Toscana Restaurant & Lounge

Ordered take out but when I went inside it looked very nice. Great customer service. The food was great. Though they could’ve used a bit more salt but was still very very good. I will be ordering from here again. And prices were fair.

Wow, what a nice place. Service was excellent! Back bar service was very good as well, eg, plate take aways, water refills, to go boxes. They were on top of things.
There was a group of 5 of us for lunch. Plenty of room. I had the shrimp and asparagus risotto. Cooked excellent, though a bit heavy handed with salt. Could be the broth. Anyway, it was super tastey. I also had the side of broccolli with garlic, olive oil and pine nuts. Wow, was that every good. Minnestroni was pretty good as well. Lots of veggies and more brothy (thin) than soupy. Very good.
I liked the two different kinds of breads for the table, g, italian bread and some kinda tomato focasia. The fresh fish halibut special was excellent as well. And less than $ 20. That hit the spot.
Not sure if I would visit from the south suburbs, but being 10 min from the office, not bad… Not bad at all.

Surprising gem of a restaurant. Located in a non descript strip mall, Toscanas is a hidden gem in the NW suburbs. I had the linguine with a spicy red sauce and shrimp. The portions are enormous and I left feeling stuffed with a to go bag. Fair prices. Our friends ordered the gnocchi which was excellent.

This place is fantastic, I accidentally discovered it 4 years ago when I first moved into the area and ever since then it’s been my husband and I’s favorite Italian restaurant. The Veal Limone is my absolute favorite, the service is great and the food is phenomenal!

Wonderful hidden gem. Found this place on Unilocal and decided to try it out. Not hard to find, but minimal signage. Not very noticeable to draw you in if you’re just driving by. Unfortunate because this place is worth a drop in.
We were greeted when we walked in with friendly service. The atmosphere was casual and welcoming with some very neat painting on the walls. It felt clean and well kept.
They started out with all the bread you can eat. We ordered the fettuccini alfredo with a little marinara mixed in. It was delicious and reasonably priced. Our waitress, Angie, was extremely friendly and attentive as were other staff that assisted.
Definitely recommend this place and we would definitely come back.

Stopped in for dinner the service was good portion were just right the only reason not giving 5 stars is because the food is a little above average. I have had a lot of Italian food so im pretty picky but the service was awesome, would go back

Everything we have had is Very Tasty, Go there often with family, Staff and Hostess are cheerful nice.

There used to be a great southern Italian restaurant in downtown Arlington Heights called Reginas. Once they closed I had the task of finding my next favorite Italian restaurant. This one comes pretty close to Reginas. The meals are made from scratch, and there are a variety of tasty specials combined with the usual menu items. I’m also impressed by this place because, like Reginas, the guy running the place is very visible in the dining area, always checking the operations to make sure every customer has a great experience while visiting. Whenever I have a craving for a great southern Italian meal, this is always my first choice.

Always a reliable Italian restaurant and it’s just down the street. I love their linguini and clams with red sauce. The meal begins with great bread. Salads are ok but the pasta is great. This visit I had spaghetti carbonara and it was fabulous. Good, reasonably priced wine list. The only negative was the server’s accent, she was hard to understand. But it will remain one of our local favorites.

Solid! I have ordered from the catering menu this past week for our RMHS FB boys… the chicken parm was their favorite! You get 40 smaller pieces with a full order… meant for 20 people… it is great for sharing!!!
Love the mussels as well! And my husband is crazy about the soups.
Always solid!

Came here on a Friday evening around 5:00 just in time before a lot more people started coming in. It was my first time eating out here, and the experience was great for many reasons. The atmosphere was great! it really had an Italian feel to it, and the space between tables was decent. The staff was very friendly and provided great service. Most importantly the food was excellent.

