Cafe Toscana — Restaurant in Wilkes-Barre

This was probably one of the worst restaurants I’ve been to in a long time. We made reservations and when we walked in, the bartender just looked at us, and having never been there before we just stood there waiting for some sort of direction. It wasn’t busy at all but after about 2 minutes he came out from behind the bar and didn’t walk us to a table, but instead just pointed to a table (odd)? So we sat. A lady comes over and gives us water and then walks away chuckling (nothing has been said that was remotely funny) and we were left confused. Then the waiter comes over. He asks for our drink order and we order alcoholic beverages so we ask if he wants to see our ID (as most places do, especially because we look young). Snarky, he says, “no I really don’t care, but points towards a camera. So he continues to look at my ID for an absurd amount of time. Then, as we are eating, the staff was acting strange, and kept walking past our table even with no one sitting next to us but never once checking on us to see if our food was okay or anything like that. Then they proceeded to stand by the bar and stare at us and even laugh in our direction (the entire time!!). Whether or not it was towards us, it was extremely uncomfortable. On my way to the bathroom, the one waitress stood there and stared me up and down the entire way, and once I got to the bathroom I literally checked to see if something was on my face that she was staring at?! At the end we asked for a manager and the waiter insisted we tell him why and what it was about. We told him and he made irrelevant comments and then never sent a manager over. It was an uncomfortable experience and the staff acted like they were on drugs the entire time. 0/10 will never be back. Oh and the food was just...

Our party of 6 enjoyed a pre-theater meal. The food was delicious. We had eggplant rolatini, scallops, Cesar salad, minestrone soup, and grilled octopus for apps... they were all delicious. For entrees we had mushroom risotto that was delicious, chicken francaise, butternut squash ravioli all were outstanding entrees. The branzino, which is my favorite, was a bit disappointing... it was a little tough, dry, and super peppery. The staff was friendly and professional, but service was a bit disorganized. We arrived and were seated before 5, so we thought we had plenty of time. By 5:15, the restaurant was completely slammed with several larger parties (6+). They were trying to get everyone served prior to the 7:00 curtain, so they were all working incredibly hard, but it was difficult to get any additional service after the meals were served. Absolutely will return though. One other note... the small passthrough room between the kitchen and the front of the restaurant was like a super highway with no room. We watched countless near collisions with staff and patrons alike. Our party had to move our seats around the round table so we had an open area of the table to allow for traffic to pass by the table without stumbling on or kicking into the backs of our chairs. It would be better to put smaller or not round tables in that...

Last night, April 2nd, I took a very leisurely drive home from Philly to process all that I heard from my oncologist … the 3.5 hour drive too 7 hours which served me well … on this journey I stopped in Wilkes Barre for dinner at Cafe Toscana … it was a terrific Internet find … the restaurant is a fine dining Italian Restaurant like the ones I remember going to in Little Italy in New York City as a kid and young adult with white tables cloths & napkins … so fancy … I really liked it … the people were absolutely wonderful too … I enjoyed the food a lot … I started off with the Mozzarella Caprese Salad … it was excellent … for my main course I chose the Cappelli D’Angelo Toscana … this to was excellent and the capellini was al dente (not an easy task for any chef to get right) … their bread and flavored olive oil was delicious … I took a slice of their Carrot Cake home with me … that was … to be honest … just okay … everything else was extraordinarily delicious … I will go back there one day and I recommend this restaurant 100% … LIVE LOVE LAUGH & EAT ALWAYS … 😎🇮🇱😎

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