Located on 21-76 31st st in ASTORIA, Queens is a fabulous Italian restaurant. I love this place. A large venue with two rooms- one very large & one off to the side usually used for families with small children & private parties as well.
The decor is ITALY- high ceilings, great paintings tile & terracotta. While the menu is huge with so many choices, I always prefer to go with the nightly specials. What always amazes me is when they can recite all the specials without notes as there are many!
Chef Rocco offers many items- Appetizers on this particular evening were about 15- including burrata- a soft creamy buttery home made mozzarella, grilled octopus, stuffed zucchini blossoms (one of my favorites & a short season) a special salad with large black mission figs, chards of (large wide strips) of parmesean reggiano (the king of cheeses) thin large slices of mortadella and a balsamic drizzle, and so much more! Pastas- incredible. These offer so many, including paparadelle with rabbit, tubetini, black linguine and so much more- We chose the homemade fettuccini with sundried zucchini and a sausage ragu- outstanding. Among the many specials for entrees were a berkshire pork chop, a grilled on the bone veal chop with cremeni mushrooms,, veal or chicken paillard, short ribs, osso bucco, rack of veal, whole branzino and dover sole. To my MANY comments over the years, I did NOT have the Branzino! I had the dover sole, which was served magnificently, with the spine (bones) standing up like a fan on top of the beautiful filets of fish- accompanied by broccoli rabe wonderful!
My husband has the rack of veal- 4 large thick perfectly medium rare chops, served with haricot verts and roasted potatoes.
Too full for dessert- but they sent over as a lovely gesture their homemade "semi freddo" a chilled panna cotta with a warm rich lush zabiolione - OMG!
They are closed on Mondays and I do recommend a reservation on the weekends , although they are busy all the time!
A must go!
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