THE signs in the window of Trobiano's, a new Great Neck restaurant, list all the often-seen money-saving deals: early bird dinners, pasta night, two-for-one appetizer night and seafood night. At Trobiano's, this effort to draw customers is not necessary. The food is good enough without the bargains.
Forum: Dining Out
The dining room staff is another story. One evening the servers were nice but vague about who ordered which dish, and they failed to offer refills of an empty breadbasket. The flaws were evident on a return visit. Worse, however, was that our waiter seemed to be wearing blinders. It took exaggerated arm waving to get his attention.
But the food made up for the slack service. The bread basket held warm slices of superior black olive bread. It arrived with butter, eggplant caponata and tiny cubes of Asiago cheese. Things were definitely looking up.
The restaurant was last home to La Stella but is best remembered as the former location of Navona. Anthony Trobiano, who previously cooked at the Harrison House in Glen Cove, is the young chef and owner of this new double storefront.
Trobiano's is a white tablecloth restaurant with every table decked with attractively painted floral glass vases holding fat candles. The pale pink walls hold paintings and a tapestry depicting Italian scenes. The all-Italian music in the background ran the gamut from "Mambo Italiano" and "That's Amore" to opera.
The menu was also a hit parade of Italian classics plus a few innovative, quirky dishes that impressed. Most memorable were an excellent Caesar salad that sported homemade croutons and a just-right dressing, and a flavorful, fall-from-the bone osso buco atop creamy risotto.
Less traditional was an entree of very tasty chicken-wrapped shrimp. Three jumbo shrimp were each enclosed in an overcoat of moist, white meat chicken and glazed with a sauce of brandy, lemon and butter.
Also far from ordinary were six big grilled shrimp threaded on skewers and mated with a garlic aioli dipping sauce.
Trobiano's namesake chicken dish was a French-cut breast stuffed with a delicious meld of roasted red peppers, spinach and fresh mozzarella with a balsamic glaze.
We also gave high marks to a grilled pork chop filled with spinach, prosciutto and fontina cheese and to two classic veal preparations, veal saltimbocca and veal parmigiana, which had tender meat.
All entrees came with a choice of pasta or potatoes and vegetables. The potato possibilities were truffled mashed and rosemary roasted. They passed muster, as did the medley of crisp-tender broccoli, green beans and zucchini.
Still, I would go for the pasta. Diners can pick any pasta topped with one of four sauces: marinara, pomodoro, vodka or Alfredo. The pomodoro was a flavor-packed chunky tomato sauce. The pink, creamy vodka sauce, flecked with pancetta and onions, was even better.
One of my visits was on a Thursday, seafood night. Any fish or shellfish entree from the regular menu was offered with a choice of soup or salad for $20.95. We tried halibut in a crunchy black olive crust that was flaky and fine. The entree, which on other nights is $22.95, was full size, as was the salad, a tricolor that usually costs $6.95. Unfortunately, the salad did not have the advertised citrus vinaigrette, arriving with what tasted like a too-sweet raspberry dressing.
À la carte openers that scored were plump mussels in white wine; a refreshing tomato, red onion and cucumber salad; and a portobello salad, with chunks of mushroom, cubes of smoked mozzarella and roasted red peppers nestled among the greens.
Dessert was the best course. A house-made tiramisù blessed with thick layers of creamy mascarpone was a standout. It shared the stage with three high-quality sweets made elsewhere: a creamy cheesecake glazed with Belgian chocolate, a chocolate mousse cake with alternating stripes of cake and mousse and a caramel glazed white cake with a thick layer of white mousse filling and a base of lesser amounts of chocolate mousse and chocolate cake.
Trobiano's deserves a try whether it is bargain night or not.
Trobiano's
218 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck
(516) 466-4100
Very Good
ATMOSPHERE White tablecloths, Italian scenes in a storefront.
SERVICE Confused and inattentive.
SOUND LEVEL Pleasant.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Caesar salad, mussels, portobello salad, tomatoes-red onion-cucumber salad, chicken Trobiano, chicken-wrapped shrimp, veal parmigiana, veal saltimbocca, osso buco, black olive halibut, grilled shrimp skewers, grilled stuffed pork chop, all desserts.
WINE LIST A short, reasonable list of 25 still wines ($19 to $75), two-thirds of them under $30.
PRICE RANGE Lunch entrees, $9.50 to $14.95. At dinner, appetizers, $5.95 to $10.95; pastas, $13.95 to $18.95; entrees, $15.95 to $26.95.
CREDIT CARDS All major cards.
HOURS Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday. Dinner 4:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.
RESERVATIONS Suggested.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY Fully accessible.
REVIEWED BY THE TIMES March 12, 2006.
RATINGS Extraordinary, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Fair, Poor. Ratings reflect the reviewer's reaction to food, ambience and service, with price taken into consideration. Menu listings and prices are subject to change.