Fanucci’s Ristorante

Besides having eaten in this exceptional restaurant, I’ve also had Fanuccis cater 2 graduation parties as well as a Christmas Dinner. The food and service is always top notch, always on time and there is always plenty to go around. I highly recommend this place — and their entertainment & comedy nights won’t disappoint either!

I wanted to give it half a star, but couldn’t. Went here with 8 friends and family. No one had been here before, but all assumed it must be good because it’s in Old Forge! Wrong. It was the worst dining experience I have ever had.
The food was horrible, served cold. The service was abysmal! it took over 30 minutes to have our order taken. it took over an hour for the food to come out. Food was undercooked, cold and just plain bad.
I read earlier reviews and service seems consistently bad.
How this restaurant is in business with all the competition in Old Forge is a mystery.
on top of it all the restaurant is very expensive for sub par food and lousy service.
I will never go back and neither should anyone else.

We decided it was finally time to check out Old Forge and used Unilocal to find a well rated Italian restaurant to visit. It was a Thursday night and there wasn’t anybody else waiting to be seated but there were a lot of tables in various stages of their meals. We waited a long time (over 5 minutes) by the street entrance but nobody acknowledged our existence until we asked the bartender how to get seated and he directed us to the other end of the bar. We were in the same basic sight line the whole time so I’m not sure what the staff thought we were doing awkwardly standing around next to the street entrance door but once we went to the other entrance we were greeted and seated after a few minutes of additional waiting.
Once we were seated, we had PLENTY of time to examine the menus. I looked up about 4 different chicken preparations on my phone since there was nobody to ask for a while. After a while a server stopped by to ask if we’d been helped yet and when we said no she became our server.
I ordered what I thought would be a safe choice, chicken piccata. I upgraded my side of pasta to Fettuccine Alfredo because I’m always hoping to find a great Alfredo for the occasional artery clogging indulgence. My partner ordered Manicotti. We also ordered a fried Mozzarella appetizer. The appetizer was a large square of fried Mozzarella coated in a crunchy batter and served with some marinara. I thought the app was fine but nothing special but my partner really liked it. My chicken piccata consisted of a bunch of small strips of battered chicken in an obviously oily and caper filled sauce. If the chicken has been less or completely un battered I think the rest would have been ok but the chewy (deep fried?) battered chicken strips and the heavy oily sauce didn’t combine to create the light and lemony piccata experience I enjoy. The alfredo side dish was ok. It neither impressed nor disappointed but I did finish it unlike my entrée. The Manicotti was a little chewy and initially came out missing the menu promised meatballs.
Overall, I believe the server when she volunteered that the service is usually better (somebody called in sick and it was busier than they expected) but I suspect that the food we were served was pretty much their standard food. The pictures on Unilocal look a lot like what we got. Clearly a lot of people in NE PA think this is good eating but for this newcomer to PA, it was found wanting.

Placed my delivery order using this Unilocal app. Food arrived promptly and was delicious. Pasta was cooked al dente and veal calabrese had right amount of heat. Thanks fanucci’s

Fannuccis I want to love this place. I have eaten here so many times and give this place 5 stars. Not anymore.
History. The name of this restaurant is from the movie the godfather.
Experience. I usually come here every time I am in PA the manager is great the the cook was amazing. He would make us anything we wanted. He would throw a little extra something on the side as well. He would always come out and ask how we were doing and how the food was. The portions were enough for three meals and the cost was really nice. Recently I went there and the manager was gone and the chef was gone also. The food was ok but not like it was originally.
Food. This is a full Italian place. A lot of pasta. The chef used to make me whatever I wanted I do miss that. I used to get grilled chicken Alfredo. Chicken parm. Veal parm. Salmon. Everything was very good. The ambiance was nice romantic. A lot of old couples on dates. They have a full bar and a good wine list.
Overall. I will not be back here. Since the chef and staff change. The food hasn’t been the same. If you want to eat some Italian try Fannuccis out.
PROS:
— old staff was amazing
— good parking lot
CONS:
— changed chef

Anywhere else, Fanucci’s would probably get three stars from me as a run of the mill Italian restaurant, but in Old Forge where there is an Italian restaurant on every corner, I expect better.
Visited Fanucci’s with three others on a Tuesday night. Entered from the back door where the parking lot is into a dimly lit, mostly empty dining room. The décor was plain but classy which was a nice deviation from the typically kitchy décor of other Old Forge restaurants. There was a long straight bar situated on the right wall and my date and I sat at the bar and waited for the other members of our party to arrive. We ordered drinks, a glass of white zinfandel and a Ketel martini, up with a twist. Wine was average but the martini was well made.
Everyone else arrived and we opted to eat at the bar rather than get a table. We ordered the meatball crostini and calamari appetizers. The meatball crostini was more like a dinner portion and I would describe it as garlic bread with meatballs rather than a crostini. Nevertheless, it was very good. The meatballs were tender and had great flavor. The calamari was advertised as lightly breaded but when it came to the table, it was heavily breaded and deep fried. Didn’t impress anyone but was not awful either.
For dinner we ordered chicken franchaise (special), chicken parmigiana, gnocchi with vodka sauce and fettuccine alfredo. All the dinners came with a salad. Three of us got the house dressing which was a big let down. Very basic dressing and tasted thin. The chicken parm was the highlight of the night with great value and good taste. Lightly breaded with a decent tomato sauce. The gnocchi was supposedly home made, as was the fettuccine. Both were very dense dough and I’m not entirely certain they were actually made in house. The vodka sauce was good, but the alfredo was too thick. After cooling even slightly, it turned into a thick paste. The fettuccine was supposed to come with chicken but there was a mix up and it came without. When we mentioned it, they brought out what appeared to be chicken scampi sliced thinly. It was good, but not what I would expect with an alfredo dish.
Now on to my dinner, the chicken franchaise. It is an item not on the menu but was told it was one of the specials for the night. The traditional lemon butter and white wine sauce was very good. The egg batter was spot on and the chicken was moist. After the first two bites things fell apart for me. I got towards the center of the breast, and all of the sudden, WHAM, Gorgonzola blue cheese. I thought perhaps the chef dropped a piece onto my dish while seasoning a salad or steak, an honest mistake. Next bite, WHAM-​O, more blue cheese. I inspected the chicken and found all three pieces heavily topped with melted blue cheese. It was so overpowering it made the dish inedible. (I love blue cheese when used properly just in case anyone was wondering) Whoever thought of that addition to a traditional Italian dish should be ashamed of themselves. Desserts were good but not all were made in house, so be sure to ask before choosing from the cart. I would recommend the apple crisp.
The server did remove my dish from the check without me having to ask when I mentioned it was not very good. This was a very nice action and I will probably give the restaurant another shot solely because of his generosity. I will update my review when that happens, but for now, Fanucci’s has left a bad taste in my mouth. As a matter of fact, it kind of tastes like Gorgonzola.