Toscano

11/09/08

Really bad for its price...

by lob at Citysearch

Here is the whole experience:

When we first arrived at the restaurant, we were told to wait an extra 15 to 20 minutes even though I had made a reservation prior to arrival. The host/manager was telling me that "it was 7pm and we were slammed with customers." About 20 minutes when we were told to be seated, I looked around and saw that there were about 7-8 tables filled and half the restaurant was empty. My first impression was "how the heck are you slammed with customers when you had half the restaurant with empty seats?" Fine, that was nothing compared to the rest of the evening. After we were seated, the host/manager (same as the person who seated us) brought us some bread and spread. We could immediately saw her blackened fingers when she was pointing and literally touching the spread as she explained what they were. I basically lost my appetite when I saw how dirty her fingers were.

Overall the front of the house was a mess. We saw servers pretty much running around to serve food when there were only 7-8 tables filled. We saw the host/manager serving food with her blackened fingers. We didn't really know who our server was the whole night. Sometimes the sommelier took our order, another time the water boy (probably from the local high school) took our order. I had no idea, all I could say is poor front house management.

Now let's talk about food. Food was terrible. They were not fitting the description on the menu. We ordered the Diablo Prawns but when we were served, the so-called Prawns were so small and they looked like regular shrimps. Maybe they should call it "baby-prawns" next time.

The lamb was gamy. I had no idea how the pinot noir reduction sauce fit the saffron rosotto. The duck confit was dry, salty. The Pumpkin-apple crisp was nothing crisp about it. It tasted like they microwaved it before serving.

Overall it's a mess. I would never go back ever again even if the dinners were free.

• Pros: Nice Decor
• Cons: Bad service and bad food

11/02/08

Retirement Community

by t_c at Citysearch

The food was good and nice presentation; however, the setting is within a retirement community (albeit a very elegant retirement community) and on a Saturday night we were surrounded by walkers in every corner.

• Pros: good food and service
• Cons: retirement community; fairly expensive