Last night was the third time my girlfriend and I have been here. On my first visit, my thought was, "it's pretty pricey for a small portion of macaroni." Macaroni is cheap, except for here. But we enjoyed the authentic Italian, homey atmosphere and most especially the live music. We chalked up the (too) high price to the added ambiance. The food is good as in decent but nothing extraordinary. And it certainly isn't great enough for the price. Last night we ordered the sea bass special. We both love sea bass and have had great sea bass in town. We got a VERY small steak-like piece of sea bass, twice baked potato that was very small, a few broccoli florets and a few julienne pieces of roasted peppers (I believe). The plate was $40. I order the sea bass at Don Vito's which is more than twice that size, possibly 3 times, it is luscious (light, buttery like sea bass is) for $38. The sea bass last night was much more dense and firm like halibut. It was tasty but had I seen the plate before I ordered, I would have never ordered it. Before I arrived there and knew of the special, I was kind of set on the Pasta Alla Forno (penne with chicken, shrimp, broc, mushrooms in a light pink sauce baked with mozz). Sounds yummy, eh? I imagine it could have been. The sea bass wasn't much so I ordered still the Alla Forno to take home, thought I would have it for the next couple days lunches. At $30 for the plate of macaroni, I expected a good size portion. I was stunned when I got home and opened the plastic bag. There was so little macaroni that I could see the bottom of the silver tin they package to go items in. No two lunches there. When I got ready to eat it today, I literally dissected the dish to search for the shrimp - 4 tiny pcs maybe the size of my thumb nail, count the broccoli florets- 1 sm floret and 2 fragments and the penne - 50.(I do have pictures of all that I will post.)
Here is the bottom line: the food is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced. If paying a lot for the food is worth it for the ambiance, then I think you will find the food decent and love the music. The ambiance is the ONLY reason we will go there on rare occasion. If you could careless about the music and just want some good food for a decent price, this is NOT your place. Since the closing of Tivoli Gardens, Nora's would be my favorite. My favorite dish there is $20 (which I still think is overpriced) and in ways similar to the All Forno. But I definitely get two meals out of it, way tastier and you don't have to hunt for the shrimp. Full size shrimp.