Toscanini — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

Full house for a fabulous restaurant week menu! 3 course meal with generous full dinner plus a regular coffee, cappuccino or espresso for $44 is a deal and then some especially when the food is delicious and everyone from the welcoming owner Freddy to all of his amazing wait staff make you feel the love from the minute you come in the front door till the moment you leave with full bellies and a handshake and a hug from Freddy.

We've had pretty much everything on the regular menu and the specials menu to boot! Some of our repeat orders are the stuffed artichoke, baked clams oreganata, fried calamari and mozzarella carrozza for apps! For mains their fish selections are always fresh and beautifully prepared, Gnocchi Bolognese is unctuous, Risotto al Funghi is perfectly all dente and creamy, the breaded veal with a a fresh arugula and cherry tomato salad is divine.

This is a neighborhood staple and a family favorite for all in this town. You are remembered, your order is remembered and you are missed if you don't come by for a time. The owner is so generous and kind that one afternoon a group of neighborhood kid were walking by and said hello and announced that it was one of their birthdays. Freddy ushered them into his place and fed them all a birthday lunch on the house. And that is one of the many reasons why Toscanini's is still going strong 19 years...

We can't even rate the food or the service because we weren't able to enter the restaurant. This was a while back. My husband and I entered the front door. He is a POC and I'm white. They told us they wouldn't seat us because of what he was wearing. This was lunch time. It was summer. A tank top can't be that offensive. But they said no. Not even to come back after he changed. Needless to say we didn't go back. He was embarrassed. I was furious. But as he said, they made up their minds already no point in giving them business.

Look, I know that people can be well meaning and all but telling a Black man he can't come in because of how casual he dressed for lunch is not good optics. It could have been handled more delicately. More sensitively. We've moved out of Port. Felt better about writing this now, having some distance.

It's easy to dismiss this rating. An anomaly. A blip. But it made all the difference to us. Enough to still remember and share with friends who still live there.

Good training centered on diversity sensitivity and charitable assumption may be a start. From the front of...

I was in the mood for Italian food and I stopped in here after a quick Google search. The food here is actually really great. They start you with some bread which is freshly made in the restaurant. Honestly the bread was hard to put down, as you can imagine it was still hot from the oven, melting in your mouth with every bite. I ordered the shrimp cocktail and the mussels pesto marinara. Both tasted fantastic. The shrimp cocktail came with a small side salad which was a nice little surprise; the dressing on it was spot on. Main course for me was the penne del alba, a very nice sized portion and it had this perfect buttery taste. I was too full for dessert but I had a coffee to finish out my meal. Honestly this was one of the best, most authentic Italian food experiences I've had, so much so that I had to write about it. A+, and I'm definitely...