Toscano Harvard Square — Restaurant in Cambridge

---update March 2024--- I've warmed to this place quite a bit! A friend and I eat lunch at Toscano somewhat regularly, and my experiences have been quite pleasant.

My friend has some dietary restrictions to put it mildly, and we have been lucky enough to have the same delightful young lady take our orders as of late. She is pleasant, offers substitutions (even though my mate has to decline them all), and always seems to be in a good mood. I wish I knew her name, for a shout-out, but hopefully management knows who I'm talking about, as she definitely deserves praise.

The food is good - I've enjoyed just about everything I've eaten here... Favorites are the various gnocchi dishes, risotto, bruschetta, Caesar salad, meatballs, and the steaks are quite good! They make a very nice bourbon old fashioned also!

We'll definitely return, in fact, I believe we'll visit later this week. Would recommend.

---original review below--- We'd heard good things about Toscano from friends, so made a reservation a couple weeks ahead so that we could check it out ourselves.

Located right in Harvard Square, just a block up Brattle Street from Brattle Square, it's central yet has a cozy feel to it. The interior is similarly warm, with beautiful light fixtures and dark wood finishes.

We were "greeted" by a short(ish)/stout man who asked, "what can we do for you?" - which, admittedly, took me by surprise for just a moment. Told him we had a reservation and were shown to our table. We ended up with a great spot, not against the windows, but close to them.

To drink we had: old fashioned, Moscow mule, shared a bottle of white wine. The whiskey old fashioned was delicious and strong - an orange peel might've made it a bit tastier, but I can't complain as it was made very well. Wife said her mule was great as well. Shared a mid-tier bottle of white - can't remember what we ended up with, but we both enjoyed it.

For food we had: bruschetta, beet salad, caesar salad, gnocchi, and seafood ravioli. Everything was really good. I'm not sure if anything stood out in terms of must-return-for, but everything was very good. Beet salad was delicious, especially with the supplied lemon wedge. Gnocchi was airy and light. Wife enjoyed her ravioli quite a bit as well.

Good time here. We'll return when we get a...

I spent 15 years cooking fine Italian cuisine professionally. So here is my take. I had bruschetta as an appetizer, and veal milanese for my entree. First I'll give the good things that earned 3 stars. The service was excellent. The dining room was nicely appointed, and clean. I could see the kitchen was well maintained as well. The ingredients where fresh, and of top quality. Now to the food. The Bruschetta was the worst I've ever had. Instead of grilled baguette slices, It was served on a single large slice of bread, so instead of being able to pick up the individual bruschetta, I had to cut it into pieces. The tomatoes were diced way too large, so it mostly wouldn't stay on the bread. Because they used a single large slice of bread instead of a proper grilled bagette, the middle of the bread was soggy. Just a sloppy mess. The recipe wasn't proper either. First of all, cheese on bruschetta is a faux pas that a lot of places seem to be making. I hate it. It had way too much garlic, and didn't have anything but garlic, tomatoes, cheese and basil. If there were any other ingredients, it was so little, that I couldn't tell. If it was just the bruschetta, I'd give only 1 star. The sauted spinach, and roasted potatoes with my entree where very nice. The milanese was tender, cooked perfectly, and had a nice flavor. However, it wasn't pounded thin enough. That is a prep issue though. The execution of the dish was proper. So three stars for the service, atmosphere, cleanliness, freshness, and execution of the entree. The improperly prepped veal, and the terrible bruschetta lost 2 stars. I will have to think about going back. With such high prices I expect better, and I'm not so sure if I want to risk another $50 on a place that doesn't know how to make a...

After a long day driving around the greater Boston area on an apartment hunt, I wanted to treat my mom to a nice dinner. We didn't have a reservation but were quickly seated on the high top tables regardless. My issues were entirely with the service. The tables were a little uncomfortably close together which wasn't a bug deal but none of the servers said excuse me every time they bumped into me to get to their other tables. We watched how the servers went to other tables speaking on antipasto recommendations, wine and cocktail recommendations, dinner recommendations etc. but my mother and I were offered none of this service. We were approached with, "what can I get you to drink." After requesting waters since we hadn't eaten all day, the server took another 10-15 minutes to come back to our area when we had to flag them down to tell them we were ready to order. Again, no suggestions at all. We ordered and they left (we had to flag them down again to request for a bread basket). Food came out and it was fine (osso bucco pictured) but the entire time we were eating the server came by only once to see how the food was/refill waters. They did ask if we'd like dessert which was the first time I felt we were offered the service we were paying for but declined since we were pretty over it. I've been server before so there will never be a time where I tip below 20% but I was completely disappointed with the service at Toscano. I couldn't even chalk it up to the server having a bad day because we witnessed them providing excellent service to the neighboring tables. Maybe they had preconceived ideas about us based on appearance and thought they would get a bad tip but nothing about the service we received deserved the tip...