La Foresta

This is what Italian food should be. Well made interesting food, not just cookie cutter menu of exactly the same food every pizza place has. Well made cocktails, excellent wine list, very good service.

This place is the best! Great for special occasions. Both food and service were outstanding! I had the filet and lobster and the zucchini flowers. Delicious! Beautiful building, great ambiance, fantastic food and impeccable service. I will be back!

My first time at this restaurant today for lunch. Appetizers: calamari was beautiful and very lightly coated but Lacked seasoning( had to salt, a good restaurant doesn’t have salt and pepper on the table). The clams casino were delicious but almost cold. My bolognese was just basically a boring meat sauce. No complexity whatsoever. No rich taste of carrots or wine, Very disappointing. Service was good, our waitress was very pleasant. Not rushing back to this restaurant. Many better Italian restaurants in New haven.

We have been a few times in the past and I would say we had a 4-5 star experience. I was looking forward to returning. Problems started with our waitress. We didn't receive our drinks for 10 minutes after we ordered them and one was forgotten. Our appetizers came out and were very good. Two of us preferred the steak and lobster tail special. The special was supposed to have a lobster cream sauce instead it came out with a brown sauce that clearly did not pair well. The lobster tail was over cooked and hard. Deserts were very good, but only after we asked if they had desert. The waitress wanted

We drove 45 mins to meet a few friends who are from all over the state. The restaurant is warm and inviting. The owner never even offered a smile when we entered the restaurant - -1 star right there. I hate a restaurant whose owner is just not that invested - I expect you to at least smile and welcome me to your establishment. They describe their menu as 'rustic Italian' but it's really NOT an Italian restaurant.

Mike - the bartender - wasn't friendly at all. In fact - he was rude, apathetic and overall just sour. He seemed annoyed we were just grabbing a drink while

Food was great. Was seated outside at night, not given a choice to be seated inside. Very cold. Asked twice to turn the heat up and got laughed at. Our waiter did not introduce herself and never checked back after she took our orders. She disappeared and asked for the busser to go find her and got a nasty response. Wish the experience would have been better!

We will be coming back for dinner for Thanksgiving and to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Our group of five looking forward to a choice of traditional Turkey or Italian menu. It will be interesting to see their choices.

BEWARE!!!! Food was good but we put down a $300 deposit over 2 months ago for their private party room for our rehearsal dinner and they called us the day of the rehearsal dinner to tell us that they gave the room away for a larger party because our party went from 18 to 13 at $60 per person, still a lot of money! AND We gave them the final number a week in advance and they said okay no problem and waited until the day of to move us to the corner of the restaurant!!!Literally just a tiny corner and the owner was so rude and arrogant and didn’t apologize at all! What was the point of putting down

We ordered takeout over the phone with the rude man and we wanted to order it early and have it for later. He said call back when you are ready to pick it up. We called for a 630 pick up at 530 he said ready in 20 minutes. We said we want it ready for 630. It sat at host stand for 40 minutes. All the dishes were good except the over cooked salmon.

Then we actually went back a week later for a birthday dinner. Again met the rude man at hostbstand to sit us for our reservation. Didn't give us a choice and sat us outside was a chilly evening and no one had sweaters.

Server barely checked

It was interesting. The ambiance was nice. They are supposedly known for their extensive wine list. When we were seated, we were not offered a wine list. We were asked what we would like to drink. The vibe wouldn't indicate this place was exceptional regarding wine.
There did appear to be one table of approximately 12 people that the owner was trying to impress. He spent an inordinate amount of time at their table ensuring they were catered to.
The food was ok. I have visited other places in CT where I believe the food is much better. I am not sure what the fuss is with this particular place

We had a table of 6 this weekend. When we got to the restaurant we were told our reservation and table was given away. When we were finally sat we were given appetizers that were for another table. And then before we could even get our appetizers organized we were told that our meals were coming and our appetizers needed to be cleaned up. Mind you we haven't ordered a single thing yet. It took us close to 3 hours to get our meal. So be sure to cancel the rest of the night when attending. What's the most disappointing is this was a place we haven't ventured before at my mothers request

What a great evening we had at La Foresta!!!! A last minute choice for my wife and I,on a very busy Tuesday evening!! We will not sit inside anywhere with what is going on and the outside was very busy! We walked up anyways and the owner greeted us and we said it’s been a long time since our last visit! Thinking we would be asked to go inside , he pointed us to the last available table, and we did not have reservations!
We were seated next to a reserved table of 13, after 20 minutes of nobody showing up for the table of 13, I decided to go look at the name on the table!!!
How awesome was this

I love this place BUT... we made res. For deck as Mom-in-law 's 91 b-day, some health issues. They had no space on deck when we got there. Ate inside waiters DO NO WEAR MASKS. Fine for some, not for us. We are regulars...but will not be back. Great food. Just be aware.

