La Terraza Italian Restaurant

The first few times we went to this restaurant, it was ok — even good. The last few times, not so much. Their Sunday Brunch is particularly bad. It is comprised of whatever didn’t sell out on Saturday night — buffet style.
Rigatoni a la vodka with chunks of some unidentifiable white fish. Ick.
We have since left the neighborhood and do not miss this restaurant.

it was (dadada) birthday dinner! group of 12, we had tried to make reservations at Cabana but they don’t take reservations and our entire party had to arrive before we could be seated… some people were coming from upstate, others were driving around looking for parking… it was a mess and Cabana’s is so small and busy our group would have had to be squeezed in.
so…wandered down to La Terraza and i asked the smiling manager/​owner? if he could accomodate us on such short notice. he was so nice and friendly, we waited about 8 minutes, and finally everyone arrived just in time to be seated.
it was pretty busy, the décor was a bit odd, looked like something out of an 80’s movie but not so bad that you couldn’t stand it. the waiters weren’t so happy when they found out we weren’t ordering drinks (come on we are partying AFTER dinner), the food ok but the manager/​owner? was so kind.
many got the special which was chicken and duck with a steamed pear. nothing that memorable i heard. calamari looked a bit soggy, the filet mignon my friend said was great and buttery, the pastas were heavenly but the star of the night was this HUGE tbone steak. it was so so big and juicy and only 26 $! i kept staring wistfully at that steak: next time:
we had a good time, good friends, good food is always good right? they brought out the cake, cut it for us and we were on our way to party T. T

This restaurant is now closed. I will missed the linguini with clams.

This has been my husband’s and my go-​to restaurant since we moved to the neighborhood. We went on Saturday to see the place totally cleared out with an eviction notice on the door! Say it ain’t so!

It was another dark and storm night but this time my rage against the weather machine was reaching new heights. I fully expected to be in tropical paradise kicking off a honeymoon with rhum and roti but instead thanks to mechanical airline failures found myself home, hungry and disgruntled.
Instead of pretending that the view from our apartment is the Caribbean, I decided to take refuge in the pursuit of comfort food, Italian comfort food to be exact.
My cuisine catamaran set sail across the boulevard of death, past the perils of Positano’s. (See previous review). 70^th Road restaurant row was not where I wanted to set anchor so we pressed onwards past the Midway movie theater until finding terra firma, La Terraza!
A few other brave dining souls were present in an otherwise empty Sunday night setting. The setting was comfortable and fairly what one would expect in an Italian environment– wine rack, white table cloths, 80’s instrumental muzak along with Italian vocals and dim lighting.
Ok, La Terraza isn’t breaking any new ground for décor but that’s quite all right if the food is better than the typical poop deck.
Scanning the menu, my thrifty sense was tingling– $ 9.95 baked ziti? I’m there.
We started with proscuitto and melon and the melon was surprisingly fresh. This was one of the largest melon slices I’ve seen and resembled a very large smile.
The bread brought to the table was warm and devoured.
My baked ziti was just what I needed to defuse the wrath of Tom– for while eating I harbored grudges against neither gods nor men and simply enjoyed every forkful of baked cheese, sauce and ziti.
Staff was cordial and responsive as I had to change my wife’s dessert order from mousse cake to straight up mousse. The mousse was served in a glass with whipped cream and cookies on top. From what I heard and observed it was very good.
Thank you, La Terraza for calming my tormented travel soul.

Another nightmare of a restaurant in Forest Hills.
I came here for brunch and left thinking, «Why the hell did I just pay for that???» After biting into hard pasta and generic grocery store brand sauce; I should have just hopped over the fence and ran away as fast as I could. Also, I think bruschetta is suppose to be more than just chopped up tomatoes! And why are there people on Unilocal giving this place 3 or 4 stars??? I’ll never understand that. I should also mention that the service is S… L…O…W…
Olive Garden is like Babbo when compared to this expired Ragu sauce dumping ground.

The food is definitely great. The atmosphere is OK. I really enjoy the live singer. His 1970s suit is a trip to the past, and he has a great voice. His choice of music mostly revolves around 1980s ballads — who could resist?
Food-​wise, I recommend the pasta primavera. It’s delicious.

Definitely need to come back here again, I was pleasantly surprised by this spot because I’ve always passed it and never really gave it a second thought.
If you want pretty good, typical Italian restaurant food then this is the place to go. The prices are really reasonable also and I know it’s not the biggest selling point but I like the live pianist. Had this one really great appetizer I forgot exactly what it was called but it was a portobello mushroom salad in this balsamic dressing; let’s just say it was really really good.

While in Queens (yes I return to my home borough from time to time) my wife and I decided to stop into this cute corner Italian restaurant right off Queens Boulevard.
We were seated promptly and given a great table by the window. Since it was an extremely rainy Monday evening, the place only had a few patrons inside. We had a very nice waiter who took our order. The place played some classical Italian music (duh) and had dimmed lighting, so it made for a very comfortable atmosphere after a long day at work.
We started with an order of mozzarella sticks and they were pretty tasty. Warm bread was also dropped off by waiter, which was devoured within five minutes. You see, I do not follow the rule of «skip the bread and leave room for your meal.» I will eat bread if it is left on my table, especially if it is warm and with butter.
My wife got the baked ziti, which I of course scooped up and sampled. The pasta was tasty and the sauce was darn good. I had the stuffed shells and really enjoyed them. Three big ol’ shells filled to the brim with cheese and drowned in a delicious marinara sauce.
So how did La Terraza get 4-​stars?
0.5 star=The prices were moderate
0.5 star=The waiter was great
1 star=The ambiance was perfect
2 stars=The food was downright delicious.
I highly recommend it and would return if in the neighborhood.