Tuscany La Costa

If you’re looking for great music and atmosphere and excellent food Tuscany is the place for you. And Howie is the best bartender in town or should I say within 1000 miles.

Pino the head waiter is perhaps the greatest waiter I have ever had. Beyond the authentic Italian accent he is so attentive and an absolute gem. They are much less busy for lunch despite having an amazing menu, the lasagna is top notch and double the size of a normal restaurant entre. Fresh bread extra virgin olive oil and balsamic are brought along with delicious sweet cream butter. They have entertainment on a rotating schedule. The burger is one of the better ones in Carlsbad and comes with breaded fries, enough said. Don’t be discouraged by the Von’s shopping center location the inside is nicer than most area restaurants. I have tried many different dishes here and not one has disappointed. Wonderful food and top quality ingredients. Highly highly recommended.

My mom loves this place. She really wanted to take me for brunch so we chose today since they have a live jazz band that plays until around 1pm on Sundays. Our waiter was quick, polite, friendly, and pretty funny. I wish I got his actual name cause he was joking around with us telling us his name was pino. not sure if that’s his actual name or not but he was great. He was an older italian? gentlemen that had an adorable knife and fork tie clip!
I had trouble deciding on what to order since everything sounded really good. I was torn between the mascapone stuffed french toast with the berry compote and the sausage spinach benedict. I settled with the benedict that came with a side of fruit. I assumed the sausage would be like a sausage patty and was pleasantly surprised when it came out as sliced Italian sausage links! I felt like there was a good amount of sausage and spinach on the benedict. The hollandaise was creamy, fatty, and delicious. I wish there was more of it though. My mom ordered the breakfast burrito and she loved it. I had a bit and it was pretty good loved that the veggies inside were nicely grilled before being placed inside. Her side potatoes were scrumptious! The salsa that came with it was refreshing and good. Nothing amazing and probably could use some heat.
I will definitely be coming back, especially to try the french toast! And to do the $ 9 bottomless mimosas!!!

So disappointed.
Our older waiter was very attentive & focused. I would give him 5 stars if I could. That being said, we were seated & a basket of bread was brought out immediately.
It was bland & blah white bread, no butter.
However there was olive oil on the table, so we used that to dip our bread in. I mean, honestly! The olive garden bread stix are an improvement over this bread. just tasteless.
Hubby LOVES lasagna & ordered theirs. It was pretty good. I love anything with bolognese sauce. So ordered the penne with it. Meh.
I still cant out my finger it! Was the sauce «overcooked»? Or?
all I know is that it was bland! If you have had bolognese before you know its a deep hearty & rich flavor… this did not deliver.
They brought out more bread &…voila! it was warm this time & came with butter, the butter was almost frozen so forget spreading it on the bread…
We had gone here many years ago. Thought we would try it. Will not go back.

Came here for a work Christmas party. We had the reservation room so I wasn’t able to try the ‘restaurant’ experience, but all I could say is that the EGG PLANT TORTE IS PHENOM! The dish was small, but my taste buds were in heaven! It was rich in flavor. The sauce was made to perfection and the cheese was baked on top so delicious! The reason I give this place 3 stars is because our server was rude! Everyone was commenting on how he made vulgar facial expression every time we asked a question. I sure didn’t let that ruin my day. I’ll probably come back for their brunch deal and experience a different environment.

Went here the other day and I loved it! Wonderful atmosphere and great servers! Love that place! Will be back!

Didn’t know what to expect coming here after seeing and hearing some negative comments about this place. My husband and I decided to try it out and came in Monday night and sat at the bar. It was very busy but we were acknowledged right away by the friendly young bartender. Although I could tell it was very busy he made us our drinks right away and gave us menus. I had a cosmopolitan and my husband had a Manhattan! They were so good! Yum!
We ordered food off of the happy hour menu and it came out pretty fast. The food was pretty good as well.
The atmosphere was very warm and inviting and we were even told that they have concerts and comedy shows on the weekends! How fun! Also make sure to stop by and see Steve! He was great and provided excellent service.
Even though I was skeptical at first about this place I have to say after the great service and talking with Steve the bartender, we will definitely be back and I would recommend this place to everyone!

