Going in, I really wanted to like Pizzeria Toscana. It’s in the Historic Quarter, right beside the Moorish Barracks, so it’s got a good location.
It’s not in the big casino hotels, so prices aren’t out of this world and you should be able to find some decent value.
The inside is warm and inviting, with Old World wooden style wine racks, big colourful paintings, and no nonsense brick wall.
As I perused the menu, I thought Pizzeria Toscana had a good chance of becoming one of my favourite new places, a little bit off the beaten tourist path, but still brilliant nonetheless.
And then I tried the food…. Flying solo, I went with the Minestrone Soup ($35), Meat Platter ($120) and Allo Toscana 8 Pizza ($105). The Minestrone Soup was neither here nor there, but the Meat Platter and Pizza were absolutely horrendous. Neither had any taste: both dishes were bone dry, and bland as hell. It was actually a struggle to finish them.
Now in fairness, Pizzeria Toscana is quite popular with locals and reservations are usually necessary (I had to wait 30 minutes that night) so maybe I just ordered the wrong things, but in all honestly, it could not have gotten more wrong than that.
And then it did, with their $35 red house wine! I understand it’s house wine yes, but it shouldn’t have tasted like one of the $10 samples at the Wine Museum. It was brutal, like a bottle of vinegar mixed with some tabasco sauce for good measure. AKA, not suitable for human consumption.
The only reason why Pizzeria Toscana gets 2 stars instead of 1 is because my total bill only ran $325, so at least it wasn’t expensive. Again, maybe you’ll have better luck with the pasta, ravioli, spaghetti etc but after what I had, I doubt Pizzeria Toscana is very cognizant or welcoming of the notion of freshness.
I’m sorry, but it was really that bad. It’s hard to believe this place is as popular as it is.
