eateryROW: FOREST HILLS

TUSCAN HILLS

110-60 Queens Boulevard

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 487-4500

"Arrivederci Ovo Sodo," was what I thought to myself as I stepped into Tuscan Hills' new location. Ovo Sodo, Tuscan Hills' more casual sister, was my favorite Italian restaurant in the zip code that didn't have "Tazzina" in its name and I was sad to see it go. It was bright and airy and relaxed, had a great brunch, and, most importantly, made the "OvoSodo" Pizza. But a lack of packing in customers meant that Ovo Sodo was not long for this world. Meanwhile, Tuscan Hills wanted a better location. As it turns out, being smack halfway between Continental and Union Turnpike was less than ideal.

I had hoped that the new Tuscan Hills would absorb some of the Ovo Sodo elements (both design-wise and menu-wise), but that was not the case. It's all but a carbon copy of the original location; its decor is darker and subdued. More romantic and has that more traditionally Mediterranean look. If Ovo Sodo was where you would meet your girlfriends to split appetizers and gossip, then Tuscan Hills was where you would take your girlfriend on her birthday.

Lutsy and I were led to a seat by the window where I patiently waited until the table in the middle of the photograph above this paragraph emptied and was reset so I could take a decent shot. As we drank our wine and poured over the menu, I found myself straining to find something to order that seemed unique to Tuscan Hills. Prosciutto wrapped asparagus doesn't make that list and Lutsy and I have learned that fried calamari should be reserved for New England bars, covered in jalapeños, and served alongside a hoppy IPA. So, in skipping the old standbys, she chose the Rustico Bruschetta, a mushroom bruschetta with mozzarella and truffle oil, and I ordered the Fagioli All Uccelleto, a braised and crusted spicy sausage over cannellini beans and cherry tomatoes.

Sadly, the bruschetta was a miss. Serving it on a small cutting board was cute and certainly "rustic", but serving it on a few leaves of lettuce was somewhat pathetic and sucked all of that rustic cuteness right out the door. "You gonna eat your salad?" I said after the dish was finished. Lutsy did not reply. Still, we didn't come here to gripe about poor garnish choices, we came to eat, and this particular bruschetta made us wish that we had eaten something else. I can't beat it up and claim that it was inedible, because that's far from the case, but it was dry and bland. The dish needed something else, like a cream sauce between the mushrooms and the cheese. Something to moisten it up. On the other hand, the sausage was very good and much larger than I was expecting. If all you want for dinner is an appetizer, this is the one to get. The sausage, as expected, had a little bit of bite to it, and it paired very well with the almost creamy beans and tomato. Add in the lack of unnecessary lettuce leaves and it's win win win!

For the main course, Lutsy was debating between the lasagna and the Pici Alla Fondelli, fettuccine with olives in a wild boar meat sauce. The bold font might have given it away but she opted to try the lasagna another time and chose the pici alla fondelli. This was the better of our chosen two entrees. The fettuccine was phone-book-thick; they say it's fresh-made). The meat sauce was delicious, and I think there should have been more of it. Wild boar in general is a bit like a gamey cross between pork and beef, and this was no exception. So if you're a meat sauce fan, enjoy wild boar, and like having every third bite explode with the bitter tartness of an olive, then I highly recommend this dish.

Initially, I was planning to get the wild boar as well, but in order to sample more of the menu, I went for the non-pasta option of the Pollo Al Peperoni, a massive, pounded flat chicken breast with mashed potatoes in an onion pepper cream sauce with balsamic drizzled on top. When one flattens a piece of meat like chicken breast, because it's so lean, it's hard to keep it from drying out when it cooks. As a result, the chicken was not as moist as I would have liked. But the sauce, which was rich and thick and filled to bursting with flavor, more than made up for it. Add that heavy sauce to the very thick mashed potatoes and you have leftovers coming home with you. The portions at Tuscan Hills are not small.

We thought about dessert, then decided on going to Martha's instead, possibly meeting up with some friends who had basically been locked out of their apartment and were holed up waiting with some cake. But the friends left before our meal finished and, stepping outsidem we remembered just how cold 14-degrees actually is. So we went home, as dessertless as an Atkins diet plan.

If you liked the old Tuscan Hills, then you'll like the new one. It's a total fold-over from the original location, but this spot is less cramped. I hope that they bring back the build-own-pasta that they used to have (unless I just made that up, in which case they should add it to the menu), and I hope that they resurrect the pizza menu from Ovo Sodo, especially the  OvoSodo pizza, because that pie was perfection. In the end, Lutsy and I had a good time. The staff was very friendly, the wine pours were large, and the service was pretty good. The food was good, though I regret to say not amazing. There's an intimacy to Tuscan Hills that very few restaurants in walking distance have, save Jack & Nellie's and Reef and I'm sure that we will be back at some time in the near future. There were more hits than misses, and the prices (while not low) are decent. As a neighborhood Italian restaurant goes, it's a good spot.