UPDATE – CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

Toscana Osteria has just opened and Forking Good Northern Italian Cuisine has arrived to Glendale Arizona. Toscana shares the entrance door of Pomo Napoletana Pizzeria but is separate with it’s own well trained staff, separate bar and more formal dinning room.

Carafes of house wine were on special for $20. the night we dined there and nearly every table purchased one so we also did too. The red wine wasn’t a full bodied wine but was very forking smooth with an easy to drink one note full fruit flavor that paired well with food.

Our server Ida was very warm and friendly and was offering to answer any forking questions we had about the menu. The only question I had was, “what’s a piadina?” because I didn’t know what a forking piadina is. I learned a piadina is house made bread.

They started us off with a generous portion of fresh made crusty bread and olive oil with drops of balsamic vinegar.

We shared the house made potato gnocchi.

The gnocchi were light little pillows adorned with walnuts and a light gorgonzola cream sauce. Often walnuts can be bitter but these walnuts were forking tasty in this dish.

For dinner I had the salmon. More often than I like…… salmon can turn out to be a frightening choice in an Italian Restaurant and is a good dish to tell how a restaurant really is. Fish is not forgiving to poor cooking techniques and does often can have freshness issues.

This was salmon with a pistachio crust, fresh broccoli and grilled polenta. The salmon was nice,  flaky and moist with just enough seasoning. The broccoli was fresh and crisp and tasted like it was lightly brushed with olive oil. I didn’t get a full pistachio flavor from the crust but the dish was good as is. House made Italian Tarter Sauce was included. I thought the tarter sauce was a little over-kill because the fish was rich and juicy but it tasted right. The grilled polenta had a nice creaminess to it and tasted better from being grilled.

My husband had a Chicken Dish called Pollo Ripieno. It was Chicken Breast that was stuffed with  prosciutto and fontina cheese in a white wine sauce with sweet corn. The chicken was melt in your mouth tender and went really well with everything on the plate. It’s very rare that either of had very good chicken at Italian Restaurants.

 

After I took this photo the waitress offered crushed red pepper and cheese.

Things went well so we saved a little room for dessert and had a Hazelnut Gelato Truffle.

The dessert was presented nicely and was simple but good.

Toscana Osteria is WORTH A FORK! Destination Dining Hits Glendale AZ.