The Family Restaurant

this restaurant has close for good. RIP

I feel horrible giving this such a low rating. But in all actuality it had nothing to do with the customer service. The staff is the reason as to why I gave it a second star. This food is just unacceptable. With two great Italian restaurants walking distance — this place should be amazingly competitive. However it was borderline offensive. The food was cold and dry — I had chicken parm and calamari. My boyfriend had chicken as well. Both dishes were extremely gross and cold. The waiter was SO attentive but I felt horrible telling him this food was unacceptable. Definitely would not go back

Rudimentary, school cafeteria level red paste. Longtime area resident. Every several years I give it a chance ordering different things. Never improves. But I guess, it should be praised for it’s continual consistency, even if that’s bad consistency.

The Family deserves more of a 3.5, but I decided to round up. All in all, while there are many superior Italian restaurants in Queens, let alone NYC, The Family offers very solid food for a great price. The space is large and with plenty of seating, while the service is mediocre. I ordered the chicken francaise, which juicy, flavorful, and nicely seasoned. The side order of linguini with garlic and oil was cooked al dente, and had just the right amount of roasted garlic. In other words, the food is far from groundbreaking, but it more than delivered, especially considering I got those two dishes plus coffee for $ 16. Not bad at all! The Family is not an amazing restaurant, but definitely better than a 2.5 average on Unilocal

Ordered spaghetti and tomato sauce, chicken parm, and a house salad. The order was for delivery — which arrived rather curiously quickly. So let’s start with the salad which came fully dressed and by dressed I mean drenched. I POURED most of the dressing out of the container and the actual greens were partially withered at that point. Not edible. The spaghetti was alright and the chicken parm was over sauced to the point where the sauce was more soup than sauce. And the delivery guy must have done a careless job of carrying the food because half of my order ended up in the plastic bag. Thanks Family Restaurant for a pretty horrible meal. Never again.

Great place, but the food was’t good. The Caesar salad was swimming in dressing so was the Dijon Salmon. My husband had a bad stomachache after dinner. I had the grilled red snapper and it was dry and rubbery. My mother had the chicken Parmesan and it was good.

I had the worst experience here and would not recommend this place to others.
Let me get straight to the point, this is the worst Italian food ever. It’s a shame this place is classified as Italian. What they serve is nothing close to Italian food, trust me, I just came back from Italy and I live in an Italian neighborhood, I’ve been eating Italian food my whole life and even make it.
The pastas are lacking is sauce and taste. It is as simple as that. The Linguine that’s cooked with «garlic and oil», comes out so dry as if you just boil and strain it and add some fried garlic on top. The fettuccine Alfredo is just so disappointing, it just taste like it was dunked in tasteless heavy cream sauce. No parsley and server never came over to offer freshly grated Parmesan! The simplest basic ingridents are lacking in the dishes we ordered.
Everything we ordered was tasteless from the fried calamari to the rack of lamb.
I now understand why this place is always empty.

We ordered take-​out for Christmas Eve and it was a major disappointment. When we called we asked for four orders of lasagne, and they said it would be more economical for us to order a half tray so that is what we did. This just led to more to toss in the garbage!
The lasagne was so heavy that I could barely eat a one inch square, and it was made without tomato sauce which was served on the side. Odd. We had leftovers which I ate the day after Christmas, to give it a second try thinking perhaps I was harsh the first night, and my opinion remains. Terrible. We also ordered antipasto which was nothing special at all. A very disappointing special meal for our family. Never again.

Good food, great friendly service and inexpensive ! Was afraid to try because of the Unilocal rating but it turned into a great night !

I had a good time until the party that I was with was no longer allowed to have wine when we paid for unlimited. They claimed that we were giving it to our underage guests but that was not true. The service was extremely slow and the food especially the appetizers were only average. I would not suggest this restaurant for a party or large group.