There for breakfast!!! Odered eggs benedict Comes without bread ??? I simply ordered a side bread when asked what type white, wheat or??? I said focccacia!!! Got wonder bread and smuckers! Place sucks !!! Over priced !!

Been here twice and it’s just is not working for us at all.
This last time, it took 20 minutes to get any attention from the wait staff, and another 15 minutes to get drink orders we made (ie, wine and water) filled and food orders taken.
In the meantime, Signore Lothario seemed to have plenty of time to attend to the tables with ladies (only).
The food is ok: definitely not anything to write home about, and definitely not commanding of the NY, SF and LA prices they are charging. More bad press for the big time bartender, who is just rude if you ask me. Mixing a drink is not brain surgery, and unless John Taffer is hiring you for Bar Rescue, you’re just another drink slinger begging for tips.
This is a place past its prime catering to the over-​50 La Costa crowd who never really experienced fine dining in places like NY or LA, or if they did, forgot about what that actually provides. They have a lot of work to do to get to passable.

I came in last night with a big group of people around 9:30 p.m. One of the first things I noticed was how rude the owner was being to our server because the tables we tried to add to our area were not cleaned off before we sat down, or before we tried to move them ourselves. Right around that time the server came over and told us not to worry and that she would take care of it. The server, according to my receipt, 13 Janelle, was totally professional and took very good care of us the whole night and genuinely cared about our experience. I can’t say the same about their manager, bartender, or owner. I left with the feeling that the manager I spoke to and the owner have no clue how to run a restaurant.
Issue 1 — My fiancée and I ordered two drinks: a margarita and a whiskey sour from our awesome server. They were delivered in a timely manner with such a big group. Upon taking our first sip my fiancée complained to me that her drink was way too strong. I also took a sip of my whiskey sour and it tasted like whiskey with soda water and simple syrup. It’s not a hard drink to make. I told my fiancée to take the drinks back to the bartender and tell him what we thought. Any rookie bartender by this point would just smile and say, «I’m so sorry about that, can I make you a new one or possibly something else since you didn’t enjoy those drinks?» Instead, he grabbed them out of her hands and simply dumped some of the contents out in the sink behind the bar and proceeded to add more ice and whatever terrible mixers were used to make the drinks. They tasted just as bad as the first time. Not to mention that he had an attitude with my fiancée and gave her the impression that he didn’t believe her and that she didn’t know what she was talking about. Off to the side, some drunk guy said, «Yeah! There are no returns here!» She left the bar unsuccessful and came back to our table, which really put a damper on the evening.
Issue 2 — After our server came back by and asked how we were doing I told her that I wanted to mention our experience with Steve, the «rockstar» bartender who was so arrogant and egotistical. He couldn’t remake a simple drink for us, or offer to get us something else we would like better. She apologized right away and said that she would have their other bartender make us whatever we wanted, which we really appreciated. She went above and beyond what was necessary to keep us happy. Honestly, she should be managing the place. She really impressed me so much more than the next major fail that happened with their manager. She motioned for me to come in to a point-​of-​sale area to speak with their manager. This is where the other biggest let down of the night happened. Upon walking in and being presented to him by the server I expected him to say something like, «Good evening sir, please fill me in on what happened… I am so sorry about that.» Basically, I had to say the first word because he seemed the least bit interested in starting a conversation with me. So, me being a mature adult male I said, «Good evening sir, let me start off by telling you that I am a very reasonable person when it comes to dining in restaurants and that I have worked in the industry for 13 years and managed a restaurant for over 4 years so I know how this goes and what kind of people you deal with at times.» At no time did he really make eye contact with me while he was doing something on the computer system, and he seemed like he gave zero f#@ks about what I was saying. I told him all about how the bartender treated my fiancée and the manager said that I shouldn’t have gone up to the bartender and that I should have only dealt with the server! I was appalled. I had to correct him and say that it was the bartender’s job to make a drink correctly and make sure we were happy with what we ordered. He kept circling around the topic of not going to the bartender. I clarified to him that it was the bartender’s job, not the server’s job. He was a total idiot and shouldn’t be managing a restaurant. He was basically arguing with me and telling me that I was in the wrong for trying to solve the problem directly with the bartender. I couldn’t believe he did that.
Thanks to our awesome server, we got some new drinks we actually liked, and a round of drinks on the house from another bartender, but that is not enough for us to come back. This is really sad since the food I ate was delicious and came out so fast. Our server was fantastic. She is the only one we experienced who actually knows how to treat a guest and give them a reason to come back. The owner would have never noticed what was happening since he was too busy singing songs and playing the piano trying to relive his days as a failed rockstar to notice that we had a major issue with Steve, his bartender, and his manager who do not grasp the «customer is always right» concept. Major fail.

