First time trying this restaurant for Mother's Day lunch. This restaurant is a hidden gem, its located the second floor and I was pleasantly surprised by the attentiveness and friendliness of our server. Food was surprisingly tasty! I ordered the Squash and Scallop Risotto - it was delicious and not overwhelming in flavour. It tasted fresh and cooked just right. My parents shared the Surf and Turf, the steak was cooked to their liking and had no complaints. The rest of my family enjoyed their meal as well, the server was accommodating with my niece who is 7 years old. The server said he would be able to accommodate her with whatever she would like on the menu in a smaller portion, which was very kind. At the end of our meal, we ordered the crepes with gelato to share - we were all very full as Italian food for lunch can be quite filling. The server was so nice, he split the crepes into 6 pieces so we could all share. Overall, food was quite good; there is a decent selection of drinks including cocktails, beer and wine as well. The atmosphere was classy but not too formal. It was a nice experience and I would recommend this place. You can also make reservations on OpenTable which makes it a lot easier as well - there is free parking available at the back of the restaurant otherwise there is paid street parking as well. Thank you Rossini for making our Mother's Day lunch a wonderful experience. read more

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Fantastic food! I have been going to Rossini's since the 80's with my family. We have celebrated many special occasions & even business lunches there. The staff & (new) owner are warm and friendly and the food is delicious! Tastes homemade and prepared with fresh ingredients. I would even go as fas as comparing it to the great food i had in Italy last year. This restaurant used to be much larger, but even after downsizing the space & menu a little bit, they have remained consistently good! And the service is always on point. Some of my fav items: Veal Parmigiana - one of the best i've ever had! Caesar salad - dressing made in house super delish! Linguine Pescatore - very generous with the seafood and the pasta is always cooked a perfect al dente Excellent service, great atmosphere, take - out, menus available for parties/special occasions & open for lunch! The original owner no longer owns the restaurant (probably for 10 years now - his chef bought it from him) . I hadn't been in for at least 3 years and decided to stop in for lunch last week and nothing has changed! Pictures coming up after my next visit :o) read more

Came here for a birthday party last night. Food was amazing as usual, but the dessert was a definite pleasant surprise. The last time, I wasn't too impressed; however, this time I ordered the Panna Cotta. It was deeeeelicious. read more

Just ok! Almost meets our standard for Italian food. You walk up these stairs to get into what looks like a fine dining white table cloth Italian restaurant but a sudden cloud of strong spices hits your nose and it's not Italian spices, more like a south Asian spice. Looks like an Italian menu and flavours are strong, not fresh and light like you would expect - maybe they are from a different region of Italy. We ordered fish stew, too salty, spaghetti, seafood linguine, lamb, rigatoni and a few appetizers, salads and grilled calamari. Service was terrible from our main waiter! He was short with us, rushed us, terrible tone like he's yelling at us, I would have gotten up and left. There were other younger people, one girl was her first week and she was polite and one young man, also Asian descent, super polite but did not know their way around. Maybe it was a bad day for them. Not sure if I would try them again. read more

Quiet, upscale restaurant. Food is good but not fabulous for the price per entree. Portion sizes are small. The staff is friendly & service is good. read more