Everything tasted great, but it still felt overpriced for the portion size and ambiance. They seemed like they were seating everyone outside on the deck instead of inside. There were a lot of flies buzzing around on the deck which was really annoying and i wished we were inside in the beautiful interior. The service was super fast, but didn't feel very personal and the servers didn't seem very knowledgeable about the drink menu and stuff. Minor gripe.
I wish I had ordered something cheaper for having a meal in the heat outside with the service so fast. It just didn't feel FaNcY ya know. But tasted

Their food is tasty but a little pricey. Our favorite thing here is the pasta with sausage and broccoli rabe - but honestly it's incredible cold. I'd recommend taking it for leftovers because the sauce is super runny when hot. It's much more flavorful cold when the sauce is thicker. If only they would reduce it more before bringing it out, it would be perfect.

We stopped here for lunch after spending some time at Lavender Pond farm a few minutes away.

We were promptly seated outdoors. The outdoor space is very pretty, it hardly feels like you're facing a parking lot. There were a lot of flowers, which made that space feel very private. There is also a bar on the deck.

The service was very prompt and friendly. We were often check on to see how everything was going and if we needed anything else.

I wasn't crazy about the spread that was served with the warm bread. I ordered the Thai Chili Shrimp off of their summer menu. It was served

Covid is a bear, so I'm adding a star to make it three. The menu is a very nice rustic Italian take so you won't find your favorite Parmesan on the menu. Braises, slow roasted dishes, seafood and pastas dominate. It's a nice menu with burrata, meatballs and many other delicious options.

Our meal was nice if not expensive, the service was subpar and we were only visited at the table 3-4 times (no chance to order a second round of drinks as an example) by our server.

The unforgivable error was the long hair in one our dishes. It happens I know. It's unforgivable when you look

What a difference five years makes (COVID-19 or not)......atmosphere is still nice however it would be nice if air conditioning was working properly or if they turned it on smh.....food was deplorable.....coulda made same pork chops from stop and shop myself.....menu has the feel of a diner some Italian dishes to burgers....Asian food....and even clam chowder......not sure what happened blame COVID but what a shame.....only good thing was my martini however waitress seemed annoyed when we requested another round of drinks.....filthy waiter dude in parking lot smoking was a nice touch......hopefully

This restaurant is a great place to eat inside or out. The outside large deck is awesome and now a long bar was added along with new outback patio seating.

Service and food always special. If you like something that is not on the menu, ask for it. This is an Italian restaurant but their steaks rival any steak house. This is a Killingworth gem!

Great food and service! The wine list is extensive... and they are happy to guide you in the right direction of you feel overwhelmed. Sorry I didn't get a picture of our dinners they were plated beautifully and we dug right in. Such goodness!

Excellent! Service, food & drinks! All perfect. An amazing selection of wine. Hint give them a wine budget when you order and you won't be disappointed. Must haves, octopus, veal, squash flowers.

Enjoy!

I never have a bad meal at La Foresta. Their espresso martinis are a favorite and the calamari appetizer is very tasty! They've done a great job adapting to the COVID guidelines and built a beautiful outdoor dining deck. Looking forward to dining again soon. The only negative comment would be that some of the meals are a tad pricey but again always great food.

Beautiful restaurant but ridiculously overpriced. Thai shrimp was shrimp with Thai sweet chili sauce from the bottle for $14. Kids ravioli was $13.

Family of four with on beer and one appetizer was over $130!

I get that during Covid restaurants may be suffering but such overpriced items will just turn away more business... don't think we will return for overpriced, mediocre food. A shame really... maybe they will read and take into consideration.

This is the third time I've given La Foresta a try and the third time I was so incredibly disappointed that I had to take photos. I wish I took pictures of the other meals but below is how unbelievably inconsistent and falsely advertised their food is. You NEVER get what they post or what you pay for! I'm so blown away by this and I can't be the only one! How can you post photos of this mile high burger with fried onions and then give a customer something SO completely different?!? And yes, this was in fact the burger of the week for today and their post was from yesterday. It&apos

This was an overall great experience. I went with my family to celebrate my sister's college graduation. The food was great and our server was fantastic (I can't remember his name unfortunately... he was a new server, but absolutely lovely).

We had a reservation so we were able to sit on the deck while the weather is still nice. I would've given it 5 stars, except for the fact that the owner was a bit rude to our waiter... so it was a little uncomfortable (even though our waiter was amazing and did nothing wrong).

Anyways, other than that, the experience was great. Would highly

My family and I had dinner here this past weekend. In a word, it was superb.

As a local resident I've watched how this restaurant has adjusted to the pressures of the pandemic. Where lots of other restaurants opted to shut down, La Foresta moved to an exclusively take-out operation. I bought dinner for my family several times, and was never disappointed. The quality I'd grown used to as a regular customer before the crisis continued.

But then, over the last several weeks, I saw the owner (full-disclosure, we are friends), Francesco Lulaj, begin to make significant improvements