I went to this restaurant 2 weeks ago despite the bad reviews, because I had been there in the past and I had a good experience. I made reservations for 7 pm and my party of 6 arrived on time except 1 person. The waiter did not bring us menus nor bread for at least 30 minutes. After we saw the menu we were ready to place our order and called over the waiter, he said «Are you sure you are ready?», and my husband said «absolutely sure.» We then waited another 20 minutes for the waiter, in which we had to flag him down to ask if we can place our order again. By this time it is approaching 8pm. He said «I thought you wanted to wait for the last member in your party.» Even though we told him we were absolutely sure we wanted to order. It took another 45min — 1 hour to get our food, in which I had to ask the manager what was going on. We were there with our 2 yr old daughter and parents and it was almost 9pm we were waiting to eat for a 7 pm reservation. I ordered the pork chop and it was the blandest tasting meat I have ever received from a place that serves food. I could not even eat the whole thing. My father and husband had the fish which they said was also bland. My husband paid the bill after eating, and I was the last one at the table with my friend and the waiter comes up to me with the paid bill confronting me about leaving a tip! I have never witnessed that. (My husband is a firm believer on tip = good service, no tip= bad service) The waiter passed my husband to confront me about the bill that I did not even pay, which I thought was very unprofessional. Needless to say, I will never ever go back there to eat again. The service and food were horrible. Save yourself a trip!

Found the food to be ok nothing exciting. I will not bring out of town guest. I limit the amount of meat I eat so I only had spaghetti with marinara sauce. The sauce was just ok. The coffee and cheesecake, on the other hand, was very good. So the next time I want coffee and dessert I will remember The Family Restaurant.

Stayed away from this restaurant for many years due to the quality of the food. We heard it was under new management (new owner) and decided it was time to give it another try. Ordered a Caesar salad for an appetizer which was pretty good. Bread served was nice and warm too. Next up was shrimp franchise as my main course with a side dish of pasta. No complaints there. Food was good and flavourful. There was a party of four and everyone seemed to enjoy their meals. For dessert, we ordered the two desserts that the new owner made in house. One was panicotta, the other was Italian style cheesecake. Both were very good. The staff and new owner were very friendly and attentive. The angel kiss after dinner cordial was delicious! Hope our future outings at Family continue to be good. For those who stayed away, I would give it another chance with the new owner.

I was a the family restaurant for a party and the food overall was fine but I have had better nothing special i kept it simple chicken parm.

This isn’t a review of the «restaurant», so much as it is a review of one dish, their veal valdostana …
A huge boneless slab of veal, stuffed with mozzarella & prosciutto, and covered with mushrooms in a light marsala-​esque sauce, this is one of the really decadent indulgences I can think of. I’ve had it dozens over times over a few decades, and if you marry it with some of their homemade french fries (think fat, hunks of potatoes, fried to perfection), it’s a meal only a cardiologist could hate, so I suggest some sautéed broccoli to allay any misgivings you might find in your way from this incredible indulgence.
Last time I was here the veal valdostana had been removed from the menu, but they did indeed make it for me, and I’d suggest that while the rest of the food is good, this is really the reason to make the trip!

A classic. Service is gracious sometimes a little slow. But the food is to-​die-​for. Such magnificent southern Italian style food. Today I’m enjoying magnificent sausage pizzaiola with abundant fresh mushrooms and peppers in superlative marinara

I am tempted to give this place two stars but that would be mean. So let’s say three stars based on one visit.
An old-​school Italian-​American place; extensive menu; reasonable prices; good service. Decent pour of wine for $ 8.50. But décor needs updating.
I had the fried zucchini as a starter — large batons, not the smaller chips which I prefer. Served with a good marinara sauce and lemon wedges. I would order it again.
I was disappointed with the linguini with white clam sauce. Not much flavor despite several cloves of garlic. The server told me that the clams were fresh — but maybe not cooked today? Plus the dish had an inch of pasta water in the bottom of the bowl. I prefer restaurants which present this dish with the clams still in the shell.
Most of the menu may be first rate but I will not be going back — out of the way for me and too many other places yet to try.