The ambience is the best thing about this place. I had a seafood mix entrée, $ 28 I think. The risotto was good but the shrimp (1), scallop (1), swordfish (1 small piece) and bass?(1) was not a big serving and all were without flavor. The table bread was dry and seemed a day old. My dates’ meal was average at best. Total price (including 1 glass of wine and tip) was $ 77.00. I seriously would have preferred Rubio’s.
Side note: they have a guy playing music in the corner that wasn’t too bad. :)

I really wanted to like this place. I recently moved to La Costa and went out on a Thursday evening with my boyfriend searching for a date night restaurant in our new neighborhood. With Tuscany’s live band playing and happy hour specials in the bar, I had high hopes.
BUT…
They can’t seem to handle any of the basics.
We sat in the half-​empty bar area and it took 10 minutes for anyone to come over to our table and greet us. We were served water glasses by a runner and told we could order shortly with our server. Another 5 minutes passed until we placed an order for a beer, a glass of wine, an appetizer and two entrees with our waitress. After an additional 15 minutes passed and we still hadn’t received our drinks (how long does it take to pour a draft beer and a glass of wine?) we decided to tell the hostess we were leaving and to cancel our entire order.
Needless to say we won’t be back.

Exquisite ! Fine Dining ! Wonderful Service !
Delicious Brunch ! We will be back thank you for making our wedding anniversary very special!

I bought a voucher from travel-​zoo for two that includes brunch and mimosas. I was surprised to find out that it’s not actually «brunch» buffet style but instead a very limited amount of one dish entrees to choose from either single pancakes, omelette, pizza, or eggs bacon and potatoes anything else that you wanted you had to pay an additional price. I opted for the eggs, bacon and potatoes, the other entrée we decided on the cheese pizza. The pizza tried a bite and was pretty good which included goat cheese, however the breakfast was just average I could have made it at home. I don’t think that the voucher price is worth the amount of food that you get. Yes unlimited mimosas but getting the waiters to come over to fill you up was a task due to how busy the restaurant was on a Sunday.

Went here with some of my dog park pack when Casa De Bandini had a way too long wait. Place was packed and I’m very grateful that Tuscany could accommodate our party of 5. We were a little cramped at our table but it was a Friday night and we were just glad to be seated. The acoustics in this place are insanely loud. Seems to be the pattern of Italian restaurants. Not sure why that is. We could barely hear each other speak. Some of my friends were very agitated by the noise.
Our server was a sweet young guy and he was very busy and tried his best but some things seemed to slip through the cracks. Took a long time to get bread and then when we did it was 3 pieces. Hello 3 pieces for 5 people. Then the second basket of bread had a few pieces that were hard as a rock. You just couldn’t eat them. They appeared to be very short handed so I’m not blaming our server.
They were out of the appetizer we wanted and so we just decided to order dinner. I had the sea bass with some risotto. The risotto was delicious and the sea bass was tasty too if not a little tiny bit dry.
My margarita was perfecto!!! They make em from scratch… no mixers here. That being the case I will definitely be back for happy hour for some margies and apps and rocking piano music.

Went in and spoke to the owner (I think) the day after about my husband lost his wallet. We called yesterday but they said they don’t have it. The owner was really nice and said to check back when they open. They have our wallet! Yay! Although we did cancel all of cards, we’re happy they found it. It was the only place we could’ve left it since we went straight home.
Thank you for finding the wallet. I stand by my original rating with food and dinner service.
— — —
Service was great.
Ordered the ricotta and spinach pizza and it was delicious. I’m a red sauce fan so I asked for a side of marinara.
Ricotta was fresh and a hint of sweetness. Definitely will order this pizza again.

