King Umberto

It’s been long over due in giving a review. My wife and I have been coming to King Umberto’s since 1976. The staff is very friendly including management and they go out of their way to make sure you have a good experience. Regarding the food, my wife and I have probably tried everything on the menu from appetizer to desserts. The food is always excellent and they give good portions. One of our favorites is the veal parmesan, but you have to have the fried Cappellini for an appetizer, it’s to die for. King Umberto’s is a must try if you have not been here.

Whether you regularly attend religious services or staunchly defend atheism, do you have moments in your life when you want to fall to your knees and beg God to stop time? That’s how I feel every time (which is often!) that I dine at the King. The superior qualities of both the food and service are blended together for a paragon of a dining experience. I’ve tried many dishes – specials and menu staples – and my taste buds have always thanked me. Do yourself a favor: Order the fried cappellini. If you don’t enjoy it, please head immediately over to the nearest otolaryngologist.
The atmosphere is so welcoming too. Even on holidays, you are never rushed or feel as though you are just another reservation. The entire staff is laudable; Elvin and Joseph have usually been our waiters, and they are so kind-​hearted, gregarious, and knowledgeable. When I look around King Umberto’s, as I dine on sumptuous cuisine, I feel like a part of something much more profound than myself. Long live the King!

Let me tell you, if you need a good restaurant without going far, King Umberto is the place. Sat in the bar area, because my friend was too embarrassed to eat in main dining because they were wearing sneakers. Had the burrata, prosciutto and melon, baked clans and the crab cakes. Delish… Jerry the bartender, what a nice guy and conversationalist. He actually made the decision for the food and it was great.

I can’t believe I haven’t written a review for this place. My family and I have been regulars here for years and years. We are obsessed with their arabiata pie which has a ton of broccoli rab, garlic, peppers, and so on. We pretty much order the same thing every time we go. The breadsticks are fresh and delicious and so are their salads. You must try their house dressing! It’s so good. The only reason I wouldn’t give it 5 stars is sometimes the service is up and down. Some days we will have friendly service and other times it’s the complete opposite. We are regulars like I mentioned before and I see how the staff treats other regulars but it’s not the case with us. I’m always extremely kind and tip well, so not sure what that’s about. But either way I usually get take out now.

RECOMMENDED
King Umberto is a legendary Elmont restaurant which has the unique distinction of inventing not one, but two, food items, Fried Capellini and Grandma Pizza, although Nonna may disagree about the latter.
I’ve dined here sporadically over the last 40 years, always being impressed by the consistent quality of its wonderful Italian dishes. I’m pleased that King Umberto always tries to provide an interesting dining experience by, in addition to its fine regular menu, also featuring an extensive variety of dinner specials which are unique and not found at other Italian joints. Five female members of our dining group and I dined here when I hosted a Mother’s Day dinner on Sunday, ⁵⁄₈.
The restaurant’s entrance is on Hempstead Turnpike, just east of the attached pizzeria closer to Meacham Avenue. Rather than looking for street parking, it is less of a hassle to park in the large municipal parking lot on the southwest corner of Meacham Avenue and Hempstead Turnpike.
The restaurant has a really cool set of framed photographs of celebrity diners as you walk in, featuring Muhammad Ali, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford.
The dining room, though pleasant and intimate, has tables that are too close together, requiring you to raise your voice to converse and to listen to an unpleasant amount of background noise when the restaurant is full.
Upon arrival, the bartender, Jerry, greeted me politely and we made a little small talk. He made me an absolutely beautiful Vodka Martini. Stiff, baby, stiff. Thank you, Jerry!
When my group arrived, we were seated in the full and very busy dining room. The waiter did not take our order until twenty minutes later, one of my pet peeves. Although I understood that he was backed up by the mass of hungry Mother’s Day diners, my sympathy evaporated rapidly when he answered our polite (yes or no) request for separate checks with an off-​putting «I’ll see what I can do». This brought to mind a similar incident when I was last here with my group, made a similar request, and watched a different waiter (also working that day) scowl and make a derogatory comment in Italian. What’s with these waiters? The service was poor. The waiter was hard to find and never returned once to ask if our group needed anything.
I felt a lot better about the food. My Fried Capellini (5 cakes) was outstanding! My Seafood Platter (about $ 32), containing clams, shrimp, mussels, scungilli and calamari, was good and large enough to feed three people. Other diners commented favorably upon the Baked Clams, Potato Croquettes, Chicken Francese, Veal Marsala, Penne with Salmon in Cream Brandy Sauce and Chicken Del Rey.
King Umberto really shines with desserts by featuring succulent choices not found in many Italian restaurants. The Mississippi Mud Pie, which I ordered, was phenomenal. Fellow diners loved the Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Cake.
I have simple advice for a restaurant that serves such great food: show a little more respect to customers.

Went here with my girlfriends family for pre Mother’s Day meal and was fantastic. I’ve been here many times and you can always expect a very friendly staff. There food is traditional Italian and everything tastes amazing. I would recommend this place to anyone.

This place is a pizzeria on one side and a fancy Italian restaurant on the other side, I came here for the first time about 5 years ago, I wanted to go to a nice restaurant but didn’t want to travel far for it and this was the perfect spot for us, I called ahead to make reservations and when we arrived we were brought right to our seats, the ambiance is nice and quiet enough to have a conversation, aka nice date spot. Our waiter was very nice and let us know that he was willing to modify our orders to our liking, the food was great we were given warm bread with olive oil to start out, we ordered a 2 half Caesar salads that were great, I ordered chicken cognac as an entrée with potato croquettes on the side, each entrée comes with a side and the options are potato croquettes, vegetables or many different types of pastas, it’s worth noting that the original dish is chicken seafood cognac but I don’t eat seafood, definitely recommend this place

This is one of my very favorite Italian restaurants on Long Island. They have an extensive menu including seafood, chicken, veal and a variety of pastas and sauces. Everything is always fresh and delicious. Be sure to check/​ask for their daily specials. Some of them are magnificent.
The staff is both friendly and helpful. Be sure to make a reservation on weekends, as it can get really crowded (a sign of how good the food is).
Right next door is the pizza shop. Umberto’s pizza is definitely Top 5 in Nassau County!
I highly recommend King Umberto. You will not be disappointed.

