Toscana Ristorante

Awesome… I had the shrimp toscano… the chef nailed it… just the right amount of heat and ingrediants. I’d eat it again…

The Avocado salad and my waiter, Brandon, made my day. The salad was recommended and it was delish! I will make it back again!

OK experience. We were a group of six, and our first choice was closed on Sunday. This was a geographically close alternative. Being a short walk from River Walk, meant that instead of having to wait for a table at a River Walk restaurant (we checked a few), we were seated immediately. The prices struck me as a little high, but our entrees were all good, but not great. Incredibly, they were out of shrimp, and though one of us was asked if a substitution would be OK (more scallops), one of was not. My Penne Mediterranean (Penne pasta tossed with eggplant, feta cheese, red onion sun-​dried tomatoes olive oil, garlic and fresh basil) was good. Lots of sun dried tomato, but a little lite on the feta. I was also surprised that a place that calls itself a «ristorante & bar», and considering its location, did not have draft beer. There was a pizza ordered at the next table that looked pretty good and, in retrospect, should have ordered that. Service was good, but then again the place was not very crowded either.

The food is good, but be prepared to wait. The servers could be a lot better at communicating when the food is taking longer than it should and don’t go on your lunch hour. This is the second time I have gone there and each time, we had to ask about our food and how much longer it was going to be. We had about 15 minutes to eat in the end and have to eat it cold at work. The service was good, but soooooo slow.

Everything was delicious we had chicken piccata and shrimp prosciutto wrapped it was set on mashed potatoes with a chipotle sauce. Was very good

I had dinner here this evening — shrimp. & scallop risotto — heavenly! Great service too. Not sure why others have rated it lower!

Very disappointing on Valentine’s Day. We were a party of 6 with reservations at 6pm. How does an Italian restaurant run out of penne, meatballs, sausage and risotto before 7pm on Valentine’s Day or any other day, for that matter? To add insult to injury, they attempted to pass off mashed potatoes as risotto in one of our dishes. Regular menu was replaced with an abbreviated Valentines menu (with inflated prices). Atmosphere was nice, the food was so-​so, waiter was great (especially under the circumstances)…honestly one of the best tiramisu I’ve ever had… but I will not be returning to this restaurant.

We were very disappointed. Outside there was a board that showed Chicken Marsala for 11.99. The chicken taste like it had been warned in the microwave and had a weird texture. When the bill came it showed $ 21.99 for each. Two of us had it. When we showed the waiter he said «oops…you shouldn’t have seen that… that was left over from the lunch menu». We explained that was what brought us in the door. He laughed and made us paid 21.99 per. I think this was a deliberate false advertisement to get people in the door. Later when we walked by the restaurant it was still showing.
Good customer service would have had us pay 11.99 and covered the board up as not to trick other customers.

Probably the best Ceasar salad I have ever had!!! The pasta was great too– but the apparent son of the owner cannot put his phone down long enough to help anything. I posted pic of him in action – haha! The bartender Roger who actually was even feeling bad tonight made me feel like a princess– made me a special drink and customized my dinner for me! GO and meet roger at the bar!!!

Food was okay but not really Italian/​mexican fusion. I had the caprese salad and calamari. Both were descent. The calamari was lightly breaded and fried which is he way I like it… more of a tempura batter. They also added fried lemon wheels (I don’t recommend eating these I think it was a failed attempt as a garnish) and also fried jalapeños, which I do recommend eating these. Service is slow so not good for a quick bite. In fact I think here was o my one waiter for the entire lunch hour.

Rating for the food is definitely 5 stars. Filet mignon was amazing, and so was their sangria. I also liked their Caesar salad. Crab cakes were not that good, the spices in mine seemed to not mesh well. Also I would recommend on getting olive oil and pepper for your bread at the beginning. The vinegar gives it a very odd taste. Very nice looking place overall. However our waiter decided to automatically give himself a 20% tip and didn’t allow us to change it.

Very convenient to the Majestic Theater. My wife had been there previously, but I wanted to check it out. I ordered the Italian Meatball Soup for a starter and the Veal Piccata. I am very picky about my Veal Piccata and Toscana really nailed it.
Great flavors in both the soup and the Piccata. The portions were perfect.
Our server was very professional, efficient and he did a great job overall.
Nice bar with a fair selection of drinks.
The only downside was my wife stated the women’s bathroom was out of toilet paper and rather messy, but we both agree that we would definitely come here again.

The food was great and so was the service. Very nice and recommended .
Both the chicken Marsala and the stuffed chicken was great.
Avocado salad is really good and so is the kids meal.
They enjoyed the pasta with cream sauce and chicken and also the great meatballs!

Left the River walk and went up to street level in the hopes of widening our options for dinner. Being in town for the weekend we didn’t know where to go. We decided to give Toscana’s a try. We ordered Lasagna and Penne Primavera with chicken. I asked the waiter what kind of vegetables were in the primavera and he said zucchini, broccoli, and the usual suspects. The lasagna wasn’t bad. The Primavera was a huge disappointment. The vegetables turned out to be mushrooms and canned peas and it definitely wasn’t the white sauce I asked for, but the worst offence was that the penne was way overcooked. I like it al dente. I did say something when the manager came by, but I really thought they gave me one of the other dishes. He assured me it was the primavera and brought me some white sauce when I had just about finished eating it. Mostly I guess I just wasn’t impressed.

Wow they were on tonight! Had the seafood risotto and Malbec. Service was amazing and I’m telling you the risotto was to die for! Wonderful experience.

