Aloys Italian Restaurant - Poughkeepsie (NY)

5 /5 Melissa Pettinella: Old school Italian. The pizza is the thinnest and has a great flavor. Always great paired with the antipasto salad to start. Dont sleep on this place!

5 /5 Vert Tete: There arent enough stars in this universe plus the infinite parallel universes to rate this restaurant. It was quite simply the best Italian dinner Ive ever had in my life (Ive been to actual Italy several times). With the possible exception of an all-you-can-eat lobster tail dinner on a nuclear submarine somewhere in the North Atlantic, it may just be the best dinner period. It certainly was one of the best dining EXPERIENCES ever. From the Old World charm and welcoming comfortable ambience of a bygone era (open since the late 1920s) to the friendly and fun staff (many from the same family) to the incomparably delicious food and cocktails, this place is a true gem. My date and I shared warm fresh baked bread, a house salad, and minestrone. She had the chicken francese entrée, I had the shrimp pomodoro. Dessert was out of the question (well definitely leave room next time). We also had several hand-crafted cocktails. Everything was heavenly delicious, especially the red sauce with the shrimp. Bonus: We were on our way to the Walkway Over the Hudson for an after-dark stroll under the stars. The restaurant staff encouraged us to leave our car in their parking lot, which is a short walk to the bridge entrance. Just a magical evening at a wonderful historic authentic Italian restaurant. We will definitely return as often as possible.

4 /5 Vincent Spano: ***Update #2*** Although Im not a big fan of Aloys pizza (see below), I ordered one of their other menu items, Chicken Francais, and it was very good. The chicken was tender and the sauce had a nice lemony taste. It came with a salad, which I ordered with with their house dressing with crumbly blue cheese, and pasta in marinara sauce - both of which were very good. We also ordered Tartufo for dessert which was also delicious. Ive raised my overall rating from 3 to 4 and now recommend Aloys. ***Update*** Ive had Aloys pizza a few times now and the taste is really starting to grow on me. Unfortunately they are extremely inconsistent with respect to the crust. The crust is always thin but not always crunchy. More often floppy. Again, interesting/ good taste just very inconsistent when it comes to the crust. *** Original review Despite living in/around Poughkeepsie for 50+ years, Ive never been to Aloys. Ive heard their pizza is legendary, and the food is fantastic, unfortunately that was not my experience but Im going to go back and give it another try. For now, all I can give it is 3 stars. On the plus side the staff is friendly and attentive. Although the atmosphere is nothing special and somewhat dated, theres still something appealing about it. As you come in theres a bar to the right and the dining area is to the left. Past the dining area is a large room for parties. As far as the food goes, we had their pizza. It took a VERY long time to arrive. My dining partner has had their pizza many times before and loves it. Me, not so much. Its thin crust (which I do like) and we had half cheese and half pepperoni. The cheese only pie was better as it was much less oily with a crispy crust. I could easily pick it up and eat it. The pepperoni was very oily. It also had a thin crust but was far too floppy to pick up. The taste for both was just ok. There are a lot of reviews that speak highly of the pizza, so perhaps its just me because Im just not tasting it. The next time I go back I will try something other than the pizza and hopefully be able to rate it higher.

5 /5 Cliff: What a nice place. I wish I had discovered it sooner. Great Italian food. Lovely ambiance. The desserts were impressive (that brownie topped cheesecake wow!). My friend and I had a really lovely evening and look forward to coming back.

5 /5 DeAndre Walters: Wonderful neighborhood ma and pa Italian place. Red sauce was great. Nice and clean place wasn’t too crowded on a Saturday night. Very nice people, reasonably priced great atmosphere