Fanatico Italian Bistro & Bar — Restaurant in Town of Oyster Bay

I used to be a somewhat regular here. Food quality was good and consistent. I must say it seems the times we are in have taken its toll on their portion size and pricing. I spent $27 for Chicken Franchese dinner with pasta. It used to come in 2 containers, one with the chicken and sauce. Pasta in another. I guess to cut costs, they now put it all together which is smart. I had no issue with that. However, once I finished the entire meal, I was still hungry. I used to have left overs. My wife had grilled chicken over pasta too. We were going to combine all the left overs so she had enough for lunch at work. Well that didn't take place as she finished the entire small portion she got as well and was still hungry. We ended up baking some cookies at 8:30 at night for a snack since we were both hungry. (We ordered dinner at about 7:30pm, and ate about 8pm after picking up food to take out) Oh and on top of this, we did have the 4 rice bowl appetizer. So after spending over $60, we had to eat snacks. Neither my wife or I are huge people who can "eat" and clear a buffet type people. Just average who eat normal portions. I don't believe after eating Italian food, one should still be hungry. Although prices for everything is going up, I can still buy a lb of spaghetti full price for $1.89 a box. So between that and 2 slices of chicken, at $8.99/lb for white meat maybe costs $4.00 in chicken. Then another $1.00 for the sauce. Makes a $7.00 meal. I know they have to pay for overhead, staff, make money etc. But I should not still be hungry. Heck, pasta in itself is filling. Not happy. I'll be going to other Italian restaurants where I'll get a full size adult portion. Not a kids...

Full disclosure: this is where I proposed to my wife, so this review may be biased! ;-)

Joking aside. The food and service are excellent!!!

On a recent trip, I had the Chicken Sinatra. (Can only assume it's named after Old Blue Eyes.)

What is it?

Chicken Francese on the bottom ... then a thin slice of eggplant ... then a thin slice of prosciutto ... then fresh mozzarella ... and then roasted red peppers.

Good? No. Fantastic!!! Truly one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had in any restaurant (Italian or otherwise).

Love their fried zucchini. Love their chicken soup.

They also make some really delicious fried mozzarella. Not "mozzarella sticks" but mozzarella balls, lightly breaded and fried, arranged in a little pyramid-shaped pile sitting atop some delicious marinara sauce.

Another favorite of ours is the rigatoni. It's made fresh daily. Every Italian restaurant serves pasta, but how many serve homemade fresh pasta??? This is fantastic rigatoni! We order it with cubes of fresh mozzarella and a simple tomato sauce (aka 'Sugo al Pomodoro'). Yum!

It's beautifully decorated. The servers are on their game! Prices are very reasonable. It's super clean.

Oh, and the desserts are...

Okay, I want to start off saying the food is good. Not great but good. The first time we went there, it wasn’t busy at all and we had amazing service and the food was fantastic. We ordered the spaghetti the first time and it came out excellent. The waitress was making sure our water was always filled and she gave us really nice infused water with fruit in it. The second time we went, we ordered penny alla vodka and it was gluten-free. The gluten-free was undercooked and when we told them, they were making it a big deal. The service was awful and she made us feel bad that we were ordering gluten-free. She was really rude and it was just terrible service. The waitress was focusing on the bigger tables and not the other customers. When we walked in the owner or cook was yelling at the hostess telling her to focus on the bigger tables and not the little tables. We were trying to give this place a chance but this is a no...