Never have I been so frustrated with the name of a restaurant than with Toscana Green. Or is it Toscana Grill? After two years, I still don’t know what it’s called, and neither the website nor the restaurant itself is much help. I think it used to be Toscana Grill, then changed its name to Toscana Green (to reflect the organic, natural theme), and now it’s waffling between the two. Or not.
This is an ugly restaurant with friendly service, right in the middle of the Courthouse complex. My young dining companion enjoyed his usual Diet Coke (only $1.80 here), while I had the “best” (if you can call it that) of an absolutely miserable beer selection, a bottle of Peroni ($6), then a 12-ounce draft of Stella Artois ($5). Both beers are lousy and have been for a long time, but I refused to drink Bud or Bud Light.
Both the Lasagna ($12) and the Meat Combination Pizza ($14) looked really good, with lots of gooey cheese, nicely oven-browned – in fact, they looked a lot alike, except that one was lasagna, and the other was pizza. They were large portions, and more than enough to stuff two hungry guys.
The lasagna, baked in its serving dish, was the winner, because it’s hard to mess up a noodle; the pizza dough had zero char on the bottom, and was a topping-based pie full of meats, the only loser being the boudin-textured sausage. Compared to the pizza I had two nights before at Ristorante Murali, this pie was much bigger (and $4 more expensive), loaded with toppings, and had a yeastier, but more flavorless, crust.
Not every meal has to be great, and this certainly was not, but it was “okay.” Not a repeat for me, not unless something changes here (and not just the name).