Mario’s Tuscany Grill

Pleasant service, good prices, decent food. My wife has fettuccine alfredo, which was fine; my son had cavatelli with sausage and broccoli, which was also good, though the slices of sausage looked a bit pink to me. Some reviews have said this is a New York-​style place. Maybe, if you are a tourist eating in Little Italy. But not for New Yorkers eating Italian food in the city for the past 30 years.

Excellent food and excellent service. I would not be fooled by any of the other places in this small town. Marios has a New York flare and flavor. I travel a lot and have been to many places.

Our dining experience here last evening was so good, I had to write a review!
«Shauna,» our wait staff person was pleasant, efficient and very attentive. We both ordered the Salmon Mario, which was the best salmon ever. Fresh, flaky and delicious, a huge portion was served on a bed of rice with the most flavorful sauce ever tasted! The dish included sauteed spinach, pepper and came with shrimp! Both salads had fresh, crispy, perfect greens, and we recommend the «house made» Blue cheese dressing with a hint of fresh garlic! The bread was melt in your mouth tender, and since they have extra virgin olive oil on table, the bread was a great part of the experience! If you are within driving distance of downtown Winsted, CT you MUST try Mario’s Tuscany Grill!

I’m liking Mario’s a lot, but I can only speak to the apizza. It ranks among the best in the Berkshires. They make a thin crust that is out of this world. The sauce is real and everything tastes fresh. Great reheated, too. We’ve also only done take-​out there, so I can’t speak to the wait service. The apizza guys, yes, they are pretty clinical, but they make a great apizza and the takeout room is not the place for you if you want the ambiance or therapy of Cheers.

Calamari tasted (and looked) just like rubber bands. The waitstaff appeared miserable. None of the staff smiled or welcomed us to their restaurant. The eggplant was sliced paper thin then was dredged in flour and fried, layered so to look like a big plate of eggplant parm. I was actually just eating fried flour! It was absolutely disgusting. Celentanos eggplant parm (in ur grocers freezers) is delicious compared to this restaurant. Please do yourself a favor and find a welcoming, real homemade Italian restaurant. I’d give this place a 0 rating if I could

Great food and service one of the best restaurants in Winsted great menu good specials all at a good price. Nice bar for relaxed dining good drinks fun. Staff very attentive and food serve in a timely manner a must stop if you have yet to dine there

I am so disappointed with Mario’s. My family and I have been coming here for as long as I can remember, and it has always been amazing. I always got the gnocchi and pasta fagoli soup. They no longer have gnocchi. Everything anyone ordered was always great. I went back yesterday and it was horrible.
1. I called in an order and the guy on the phone was rude and aggressive. I had to go through my order of soup and an entrée three times and it was unreal. My brother also ordered separately on the phone and had the same guy and same issue, and wasn’t able to even pay with his card on the phone.
2. Went in to get the food. Paying for my brothers and my orders, and dealt with the same guy as on the phone. Just as rude in person, was all over the place, gave me a hard time because I wanted to use the same card to pay for both orders. Took him like five minutes to figure out that I was picking up two orders. Acting erratic and tapping his fingers on the register non-​stop.
3. The food all around was not good. I got the tortellini pesto and my boyfriend had the pasta primavera. Neither was good. In fact it was pretty bad. The pasta fagoli soup which has been amazing for years was completely average. My brother’s lobster ravioli, same story.
4. In total, $ 80 for a meal that I could have made better at home.
Like I said, loved this place for years. I heard its under new management so that might be whats up.

We have gone to Mario’s for 5 years and it seems the quality has been slowly declining. The last straw was when I ordered a Cesar salad with dressing on the side. The salad came with dressing mixed in, soggy and very skimpy, looked half eaten to be honest.(picture uploaded) I called Mario’s to complain and the young guy who answered the phone said if I didn’t like it I could bring it back and get a refund. Pretty much like, who cares? This was more annoying than the quality of the salad. I gave this restaurant 2 stars because in the past the pizza has been pretty good. We get pizza and salads now at another place in town and everything is much better. Hopefully Mario’s will go back to the way they were before.

