Minissale’s Wine Cellar Cafe

My Husband and I went sat Jan 23 about 7. Our first and LAST time!!!
There wasnt anyone there… Maybe 2 tables… This SHOULD have been a warning!!!
The waitress didnt wanna get off her bar stool to tell us to sit anywhere. Then wanted to take our order immediately (I guess her stool was getting cold)
The salad that cost extra … Was not edible. All oil no dressing. We got the house… It was horrible. The sauce on the pasta is SOUR! We took it home and gave our dogs this horrible experience.
To end it all we BOTH ENDED UP SICK ALL NIGHT… Stomach aches bad pain and nausea!!!
Stay AWAY!!!

Iv been going here sence i was 6yro im 43 now lol good food good people never had a bad visit

I have yet to eat at their restaurant. However, I recently discovered their high quality pasta sauces sold in the «spaghetti sauce» aisle of most Price Choppers. This review is based solely on their jarred pasta sauces.
Their price point is affordable for premium jarred sauce. It’s anywhere between $ 3.50 and $ 4.50 a jar and worth every penny. It’s the best locally made red sauce.
If their commercially jarred sauce can taste like your grandma spent all of Sunday over a pot making the sauce, I can only imagine how delicious their sauce tastes right at the restaurant. And yes, I can use this sauce and pass it off as homemade ;-)
Right now I have a jar of their Sicilian sauce in my pantry. It’s a basic red sauce with onions, garlic, basil, parsley and olive oil. I’ve yet to try it but I’ve had one of their spicy sauces, a red wine sauce and a puttanesca sauce. None add sugar or high fructose corn syrup or other nasty ingredients. All have been so fresh tasting and delicious.

This is our second attempt at pick/​up dinners at this place. First time we thought the food was good, but a little pricy. This time there is nothing good to say. Hopefully just an off night… and still pricy. $ 32 for two Spag & meatball dinners that did NOT include a salad.

Great spot. Love their sauces. We buy them jarred for home. Beautiful atmosphere. Nice location off the beaten path. A regular spot for our family.

Solid red sauce Italian joint. Great for kids. Their standard sauce is a little bland, but with a few shakes of their Sicilian or arrabbiata spice blend (on the table) it wakes up. Their arrabbiata (hot) sauce is good but no joke on the heat level.

Good traditional selections on menu. Family owned and it shows that they care and willing to accommodate special requests if they can.
Dinner side salads are large and only $ 2.95 with a dinner. Very good.
Portion sizes are generous and everything is good.
We will return when in Troy.

Solid italian food– no frills, good portion sizes, good value.
Pizza is awesome, everything is awesome.
Good wine prices– always a $ 15/​bottle special as well.

My boyfriend and I decided to check out Minissale’s last night for dinner on a recommendation. We arrived to find a decent crowd, and a very homey atmosphere. We took a booth in the front area, and were soon greeted by our waitress, who was wonderful. I see other reviewers have complained about the waitstaff, but we obviously didn’t have the same server. Ours was fantastic. She explained the specials, and a couple of different wines to us in detail.
The menu was pretty standard for an Italian restaurant: Lasagna, spaghetti with meatballs, veal parm and veal marsala, chicken parm/​marsala, steaks, and some seafoods.
We started with a bottle of a Sicilian red wine, which the waitress described as «similar to Chianti». It was, and it was delicious. Our bread came out first, which was OK. It was good, but nothing special. Our salads were very good. A bed of fresh greens topped with crunchy croutons, a couple tomato wedges, with a handful of green peas and carrot cubes thrown in, which I thought was interesting. I had the balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and my boyfriend had the peppercorn parm, which he said was very good. We ordered a half-​loaf of cheesy garlic bread as an appetizer, which didn’t really have enough cheese for my liking, but it wasn’t bad.
For our entrees, I chose the veal marsala, and my boyfriend ordered a steak.
The marsala sauce was amazing, although the veal was lacking in the quantity and the texture was a little tough. It was unbreaded, just kind of hiding under the sauce beneath mushrooms and onions. I ordered a side of capellini with red sauce, and was unimpressed. The sauce was bland and flavorless; however, with a few sprinkles of the housemade Arrabbiata seasoning, it came to life.
My Boyfriend always orders his steak rare, and they didn’t disappoint. He also had a side of pasta, which he left largely untouched.
For dessert, I had a shotglass of tiramisu. It was amazing!
Overall, the food was tasty, the service was outstanding, and the atmosphere gave me the feeling that I was dining at the home of a friend, which I like. The waitress was welcoming, and knowledgeable. Our dinner came to around $ 82– that’s two entrees, an appetizer, and a bottle of wine. We’ll definitely return!

After three consecutive nights of dinner at Minissale’s, it is confirmed. I’m addicted. I’m hooked, on the ‘heat’.
Minissale’s Arrabiata Sauce is the spiciest substance on the planet, with the exception of molten lava (maybe).
If you are a hot-​head, spice fanatic like I am, I dare you to try the Fra Diavolo, with extra Habanero peppers. The home grown orange flamethrowers take spicy to another level.
Ask for the Arrabiata Sauce cranked up to the max, if you happen to share my enjoyment in chile-​powered pleasure. The sauce can be incorporated into just about anything on the menu.
Five star heat. Hot as the Sun.

Ah, Unilocal,how much I rely on you…
Went here without checking out Unilocal.Came back to write the review and discovered… it’s rated about what I thought it would be.
The pros: Very large serving sizes, though for the price, they’d better be. The cons: Rather bland.

Ok so the only reason this place is getting 2 stars is because of the pasta fagioli «fazool». It was empty when we arrived and soon we would find out why. The calamari appetizer was decent it was pretty tender but nothing special as a whole and the sauce was dreadfully concentrated. We sampled the Veal Marsala and Veal Parmesan. Both veal dishes were very tough and greasy. The waitress was a young college student who couldn’t be bothered by explaining the menu or working for that matter. This place has been around for years and I am very surprised by this. I wonder if it just recently has gone down hill?

It’s «just OK»
This restaurant has been in business for nearly 30 years, quite possibly because the food has neither highs nor lows, ensuring no palate is offended…
: The bread & rolls were ordinary.
: The calamari appetizer was way too greasy, but otherwise flavorless.
: I had the Pasta DaVinci, which was just «OK» — the homemade sausage had an odd, but not unpleasant, taste, and the linguine was cooked well, but the sauce was dull. It tasted as if they deliberately chose the most flavorless tomatoes they could find, added a little oregano, and called it a red sauce.
: We were a party of 6, and we each had something different: seafood, veal, chicken, ravioli, eggplant, and a pasta/​sausage dish. When we asked one another how we liked our dinner, we each said the same thing: «It’s OK, nothing special.»
: The wine list was good, in that they had one of my favorite Chiantis (Cecchi Chianti Classico).
: The desserts were just «OK,» too… The tiramisu was very dry, and the banana/​cheesecake thing was extremely sweet (seemed much sweeter than it should have been).
The waitress was a very nice, pretty young girl, and she’s probably a wonderful person, but as a waitress, she was pretty bad… She was forgetful, slow, inattentive, and unknowledgeable about the dishes on the menu; every question we asked was met with either «hmm, I’m not sure» or «I’ll have to ask the chef,» and they weren’t complicated questions…
All in all, this is a nice place, owned & operated by nice people, and the prices are decent (dinner for 6, w. appetizers, 2 bottles of wine, and 3 desserts, was $ 220, before tip). However, the food is «just OK.»