Piccola Venezia Restaurant

Elite '08

180

214

sarah beth S.

CA

This Astoria gem serves authentic Italian food at legitimate prices. The atmosphere is old school- the clients are older as are the Italian- speaking waiters in their burgandy jackets and black bow ties. If you're not down with that, go somewhere trendier. The specialty is high quality seafood which correlates to the name--Venetian food is heavy on seafood.

We arrived on a random Tuesday to find the place decorated balloons, banners, and a cake proclaiming "Happy 35th Anniversary!" The restaurant was throwing itself a party, we picked a good night to come in!

To help celebrate, we received complimentary glasses of Prosecco, the Italian sparkling white wine.  They also brought a complimentary plate of small antipasti.

I was thrilled with the menu - so much to chose from. My bag is pasta, pasta, pasta. All of the pastas are homemade fresh each day. All are available in half orders. Best of all, there is a PASTA TASTING OPTION in two sizes, appetizer or entree. You need two persons minimum to do it, though, so bring a conducive date!

Then we shared a salmon tartare appetizer**. For some reason I was imagining something along the lines of a carpaccio, but it was very much a tartare of ground raw salmon served with little toasts. Delicious- expertly seasoned with capers and herbs and excellent quality with no fishiness. It seemed like a daunting amount of ground raw fish but we found that by the last bite we could eat more.

Then our pasta tasting arrived- we got to choose three pastas from the dizzying selection. We chose:

1) Maltagliati 'Dania'   **
Hand-cut pappardelle with roasted garlic whole
peeled tomatoes, basil and a dash of cream
2) Ravioli di Zucca **
Stuffed with aromatic pumpkin puree served in a
brandy cream sauce
3) Quadretti al Salmone Affumicato-  Flat, square-shaped, spinach pasta in a smoked salmon sauce with onions and capers

A funny thing happened when we ordered: our character of a waiter shook his head "no" when we chose the salmon dish.  We sheepishly waited for an explanation. Were they out? No longer on the menu?

Finally he explained... "Doesn't go.."

Allright. So we chose another dish instead. No e' una problema. We realized he was probably right, the other dish would be better. But then when the pasta sampler entree arrived, he ended up giving us the salmon quadretti after all! On a separate plate, to segregate its unique flavors from the other two with which they "wouldn't go".  

This waiter-is-boss attitude would infuriate me at a different type of restaurant, but here I appreciated the authenticity of the patriarchal Italian "cameriere". Many a times in Italy I've had the servers let me know that the customer is neither in charge nor always right.

The ravioli was very good (2nd best pumpkin ravioli I've had so far) and the pappardelle was to die for! The soft, chewy fresh noodles with creamy tomato sauce and parmesan cheese was the definition of comfort food. I could eat it every day and still want more.

Did I mention the waiter kept topping off our free prosecco? He liked us. We spoke Italian, we deferred to his authority, we are belle donne...

The next treat was the complimentary anniversary cake which was a flaky lemon cream layered pastry**. Mmmmm, free cake doesn't usually taste that good.

The bill was refreshingly low because of the complimentary bubbly, antipasto, and dessert. Regardless, I think the menu is priced fairly- the quality and freshness is superb.

On our way out we asked our waiter to snap a picture of us and he has the owner pose with us. Both the waiter and owner were so proud about that photo**, it was cute. And we all chatted in Italian.

**see photos

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10

33

Vanessa D.

NY

The food was delicious. Not cutting edge but delicious. The waiter recited literally about 20 specials from memory - so they have lots of fresh, seasonal sorts of food to offer, which I think is cool.  Oh, so my friend is a seafood fanatic and he was like, in love with everything he tried. I wouldn't know what to say about it but he was basically over the moon with his seafood dish (By the way, we're talking a seafood fanatic who goes out on deep sea rigs and fishes first hand)... anyway....  The service made you feel like you were just royalty, they were so attentive. The manager on duty was in fact a waiter standing in for the manager and he did an amazing job of helping us feel at ease and attended to while we were waiting for a table (and every minute AFTER that...). It was the service that was really exceptional, I recommend it for sure.

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1

42

B C.

Brookline, MA

The first time I was here was about 10 years ago and recently I had the pleasure of reacquainting myself with this unique establishment.  What is endearing about this place is that it didn't change a bit.  The minute I walk in I think I am on the set of the movie "Good Fellas".

Had the antipasti, gnocchi and the veal picata.  Like always the portions are huge.  They were all consistently good, in the traditional sense.  This is not the place for new flavors nor cutting edge interpretation on traditional Italian fare.  I come here for the complete "old world" visual, visceral and gastronomic experience.

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Elite '08

38

353

Kristine M.

West Newton, MA

Great Northern Italian cuisine.  It's not your typical lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs restaurant.   Lots of seafood -- very fresh.  Try the grilled octopus.  Great ravioli and sauce that tasted identical to the sauce my nonna used to make.  The service is great, and the waiters there have the entire menu memorized!  Our family tends to go there after funerals, and somehow stuffing my face full of delicious food tends to really help the bereavement process.

The only downside is that the desserts were not great.  Truck on over to Ditmars and go to Martha's for dessert. :-)

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Elite '08

7

84

Brian H.

