Il Toscano — Restaurant in New York

Went with a party of 8 last night, some (like myself) who had traveled over an hour to get there. We had actually had a rehearsal dinner here about 2 years ago, and liked the restaurant a lot, which is why we came back.

Food was excellent. Service (except as noted below) great. Atmosphere excellent.

HOWEVER, something happened which I have never had happen at a restaurant before. We were asked to get up and leave after our dinner/dessert because there was another party waiting for our table.

We arrived for our reservation right on time. Our orders were taken promptly (maybe a little too promptly for an upscale restaurant...within 5 minutes of sitting). We all had an appetizer, main course, and dessert (some had coffee).

The dessert was served about 1 3/4 hours after we got there. We were sitting talking casually for an additional 15 minutes, during which we finished our desert. Then, we were asked if we could leave the table because another party was waiting for our table, and had been there since we were served dessert.

We likely would have gotten up and left in the near future anyway, but I never expect that in any restaurant, I would be asked to vacate a table, especially since this was within 15 minutes of being served dessert (we had eaten our other courses at a "normal" pace).

It was as if we had a two hour time limit, and we were not allowed to linger for a few minutes after we finished dessert. Again, this request was made of us about 15 minutes after dessert was served...and we had eaten our other courses at a "normal" pace.

To me, this indicates poor time management when taking reservations and is not acceptable. My son, who has worked in the food industry was also taken aback by this request to leave.

There was one other minor error, which would not by itself lead me to "subtract" a star, but it was unusual. Three of us had ordered steaks...two medium well, one medium rare. They got served to the wrong person, and the waiter did not confirm they were given the correct temperature steak to the right person. Typically, in a restaurant of this caliber, the waiter would not need to check with the patron whether they were getting the correct steak...but if there is any uncertainty, they should confirm with the customer. Not a big deal, but is something "around the edges" that should not have happened.

Again, the food/service/atmosphere was...

This is the second time im writing this review apparently my first time was deleted, so let me try again. This was my first time ordering food from this restaurant, located at the Douglaston Long Island Railroad station 🚉. Upon arrival at 8pm the parking was full including valet parking. I entered a PACKED restaurant at 8:20pm when my order was supposed to be ready, not a soul besides me wearing a mask, sure covid spreader event. Took several minutes to maneuver to the Maitre'd stand where my order was sitting in a cardboard tomato 🍅 crate. I asked if there was utensils and napkins (which I request twice in the online order) he responded by asking "you need utensils" as if it was some kind of affront. I stated And napkins. He then told me to meet him at the coat check, after negotiating the tightly packed crowd with my tomato crate i waited for him to find utensils. Eventually the coat check girl emerged with a paperbag. I left, then arrived at my destination to find 3 loose elcheapo forks and 2 elcheapo loose plastic knives. Don't know what they expected me to eat lobster bisque with. Luckily for me in my glove compartment I found some sealed utensil sets from shoprite supermarket that had clean better quality utensils including spoon, napkin, and salt/ pepper. On to the food: Lobster bisque was OK, a bit watery but did have a lot of pieces of lobster in the 12oz plastic container. ...cost $16.50...value $8.50

Lasagna decent size but was WAY TOO SALTY, was only able to eat a tiny amount. ...cost $26...value $15~$18 《if it was edible》

Lobster il Toscano, best food in the crate, good amount of lobster 🦞 in bread crumbs oil+butter, came with spinach sautéed in garlic+oil, the spinach again salty but nowhere to the degree of the lasagna. ...Cost $75 ...value...$40~$45

They did include a bag with 5 pieces of bread 🍞 the outer 2 pieces were dried out, apparently were pulled of a bread plate, hope they weren't someone's dinner remains.

Will I order from here again? That would be a giant NO!

If you eat inside the restaurant your experience may be totally different than my takeout order, the best of...

I came here for my friends 50th bday wanted to make it special for her, but unfortunately it wasn't as expected. We read all the amazing reviews how great the food and service were but perhaps not for us, 2 Asian women. Our waiter was friendly but not polite. I made reservations online at opentable, and then they sat us down in a corner part of the restaurant by an up stairs view, we literally waited awhile for anyone to come up and greet us and when we asked for the menu, he told us to wait even more for it. We prob just sat there without a menu for over 30 minutes right when we got to the restaurant. It was just an unpleasant experience for us right at the start. Then, when he finally came by with the menu, we had to wait a while before he even returned to our table to take our order. There's no bell like some of the up to date restaurants. The restaurant is completely out of date, small space, and the tables are literally right next to each other. There is no space to walk around even.

Well, when the waiter returned, we ordered lobster bisque soup, toscano salad, lasagna bolognase, and clam linguine. I have to say the only food that tasted good was the soup and salad. The lasagna looked and tasted horrible. It literally was all mushy, and just something about it did not taste good to me or my friend after she took a bite of it. We immediately let our waiter know this, and luckily, they did not charge us, but you need to let them know if something does not taste right. The clam linguini my friend ordered was completely covered in salt. We didn't return it, but we also didn't eat it either. The clams were not even washed it had sand and broken clam shells inside. Well, that was our experience. When I made the reservation, I specifically wrote it was for my friend's birthday, they didn't even offer a cake for her... I've been to amazing restaurants that provide a cake and song. This restaurant does not provide any special treatment for birthdays. I would not recommend this restaurant for a...