La Toscana Pasta Bar
May 2026
La Toscana Restaurant is the most French Italian restaurant on record. The restaurant is owned and run by the Salomon family, warm and friendly French olim. They have incorporated French foods into the classic Italian dairy menu. The menu leans so far to the French, you will wonder why it is named for a place in Italy.
La Toscana Restaurant occupies a delightful spot on Hashuk Street, the passage between Brenner and Rambam Streets. The restaurant has an indoor area, but the calling card is the outdoor courtyard shaded by leafy trees for a very European flair in the center of Raanana. This is a very pleasant place to sit throughout the day. In the evening white table cloths and candles adorn the tables for an elegant European look.
The menu lists all the classic dairy Italian restaurant groups: Starters, salads, pizza, pasta, and wonderful desserts. But take a closer look. You won't find Arancini on this menu. or some of the other Italian mainstays. This Italian menu is heavily influenced by the the family's origin in the town of Nice, the south of France.
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Have you ever seen Bouttargue on an Italian menu?
La Toscana is the only Italian restaurant in Israel that offers Bouttargue. For the uninitiated among us, Bouttargue is a French Mediterranean delicacy made from salted dried fish roe pressed into a sausage shape. The flavor is intense, salty, and savory. It is a cultivated taste, so if you are not familiar with it, or you are not from the south of France go slowly.  Bouttargue lovers often eat this delicacy straight, in very thin slices served with olive oil and bread.
The classic way to serve Bouttargue is with pasta. The La Toscana menu offers Spaghetti a la Bouttargue, where the Bouttargue is shaved/grated over the pasta and is toned down with lemon, olive oil, garlic, and parsley.
Endive, owner Jonas says, is a French food. But Endive salad has become ubiquitous in Israeli restaurants.
At La Toscana the Endive salad is paired with Roquefort cheese, walnuts and your favortie choice of dressing.
No one can tell Jonas how to prepare salad nicoise, the popular salad that you will see on every Italian menu. This salad, says Jonas, originates in Nice, hence the name nicoise. The secret of the La Toscana Nicoise is in the house mustard dressing. Shhh.
The Frenchiest items at this very French Italian restaurant are the French cheeses. Camembert, for example, takes center stage. One of the favorite dishes is oven roasted camembert cheese with honey and walnuts. Count me in.
Goat cheese is strongly identified with French culinary culture and the Mediterranean countries, and figures prominently on the La Toscana menu. Goat Cheese Tostoni, goat cheese on bread, carmelized in the oven is a regional Mediterranean/French dish adopted at La Toscana. A favorite among the many salads is the warm goat cheese salad. In this salad the Goat cheese and pecans are carmelized in the oven. The sweet flavor is set off in the salad by cranberries, pears and beets.
Goat cheese is also paired with pizza. Pizza Bûche de chèvre a log-shaped goat cheese, is essentially pizza topped with goat cheese rounds.
This Italian restaurant has a good selection of French Bruchettas starting from the basic crispy Bruschetta with garlic butter and emental cheese. The bruschetta gets more interesting with the nepolitana tunis version with soft boiled egg. The top of the line bruchetta is the smoked salmon tartare avocado w soft boiled egg.
Would you call smoked salmon brioche bechamel an Italian dish? At La Toscana this brioche comes with mozarella cheese, smoked salmon, poached egg and is served with a green salad.
With all these exotic dishes, Jonas tells me that the most popular items are the pasta with mushroom sauce and the pasta with 4 cheeses. On our last visit to La Toscana we shared one order of pasta with mushroom sauce. We each had a coffee and topped off the excursion with a shared Tiramasu. This made for a delicious mid day snack in a pleasant outdoor setting.
With something for everyone, the restaurant also offers a selection of vegan dishes and kids-size dishes.
Oooh la la the desserts! The premier French dessert is the creme brulee. On our visit to La Toscana there were couples who came to the restaurant just for the creme brulee. But if you ask me, the tiramisu is the star of the dessert menu. Rich and sweet, this dessert is prepared in house by the matriarch of this family. Portions are large enough to be shared, if your partner will relinquish his/her half.
There are other desserts for the chocoholics, including the very French chocolate mousse, the chocolate souffle and fondant Chocolate. There is a nod to the restaurant's American diners, with New York cheese cake.
From the Menu
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