New York, NY

A little pricey for the neighborhood, but Piccola Venezia is a first-rate, old-school, formal Italian Restaurant. Don't expect anything new, flashy or innovative here: they stick to the classics and the service is from another era. This is Tony Bennett's favorite NY haunt and there is a special corner table (complete with commemorate plaque) reserved just for him. Too bad my cousin was like "Tony WHO?" The lamb chops were extraordinary, the Vesuvio chocolate cake was rich and theatrical, and the homemade grappa (made in the owner's garage) finished off the evening rather nicely. Worth the trip out to Queens.

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9

14

H T.

Long Island City, NY

Went here for late lunch with a friend a few weeks ago. The waiter and staff are nice. The waiter was oldish and looked fatigued. I felt bad for him having to wait on us, with our table being all the way in the front, far from the kitchen and bar. My mimosa spilled a little bit during the transport to and placement on our table, but it still tasted great. The shiraz was good, too. We sat in a caverous marble(?) walled carpeted dining room and it felt like being in a mausaleum. There are windows, but they are pretty high up. I would say it's a good place to go if you don't want passerbys to see your eating companion(s) but are OK with other fellow diners knowing. LOL. Everyone and everything looked old in there, except for the busboy. There was a tasty complementary bruschetta,olives,cheese plate that we munched on while waiting for our pasta to arrive.  We had large portions of cheese gnocci and bowties with mushrooms. As another Yelper mentioned, the gnocci was very heavy, dense, and cheesey/oily. Yummy, but nothing special. My friend said the bowties were good and but did not have enough yummy mushrooms. We then proceeded to order a portabello mushroom and either broccoli rabe or escarole (forgot which). I had my gnocchi packed and then the busyboy came to straighten up our table and took out a metal small scraping tool to sweep away all of the messy crumbs I somehow managed to scatter around me.  (This is only the second time I've seen someone do that -- the first being at the now defunct Osteria Paesana in Ithaca, NY). Then our check came and the grand total with tip came out to be a little over $100. We chuckled and paid it, waddled home and mused about the nice experience, but how we'd prefer Ponticello or Sapori D'ischia next time.

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Elite '08

12

165

Marc A.

NY

As a young kid, I remember growing up in Colorado, far from New York, and dreaming that all the Italians in NYC were like the mobstes in the movies.  The restaurants were big and friendly, the food was piled high, and there was always one table, in the back, that I would never be allowed to sit at.  There might even be a man standing guard back there.  

Very few of those kinds of restaurants exist anymore.  Even visiting family in Philidephia, the italians on my side never really could create the environment that I thought Italians functioned in.  Where are the guns? The garbage trucks? The bodies rolled up in a rug? Sure, the food was great but when I bite into a shell, I want to be afraid that there might be a person inside!  Alas, there never was.

However, I'm glad that there are a few places in New York where the old fashion Italian restaurant still exists and where the food exceeds all my expectations.

I've been here twice and been impressed each time.  The serive is old fashioned but amazing. They're attentive, focused, and friendly.  The salads are perfect (one of the few places that makes a ceasar salad the way it should be).  The ravaolli is perfect, served at the perfect temperature and the sauce enhances the dish rather than over power.  A great place. I recommend it.

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Elite '08

20

112

Ian R.

Long Island City, NY

This place is definitely a throw back.  Attentive waiters serve you in tuxedo's and freely recommend the freshest items on their delicious and extensive menu.  The food is out of this world and everything you'd expect from a place this steeped in old new york tradition.  All the great Italian American staples are prepaired elegantly and served with some attitude.  A great dining experience.

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0

3

Dynomite h.

Brooklyn, NY

Old school never goes out of style.  The waiters are very attentive and the food is to amazing.  We had dinner here on suggestion of someone in our group to expierience some real italian food, and we were not disappointed.  

We let the waitor run with his suggestions and he brought out some amazing plates, my fav's were the lobster salad, grilled octopus,  and a trio of pastas... delicious.

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6

87

Kenny L.

Astoria, NY

If you never get a chance to eat at Piccola Venezia, you won't be missing much.

I found that most of the patrons, here, were regulars in the later years of their life. With the seating about half-filled on an early Sunday evening, the ambient volume varied from very quiet to moderately loud. The wait staff is helpful, attentive and eager (without being overly so) to please even if you're not one of their regulars.

The Maltagliati 'Dania' was a pappardelle pasta in a delicious tomato sauce with just a little bit of cream. I had my first taste of beef braciola so I have no basis for comparison but I do not think it was very good, at all. The meat was overcooked, dry and very bland. It was as if they had forgotten to add any flavor to it other than the sauce on top. There wasn't even a real meat flavor that you could point to. Steak tastes like steak, burgers taste like ground meat, but all I can say about the beef braciola is that there was beef in my mouth. The gnocchi was a little too big and a little too heavy. The sauces that the gnocchi and beef braciola came in were, however, very good.

Other options on the menu sounded good so I might come back to try something else but I don't plan on doing so anytime soon. I think that you could better spend your money elsewhere.

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1

17

christy B.

Long Island City, NY

Alternatively-If you really want to feel like you're in the mafia try Piccola. With old school service (all male wait staff), 50s decor (not beautiful but it has character) and homemade pastas anyway you like them you'll be sure to roll out the door at the end of the night.

Foods are insanely good although not very healthy (the salmon melts in your mouth it's so tender but that means it's not free of butter/oil and see "Kenny"'s review of the bracciole). The pastas, again, are amazing and although prices run a little high for Queens you can get half orders of pastas which are more than enough when you have already eaten the complimentary bruchetta, cheese and salami they bring when you sit down. and you MUST try the pumpkin ravioli-oh my god!

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