Johnny’s

This place is great I have eaten dinner at Johnny’s a few times and the food is always excellent. It is encouraging to see this restaurant doing so well in the heart of downtown Schenectady. The only downside is that it can be a bit on the loud side and definitely make a reservation for dinner on a weekend.

We went during restaurant week so it was busy, as expected. Even with a reservation, we waited at least 20 minutes. I’m the type of person who doesn’t mind waiting, just so you know. People can only work as fast as they can. The food and service was awesome! I’ve never had homemade pasta before and I definitely tasted the difference! The bolognese sauce was very flavorful. I plan to go back and try some of their other offerings!

This is one of my favorite places to eat when I’m in Schenectady area. Their happy hour menu is awesome. The Italian nachos are unbelievable, fresh pasta chips covered in Alfredo sauce banana peppers, homemade sausage, olives. As good as the nachos are my favorite is the beans and greens not sure I know the words to describe how delicious this dish is, add crumbled sausage to it and it’s a meal in its self! My go to dish is the chicken parmigiano. Served with house made ziti it is awesome and a huge portion. The staff is friendly and super helpful. I usually sit at the bar and if Kelly is working my drink is poured and sitting in front of me even before I settle in. When I’m in this area I will eat here at least twice a week. It’s definitely worth visiting.

Great fresh homemade pasta. Lots of selections on the menu. Staff is always very friendly and helpful with pronouncing items on the menu. Large portions enough to take home. Great beer selection on tap and large wine list and… Free birthday dessert!

our go-​to restaurant for special occasions and family get-​togethers. never had a bad experience or meal at johnny’s. the staff is always super nice and very attentive.

This place was right across from Proctors, so when my little cousin was playing with the orchestra the entire family went here first. I’ll start off by saying the food came out very quickly, and the waitress was friendly and helpful.
The food. We started with the calamari, which was great. Perfect breading, tubes and tentacles, loves the marinara and the «other» sauce. They were a little greasy, but really good. The bad part was the oil on your fingers hit the table and the table got greasy. This was the kind of grease that just moved around and never went away, which was frustrating but whatever.
I went with the steak, which was cooked perfectly but absolutely overloaded with oil soaked vegetables and garlic poured right over the steak. I’m not talking about a little oil either, this plate was a pool.
Maybe it’s because I don’t usually consume fried foods with a liter of olive oil, but my bowels have yet to regulate as of Monday morning.
My aunt went with some king of shellfish mixed seafood platter, which had her in the bathroom all night and in bed all day Sunday. Definitely food poisoning. Gotta watch out here.

Went after work on a Tuesday. This place was packed. Great happy hour specials. Took about 15 – 20 min for a table. Ordered the Italian nachos for appetizer and they were to die for. House Wine is good taste too. Much try for awesome Italian food. When I went, it was a bit loud… possibly because of the crowd.

Tried this restaurant for the first time and it was absolutely amazing. The food, the service, the environment. Perfect place for a nice date out.

Just a wonderful Italian restaurant. We go there regularly and are never, ever disappointed. Their homemade pasta is to die for. I’ve had many of their dishes but always go back to the Marsala or Filet. Always have great service and it’s a nice atmosphere. Definitely just go. You won’t be disappointed.

Good place! Can be a little noisy, but if you don’t mind that, I recommend it. Nice casual but sophisticated ambience. Food is good, and location is prime… right across from Proctors on State Street, downtown. Pasta made in-​house.

We have eaten at Johnny’s twice now while in town visiting our son who goes to Union College. BEST ITALIAN food ever! and my husband who doesn’t normally like Italian, loved Johnny’s! The eggplant Rollatini is fabulous. Chicken Alla Carbonara is also super tasty. The atmosphere is great and we love the downtown location. Especially if you are seeing a show at Proctor’s or staying at the Hampton Inn and Suites across the street. The service both times was exceptional, the portion sizes were big and the prices very reasonable.

