Lena's is one of the best Italian restaurant around. Their food is excellent, the service is great, and it's a very nice place to sit and enjoy your meal. Very good prices. Highly recommended! read more

Lena's Cafe - Lasagna dinner with a side of mozzarella sticks. - Italian Near Me - Altoona, Pennsylvania

The food was good, but not worth the price. Not a lot of seating. You kind of feel cramped when in there. We have eaten there twice now and it isn't going to be one of our main places to eat. read more

Wonderful, great tasting Italian cuisine. Best homemade sauce without question , Great home made noodles and Italian salad dressing. Love their breaded veal and crab cakes. read more

This did not feel like an Italian Restaurant! I recently ordered stuffed shells at a restaurant, and the experience was extremely disappointing. The dish did not arrive steaming, the dish arrived on a cold plate, which immediately made the cheese filling lukewarm and unappetizing. The pasta itself felt rubbery, and the sauce had congealed slightly from the lack of heat. The meatballs were also lukewarm warm. Stuffed shells should be rich, warm, and comforting, in a ramekin strait from the broiler but instead, this felt like leftovers pulled straight from the refrigerator. Serving a dish like this on a cold plate completely ruined the texture and flavor. I would not recommend ordering this meal unless the restaurant can guarantee it's actually served hot. read more

There is no red sauce in Italy ‼ Red sauce is an invention that is 100% American. That said if you like red sauce then this is the place for you!! You will certainly get a lot of it‼ read more

This place is better than ever. So good we get a pan of pasta when we go camping and also to share with visitors when we go out of state on vacation. They love us for bringing the taste that is only Lena's to them. read more

Great Italian restaurant to eat at , excellent service, bread was very fresh and tasty, great choice of Italian cuisine, very fair priced

Everything is very good. Service is quick we come all the way from Akron to eat here. Reviews look good. We were actually in the area for something else and looked it up on Yelp and found it. read more

Stopped here on a recommendation from my bud Thiccc Henry- local FBI and Italian food specialist. I asked for the best Italian cuisine in Toonus- and this and Mama Rendazzo were the first two, with him swearing by Lena's. Looks kind of like an 80s bank building upon arriving, and upon entering was like stepping back in time with communal long table seating and some booths on the walls. Nothing to write home about but we were here for the food - not the mood. Ordered a diet and water, along with my favorite- chicken parmesan. I would like to believe I have sampled enough chicken parm meals along the eastern seaboard to be an authority on them; however, I'm not that braggadocios. The salad was underwhelming - standard wilted lettuce salad. Ranch was a nightmare. However, the bread was straight GAS. That's a good thing. Thick cut and very light - incredible. Put away about 5 baskets of it. Chicken parm? Absolute FIRE. Chicken was properly battered and fried, and the red gravy was like Jesus took water and turned it tomato holy gravy. Incredible tang and hearty feel - uniform thickness. Wow. Chicken parm- everyone knows my order, I would give it a 8.1 / 10. Plus it came with an order of spaghetti. Very good. Bill was fine and the waitress was very attentive. Can get crowded and outdated but it was incredible . read more

See all

Cannot complain about this place besides I wish a long time patron, who has some money in his pockets would donate that cash to update the place - seems like they hit big with the retired community anyways. Foods great, breads great, seemed to be a pretty reasonable price for dinner for 2 Wait staff either is a family member or just really good for being a young person aka she is good at her job would like to try cannoli next time - just to try read more

This place never disappoints. I come from northeast Pa. For work and never miss having dinner here!

Another excellent family run restaurant. Great Italian and American food in a casual setting and reasonable prices. High local go to. Beer a d wine. Plenty parking. read more

Their lasagna and gnocchi are excellent. I like their sauce and many of their other dishes. Service is good because of experienced and long time employees. read more

Food was very good, it was busy over lunch time but we still got our food in a reasonable rime

Lena's Cafe. I've hit this place for lunch a few times over the years, it gets a little crazy around lunchtime because the food is good and so are the prices. The ambience is a little worn, but not uncomfortable. The service... is hit or miss. Always polite, but the last time I went I ordered rigatoni and was delivered spaghetti. I rolled with it, this time, but if I had ordered the delicious stuffed shells I would have sent the spaghetti back, lol. read more

Took a family group here last Saturday. We lived in Central Pennsylvania about 25 years ago and this was one of our regular places. We were anxious to go back. I am pleased to say that the food still doesn't disappoint. I got the stuffed shells. The consensus from my crew was that the marinara wasn't anything special so go for the meat sauce. It is excellent. Service was great. This is a lovely down-home type of meal. read more

Great Italian food. Stuffed shells are the best I've ever had. 5 stars for sure! Will be back soon.