Rossini Restaurant - Italian Near Me - North York, Ontario

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Wanted to do no stars for the restaurant, but not an option. Stay away! I wouldn't return to this restaurant even if it was free. My mother found this Italian restaurant online and figured we'd give it a try on Saturday evening. I'm overall disappointed with the quality of food and service at this restaurant. The combination of bad food and a bill+candies on the bill thrown at you was just off putting and probably immature on their staff. For my appetizer, I ordered the minestrone soup. I originally wanted the Caesar salad but noticed another table eating it, looked like a bland salad made with iceberg lettuce. They served some bread on the table. The bread was cold and the butter was cold, couldn't spread it at all. So I just had soup, which interestingly tasted more like a Russian borsch than minestrone. For my entree, I ordered the Lasagna. Figured I'd stay safe. The lasagna was essentially overcooked soft pasta with cheese drowning in a salty meat sauce. I was constantly in need of water and funny thing! They weren't interested in refilling water at all! I was thirsty!!! Couldn't finish it. I'm still drinking water while writing this review. For the dessert, I ordered the panna cotta, but I guess I was being too adventurous. My panna cotta came in 3 different layers of colour (translucent brown/cream white/cream yellow) while my mother's dish was mostly cream white with a border of yellow near the bottom. Now I wasn't too sure if it was a mistake so I asked the waiter why both dishes looked so different. First waiter didn't know, and second waiter said it was fine, it was only overcooked or sugar not mixed in. And I was confused as not only was the colour different but the textures between layers were different. Upon further inspection with the waiter, he offered to take it back and get me a new one. 5min later, waiter #1 came to the table saying the chef said there was nothing wrong with the panna cotta and that I should pick something else. I don't know why the option to have another one wasn't there. Anyway, so bill comes along and based on the quality of service and food, I decided it would be unfair to other lovely Toronto restaurants if I tipped slightly below the standard but still appropriate as I'm a firm believer of tip reflecting service. And when the waiter stood at my table and hovered as I decided my tip, I could tell she was disappointed. She ripped the receipt from the card machine and threw the bill at me and then picked up that leather thing that holds the bill and chucked the candies at me and left my table without a word. So likely will never return to this restaurant. read more

Not accessible! Have dined here many times in the past, over the years, so made plans for a special anniversary dinner not knowing that recently the restaurant moved from street level to the second floor. There are many stairs and no elevator which meant it was not accessible for my wife who is not physically able to ascend stairs. We were extremely disappointed and had to change our plans. I'm sure the food and service would have been great - but we will never know. Just a heads-up for people familiar with the street-level location. read more

Rossini is definitely a hidden gem! I have come here a couples time the past week and have loved it each time! The food and kitchen staff are amazing! The kitchen staff hasn't changed in 20 years! When you order take-out you enter the kitchen to pick up your food so you can see how clean the kitchen is and how professional looking the kitchen staff look. They are also very friendly too! The veal parmigiana is excellent, although it doesn't come with very much sauce, so it is dry and even when you ask for extra extra extra extra sauce you still only get just a touch more. if you are in the area and looking for a great Italian restaurant I would definitely come here and check Rossini out for yourself. You should not be disappointed! read more

The food was pretty average at best. We came here on a groupon for a prix fixe dinner. We were given a single printed page with our dinner options. All menu options referenced Italian words but didn't list any ingredients and we had to look up their full menu on our phones to understand what we were ordering. We shared bruschetta (decent, I would get it again) and Cesar salad (oh god, why did this taste like fish??) for appetizers. I had the mushroom risotto, which was a bit too wet and salty. My bf had the Veal Parm, which apparently had a great sauce and that was about it. No one came by to fill up my water glass. Desert was creme caramel for me (I've had better) and tiramisu (bf enjoyed). The seating was nice and the servers were polite. The food was just barely ok. read more

This restaurant has very good pizza. Yes there are many items on the menu but the pizza here is very good. The decor is old school and the service is great. read more

I had a chance to visit this place for my friends wedding. Food is average, nothing special but portions were a little bit smaller than I expected, I assume most of italian restaurants are like that. Free parking is available for customers. If you park on the street make sure you are not late otherwise you'll get a tixket. I have a feeling that enforcement is around the corner most of the time. read more

Consistently good. I've never had a bad meal here. The dining room is modern but the service and food are both warm and comforting. Fairly priced for the quality. read more

I don't know how this place is still in business. Arrogant Arrogant people poor service horrible cold food and bland. Heal was as tough as a old boot. What a rip off I would rather go to MacDonald rather then this garbage can read more

The service was terrible. The food would be better if you buy it from Loblaws frozen food section. I bought a Wagjag for a prix fixe dinner and when we showed up, they said they would not accept it. They charged us for an appetizer, the bruschetta, which we never received. read more

