La Casa Toscana Italian Food and Catering Services — Restaurant in Butte

Butte has next to no decent culinary options, so people are understandably excited when something (anything!) new opens. We had never visited the location in Anaconda, but I understand this place has a quite a following in the region. We weren't impressed at all. The food is mediocre and the prices outrageous.

The menu varies, but it seems to be $39.99 for a four-course meal (plus another $10.00 if you go with a seafood option). I ordered the beef lasagna and my partner ordered the lobster ravioli. The four-course begins with an appetizer platter, which included a few slices of salami, four olives, a small amount of goat cheese, and a bit of pesto with some bread. The olives weren't the most interesting, but that's not a damning observation. The next course was a completely uninspired serving of lettuce with two slices of cucumber and two unripe cherry tomatoes slathered in a very sweet orange reduction dressing. Not really comparable an Italian green salad. My main course, the lasagna, was mediocre and inauthentic, drowning in a sauce that was laced with cheap mozzarella in lieu of any decent Italian cheese—and I'm quite sure the pasta was not homemade (which I absolutely expect at such prices). Frankly, there was just so much of my main course. For the same price, they might have cut the gigantic portion in half and relied on some better ingredients. The sheer abundance of my lasagna was contrasted with my partner's lobster ravioli. For $50, she was given a handful of ravioli (mostly cheese filler - very stingy on the lobster meat) and three or four large prawns. I'm not sure why it was $10 more expensive, considering the amount served. It must be the absolute stingiest meal we have ever encountered in a restaurant anywhere. Finally, desert was a single cannoli each. So the thrust of my complaint has to do with the prices: completely unjustified for what you get.

A few ancillary complaints: Of the three items on the menu that night, two were meat dishes and the third was a seafood dish. Why no vegetarian option? Traditional Italian cuisine—like all Mediterranean cuisine—is primarily vegetarian, meat being a special luxury. Sure, we're in Montana and I don't fault a place for making a strictly business decision if they don't anticipate demand, but I can't imagine it would be very hard to expand the menu in this way without losing money—cheese ravioli, pistachio pasta, permutations on the humble squash... Frankly, it's hard to call a place "authentic" Italian if it has no vegetarian options. (On second thought, maybe this would just encourage them to reap even higher profits from their unjustified mark-ups.) The owner introduced herself at one point, which was nice... but after our meal she presented our daughter with a lavish brownie and ice-cream platter without asking us if this was alright beforehand. We obviously appreciated the gesture, but our daughter doesn't eat sugary foods so it just put us in an awkward position. When it comes to sugar and children, one should never assume anything. But that's a small matter and the food alone will keep us from dining here again.

UPDATE: When I posted a version of this review on Facebook, the owner attacked me for "belittling" her restaurant on social media and pointed out that we finished the food on our plates — so how bad could it have been? Well, at these prices, every mouthful is a dollar wasted—of course we ate it all! The food wasn't inedible; it was mediocre. That's an important distinction. So in addition to ripping us off ($150 for two meals plus a bottle of wine and a 20% tip), the owner also harassed me for leaving a review that dared to deviate from her otherwise 100% glowing reviews on Facebook. I should point out that she didn't respond to any of my legitimate complaints in this brief exchange. Who knows, perhaps she bullies everyone into deleting their reviews, as I did in...

I used to have this place as a 5 stars restaurant. We visit Butte about 5-6 per year and looked fwd to coming here everytime. However this has changed. I went to make a reservation online on a wed evening and it said " there is no wait come on in" so we did. We waited by a tacky hand written sign that said please wait to be seated for over 10 mins and not a single person acknowledged us. This place is small so it's not like they did not see us. Perhaps its cause they were judging us for being in a tee-shirt and jeans this time. I don't know. So I walked to the back and entered the kitchen and asked if anyone was working. A busgirl walked me out went to a server and the server asked her with an additude "do they have a reservation" I said the site would let me make one and besides that you never even greeted us to even ask us if we had one. She then proceed to sit us at a table that was dirty. A different waitress came by with menu about 5min later and said oh let me clean this did you just come in and sit down? Keep in mind this place isn't even busy or short staffed I saw 4 waitresses and was about half full. As we looked at the menu I noticed a few things. Yes the food is good but the last 7 or 8 times we have gone I've always been disappointed in serving size and now there prices are out of this world! $50 for a tiny bowl of pasta....it's not that good! They now have big screen tvs everywhere and a big neon sign in the window. This place went from an elephant classy restaurant to a tacky confused wanna be fancy overpriced sports bar. To add we came here last Valentine's day and they did something weird with the menu that we also did not like. while waiting another 10 mins for water and our waitress to come back we got annoyed and walked out. With the service we received last night we will NEVER visit this place again!! I've already told my many friends that I've recommended this place to our story. One said he had a...

Real petty blocking me on Facebook after stating what happened what a restaurant you guys are. Honestly NEVER going back on Valentine’s Day there were 4 of us as we walked in we waiting for 15 minutes as we watched servers and staff look at us and walk away after all the time the bartender eventually asks us if we have a reservation we said yes and they rolled their eyes and then asked us for our name they then proceeded to bring us into a room that seats 8 the other half of the table was a disaster dirty plates and cups the bartender then proceeds to fill up one cup of water and walks away we waited for 30 minutes until they brought in 2 other people to share the table with us and the other side was still dirty they grabbed the plates and whatnot but didn’t even wipe down the table it was a young couple probably celebrating their first valentine day I don’t blame them for leaving we asked the host for water and she just walks away another 30 minutes goes by and we finally get our server she asks us what protein we wanted, after she was done taking my parents order she moved over to me and my significant other which we were sharing a plate as we already ate and wanted to spend valentine day with my family the server seemed irritated when we said that which didn’t make sense in the being we asked for waters yet again and after 15 more minutes we finally got some water the waiter is serving our apps and she’s pretty much tossing them down as stuff is falling off the plates we finally get our food the steak was severely undercooked and the sea bass was overcooked the server then didn't come back for another hour the waiter come in throws down the check and tells us the tip is included in there we look at the price IT WAS 125 PER PERSON and a gratuity of 100 dollars which was a 27% tip with terrible and rude service I understand people are stressed but with how much they are getting tipped I wouldn’t...