Every entree that I have tried is superb. The homemade noodles, meatballs (huge), meat sauce, lasagna, and fresh Italian bread is awesome. The portion sizes are huge, the cost is very economical and a senior favorite. You get a 4% discount with cash! The last few times the cannoli's have been sold out! They look heavenly and scrumptious. Come early or expect to wait. The place is busy!! read more

If you are looking for a respite from chain restaurant hell in Altoona, may I humbly suggest a stop at Lena's. It has a couple of things going against it right off the bat. First, it's oddly removed from any type of commerce, instead seemingly located on a residential street. Second, from the outside, it looks like a bank, or insurance office, but certainly not a restaurant. But when we got there around 6 on a Saturday night, there was a line out the door, but it moved pretty fast. Waitresses were running around the brown wood-paneled interior with large trays of pasta with red-sauce. Lena's is the embodiment of a neighborhood, family-style, Italian-American eatery. The servers seemed to know most of the customers. The customers seemed to know the menu inside and out. Many patrons didn't even need to see the menu. Apparently, every morning, they make handmade noodles. Not all of their noodles are handmade, mind you. But you can order the handmade ones, if you wish. How could I possibly say no to handmade noodles? They were excellent. The red sauce was simple, a little sweet, but delicious. The meatball was nothing to write home about. Pasta comes with bread and salad. The salad came with one slice of an absolutely *incredible* tomato. Granted, we were there at the end of Summer. I imagine the tomatoes in Fall and Winter could not possibly be as flavorful. Overall, I was thrilled to find this wonderful local place in a town where it is getting increasingly difficult to do so. read more

Lena's Cafe - The Building - Italian Near Me - Altoona, Pennsylvania

See all

Eh, Lena's is mediocre and seems to have a cult following. Its standard (slightly sub standard) Italian food. Maybe I'm a snob idk. Coming from an Italian family with amazing cooks all around this place does not get my taste buds going. Three stars for being local. My biggest probably is I find the sauce super sweet and the ricotta mix too airy (if that makes sense). One final thing, my other half has this obsession with fried mozzerella sticks. But it HAS to be sticks or he hates it (don't ask, idk) So he sees on the menu fried mozzerella and he asks if there are sticks, balls, squares etc. The waitress assured us they are sticks. They come out and they are stinking triangles. His face gave our large party a good laugh. read more

the food is amazing and I love going there and spending time with friends. Lenas food is the best

Good home style Italian food. I suggest getting the lasagna when available. It's very good and well portioned. Also, I highly suggest getting the dishes with Lena's hand made pasta. It's worth it! Everyone has their own opinions and preferences about sauce and meatballs. I'm not going to rate Lena's on my personal preferences. But I will rate Lena's on the effort and the quality. I think they do a great job because they care about the quality of their food. My favorite in Altoona. Oh! The Italian wedding soup is delicious too! read more

My review is for take out orders not the food. Everything is very good but trying to call in a take out order is a disaster this is the third time it happened to us. We ordered , they put us on hold for about 15 minutes and then it disconnected. Called back and they didn't have our order !!! I would say 6 out of 10 times something is missing and when we call to tell them - there is no apology. Simply just pick it up. No offer of a free dessert or anything for our second trip back or anything. And for the record this happened even before all restaurants were short staffed read more

I wish I could tell you how the food was. We left after waiting 20 minutes, to no avail, for a server to arrive at our table.

Great atmosphere and provided wonderful service. But, the meatball was cold, which really was a let down. It won't stop me from coming back here again, I just wish that the meatballs were as hot as the marinara. read more

A favorite local, family-owned restaurant. My go-to meal is the eggplant parm with homemade noodles, house dressing on the salad.

