Casa Toscana

Location: 7001 Biscayne Blvd, Miami
t: 305.758.3353
Cuisine type: Italian
Price: Moderately priced
Hours: m-f.11am-3pm, m-th.6pm-11pm, f-sa.6pm-11pm

A cozy, warm, and inviting restaurant beacon, I wish I would have driven in front of and just kept on going.

Instead, the siren like charm of its well lit outdoor seating area lulled me and my dining companions in, only to reveal yet another very bad Miami Italian eatery. The most frustrating part of this was the fact that I was actually on the way to a great restaurant. Instead, in the name of my adventurous sensibilities, I had to settle for a total gastronomic loss.

We began with the eggplant filled with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and the meat carpaccio. I was so disappointed with the taste of the eggplant dish that I did not even call the waiter to inform them that the sun-dried tomatoes were nowhere to be found. As for the meat carpaccio, it was mediocre at best.

We followed the appetizers with a blackberry risotto with mascarpone and a linguini pesto. I know what your thinking, blackberry risotto, how very ambitious. Ambitious indeed, so much so, that it was a complete bust. I likened it to risotto cooked in Hawaiian Punch, my girlfriend and friend thought that was a bit much, but I can't in good faith, apologize for the simile. The pesto produced more of the same feelings. Pesto, like mole, if you read the previous review, is, for me, of essential importance at any Italian restaurant. In this case I am afraid that I have nothing good to say about it.

We concluded our dinner with an amaretto infused apple raisin tart with cinnamon ice cream. I think at this point I was so disillusioned that I barely tried the dessert at all; the only thing I will say is that the ice cream did in fact taste very much like cinnamon.

Even now, as I attempt to say something positive after such harsh criticism, as is human nature, I cannot find a single redeeming quality in my experience, short of saying that the owner was helpful and accommodating, and that the bottle of wine we had was worth the $27 price tag.

Having spent $100 (around $50 per person) I am still growing my mental list of: '20, and counting, ways I could have put $100 to better use'.