We couldn’t be bothered to light the grill during our impromptu family get-​together. Let’s just order in. Family indecisive, one starts to improvise a reality TV-​style pilot, channeling the Snickers commercial, «You aren’t yourself when you’re hungry,» and being whiny, instead of his fun self; everyone else started to slowly join in. «Wait, this isn’t an improvisation, it’s really happening,» I thought! Someone had to take charge; so it was I. Mom suggests Toscana. There’s a reason that moms are the best. With my pencil and Toscana’s website, I quickly got consensus before the blood sugar got too low.
Start with a couple Cesar salads? Check. Five pastas, family-​style? Check. Mom always gets the Tortellini Paesano; pesto is to my tongue as is music to my ears; you can never go wrong with too much garlic, hence aglio & olio; we mix it up with the Gnocchi Romano, and we’d better get at least one thing that’s healthy, so we round it out with the Heart Healthy. Let’s also invest in a tiramisu and a cannoli to ensure that the meal ends with a sweet taste in our mouths.
I called Toscana. The woman who answered was very friendly, and fine with me figuring out salad dressings, when it turned out that a side salad came with each pasta. It will be ready in 20 minutes. I was there in 20, but… Wow, a desolate, half-​occupied strip-​mall. Not too promising! I was starting to worry about Mom’s faculties… But the woman who took my order was there, the food was ready, my card was run; I grabbed the two shopping bags by the handles, ran to the car, squealed out of the desolate parking lot, and was home in 5. Hungry family was happily ready. Food runner/​Yelper gives 5 stars to the take-​out service.
The food was good, basic Italian fare. Nothing notable, but nothing bad. Mom was right about the Tortellini Paesano. Nothing wrong with a stuffed-​pasta with a sauce & vittles reminiscent of carbonara. The pesto and Heart Healthy were also tasty, and it would have been hard to screw up the aglio & olio (though I’ve seen it done). I was of two «minds» regarding the gnocchi (those things have always looked like little brains to me anyway). The gnocchi themselves were the perfect consistency, with the right «chew.» But the tomato sauce on them seemed a little thin – they really could have used a heartier sauce (I was thinking pesto, as I chewed my fettucine that was coated in it.) Dad had been worried that we wouldn’t have bread, but that came with it too.
Mom was spot on in her suggestion. The whole family perked up after lunch and went on to play a rousing board game, had fun, and went on with our lives.
I love Snickers, but if you don’t have one in the house, Toscana is a good alternative to keep the moods elevated.

Always great food and service. Great wine selection. A lot of daily food specials to choose from. Don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s in a strip mall in a strange location but it is a hidden gem. Had a last minute change of plans Easter morning and called in a reservation for 9 people 20 minutes in advance. Everything was delicious and the service was great

My boyfriend and I were in the mood for some Italian food and this place was close by our crib so we decided to go all out. We ordered some pastas, stuffed shells, veal dish, mussels and sausage. We decided carry out and to my surprise the place looks nice and the hostess was very sweet and polite. We got our food and headed back home. Packaging was prepared nicely and the soups were in these nice green cups not like in those Styrofoam cups. I thought the food was just okay but my boyfriend loved it but I’m assuming he would say that because he didn’t eat all day so he could eat anything right now lol.
The sauce tasted like it came out from a jar, I expected more homemade. The soup was good, I got chicken jambalaya and also the bread and butter wasn’t too bad either. The pasta was kind of mushy and stuck together, I don’t like eating stuck and mushed together pasta. I had to add the sauce from my mussels dish on to my pasta because it was bit dry. But overall it’s okay.
Price is reasonable and location was easy to find.

I was here with a fairly large party for dinner on a Sunday night. The bread, wine and food were all pretty good. I had the chicken cacciatore — two chicken breasts with onions, tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms on top and a side of pasta. I ate pretty much every bite of food on the plate. The portion was a little small compared to what you usually get at an Italian restaurant, but that was fine because the entrée came with salad and bread and I was pleasantly full when I left — not ready to collapse or vomit due to overeating. I also had the gelato for dessert (chocolate and vanilla) which was really good.
The issue I have with this place is the service. I was going to include our server’s name in this review, but I decided not to because I don’t want to be that big a of a jerk. First off, she rather nastily carded me (I am 32) when I ordered a glass of wine which would have been fine except for the fact that she did NOT card my 24 year old male cousin when he ordered hard liquor. I can only assume by the way she was smiling and laughing at him all night that she thought he was attractive or something. Also, it really bothers me when servers ask you to pass them dishes or pass someone else their dishes. This waitress was constantly making me and others at my table do her job. Sorry, we are paying to have you bring food out and put it on the table, not to hand it to me just to make me serve the person two places down because you are too lazy. Lastly, I was in the middle of my meal when the waitress and busboys kept coming over and asking for us to pass them dishes others were done with. I was trying to eat… could that not have waited? I felt like I worked there or something. It was bizarre.
I would come back here and just hope I got a different waitress. It does seem unfair to judge the restaurant based on one not so good server. Again, the food was pretty good and very reasonably priced. Just be ready to work for it when you get there.

Very busy due to the power outage in the area and they have no waiting area to sit only stand. They offer gluten free but no gluten free menu. My gluten-​free meal was the heart healthy pasta w/​mushrooms spinach & added chicken. I would rate that an ⁸⁄₁₀. My mother in law loved the caesar salad and my husband liked the chicken cacciatore however he said the angel hair pasta that came with it did not have a taste The sauce was where the flavor was.