Jazz Music + Brunch + Bottomless Mimosas = Match made in Hangover Sunday’s Heaven!
In North County, there aren’t too many brunches around unlike down in San Diego, so it’s nice that there’s a classy brunch place around. Parking lot is huge so you won’t have to worry about parking, but it’s recommended you make a reservation for brunch as many people come here Sunday. However, it’s also no biggie either if ‘you were in the neighborhood and wanted to check out this place’, just be prepared to wait some.
What I like most, other than the bottomless mimosas, is that it’s not a brunch buffet, which of course gives you more capacity for those liquid libations. The entrees were normal size, so you’re not walking away feeling you need to head to the bathroom ASAP, however if you’re lactose-​intolerant, I would suggest popping a few pills as those benedicts have full fat goodness or else you’ll be heading to the bathroom!
The food was a bit above average. Nothing mind blowing, but not terrible either. I ordered the Tuscany Omelette and it says it’s served with fresh fruit, but I still wanted some potatoes so I ordered them as a side dish. However my plate came out with potatoes and they also put potatoes IN the omelette! Too many potatoes! You can tell the sausage is authentic and homemade, but there were only a few pieces. Slight disappointment.
Food: 3 Stars
Service: 5 Stars
Ambience: 5 Stars
Overall, good place to go compared to the other alternatives in Carlsbad.

Came for dinner and the main dining room was packed so we opted to sit in the bar area where it was open seating. It took a good 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged our presence and brought us water and menus. They have daily happy hour until 7p, so the table took advantage of the drink specials. My drink Peach Bellini ($ 10) was not on the HH menu and was regular price.
We ordered our entrees, and I ordered the Shrimp Scampi which was atop of pasta ($ 29). The meals took a very long time to come out. Not sure if it was just an off night for them or what… When I took bites out of my pasta and scampi, the entrée definitely lacked the true scampi flavor. Not enough butter, garlic or lemon. The shrimp were actually large, which I was happy with. The entrée came with 5 shrimp and I ate 3 and took the other portion of my pasta and 2 shrimp to go. When I had my leftovers, I only had 1 shrimp. Hey, I got jipped!!!
We ordered dessert. The in-​laws ordered the Molten Lava Cake and we also ordered the same. Their cake came out with the chocolate lava flowing out. Ours on the other hand was definitely overcooked with absolutely NO lava coming out. Sadly, we sent the dessert back. We did get another one, but it was 1 issue after another in this experience.
I really wanted to like the place given the live music on Saturday night, but with all the issues, I’m going to have to defer this place next time.
This place definitely caters to the older crowd of La Costa. You see a lot of plastic, botoxed beauties and wannabes, however, not as bad as the Del Mar crowd. This place makes it for great people watching, I must say!

Place is amazingly delicious. Our waiter is from Italy with an accent, «hi señora would you like a drink señora — anything to else for your señora» friendly, nice and funny! great guy.
I wanted everything on their menu… debating between the seafood platter or salmon — couldnt decide so i did «eenie meenie my– née mo catch a tiger by his toe if he hollers let him go eenie meenie my-​née mo» PAN SEARED SALMON it is! it was on some type of rice thingy with peas and mushroom — see pic.
DELICIOUSNESS. i wanted to save some for dinner tonight but it was just tooo good.
5÷2÷15 — is their 25^th anniversary — so i recommend buying tickets and celebrating with them :) i would but ill be in VEGAS SCHMEGAS!

I have been coming here for ten years plus and it has changed quite frequently during that time. It now has no separation between the bar and main dinning area. This makes it feel like a gigantic bar/​watering hole for locals. If you were coming here for drinks I think it would be an excellent venue as they also have live music.
If you came here for the food I would say this is an average Italian restaurant, nothing special. The salmon carpaccio was totally over salted, and the lasagne was dry/​bland. For $ 150 plus tip for two there are other places I would go first.