Been a loyal customer here at King Umberto and always ordered the chicken Parm. But have to say was really disappointed this time.
A piece of chicken on a hero…

Food was good, they had great fresh bruschetta and I was obsessed with the bread. We also got two free bottles of wine because of the long wait.

Bake breaded Chilean Sea Bass with risotto the best I ever have. Thank you great service will be back next time I’m in New York
Thank you

I had two teeth extracted so I had to have soft foods, I was starving so I decided to try this place. I got take out. Best decision I ever made.
I had the Baked clams, tender and well seasoned. Lots of flavor and super delicate.
The mussels in wine, garlic and oil is a must try!
Last but not least the shrimp scampi over rice, yum!!! The shrimps were huge!!! And the rice was tasty… unlike any rice I’ve had before. The side of broccoli in garlic and oil was cooked to perfection ever so tender and full of flavor.
I can’t wait till my wisdom heals to try this place again. It’s truly a hidden gem, and I did not know they were so close by.
Everything was super fresh!!! A must try! If you like mussels you might wanna sample that first!

King Umberto Pizzaria. Great food with the Umberto’s name…
Check them out for sure
My personal experiences don’t always match up with the popular vote, I’ve had rude service, I’ve had decent service, never have I had very friendly or quick service. I’ve had a good slice or two but I’ve had better as well, I can’t give a glowing review of the place but I also haven’t been around those parts in quite some time.
Maybe I’ll stop in again order a few dishes and finalize this review. I do like that Sicilian slice.
3 stars for now.

This is my favorite Italian restaurant in Nassau County! Came here for a birthday dinner last night with a party of six. Great venue with great service. We were easily accommodated and the wait service was very friendly and welcoming.
Their menu has lots of options for everyone and many delicious daily specials. Their appetizers are amazing! We ordered their eggplant rollatini and their famous fried capellini… a must have!
Pictured below are 2 of the entrees we ordered: penne with arugula sauce, and the stripped bass special with pan seared scallops, jumbo shrimp, clams, and mussels with risotto. Both excellent!

Came here one evening. Staff is friendly. They have 3 areas I would like to call one the fancy area, 2 the casual area and 3 the everyday pizzeria area.
I had the chicken rollatini with a side of vegetables. We also ordered calamari for appetizers. Everything was Very delicious! I was so full I had to take it home. I have been here before but always ordered the same thing: chicken parmigiana. That’s because it’s very good and they give you huge portions.
One small irritation:
Usually when we ask to split the bill they split it based on who is sitting on which side of the table. Well Our waiter was a bit confused when we asked him to split the bill in half. and he literally split the bill. he took two pieces of paper and wrote the bill on half it. Problem is that what I ordered was now split on two pieces of paper hahaha … We ended up just staying longer to figure out how much we owed…

My family has been coming to King Umberto for solid, old school Italian food for decades. Their cavatelli with ricotta is delicious. Their chicken parm is also excellent and huge. The service is always good and the restaurant is clean.

This place has terrible parking, be sure to pounce on a spot around this place if your here on a Friday or Saturday night because it probably wont be there on the next spin around the block. This place, as the other reviews have mentioned, makes you feel under dressed no matter what you are wearing. Not to say they are super fancy or anything but just the general vibe of the place is just old school Italian class.
The food was fantastic. For appetizers we had the calamari which was lightly fried and tender and the stuffed clams which were small but deliciously filled. For my main course the veal Marsala was good, but the sauce was a little more soupier then I would have preferred.
If you are looking for a date spot or a place to bring your family on a birthday, the service and presentation of this place is hard to beat. Keep the calamari coming.

Still on the hunt for best Sicilian. this one looked pretty great but fell flat. Their famous grandma slice looked bad and tasted absolutely terrible. How can they be known for this? Sicilian looked like a 10 but as usually is the case with pizza, looks are deceiving. Sauce was tasteless, crust lacked flavor. A lot of cheese but didn’t taste of good quality and too much oil. Should have gone with the chicken marsala slice– where would I ever see that one again? There was a huge basil plant next to us, so I picked some leaves to put on the slice– hoping it would help. No such luck and later saw a sign, ‘do not touch the plant’. Sorry, King, I was just trying to help the pizza. See I love flavor! The guys were really nice there and I owe them for those few sprigs of basil… So I’ll make a return trip and hopefully that marsala slice tastes as good as it looks.

No matter what I am always taken care of whenever we come to King Umberto’s.
If I’m ordering out or dining there, everything is always so good and your made to feel like family.
Perfect for a date night or a night with the family.
Also they are always on time, if they say 25 minutes for pick up it is done and ready waiting for you.
I can’t say enough, from pizza to salads to entrees the food is always great!

According to them, «The famous GRANDMA PIZZA named & perfected HERE «. Don’t know how accurate that statement is but they sure do make one killer grandma pizza. Thin crispy crust, sweet tomato sauce and just the right amount of cheese. The downside, like any grandma slice is that its best hot, and this coming from a guy that likes his pizza room temperature.
If you want to do more than just a slice and a soda, they have a restaurant in the back where you can have a nice dinner for a special occasion, or just a casual date night.
I highly recommend the chicken parm!