The flavor of the food at this restaurant is what gets 1 star. This place is a prime candidate for Restaurant Impossible. Robert Irvine would definitely spit out this food.
The first sign was the bread brought to the table upon arrival. It was cold and burned on the bottom. The marinara sauce has the consistency of tomato sauce and tastes like they just opened a can of tomatoes and added some garlic powder. The «pizza» was reminiscent of what you are served at a cafeteria in grade school. Many a chain restaurants have better tasting Italian offerings.
If you are craving Italian food and downtown, walk another block and find a different establishment.

I usually make an effort to be fair in my reviews, but this has to be the worst Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to. I would give this place 0 Stars, but submitting a review requires at least 1. This place should be ashamed at claiming to be an actual restaurant.
DECOR: The atmosphere/​décor fool you into thinking it is a restaurant. It was actually pretty nice looking with a big wooden bar and large windows to look out into the city streets. And then…
FOOD: the food was terrible. We ordered the calamari as an appetizer, and before it even arrive, the complimentary bread we received was noticeable burned around the edges. Not crisped or toasted. Burned. Then the calamari came and we knew we weren’t going to want to stay for an entrée. It was undercooked, chewy, with sauce out of a can, and random fried pieces of lemon slices and jalapeño slices in it. Needless to say, we did not finish it. While we continued to wait (far too long) for the undersized, too expensive personal pizza (8″ for $ 10!!! Really!!!) we ordered for my 2 year old, we figured we’d at least order the free bruschetta appetizer that was offered with Unilocal check-​in. The bread on that appetizer also came burned, and we found a piece of plastic in the dish (look at photos to see). We didn’t bother to eat that appetizer and just continued to wait for the pizza (20 mins at this point). The pizza looked like it was a frozen pizza, and an undercooked one at that. Absolutely no crisp in the crust; just chewy. The cheese was not fully melted, and the pepperoni only broke a sweat. Even my 2 year old looked at my wife and me like «what is this?»
STAFF: the only person who should have no blame in this experience was our server. He was great. He gave as much attention to us as he could, given that he was waiting tables AND bar tending. The cooks were our biggest issue (I refuse to say «chefs» for this place), with bland, chewy, undercooked, and all around terrible food. On top of that was the management. Before we made any issue known to anyone, it was a manager that delivered our bruschetta to us with the obviously burnt toast slices, and he brought it out anyway. When we asked if breaded and fried lemon and jalapeño slices were common to calamari (we know they are not), he didn’t even know whether they used them or not, and had to ask the owner who was now at our table as well. When we mentioned our experience with the food, the owner said she was surprised, claiming that all of their ingredients are fresh. HA! Fresh out of a can maybe! Fresh out of a bag maybe!
It’s really sad that this place is so horrible because it’s right next to the children’s museum. It would have been a convenient place to frequent after our visits to the children’s museum, which is how we stumbled upon it today. Even mediocre would have sufficed, but this place is terrible. Don’t be fooled by the professionally staged food photos listed with this place from a year ago or so. They must have been from someone who worked there. It would be hard to believe this place took such a drastic nosedive in under a year. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place. It is worth it to walk another block or two to find any other place to eat.

Saturday afternoon lunch, party of 6… wait staff confused, didn’t know beer selection, no biggie. So you’re an Italian restaurant and don’t serve Italian beer? Only until after our 1 hour wait for our food (while others arrived after/​served before) and a talk with the manager, yes they do have Italian beer.
Slow Slow Slow, waitress disappeared often. Three of our party got served luke warm dishes after the long wait… then a 15 minute wait for the remaining 3, but they were steamy hot!
Give 1 star for a clean place, another star because the manager realized the horrible experience and didn’t charge… we had to leave WITHOUT eating. She tried to make it right, but sorry, won’t be back.

Went to dinner at Toscana before a show at the Majestic. The restaurant is less than a block away. Made reservations online and was pleasantly surprise with the corner table and great view.
Had the carpaccio starter which was really good. Ordered prosciutto wrapped shrimp with spicy mashed potatoes. The shrimp and potatoes was delicious and well cooked. I would recommend it.
Wife had the scallops with avocado risotto. The risotto was done delicately well. The scallops lacked seasoning, but were fresh and cooked well. Overall good dish.
The owner, Mauricio, approached the table several times to ensure a pleasant experience. He also recommended the lemoncello dessert that was amazing.
Overall great experience, great food, and great owner. Recommend!

This place is just an ok establishment…
It’s open late on weekends (12am on Saturday), and it looks nice from the outside, but really it’s what’s on the inside that counts. First off, this is a beautiful restaraunt, with good lighting, nice tables, and overall a great ambiance (especially to take a date). However, the service and the food subtract from the overall experience. Came here at around 9:30 PM with a group of friends, and there was only one server for five tables. Not too bad, but considering that we got our drinks, bread, and appetizers all within a 5 minute span, was sort of annoying. Also weird, was the fact that there were tables seated after us, that got their appetizers before we even got to put in our entrée order. Also, our server dropped some silverware on the floor and nobody picked it up for a good five to ten minutes. ugh.
The food was not too bad, but a bit overpriced for what you get. Fettucini Alfredo with chicken for 18 dollars seems a bit far fetched, and the seafood risotto for 20+ that was overly salty with not too many pieces of seafood also made me sad.
Overall, it’s a nice place to take someone, but the food just isn’t (or wasn’t that night) up to the standards the ambiance and mood of the restaraunt sets once you walk in.