Johnny’s is a great Italian restaurant in the heart of downtown Schenectady. My cousin recommended Johnny’s to me, and my boyfriend LOVES Italian food so I figured we would give it a try!
We made reservations for Friday at 7:45pm. We arrived a few minutes early and we we’re greeted by the hostess, who looked up our reservation and sat us right away. The dining room and bar were both packed. Our waitress came over very fast and got our drink orders (they have a entire cocktail menu and a full bar) I opted for a house red wine and my boyfriend got a beer.
The busboy came over shortly after with bread and a balsamic/​oil mixture on the side.
I wasn’t super hungry so I ordered a shrimp appetizer (shrimp oregano) and a side Caesar salad. Both were very big portions, and very flavorful. The shrimp was delicious, I would come back JUST for the shrimp! My BF ordered Veal Sorrentino which comes with a side of ziti.
I took away one star because the food took super long to come out, about 45 minutes. Other than that everything was great from the food, to the service and everything in between. He said the food was excellent, and the sauce was great.
I wish I had room for dessert because they have GELATO OREO CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE!!! I have to go back to try it! Overall, dinner was excellent and I highly recommend Johnny’s! They also have a great lunch menu I want to try one of these days.

Absolutely superb, awesome wonderful food. First time in the restaurant & was with my family on 1−16−16. The service was exceptional & Taylor was super, friendly, perfect. The food was awesome, many varieties at the table: Chicken Marsala, Chicken Caccatore, Rack of Lamb special, Lasana & more. Superb wine. Will be back again soon & Hope to have Taylor as our waitress again… Kudos !!!

We came on happy hour and concord! Few gin n tonics and few appetizers on half price menu. Dinner it was! I like the Brushetta with tomatoes. Two nice size pieces to share. The Italian nachos strange but good too.

The Capital District is littered with dozens of Italian-​American – aka red sauce – restaurants, and the vast majority of them are mediocre at best. Thankfully, the food we had at Johnny’s is worlds better than most red sauce joints in the greater Albany area. Johnny’s is surprisingly good and reasonably priced.
In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that Johnny’s may be the best Italian-​American restaurant in the area.
Most red sauce joints start with Italian bread, and most serve bread that is light, spongy, and flavorless. The bread served at Johnny’s is pleasantly dense, chewy, and has good flavor.
My wife ordered the salmon special. The salmon itself was good, but the two accompaniments were fantastic. One was a cauliflower purée that was silky smooth and full of flavor. The other a well executed sausage and broccoli rabe risotto, that was so good, my wife had to keep swatting my fork away as I kept trying to steal bites of it.
I had the shrimp fra diavolo. I loathe the long cooked Italian «gravy» that’s typical of red sauce joints. This tomato sauce was wonderfully fresh and light. It was studded with fresh garlic, and the heat level was just right. The house made tagliatelle perfectly al dente.
Our server was friendly, but she made a few faux pas, one of which was egregious. I ordered a second glass of wine and when she brought it to the table, she poured what was left of my first glass into the second. That kind of thing is inexcusable, and combined with some other minor service issues we had, leads me to believe the servers are not well trained.
But frankly, if the food is consistently as good as it was on our visit, and taking into consideration the prices are very reasonable, I’m willing to forgive the service issues and give it 4 stars. And, if I were to compare it just to other red sauce joints, I’d give it a solid 5 stars.

My guy and I went to dinner this past Friday night — he had made a reservation for 8pm — we got there a few minutes early, and had to wait about 10 minutes. It appeared the reason for the wait was that the hostesses weren’t communicating — but that wasn’t a huge deal.
When we were seated, we were immediately greeted by our server, JoJo. He was full of personality, well-​versed in the menu items & asked us questions to get an idea of what we might like off the menu. From the drinks to the appetizers to the entrees, JoJo didn’t overlook any detail. Since my guy wasn’t too much of a wine connoisseur, JoJo recommended an amazing red wine to pair with dinner (he had the lasagna bolognese) which my guy loved. I had the shrimp fra diavolo (which I paired with moscato). The sauce was perfectly spicy — I was pleased. We also ordered the bruschetta which was delicious. The entrée portions are gigantic; neither one of us could finish our meals & since we were headed to a movie after, we didn’t want to chance keeping leftovers in the car.
FYI: Apothic wine is coming to Johnny’s, for all the wine connoisseurs out there
The atmosphere is very relaxed, the dress code is dressy casual (from my observation) and we were pleased with our dining experience. We’ll definitely be back.

We went here last night. very classy nice menu great service, waitress was perfect. Food was excellent. Limited close parking, only issue asked for a birthday piece of cake when I placed reservation which wasn’t fulfilled. I was very disappointed at that, the 2 «hostesses» seemed like 2 giggling schoolgirls not professional at all. If I owned that restaurant I would be sure have a professional manning the front of house.

