Tuscano is one of those Italian restaurant that seems to be quite good from outside but then somehow the overall feel does not come up good at the end of the eating experience.  Infact, there are limited Italian restaurants that serve good food and also boast of ambiance & service capability.  There are many times that I have wanted to visit the place but just avoided owing to sudden lack of interest looking at the location, scare that its so empty that we might be the only people in the restaurant and choice of other restaurants.  I finally did make an effort to go there few days back.

 

 

If you are coming from the South End circle towards RK Hospital you need to proceed towards circle.  You need to take left and the restaurant appears to the right.  And if you look at the place it would always seem like it is closed.  But actually the problem is with the lighting usage in that area being quite dim.  Some of the times people may wonder alternative options.

If you are coming from Ashoka Pillar side towards the circle, then it will appear almost at the end to the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This place seems to be done pretty well, atleast from outside it may not be that appealing.  The interiors seem to be pretty decent.  And thankfully I did see few groups sitting and chatting away.

They this slates on which most of the items being made are mentioned.  There is also a special board that says about the chef special.  I guess nowadays its become a norm to put up data in the written manner and place such boards all around the restaurant.  I don’t know whats with that trend but it looks nice sometimes coz those are usually hand-written and you understand that the restaurant is making effort to share menu/info for everyone to see at the comfort of seat instead of having to go through the menu.

Another thing you notice is like the Italian restaurant, there would be good lighting.  I think they have used some unique lighting that had reflection of yellow and red giving it a elegant look.  In terms of seats also its pretty well spread out.  And since its an open kitchen you see what the chef is upto 🙂

 

 

 

I think I went there at a time when it was pretty late in the evening.  Soon after we went there was menu card with each one of us.  I thought it was okay, coz they wanted to maintain discipline of timing.  And also I was told that it was the last order.  But, they were pretty flexible in the way they took our orders of starters & main course.  Let me share my thoughts on the various items we ordered.

They had given us 4-6 pieces of brown bread pieces and along with that olive oil and cream+cheese mix I think was given.  And I must say it was super yummy and you would feel like taking more of it and may be finishing up your dinner itself :)…It was well presented as well.

 

This is a tomato based soup with quite a few veggies and some noodles if I am not wrong.  Overall the taste was brilliant and my family also liked the taste of it a lot.  It was not like a cream soup, but a tight viscosity for the soup that would not just seem like water but still not too thick.

 

Wow, this was one pretty neat cream soup where in it was thick and the flavours of broccoli was coming quite well.  Also the almond flavour was there and you could make out the same.  I guess compared to the Minestrone this was a bit more bland but it had loads of taste into it.

 

Family wanted to take a simply garlic bread.  They brought a nice looking plate with 4-5 pieces of garlic bread which had some veggies kept on top of each piece.  Along with that some salad also was served.  Sometimes you start to feel that the garlic bread are the best items.  Otherwise, its such a common starter at many other places.

 

This was one of the chef speciality today.  It was basically mozzarella cheese put in the form of roll and fried.  It was simply amazing taste and mouth wateringly delicious. There was tomato salsa sauce that was given along with it, which went along quite well with the cheese.  There was also some lettuce and salad to go along with the cheese.  So, whenever you think its a little overwhelming, you could which to taking some salads.

 

This was the first item in the menu that I thought, was a must try coz I am big fan of lasagna.  Well, the dish was served and I must say that I wanted to eat it all.  But then we wanted to share the dish.  So, I got  portion of it and I must say the taste was amazing.  There was good layers of the pasta paste and cheese and veggies and what not.  Overall the dish was good except for the fact that the portion was quite limited.  I would have surely wanted more portion of the same dish.

 

 

The manager insisted that we try out this pizza.  I must say it was a great choice coz it had a great mix of veggies put on top of the pizza and right mix of cheese as well.  Some of the veggies were black olive, spinach and tomato.  But then I think there was some onion which seems to have added so much of flavour into the pizza.  The only concern I had was that the edge of the pizza was a bit hard.  But I guess thats the problem with the thin crust pizza.  Otherwise the taste was simply superb :)..It was so heavy that we had to take back some home 🙂

 

 

I guess a drink that was suggested by manager that had mango, orange and what not.  But I that overall the drink was okay, its not that it gave a super wow feeling.  Would have expected more from the drink.  Also in terms of the way it was presented it was pretty ordinary, would have wanted something special from the glass as well.

 

This was a drink that was made naturally with basil and orange juice in it.  For sure this was not artificial.  But then I thought that the basil was a bit more overpowering.  And since it was quite natural the last part of the juice, I felt quite a bit of the bitterness.  I would not recommend this to people, instead you can go ahead taking the contemporary cocktails.  I am still wondering why the manager suggested me that.

 

Apart from those drinks, I wanted to try the pomegranate one coz I’m a fan of it.  But then the manager said that tit was sold out.  Wow ! It was more like telling ‘sold out for tickets’ or ‘sold out of beer’ 😉

It was quite a heavy dinner so we did not have space for anything fancy.  Instead we decided just take a simple scoop of ice-cream and that too vanilla.

They served 2 scoops with light chocolate sauce on it.  But I must say sometimes the simplest of the items are the ones that taste the most.  We all just loved it 🙂

 

Overall I was pretty happy with the food but then the only thing that I felt was not good was that the service was not upto the mark.  I am not sure if it was coz it was the closing time coz they were a bit on the hurry and the items just kept coming quicker and usual.

Another reason why I say the service was not upto the mark was coz-

It was my bro’s birthday and when I was initially placing order I thought I would convey this msg to the manager and I did.  And guess what the restaurant did not bother to do anything. I mean not a single complimentary cake or drink or even someone coming and singing Happy Birthday song.  That was the most irritating part of the restaurant.

 

 

 

Infact, that is one of the reason why I would rate this restaurant lower than I would have wanted to.  My rating for this place would be 3.5 after lot of thought flow.  I hope they do reach out and understand the mistake done in service.  I am not sure if they do treat the same if say a couple comes. It would have been nice with the family around, that they do something.  I think if the service isn’t going to improve, people would find that as an issue and not want to venture into this place.  Infact, of me, I will think twice before going coz of service and also the expense, its not

cheap by any means.

My other ratings of this place are as follows –

Food – 4.0/5

Drinks – 3.25/5

Ambiance – 4.0/5

Service – 3.25/5

(saving grace was the food & ambiance)

Food for 2 would cost anywhere between Rs.1500-2000.