We finally made it out to legendary old school Italian restaurant Park Side Sunday night, and had a blast with some friends who have been raving about this place for years. The worst part was the excruciating 1 1/2 hour drive from North Jersey. It took us over a 1/2 hour to get over the George Washington Bridge! Going home we took the Queens Midtown Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel, which was much faster, and only took about 45 minutes. We should have gone that way in the first place. The place was jam packed for a rainy Sunday. We sat in the beautiful garden room surrounded by trees and flowers that created a sort of private booth.
We had several bottles of the excellent 2013 Kenwood Cabernet, which was an incredible bargain at 33.00 (not that much over retail). We finished off with an excellent 40 year old port.
They start you off with an incredible bread basket, that includes pork bread, and also a plate of bruschetta and salumi. The roasted tomatoes in the bruschetta were very flavorful.
For appetizers we shared an entree portion of fried soft shell crabs, which came with 4 crabs, so we got one each. We also had baby eggplant rollatini in an amazing pomodoro sauce, and a colossal crab meat cocktail.
For entrees, I had the amazing fedelini with langostinos in a garlic, oil & anchovy sauce topped with breadcrumbs, Mrs. P had the melt in your mouth medium rare filet mignon, our friend had the sauteed gray filet of sole meuniere, and his wife had the excellent chicken provencal. We also had a plate of very hot cherry peppers.
The portions were huge, and there were plenty of leftovers. The prices were very reasonable. They also have valet parking which is a huge plus in that very congested neighborhood.
Thanks for the great review. Parkside has been my favorite Italian restaurant for 30 years. My big advantage is I live in Forest Hills and it’s a short bike ride away.
Yes, our friends stopped off across the street for some Lime ices, that they said were amazing. Unfortunately we had to get back to NJ and couldn’t join them.
We made the trip through the tunnels and Manhattan into Queens again for another excellent dinner with our friends at Parkside. Details and pictures are in the main WFD thread below.
Sounds great. Oh, wait… I was there too. Love that place - my double cut pork chop w/vinegar peppers was perfect. Happy Holidays! Nice seeing you again.
Just to bump this back up to the top, I figure that I should mention that our meal there last week re-confirmed my opinion that this place is the best old line red sauce Italian in NYC. Well prepared food, great service, valet parking & very reasonably priced. For someone like me, who grew up in a city full of places with similar menus and kitchens, having them still around (& thriving) during the increasing absence of comparably good places of this style is comforting.
Parkside is great. We used to live in Douglaston and would go there from time to time. We also loved a place called Ralph’s in Jackson Heights. Strip mall restaurant with great food. Also used to love Il Bacco in Little Neck, especially when they first opened.
There was some damn good food at Park Side last week. Great baked clams. Wonderful, meaty soft-shell crabs. And my chicken scarpariello was about as good as it gets. Lemon ice afterwards makes it a great evening all-in-all.
My first visit to this fabled place last night. It was lovely. The food ranged from good to great, but the company elevated the evening to the next level. That made it a memorable experience.
We shared three appetizers – their terrific stuffed clams (justly praised upthread and elsewhere), eggplant rollatini (the eggplant was like silk), and stuffed artichokes (a bit salty but otherwise great).
The mains were an excellent chicken scarp (judging by a bit I was able to sneak), some decent clams with linguini (although my wife found the sauce more buttery than clammy), and two osso bucos. One was mine, and although the meat was meltingly tender, I found the brown sauce it and the pasta came bathed in a bit one dimensional. Some vegetably touches (even carrots) would have been nice.
The portions were huge and the prices modest by the standards of today. With a bottle of Chianti, the total before tip was $80 pp.
After dinner my wife and I made the obligatory first-timer’s trip to Lemon King. My wife’s lemon ice was pretty good, but my coconut was oddly chemically.
Happy that you and Mrs Dabbler were in town together and wanted to finally get to Park Side (not to mention finally get to meet Ginny & myself in person). And, glad you liked it.
I’m a sucker for their abundant bread basket (even moreso now that my local old school Brooklyn bakeries are disappearing), as well as their gratis plate of salami and parm. Not easy to find a good lard bread. And, as you say, the 3 shared apps were all very good. Since they share the same flavorful bread crumbs and are all fresh, it’s something I rely upon when there.
I waited to write this, as I wanted to have my leftovers dinner tonite to see what I thought. I didn’t taste the clam pasta, lined with fresh clams in their shells, and it’s too bad that it was more buttery than anything else. The chicken scarp is one of my mainstays and this time I ordered it off the bone and with sausage. It comes over thinly sliced potatoes and a flavorful (& buttery) sauce, as shown in Mitch’s photo from our dinner with him and others last year.. The Osso Buco (which also included a huge bone with marrow) was a daily special and was a reason the bill hit $80pp with only one bottle of Chianti Reserva ($75). We probably should’ve splurged on a vegetable side dish to round it out (and make me feel a little healthier). Ginny tells me that she ate some of the meat in addition to cleaning out the marrow, but my leftover dinner tonite had enough meat and pasta for me to still leave over some for tomorrow. And we haven’t touched my 3 large chunks of chicken scarp. and the couple of sausage pieces I left over (tomorrow’s another day). Mitch’s photo of this dish from last year is half the size they served me.
I think we’ll return.
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