Phone:  897-2800

Cuisine:  Italian

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Parking: Street

Credit Cards: All major credit cards accepted

Forest Hills’ 108th Street, is often filled with shoppers moving in and out of grocers and pharmacies.  A delightful escape from the quickly moving crowds is Emma’s Restaurant, serving up Italian specialties for lunch and dinner. 

Emma’s is inviting, with daylight streaming through the front windows, and pale yellow walls.  The restaurant, which recently celebrated its second anniversary, has an Italian-themed mural with depictions of Venetian gondoliers and Ancient Roman sculptures along one wall.          

Emma’s offers affordable dishes for both lunch and dinner, with a lunch special — soup or salad with an entree — available from noon until 3:30 p.m.  The lunch menu at Emma’s includes delicious brick oven pizzas, served in three sizes, which include toppings like sun dried tomatoes, pesto sauce, and prosciutto.  A variety of chicken dishes are also available for lunch, and the marsala ($5.95) — served with broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes - comes highly recommended.

Other tasty items on Emma’s lunch menu are the cream of carrot soup and the vegetarian sandwich, served with grilled eggplant, zucchini, roasted peppers, romaine lettuce, and honey mustard dressing.  Emma’s calzones are an excellent choice, with 14 varieties for additional stuffing, like feta cheese, eggplant, broccoli, and Italian sausage.

For dinner, the restaurant offers an Early Bird special ($11.95) from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., which offers diners the option of pizza, pasta, chicken, or a calzone, served with soup or a salad, a glass of wine, beer, or soda, and dessert.  On Monday and Wednesday nights, Emma’s also offers a delicious all-you-can-eat pasta dinner, with six pasta varieties, and five sauces, served with soup or house salad.

On the dessert menu, Emma’s offers homemade flan, served with a sweet syrup that you won’t want to miss.  Among the other tasty treats are rice pudding, gelato, and cheesecake.

In the summertime, Emma’s, which has a full bar and four beers on tap, swings open its front doors and offers outdoor dining, the first restaurant to do so in the neighborhood.  Although Emma’s is located in a busy neighborhood, you’ll want stop by to relax, and enjoy the authentic Italian cuisine.