Last weekend was the annual Passport to Woodinville event – where people get to buy a “Passport” that lets them visit participating wineries (many of whom are only open that weekend) for a special tasting. This event, which is sponsored by Woodinville Wine Country, is a great opportunity to get out & experience the many varied wineries in Woodinville for a single tasting fee.
There’s a winter version too, in December called “St. Nick’s”. I encourage you all to check these events out.
During these large events, the local wineries often have volunteers working – pouring wine, handling order fulfillment etc. As a member of the Washington Wine Ambassadors, I helped out at Woodhouse Family Cellars during the Passport Event.
So what does this have to do with Toscano? Well, as part of their Passport offering, Woodhouse Family Cellars had great food catered by Toscano – pizzas, spring rolls, an interesting Spanish Beef tapas dish, among others. Wow. The food was great – so much so that I heard from some of the visitors that people were talking about at one of the other wineries, which is really cool.
So. Toscano is a great caterer, and I would recommend them for that.
On the other hand, based on the experience over the weekend, my family went to Toscano (on 108th in Bellvue, by the way), for dinner last night to celebrate my daughter’s 9th birthday. After an amuse bouche of smoked salmon mousse & asparagus, I had the pan-seared scallops (topped with caviar) that were really good, and a glass of L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet. After dinner, they brought my daughter a trio of creme brulee (vanilla/orange/chocolate) with a candle in it, which was really nice.
But that’s about it for goodness. Oh, my wife said the tilapia she had itself was good – but the baby shrimp & stuff that was on top had too many flavors in it. My dad’s bolognese was “OK”, and my daughter’s pasta with butter & cheese was bland (and didn’t have cheese) – although she liked my scallops too.
Overall, we were very disappointed with the dine-in experience, and we’ll be taking my daughter out this weekend for a birthday re-do.
So, Toscano is a great caterer – but don’t bother going to the restaurant itself.
