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By Jeremy Grand and Damien Monaco On Oct. 5, 2009, Luzzo’s Italian restaurant officially replaced what was once Romano’s Macaroni Grill in Westbury on Corporate Drive. We had the opportunity to attend a mock opening to taste and review the food, service, atmosphere, etc., a few days prior to the official opening. With that said, we shall give them the benefit of the doubt that they were still working out the kinks and logistics of a new restaurant with a brand new staff. Upon entering we were greeted by the host, who seemed to know what she was doing, but the person who actually sat us seemed confused and lacking the confidence to walk someone to a table. The atmosphere was fine (nothing noteworthy or spectacular), but comfortable nonetheless. However, we sat at a table; the booths looked very uncomfortable with no cushions, only a slab of marble to sit on. We all started out with some nice wine that was served to us slowly and in dirty glasses (only white, as they had run out of red, and they did not, and might still not, have their liquor license, so if you are looking for a good alcoholic drink, you may be out of luck) and an experienced and knowledgeable server. The menu had a good selection, although we thought it odd that there were not a lot of basic Italian recipes, and only one chicken option (on the panini menu which was not available to us at that time). The bread on the table was fresh, but the “butter” that was served with it was a kind of lentil pâté reminiscent of Stove Top Stuffing (according to our server it was a trial, and most likely one item that will not make the cut). When we asked for real butter to put on our bread, service took forever and we had to ask again. We started with a variety of appetizers: Olive Marinate – An unimpressive green marinated olive platter. Bruschetta – Oddly proportioned bread for an appetizer. Carciofi Gratinati – Dry breadcrumbs on pieces of baked artichokes that were inedible for all of us. Polpette – Mozzarella stuffed meatballs that were decent and juicy, but rather small. Apparently they are served with fried dough, which was missing from our plate. We ordered two salads: Caprese – A salad, if you want to call it that, that was reminiscent of a family style-sized pile of cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. Riccia – A frisee salad that was small and mildly dressed, but the baked goat cheese was lovely. As for entrees, we ordered: Gnocchi Al Tegamino – A very small portion that was unanimously compared to a can of some kind of Chef Boyardee product. Lasagna Di Carne – A very large portion, but the overabundance of pasta and lack of cheese and other ingredients made it less than out-of-this-world. The menu offers 20 or so pizza options (apparently what the company prides itself on), so we were excited about the two we had ordered. They are baked in coal- and wood-burning ovens, which one would think would make a great pizza. We ordered: Ortolana – A pizza, with zucchini, eggplant, basil, mushrooms, mozzarella and tomato sauce, which the other diners at the table raved about, saying it was the redeeming quality of the night. Salsiccia – Our pie, however, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, sausage and basil, was flimsy, flat, burnt and very unimpressive. As for dessert, another table adjacent to us had a delicious looking cheesecake (which to them was delicious), but unfortunately for us the only desserts remaining were two flavors of gelato and a fruit tart, as well as some cappuccino and espresso. The gelato was fine, except for the piece of plastic wrapping one of us found on our first bite. Overall, the kitchen was pretty slow, but we let it slide because we knew it was a trial run. The management was friendly and visible, and there were always servers, food runners, and bussers available if anything was needed. However, there was one moment during the evening that left us all wondering if we were on candid camera. One of the diners at our table is vegetarian, and when one of the pizzas arrived, it had on it what looked like prosciutto, so the food runner returned it to the kitchen to make sure it wasn’t meat. A moment later it was brought back to us by another food runner. The vegetarian diner asked again if it was prosciutto, which again they didn’t know. At this point, the food runner picked a piece of it off of the pizza to taste it himself. Lucky for him we were not there to complain or fight about it; unlucky for him because we made sure to mention it on the questionnaire at the end of the meal (and in this article). It should also be noted that they don’t seem to know how to pack up leftovers. They layered a slice of pizza on top of a slice of pizza on top of lasagna, so when you go to eat your overpriced leftovers, it is one mashed up mess. We all agreed at the end of the meal that if we had to pay for it, we all would have been livid; being with good company and a whole lot of wine, we had a great time. That being said, however, probably not one of us will return to Luzzo’s when we could get just as good of a meal (for a lot cheaper and if not better) from Pizza Hut. 
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