It’s got big portions and taste like Mama made it, what else do you want? It’s not deluxe inside, instead it’s a seasoned place serving traditional family style Italian.
I like it. Not for dates, but as a single guy (who’s not on the prowl), or once, I went for a business lunch and it worked out great. Friendly environment, warm people, and because of the big portions — lots to take home.
The bread served is warm and absolutely fantastic. I get things that accompany it well: the lasagne, spaghetti with meatballs, spaghetti with meat sauce, and baked ziti. For the more refined palette, really good is the chicken francaise and chicken marsala. Oh, and better for lunch, the Meatball Hero and Eggplant Parmigiana Hero are winners (there’s that bread again).
Yes, I’ve been here on more that one occasion, and I’ll be back again.

I really wanted to give this place a better rating but I really couldn’t deal with the pastas we had. I came here on a Friday night with my boyfriend since we’ve been wanting to try this place for while. it’s a nice place and has a «well-​established» kind of feel. we came in and were welcomed with smiles and seated right away.
to start we got the clams which I actually really enjoyed! they were the bigger clams and not the tiny little neck clams that I’ve gotten in other places in the area. they taste pretty fresh so my boyfriend and I enjoyed them. for the entrees, well… I wasn’t too happy. I got the penne vodka with shrimp and my boyfriend got the linguine Alfredo with shrimp. the pasta was just WAAAY overcooked on both dishes. I’m the type of person that likes her pasta on the al dente side, so does my boo, so this probably wasn’t a good start. the vodka sauce was pretty good but I can’t say the same for the Alfredo sauce. the Alfredo sauce was just really bland and a little on the thin side. had to add some salt to make it better.
overall the experience was ok. I could deal because the owner was nice to us. but for the clams and the two pasta dishes with shrimp for $ 70 was definitely not worth it. sorry family restaurant. I really wanted to like you!

Looking to establish a nice, solid grounding prior to my AC trip, some of my close friends suggested there was a little quaint Italian place right in Forest Hills. Having not feasted on Italian cuisine for quite a while, in combination with no reviews of this place on Unilocal, I wanted to be a pioneer.
For a Saturday evening, parking was readily available which was very peculiar at peak dining hours in Forest Hills. The décor of this place was that of a very old-​fashioned, Italian style family restaurant. This established looked like it was open for quite a while but it was very well-​kept and upon entry, my friends and I were seated immediately. The menu featured traditional Italian dishes but there was a note at the bottom of the menu, «If you don’t see something, please ask.» This note was very interesting which meant that restaurant was willing to cater to the customer and modify any dish, if possible, at your request.
Fettuccine alfredo with grilled chicken had been on my mind on replay prior to my arrival at the restaurant so needless to say, that was my course for the evening. A small variety of warm bread was offered as appetizers with butter and it was quickly scoffed down by a party of 3. The food was prepared very quickly and our meal arrived within ten minutes or so because it was still very early and patrons had not yet started flocking in.
The server garnished my meal with parmesan cheese and black pepper and off I went. The food was piping hot so I had to let it simmer down a bit. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the alfredo was pretty decent. It wasn’t the best I’ve had but it was certainly very different. The chicken was very fresh and there were huge chunks of breast perfectly sliced intermixed between the pasta. I stole some of my friend’s eggplant parmigiana, which was amazing. I think next time, I’ll go with a marinara dish instead though. Slaughtering the rest of my dinner, I contemplated leaving room for dessert so I didn’t finish all my pasta.
My friends ordered tiramisu and ice cream spumoni which we decided to share. The ice cream was a little freezer burned, so it was a bit difficult to divide it up but the tiramisu was very delicious. It wasn’t overly sweet but it was soft, decedent and very creamy. It was one of those desserts that after you’ve had a nice, filling meal, it hits the spot.
Once we ordered the check, I believe the owner (may have been) approached us and inquired about the quality of our meal. She made very friendly conversation and tossed a few jokes back and forth. After a few chuckles, she encouraged us to return and with the promise of awesome, authentic Italian cooking and great customer service, I’m sure I will return. :-)