La Fornaretta - Newcastle

Absolutely delicious, authentic Sicilian food! Pesto ravioli is phenomenal, and the wine selection is stellar. The service was also super fast and attentive. We arrived on a busy Saturday night and sat fast, and our food was delivered remarkably fast. I highly recommend this place!

My wife wanted to try it for over a year, but between COVID-19 and it was a 50-minute drive, we just didn't get it. I can only say it was our loss. The food was great, and relaxing atmosphere. We're both filled, but it was worth sooooo. To wake up with the 50-minute drive, we look forward to our next meal and will make the ride happy.

What's in Newcastle? Awesome Italian. More specifically, Sicilian. I had Sicilian friends who invited me to their family home meals when I was young. This was it. Loud. Flowing wine. Generous portions of yummy fresh food. Caprese was fresh. Tomatoes tasted like it was just picked from the vine. Olive oil poured over the mazzarella cheese was rich, deep, nutty, and buttery, much tastier than olive oil provided with bread. Speaking of bread, it was warm and fresh like it should be. Spinach salad was well tossed and balanced. The cheese was ricotta salata, something I never really tasted before like it. It was almost like eating a cracker made of pure cheese. The pan seared halibut was cooked like how my grandma used to cook her fish! Crunch on the skin side and soft on the meat side. Since I asked for no salt, the fish was very sweet and flavorful. Seafood pasta came with linguine ardente in tomato sauce with garlic slices. I loved the homemade Tiramisu with rich cream and good espresso. Stephanie was very attentive and friendly, and please keep it that way! Molto bene!

We enjoyed La Fornaretta! The service was fantastic, our server was very personable and prompt. The local wine and beer selection was pretty good. The food was all very high quality, the cioppino was particularly good, as was the pesto ravioli. The fettuccine alaksa was decent but found the smoked salmon to be a bit overpowering. Any of their menu items with the tomato sauce were fantastic, it was obvious the tomato sauce was freshly prepared. The pizza was good as well and much larger than we expected. Overall a very nice experience.

Small town mom and pop Italian restaurant. My daughter and son in law love this place and we do too. Our 100 percent Italian daughter in law says this place is fantastic home made Italian food at its best. You start with there bread. Wow, best ever. Caesar salad very good and our main courses were really amazing. Small town and you get a small restaurant. But still very nice for inside or outside dinning with heaters. You will love it. Staff and owner were super friendly and they work hard. Keep it up guys, we will be back often. Want to get there pizza next time. The ones I saw on other tables were loaded.