We arrived there late Sunday night and there were fewer people than we expected. So we were able to be seated and place order right away.
Food was good and came in big portion. We ordered boscaiola (light creamy homemade tomato sauce! Cream and tomato are well-​balanced!), chicken marsala (smell good and tasted undoubtedly good too) and veal vesuvio (the roasted potato was a surprise. Crispy outside! No comment on the veal since this is my first time to try veal). In the end we had tiramisu as dessert. It was OK. Regular homey taste as that we usually make at home. But it was a big piece of dessert as we were all stuffed.

I married into an Italian family.
They’re half Italian and half Polish but the Italian side seems to dominate.
The presence of Italian food is practically mandatory when we see each other. When we gather, we devour endless pasta and cheese and pizza and mozzerella sticks and all things carb-​loaded and dairy-​filled and meat-​stuffed. My poor little stomach is bursting at the seams after these meals and my body suffers for the next few days from the overload of carbs and cheese.
I’m sitting on the couch right now with a stuffed stomach from my Italian dinner earlier this evening. (I might need to spend the next few days drinking green juices to get my body back to its’ normal self. And maybe a cupcake or two.)
Anyway. Every year, we all get together in November and head out to my husband’s grandfather’s grave to put down a wreath, say a quick prayer, and swap storires. Then we go out to eat aftewards at an Italian restaurant. Tonight, we went to Toscana.
Toscana is located in a nearly hidden strip mall that contains a senior center, an organization for people with disabilities, and one other restaurant/​bar. It’s very easy to overlook, yet, it was surpringly busy for a Sunday night. The back room had some kind of children’s birthday party going on and nearly every table in the front was filled. Fortunately, our party of nine didn’t have to wait and some tables were pushed together to quickly accommodate us. In fact, the entire staff was incredibly warm, friendly, and patient. They did what they could to make our experience pleasant.
We started off with the generous baskets of delicious foccacia breads on the table. I think we went through six baskets before we even placed our order! YUM. The dinner menu was a basic Italian-​American menu — a few appetizers, many pasta dishes, a few chicken dishes, a few fish dishes, and more, with plenty of wines to choose from. I wanted to order fish but it was $ 17 for the fish, and just the fish alone. Pasta didn’t come with it. Bummer. Because I hate spending too much money, I decided on penne primavera instead: pasta and mixed vegetables sauteed in garlic and olive oil. Everyone else had their preferred cheesy pasta dish.
It wasn’t long before our food arrived. The portions were just right: not too big (like usual chain establishments) and not too small. My penne primavera was delicious — the garlic flavor was a bit strong but not overpowering, and the olive oil was generous but the food wasn’t swimming in it. My mouth was happy. We were all happy.
I hope this place becomes a regular destination for our crazy Italian family.

I was pretty disappointed by Toscana. I came here because of the good reviews, but unfortunately we didn’t experience much good! When I first walked in, I said I needed a table for two. Both the hostess and another man (I’m guessing the owner/​manager of sorts) rudely told me that I could either sit at the bar or leave. Hmmm… thanks I guess?
Since I had already made plans to meet someone here, I stayed at the bar. The bartender was nice, but no matter where you go, the food service is never as good at the bar, because the bartender is too busy being a bartender. I felt rushed to make a food decision (the menu is pretty short and simple… not very creative or different). I ended up getting a glass of the house chardonnay (not that great), and the pasta with shrimp and white wine sauce. The pasta was hard, there wasn’t much sauce, it was very garlicy, and the shrimp seemed overcooked. My friend said her pasta was hard as well. The salad was plain, but my friend said her soup was good. We were given bread which was decent, and you can make your own olive oil/​cheese dipping sauce. Overall I ended spending $ 30 for a dinner that was not worth $ 30 at all.
The atmosphere is cute, but this place is tiny and gets so busy. Before we left we had hoards of people standing behind us at the bar waiting for us to leave. We basically felt pressured to leave and it was not a good atmosphere to stay and have conversation (it was very loud… especially with people right behind you loudly talking). We had to ask for a box and our check since we had pretty much been forgotten about. Not a great experience at all. Wouldn’t recommend it, and I won’t be going back.

Shat.
this place is bumping on a friday night, super busy but the staff does a good job getting people in and out. The menu isnt that big but they had A LOT of specials, make sure you ask about the specials cause they are bomb ass. I got a fried chicken alfredo and my boyfriend got a stuff salmon (OMG) so good.
moral of the review, go after the specials… and the pumpkin cheesecake, also really good.
also make a reservation…