Ordered food from this restaurant. Pasta, salad and desert for $40 dollars. Their gnocchi is the worst I have had in a while. Super doughy and tasteless, not even salt and pepper. The capresse salad was literally two slices of tomatoe and two of cheese and it costs over $10. No balsamic vinegar or anything. And finally, the tiramisu. It is super dry, like it has been sitting there for days. It also had an after taste, which I suspect is an orange liquor, but after been exposed to the elements for a while, it just tastes like a bad orange. I would not recommend this place at all. Spend your $40 elsewhere. read more

I started going to Rosinis when they were on the main floor of the building. Food was always great and my fiance always said he loves the pizza. Not only have they moved upstairs but have also changed owners - to someone who already worked for Sergio (previous owner). The food was great even though they forgot my veggies in my pasta. They seem to have increased their portion sizes without increasing the price. Their staff are super friendly and always remember us by name. For anyone missing their pizza oven don't worry it's coming back! Excited to try it myself! read more

We were at Rossini for a mother's day celebration. The experience started off strong, but then ended really badly. Good things: food is mostly excellent. We shared an antipasto (jarring note: cheddar on the plate. No Italian would put cheddar cheese on an antipasto plate!). One of us had the linguini pescatore and praised it. It featured good quality pasta, and an assortment of well-cooked seafood, including scallops, shrimp, crab, clams and mussels. Another person had the grilled lamb chops and they too were excellent. I had the gnocchi with lobster. The sauce was rich but I would have appreciated more chunks of lobster rather than shreds. Desserts (tiramisu, chocolate mousse cake, and lemon tart) were good but not spectacular. What really bugged me was that once dessert was served, were were totally ignored. No more water, no one came by to see if we wanted another coffee. We had to ask the bread lady twice for the bill. When it came, there was no thanks; we were given the machine and then left on our own. I had to print off my own bill and we saw ourselves awkwardly out. No thank you's or please come again. We had spent over $200 for a lunch and this ending was absymal. Too bad, we won't be back. read more

Do Not eat here! Th owner who is the chef is Rude and the food is not good. I was in the kitchen and saw them using a microwave to warm the food up! I took my staff for a Christmas dinner as I have in previous years. We've been there about 6-7 times with a large group of 12-20 people. My wife order a steak that was suppose to be medium and it came more well done. So I told her to send it back, within minutes this guy who was the owner and chef came running out yelling at her, we were all shocked. He said i made it like you asked for see. But it was clearly well done, he stormed off back into the kitchen and we were all shocked at how rude he was. I will never go back there again and I DONT RECOMMEND anyone going there, The prices have gone up allot and the food quality has gone way down. All the food was so salty and one of my staff was so sick the next day! DON'T EAT HERE!!!!!! read more

This is s nice place with good solid food. It's ambience is nice and the service friendly without being effusively. They had a limited menu for vegetarians, but what they had was solid but unspectacular. The prices are a bit high 17-18 dollars for a pasta but not unusual for the Avenue road location. The dessert - Strawberries panna cota - was spectacular read more

Wow.. So disappointed! The restaurant was not busy AT ALL! Not only were our orders wrong .. One guest ordered her fish grilled.. The other two wanted it prepared per the menu. We all got grilled! The service was HORRIBLE. Very sad. Have eaten at this restaurant for many years. We will not be back. read more

Had a very nice meal here. Friendly waiter. Second time I have been here and I was not disappointed. A little difficult to find but worth the search. The fish was fresh and cooked perfectly. The prociutto was fresh and delicious. read more

I have dined here several times and it is always amazing. The bruschetta is a must - I get it every time and it can't be beat. I have ordered a different main every time I have been here and have yet to find anything as good as any of them at another restaurant. Most memorable was probably the lobster gnocchi, though. And the tiramisu is the best in the city, hands down. Not to mention a great atmosphere and very professional service. A hidden gem in Toronto. read more

I have been coming to this restaurant since the 80's. The food is outstanding. We love the escargot, gnocchi and rigatoni a la vodka. The staff are very friendly and the service is great... My kids love the attention that they get when we dine here... read more

after all these years this is still a great restaurant. good food, nice atmosphere. pleasure to dine there. still remember the basil spaghetti. read more