Once upon a time, a young woman named Lena boarded a steam ship in the port of Naples and crossed the Atlantic to New York City. Although a stranger in a strange land, she was friendly, resourceful and she smelled good, and so she soon made a name for herself as an excellent cook of Italian country dishes. She opened a small trattoria in the Italian neighborhood of Castellorio (don't look for it now - they razed it to the ground to build JFK Airport) and soon met her beau who wood eventually become her husband, a handsome but very nearsighted Polish immigrant named Zak. After a brief and tempestuous courtship involving an unfortunate and bocce ball pyramid investing scheme, Zak and Lena were wed and soon saw the arrival of twin sons, Luigi and Norbert. Citing the high cost of rent in Brooklyn Heights, the young family relocated over the hills to the remote tropical hamlet of Altoona, PA. Even though their new home was only a brief 18 hour buggy ride west of the Big City, it felt to them as if they had stepped in to another century. Lena took the relocation especially hard, citing a lack of fresh buffalo mozzarella and an over abundance of a horrible yellow cheese topping on things that she refused to call "pizza." Taking matters into her own hands once again, she opened a small but quickly very popular and successful restaurant that she named after herself, entrusting both of her young twin boys as the heirs of her lasagna dynasty. Soon it was the 1960s and the two boys were well into their teens. While initially they appeared to be destined to carry the family name to the heights of notoriety and immortality among the local Blair County gourmands, with the dawning of the Age of Aquarius the two young men became distracted by mini skirts, illicit herbal home remedies, and the music of Ted Nugent. Lena suffered silently as she saw her life's work slowly deteriorate into a local hang out for albino high school cheerleaders, chronically depressed chain-smoking Catholic priests, and the odd mafia hit man sent west from New York by The Don to cool off for a while. The lasagna was good, but most patrons were asking for frito pies and chicken fried steak. Lena was heartbroken. She was last seen climbing up to the Altoona Curve near the reservoir, and was never seen again. The moral of the story? It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll. read more

It's just good food. I grew up in an Italian family, Italian mother and grandmother. I know what good Italian food is. Most Italian restaurants have been something of a disappointment to me. None are as good as Mom and Grandmas cooking., but Lena's is one exception. The menu isn't big, and the dishes are simple. Nothing fancy but it's just good food. The pasta dishes are all worth trying. Everything I've has there has put a smile on my face. The stuffed rigatoni lunch special is so nice and the meatballs are great. No, it doesn't beat Mom or Grandmas dishes, but it's close. Oh, and whatever you do, don't leave until you have had a cannoli for desert. You won't regret it. read more

My review is not so much about the food as it is the service and knowledge of the wait staff. I ordered the Rigatoni and meatball and was obviously served Penne Pasta and a meatball. I told my waitress I ordered the Rigatoni and she said yes this is it... Apparently she believes all tubed pasta is Rigatoni? ...or she thought I was 6 years old and wouldn't know the difference! read more

Lena's Cafe - According to my waitress, this is Rigatoni. Or is it Penne Pasta? You decide. - Italian Near Me - Altoona, Pennsylvania

Since I moved out of town, I have to come here to satisfy my Lena's craving at least every other visit.

The food is always amazing. Atmosphere is outdated but this is easy to overlook when engorging oneself on their bread and amazing sauce. This is the only place I can get meatballs like my grandmother used to make (RIP). If you have any room left after the FIRE homemade noodles, their dessert is made by GOD himself. I personally crave the tiramisu, but my mom goes crazy for their cannolis. read more

Great food, good portions and serving staff was great. The place was packed when we arrived and the staff made sure we were taken care of quickly. wings were large and served hot and crispy. Prices were great for the quality of the food we received. read more

