, I found out why. I will say that the food was very good - we asked for the Clams Casino and the Mozzarella Wedge. Soup of the day was New England Clam Chowder, it was nice and thick and loaded with both potatoes and clams. Definitely one of the better ones I've had. Dinner was the BLI Burger, which my wife tells me was very good but no better than quite a few deli's in Syracuse. I ordered the Truffle Gnocci and Scallops, which was expensive for the portion I got - they tried to make it look bigger by serving it in a large bowl but no one was fooled. About 6 gnocci and 3 scallops with some mushroom risotto. Pathetic. Then came the coup de grace... two filet au poivre with the Lazy Surf and Turf. What does this really mean, you might ask? Well, instead of getting a lobster tail they pull the meat out and serve it in a bowl of butter for you. Hence, "lazy" - you don't have to do any work. And they charge exorbitantly for this service. So the price was $74 for the steak with an additional upcharge of $28 for the "lazy" lobster tail. One guest got the lobster tail, one didn't. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth the price? Absolutely not - I've been to Chicago and gotten a better, larger cut of steak for far less than this. So for dinner the bill came to a little over $300 (not including tip). Ridiculous to pay for 4 dinners and a few appetizers, especially when one of them was a burger and fries. I could have gone to the Grotto in North Syracuse, gotten bigger portions, better quality food and spent about half as much. As it stands, I won't be back - not because of the food quality or the service, but because the prices are far too much for far too little.