I came to Johnny’s for my first time heading out of Proctors which is just a block away. This place has a lot to offer from sea foods to home made Italian food. I started out my meal with an Italian Antipasto Plate. I would highly recommend this appetizer, especially if you’re an Italian food lover. It has all your favorites from prosciutto and salami to olives and cheeses. It’s a great tasty snack to have before an entrée.
For my entrée, I had the Seafood Panna. I’ve tried sea food in and out of the area but the shrimp and scallops were the best I’ve ever tried. I would definitely recommend to try this dish with rigatoni pasta, which has a rich creamy taste to it.

If you’re looking for some high quality Italian food around the area, Johnny’s will give you just what you want.

Another work dinner at Johnny’s after another has left me pleased with this place. I’ve been here a handful of times and always enjoyed the experience but there have been a few times they knocked it out of the park!
Appetizer favorites include a common special of the day — Caprese salad with oh-​so-​fresh Mozzarella, bruschetta, and the Italian Antipasto Plate [a favorite we enjoy each visit to this place!]
Skipping ahead to dessert, we often take part of the specials of the day with a changes daily flavor of Gelato Cake (i LOVE the Pistachio! WOAH!) and other seasonal deliciousness, such as Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Spiced Gelato and Almond Brittle. Canoli’s are also a nice classic choice amongst our group.
The star of the show has been my dinner choice each time I’ve ordered dinner since first trying it– the Chicken Scarpariello. This is BY FAR the best dish I’ve had at Johnny’s and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to order a different dish from the dinner menu again. The boneless chicken medallions are sautéed with sweet Italian sausage, onions, spicy cherry peppers, potatoes, and garlic in a white wine and lemon sauce. I was so thrilled the portions were huge so that I could have leftovers for lunch the next day. OUT OF THIS WORLD. A waitress recently suggested I sub made fresh daily pasta for the potatoes, which was also lovely.
This place has a great private room for groups. We’ve gone about ordering multiple ways over the past year or so… straight off the regular dinner menu or ordering off a preset shortened dinner menu always work well.
The staff is wonderful about catering to our groups requests and customizing for us when needed. Cassidy and Cheryl are two wait staff we will recommend again and again for our events. They are wonderful enough to take note and request them after the first time they both worked with us!

Why should an Italian restaurant in the heart of Schenectady be busy on a Monday night? Especially if there is no show playing across the street at Proctor’s. While I still don’t know the answer to that question, I’m a believer that you should make a reservation to be on the safe side.
Fortunately, we were able to be seated right away. My wife had been here once before, so she knew enough to request a table in the bar area where the din of conversation from all the people was less than in the back room dining area.
We’ve had nachos with tortilla chips and Irish nachos with potato chips and fries, but we’ve never had Italian Nachos ($ 10.25) with fresh fried pasta, topped with sweet Italian sausage crumbles, diced Roma tomatoes, Calamata olives, and a creamy Italian cheese sauce. This could have been a meal for one, or an appetizer for three or even four. The fried pasta reminded me of the leftover dough that my Ukrainian Grandmother would fry after making pierogi, except she sprinkled powdered sugar on hers. To its credit, the kitchen did a nice job on this concoction. The pasta was crisp and not greasy, the sausage was plentiful, and the cheese sauce did not drown everything.
My wife ordered the Sausage & Eggplant Capri al Vincenzo ($ 17.25) — layers of thin sliced eggplant with sweet Italian sausage, topped with tomato sauce and melted mozzarella. Their house-​made ziti was served on the side. She really enjoyed the tomato sauce and for the second time said she believes it tastes as good as what is served at D’Raymonds — her favorite.
I had decided on the Sicilian Cowboy ($ 14.95), not realizing at first that I would be ordering a hamburger. But that was not a problem since I was attracted by the blend of hand chopped short rib and brisket topped with crispy bacon, Fontinella cheese and sage truffle oil, served on a Brioche bun with a side of truffle parmesan fries. I asked for medium-​rare and it that was the way it came out. The bacon was nice and crispy as advertised, the all the flavors blended well. What surprised me was that I didn’t enjoy the fries as much as I thought I would. I think the truffle flavor was too strong on the fries which were otherwise nicely done.
Too full to even look at the dessert menu, we concentrated on finishing our drinks, Guinness ($ 6/​pint) and a Summer Shandy ($ 6). Service was mixed, as in several individuals stopping by to check on us, yet three requests to three different individuals was necessary to get replacement napkins since the originals were needed to clean up a spill. Also, while it may have been an honest mistake, a casual check of my credit card online a week later, showed that my credit card had been scanned twice for two different bills. So far, management has been very responsive in moving to correct the situation.