Ferrari's Ristorante

Vacationing in Schenectady, NY and chose to go to Ferrari’s Italian Ristorante after reading the reviews. Made a reservation to make it convenient for us. Street parking only, we walked in and you enter into the bar area. Hostess table at entrance to dining area. Nice gentlemen took us to our table in the main dining room, table clothes and napkins, I appreciate that. Very nice young woman approached us and took our beverage order and brought us a basket of bread and butter. We ordered Calamari for an appetizer and it was brought to us with marinara sauce, the portion was very generous and it was cooked perfectly, tender and delicious with the dipping sauce, yum! Our salads came next , the Italian dressing was very tasty and the lettuce and veggies were chilled and fresh. Our dinners arrived in a timely fashion piping hot from the kitchen. I ordered Chicken Franchise, again, a generous portion of chicken cooked perfectly tender with a lemon butter sauce and a side of spaghetti with a very tasty tomato sauce, it was a delicious dinner. Husband ordered Veal Melanzano, Parmesan style with eggplant and mozzarella cheese and sauce, it was a huge portion plus the spaghetti, hub loved it!! Our waitress took great care of us, she boxed our leftovers for us in microwaveable containers, plus the leftover bread and butter. They have a large dessert selection but we were too stuffed. Prices were very reasonable considering what they gave you. Old fashioned Italian restaurant in an old neighborhood, very well maintained, we truly enjoyed our dining experience, come give Ferrari’s a try, highly recommend!! Debbie, Mich

Outstanding in every way!!!!! The food was amazing and the presentation was spot on. The service was spot on with an amazing wait staff. Glass was always full and the staff was very attentive. The atmosphere was so intimate and it just gives you the feel of being somewhere other than where it is. Really enjoyed everything about the place. This is for sure my Italian go to spot.

First time and had a very nice meal, salad was excellent, so was our main course. Staff was great and above average all around!

My wife had an amazing meal here a couple of months ago and has been wanting to bring me since. Schenectady has no shortage of amazing Italian restaurants so the bar was set pretty high. The impression you get when you walk in is that not much has changed since the 1960s! The small bar is easily imagined with old friends and cigarette smoke after all hard days work. The restaurant is fairly small and it was crowded and somewhat noisy but that is certainly understandable on a Saturday night. We were seated in about 15 minutes having made a reservation. The service was great even though they were obviously overwhelmed. The menu was full of southern and Northern Italian dishes, including things like a red, roasted pepper and provolone appetizer. You don’t see that on many menus. We were probably presented with a basket of bread which tasted like it came from Perreca’s. There was butter and no dipping oil. There is a lovely cocktail selection each very unusual and two of us went for the.Revello, which is blood, orange gin, Cointreau, orange juice, and club soda. It was great, even though a bit strong for my taste. The salad was served family style, which was a lovely touch. Amazingly fresh with lettuce, tomato, celery, black olives, and small cubes of provolone. Served with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing wonderful. The first issue is that our entrées came out too soon. It’s an unusual complaint but when you are enjoying a salad like that and may want to have seconds out of the big bowl, it’s nice to have a little bit of time. That being said as busy as it was, I’m not sure they had the luxury of optimal timing. As for entrées, one of us had chicken francese, reported as being wonderful. The eggplant Parmesan, likewise, and it was lightly fried or sautéed, and did not have a breading on it. I should report that the portions are very large. I had the seafood platter, which is more like a.zuppa de pesce, which I had in red sauce, but you can have in white sauce as well, which contained a huge amount of clams shrimp calamari scallops. The shrimp were large 16/20 or possibly larger. The one food issue of the night is the haddock piccata. When my wife first ate here, she found this dish to be amazing and brought some home and I agreed. What made it amazing is it had a very light coating and was sautéed. The coding seemed like just egg and flour. The haddock piccata we had last night was deep fried with a thick breading. It totally took away from the dish, and the breading prevented the sauce from mixing with the fish. I’m not sure if it’s a difference between chefs, but if they read this, I hope they go back to the prior preparation. We did not try the homemade pasta, but it is available as an up charge. We left full and happy and will be back. We were in no shape for dessert although I’m sure it is amazing.

On business trip and was able to get last min reservation. Service was great and so was the food. I had seafood fettuccine and work mate had lasagna- both enjoyed.

It’s been many years since our last meal at Ferrari’s. Somethings remain the same; on street parking is hit or miss – this time the parking deity shined upon us with a spot near their front door – with the one person entrance step into their small yet comfortable bar. The bar is the dining room entrance. Ferrari’s dining room was nicely updated and well lighted. All their tables filled quickly. Our ample broccoli rabe appetizer had the perfect balance of olive oil and garlic that was cooked to tender perfection. A bottle of il Principe Nebbiolo was the ideal wine for our entire meal. It was smooth and flavorful, quite frankly it slid down way too fast. A sizable eggplant parmigiano, with an equally huge spaghetti side, was tender, flavorful and perfectly breaded and prepared. My linguini with clam sauce took a while to decipher on their menu. The preferred white clam sauce was one of several offered. When presented it was spot on. A mound of al dente, linguini with tender, sliced garlic and a dozen clams in their shells. The clams were sumptuous, quickly shelled and mixed into the linguini. A tartufo, presented with a sizable soup spoon, was cracked and enjoyed by all. Our leftovers, substantial, were enjoyed the next few nights. It was comforting to know that Ferrari’s maintained its high standards and service.

Stopped in for a late dinner. Food and service were good. It was a little dark and warm inside.. other than that it was a good experience.