Canale's Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Oswego

I've been going to Canale's starting in 1970 when my family moved to Oswego and the food is as good Today in 2025 as it was then.!! I now live on Long Island and visit family and friends in Oswego 3 times a year and although my visits to Oswego have been plentiful, but sadly i have not gone to enjoy Canale's in quite some time as i usually have made my trips solo and don't enjoy a meal in a spot like this solo, so my Wife made the trip this go 'round and i wanted her to enjoy the amazing food i did with me so off to Canale's we went. What a complete joy and treat to flash back to my childhood and pre-teenaged years eating the same quality tasting food I always remembered from there.! Oh That Red Sauce or Gravy, depending on which side of the Italian line you're on..lol..amazing tasting as the day I had my 1st dish of Pasta and Meatballs as a child. We went on Saturday 9/6 just ahead of the Dinner Rush for a 5:30pm reservation and was seated right away and drinks and food followed..App was the friend Ravioli with sauce served on the side to dip in, perfectly fried and so good.!! My Wife ordered the Calabria which included Chicken Parm and Manicotti with a cup of Pasta Fagioli which she enjoyed as well as her main entree..i ordered the Morolo Combo with a Chicken Parm, a Sweet Sausage and i Meatball with a side of Rigatoni "Fixed Romano Style". which tasted amazing.! all quality as it was when i was a kid growing up in Oswego in the 70's.!! so if you're in Oswego for any reason, go enjoy some top notch Italian food with amazing Red Sauce/ Gravy head here.!! Also a large shot of appreciation to my server and gentleman who was there opening the following morning as my Credit Card was Left behind and realized the following morning by me ahead of leaving town and when i called half hour ahead of opening they said it was there with them and at the Bar and come grab it before opening which i found awesome and generous as they could've asked me to wait until they opened for business to grab it and delay my leaving town, so THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for that and the honesty of the entire situation.!! If you Doubt my word that Canale's is the spot to eat quality Italian Food, The Singer Post Malone who is from Baldwinsville originally and as a kid had eaten there recently stated his favorite Italian Food to enjoy in the world is Canale's, Google it...read the interview..and I live where there is an Italian Restaurant every square mile here on Long Island.lol...seriously, go enjoy quality and CONSISTENT...

I had high hopes for this place, because everyone locally seems to love it. We went to the location in Oswego, no idea if Liverpool is any different. The place seems like you are sitting in someone's basement. drab, dark, and closeted. The seating is incredibly uncomfortable if you are tall or wide. You have two options, a booth, or a table with weird captains chairs, that looked like they would fit children.

Then on to the food, we ordered bruschetta "thinking that this can't be too bad" , wrong, it came on the wrong kind of bread, in fact they "toasted" cut corners of food service ciabatta rolls, and they were squishy, and stale, then topped with the most flavorless, mushy tomato mess, and covered with tepid cheese. Brushetta should not be served hot, nor should the cheese be a nasty melty mess.

Then we had to wait around for our pizza, that was on a par baked crust, which for those of you not in the industry, is something that schools do, the crust is half way baked at some earlier time, then the sauce, and cheese are added. It tasted like beer, and made us sick. It was also a soupy mess, because they do not use pizza sauce, but use their thing marinara sauce.

On to dinner, we both got chicken parm, which in itself wasn't too bad, but also tasted like it had been previously cooked then reheated, and really salty. Their sauce is nasty, salty, thin, acidic and no flavor at all. How can they be famous for that? We actually didn;t really touch our food, and brought it home for our dogs, because it was disgusting. The service was unbearably slow, and we were there for almost 2 hours, when we arrived before dinner rush even started, at around 4 pm.

The server was okay, not really friendly, just kind of there. I would not be back, but guess I should have expected it to be bad, because every restaurant...

My mother and I went to Canales tonight as a birthday dinner. The wait staff was attentive and friendly. However, the food was subpar and overpriced at $72 for two people to have a basic meal. The calamari was very rubbery, and many of them had raw/undercooked batter inside. The Delmonico steak was very grizzly and fatty, on top of being ordered medium an it came firmly medium rare. Luckily, it was for me as I don't mind it, whereas my mother can't stand hers that way. When it was mentioned the server argued that no it was a medium only edging into a med rare. Her meal, the chicken parm was very thickly breaded and over salted, inside was a tiny thin piece of rubbery chicken. More like a store bought dinner. The manicotti was tough. Both were absolutely drowned in sauce, salty and unimpressive, To the point it was difficult to locate the food! The cheesecake was gross, nothing like a cheesecake should be, the texture and flavor were all wrong an just not pleasant. The mixed drinks we got first were fine, but the second ones were served incorrectly. I got my mother's whiskey sour, she got my margarita. We didn't realize why they tasted so bad to us this time until nearly the end when we sampled each other's. When we told the server about the mix up, laughing about it, it was vehemently denied that no, they were correctly served to us simply because of the glass they were in. We never expected or wanted anything from our concerns but they were still disregarded. Overall, just a very disappointing, and expensive, meal. In the future we will choose somewhere...