Tuscany--Salt Lake City, UT

I received a $50 Tuscany gift card for my birthday. I took my husband to what I thought would be a nice, quiet, romantic, dinner at a restaurant that offered exceptional food and service. At the price they were charging, it better be that. The average dinner plate is around $25, and that does not include appetizers, salad, drinks, dessert, etc. Appetizers are an additional $7-$20, salad an additional $5-$10, wine is pricey (cheapest glass was $10), and dessert is $7-$10.

My husband ordered the Frutti Di Mare. with Mussels, Clams, Prawns, Salmon And Sea Bass, served over Linguine Alla Puttanesca. He said the clams in it "tasted like they had gone bad". The plate was not very big. He was still hungry after ordering that and a salad as well. Essentially, it was seafood pasta with bad seafood.

I ordered the Penne Pasta with Smoked Chicken, Roasted Tomatoes, Olives, Fetta Cheese and Fresh Basil served in a Light White Wine Broth. This tasted like something I could have made at home with a Knorr season packet and some crappy chicken. It was not good at all.

We did not order wine, because the prices were outrageous. A glass of really cheap wine was more than $10. Ridiculous. I could buy the same bottle of wine at the liquor store for less than $6. So we drank water.

We ordered the Traditional Tiramisu espresso soaked lady fingers with mascarpone cream for dessert. Just one for the both of us. We also each got a cup of coffee, which wasn't too bad, considering. The tiramisu was bland and tasteless. I could have made something better, and even the Macaroni Grill has a far superior tiramisu.

The worst part of the night was the atmosphere and service. The atmosphere at Tuscany is VERY stuffy. But not in the "let's get dressed up and go out for a nice dinner" stuffy. The best way I could describe the patrons there is "white trash with money." Just really annoying people that have no manners whatsoever. It was very loud, and I could overhear the conversations of everyone around me. Our server, whose name is Corey, was terrible. We felt like we were inconveniencing him the entire time we were there. He did not check on us once. At one time, after our plates were taken, he passed us 3 times without even offering us the dessert menu or refills on our water. It was ridiculous for the amount of money we were paying for dinner. The bus girl did a better job than the server. As such, we purposely left him a terrible tip and gave the bus girl a better tip, making sure to see that our server saw us hand the bus girl the money.

Our bill came to over $80, and that didn't include the tip or the mandatory $5 fee and tip for valet parking. RIDICULOUS!

In short, don't waste your money at this restaurant. It tries to be high-end and classy, but is fails miserably. It's a rip-off. The food is terrible, and the atmosphere and service even worse. I'd rather eat at freakin' Olive Garden.