I was really excited to try some Italian eats here.
The bread that came first was hard as a rock. Asked the waitress for more and this time it was warm and soft. so much better. Didn’t care for the pepper jelly served with the bread.
I ordered lasagna was $ 16 and honestly when it came it looked like two long skinny manicotti shells to be the dish. It wasn’t much food for the price. The taste just wasn’t there either. The meat inside was grisly and weird. Did not finish it.
Kind of a let down for an expensive restaurant meal.
The inside of the restaurant was pretty but honestly doubt I would return… maybe for a lunch to give a different dish a chance.

Hands down the best food in Winsted. The staff and owners are very friendly. The atmosphere is very comfortable.
The quesadillas, pizza, grinders, and dinners are top notch. I have never had a bad meal at Marios. If you’re traveling through Winsted, head straight to Marios.

Second time here. At first I wasnt so impressed. But this time, it was delicious. Chicken Zingara was very good and Jambilaya was spicy!!! :) Strangely they made Arnold Palmer w pink lemonade. It wasn’t bad.

I really don’t want to be snarky in these reviews, but these types of places make me be snarky. Parking: on-​street, usually no problem finding a spot. Went here with my wife just before the 1^st dinner rush. Food alone would garner a 4/​5, but on today’s visit, we found a short black hair in our plain ‘olé large cheese pizza (always a good hallmark for an Italian American place). Turns out the cook has short black hair. Don’t think our server ever believed us (it is Winsted and they probably have the local wildlife trying to scam them every day). Absolutely no comp for our wasted time on having them remake our pizza. We ordered the spiedini appetizer: grocery store mozz sticks in a surprisingly delicious sauce. Not a very lengthy wine or draught beer list — wine list definately 5 – 6 times wholesale vs. 4. Dinner we ordered a large cheese pizza & their Gourmet White. The cheese pizza is NY style thin crust. Crust is a buttery almost baked fried dough texture with plenty of tooth; cheese and red sauce average (i had to put parm & red pepper flake to get good taste out of it). The Gourmet White tasted fresh & my wife actually liked it (she’s neither a white nor thin crust fan). To attempt to put our dining experience back on the rails, I asked our server for a drink recommendation after our meal – she just didn’t commit to anything. I finally ended up choosing a pomegranate «Martini» which had neither gin nor vermouth, but Ketel 1 vodka and juice — and on the strong side. I try to lead these people to water, but they never end up drinking. The price for this disaster was $ 50 before tip – exactly the same as the other crap in the area.
Bottom line, why is it so hard to use fresh ingredients rather than frozen trucked-​in pallets of nasty? And train your staff appropriately too — «Tuscany» be a gigantic fat lie. I’d call it «Mario’s more American than Italian Bar.»
In this case, it’s not what you pay for, rather the location that it’s in. Why settle for Winsted standards?

Actually, a solid 3.5. Good potions, good price and solid quality. I had the pasta with meatballs and sausage and my wife the chicken parm. The meatballs were very well seasoned and had great consistency. The chicken in the parm was fresh, not frozen and reheated. The service was fine, the atmosphere fine. Very broad menu selection. I liked it.

I’ve been eating here since I was a little girl. Every time, I leave satisfied and happy, but never amazed. The food is good, the waitresses, although a little overwhelmed at times, are attentive and good with recommendations, and the owner is constantly coming to check on his customers. I had the eggplant parmesan last time I was here, and the eggplant was thinly sliced, fried wonderfully, and covered with a nice, thick slice of melted cheese. It was delicious!
The building is beautiful, the tables are covered in starched, white tablecloths, there are candles and a full bar, and the locals love it here. It’s authentic and classy.
This is a solid choice for Italian food in Winsted, and as soon as you enter the building, you’re family.

Best pizza in the area, winsted is mainly pizza but Mario’s is the best with great management.