My husband was told to check this place out because they have authentic Italian food that's supposedly the best in the area. My husband was so excited to take me to this restaurant. We thought the building looked like an old doctor's office on the outside, but the food is what matters, so we walked in. We were greeted and seated. The staff was very nice. The booths were old and torn. The menus were FILTHY. They looked like they hadn't been cleaned in many, many years. The water had the flavor of old lead pipes, so they should've served bottled water. We were still opened minded about the food even after these things. As far is the food is concerned, we were very disappointed. The waitress suggested the lasagna because it has homemade pasta and "meat" sauce. So we ordered that and an Italian Platter to try the other types of pasta and sauce they had to offer. The lasagna noodles were good. The ricotta was good. What made the lasagna not the best in the world was the meat sauce. The Italian platter was awful. I would have rather had a can of Spaghettios and meatballs! The sauce was bitter and terrible tasting. The gnocche was way over cooked. It was very mushy and stuck to our teeth. The rest of the pasta in the Italian platter was just regular out-of-the-box noodles/pasta and was not special at all. They served one large meatball on the Italian platter that was just ok. If you wanted TWO meatballs, it cost another $2. The service was great. Our waitress was very nice; therefore, we didn't want to embarrass her by leaving plates full of food. So when she asked if we would like a to-go box, we said, "yes." We boxed up the food and left. We found the nearest trash can and threw to to-go box away! It was NOT good! read more

What's better than taking your family & friends to Lena's Cafe for a birthday celebration? Bringing Lena's to the party!! Sending a HUGE thank you to everyone at Lena's Cafe! Early Saturday afternoon my daughter requested homemade lasagna for her Birthday celebration dinner on Sunday... Not wanting to disappoint, I began trying to figure out when to get to the store on an already busy weekend, and how to get the amount of lasagna needed made for everyone that would be at the house... starting to stress a little, I reached out to Lena's on FB messenger... Within minutes they responded! I explained my situation, and while they typically would like at least a days notice, they told me they would have everything I needed ready for pickup at 4:00pm!! Same day!!! Enough Homemade lasagna & meatballs to feed 25-30 people, turned around in a few hours!!!! Our Molly LOVES Lena's too!! This was a super duper WIN for us and Lena's made it happen!! Thank you Lena's Cafe!!!!! Ya'll are awesome!!! read more

Lena's Cafe - Lena's meatballs at home in the croc! I wish I would've gotten a picture of the lasagna before everybody started digging in! - Italian Near Me - Altoona, Pennsylvania

This has been a favorite in my family for years. They have reasonable prices and good food. The spaghetti is always a good bet, as well as the stuffed shells. They pretty consistently run out of their specials and some other dishes, and that can be disappointing. The staff is friendly, although some of the younger staff members are a bit timid and confused at times. The space itself is a bit tight and it can sometimes feel pretty squished if you get certain tables near the back. read more

We had a large group of people and they were accommodating and helpful! The food was amazing as was the service! I don't think anyone in our group of 15 had anything negative to say about the evening! read more

Chicken salad a huge disappointment. Chicken was similar to store bought Purdue chicken and dressing just wasn't as I remembered it. Overpriced and couldn't finish eating it. Wouldn't recommend. read more

Excellent place. A customer took me here about ten years ago with a couple Mafia type contractors of his. It was great then and now too!! Not fancy, good homemade food at a fair price. Italian food like home read more

Classic Italian flavor! The portions are large. I love the lasagna. It has a unique light ricotta filling that is piled high and is smothered in a rich deep red tomato sauce. Everything is made fresh so on a busy night some items can sell out. The service is friendly and quick. This is a nice place to take the family. read more

Lena's Cafe - Lasagna like no other - thick, light, and full of flavor - Italian Near Me - Altoona, Pennsylvania

Two of us went to Lena's on a whim. It was a Saturday evening and we were seated quickly and drink orders taken. Fresh bread showed up very soon along with ice water and the drinks that we had ordered. I had a cup of the Italian wedding soup but was disappointed by the large amount of pasta in it. My expectation for Italian wedding soup is broth, chicken, meatballs and soup me herbs. Additionally the pasta was so over cooked that it was basically mush. At least that was the only disappointment here because the fresh noodles with sausage was fantastic. My gf ordered gnocchi with one meatball which was also very good. We had salads before our pasta and they were freshly prepared, nicely dressed and had a good variety of ingredients. Both of us agreed the red sauce was awesome. We're looking forward to coming back! read more