THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED La Toscana

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED La Toscana Restaurant Review:

Don't let La Toscana's strip mall location fool you: this warm, elegant restaurant will transport you far, far away from as mundane an activity as shopping. Executive chef Royal Dahlstrom received his part of his training at the California Café and even though he prepares Italian cuisine rather than Californian, there is a similar emphasis on fresh ingredients and playful combinations. We love the fettuccine with lobster in a yellow tomato sauce with garlic, basil and shrimp broth, a dish that is transcendently complex while remaining as light and airy as a Tuscan breeze. The grilled salmon served on a cannellini bean ragout in a shrimp broth sauce is equally artful. Everything at La Toscana, from the homemade pasta to the hand-pulled buffalo mozzarella, feels like it was fussed over, but the effect is not a fussy restaurant. The interior is warm and woody (call ahead for one of the mahogany booths), the service breezy. By the time the dessert arrives, a heavenly steamed chocolate pudding with gelato or a tiramisu that makes this ubiquitous dessert seem new again, you feel like you've been let in on secret you won't be able to keep.