I would like to preface this by stating my husband and I ordered boring food. I ordered a meatball grinder (because it had been over 5 years since I’d had one) and he had a hickory burger. The service was fast and the food came out surprisingly quickly. We did go on a Sunday night so I don’t think it was very busy. Their french fries are very good. They are crispy and seasoned. The grinder was huge. I could barely eat half of it. The burger was good size too. Both had a good taste, but nothing exceptional. I would like to go back and try something more interesting.

On a rainy Thursday evening, we were taken here by a business associate. We’d been to a food event in the area and chose this restaurant because of the quality of their offering at the food event.
The place is essentially a pizzeria with a very handsome bar and a couple of spartan, brightly lit dining rooms.
The bar was full of locals who appeared to be having a good time. The cocktails appeared to be generous. I don’t know how much they were. We were driving and it was late so we opted for water.
We were sat at a booth in the bar after wandering around a bit aimlessly. The table was dirty but was wiped down by the server who brought our menus.
I could tell what we were about to experience. The menu goes on and on and on… page after page trying to be everything to everybody. I cringed when I spotted something on the order of «Southwestern Egg Rolls» on the appetizer list.
Let’s cut to the chase. My pasta with meatballs was bitter — the sauce had been cooked way too long and included too much tomato paste and not enough tomatoes. It was thick as spackle. The ziti underneath had been over-​cooked to the point it fell apart. The meatballs were flavorful enough, complex with garlic and a whisper of cinnamon. They were all I ate.
A salad was tiny and droopy. The house hamburger ($ 8) had very little taste nor juiciness, and was a gloppy mess of onions and cheese. The pasty, mealy fries were the cheap frozen variety.
Our friend opted for «Seafood Jambalaya.» When he ordered Jambalaya at an Italian restaurant I cringed. The dish reeked of a somewhat unpleasant fish odor. The seafood had obviously been frozen and not defrosted very well. The broth was forgettable. To the restaurant’s credit, the dish ($ 23) was very, very large.
Service was cheerful, unobtrusive and efficient — when they finally got there. The décor in the bar is really beautiful. I guess one could enjoy a drink and a snack here. But order carefully.
Two stars because we only visited here once; and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. (We normally visit a place at least two times before Unilocaling).

After moving from Murray Hill, Manhattan, NY, I miss good pizza.
I can honestly say, Mario’s is up to par on some delicious pizza.
What I like:
–Gourmet Pizza: The garlic base seasoning, as we say in Italy, «Va Bene!»
The combination of spinach, tomatoes, and Gorgonzola cheese is perfecto.
–The Margarita White: Good choice for those on a limited budget
–The Works-​Good for meat lovers
–Tortellini– My favorite pasta dish and choice. The pasta comes with bread and a salad. Their bleu cheese dressing is homemade, get that.

I’m revising my old review because I feel that the 5 star rating (for the martini menu) isn’t really fair to the qquality of the food, and bumps up the rating of the restaurant. I don’t really go to eat there anymore. The food has gone downhill. It’s still the most popular place in town, but that isn’t saying much. The pizza is by far the best thing on the menu. We used to enjoy their calamari and now it’s just cut too thickly and it is very chewy and underseasoned.
A few months ago, I had a seafood special with scallops. They were teeny bay scallops baked with some sort of fake crab meat and cheesy sauce — not at all how it was referenced on the menu. It also came with no sides and was $ 23. My husband got a steak, and he was really not impressed. It was chewy and not worth the price that they were charging.
The other items worth ordering are the sandwiches and burgers — those are reasonable, and come with fries. The fries are coated, though, so they aren’t my favorite. I will say that for the price of a large dinner, I’d much rather leave Winsted and head to Litchfield or West Hartford. It is absolutely not worth the prices that they charge.

Really good place to eat. Quite atmosphere. The place has a small bar attached so if you feel the need to hammer a few it right in the other room. Friendly wait staff and the meals are moderately priced. I would DEFINITELY go back.
Recommended!