Star Diner
235-20 Hillside Avenue, Queens Village
465-0505

Cuisine: Italian and Diner Specialties

Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Star Diner serves the things you would expect to find at a diner — eggs, Pancakes, waffles, cakes, sandwiches — but it is unique because it specializes on Italian dishes.

The Italian menu includes parmigiana with linguine dishes, breaded veal cutlet, breast of chicken, fried jumbo shrimp, eggplant, and fried shrimp and eggplant.

I sampled the rigatoni ala vodka. I, also, had a salad with Italian cream for an appetizer at no extra charge.

The salad was very generously heaped.

The rigatoni (maccaroni-like pasta, only bigger, straight and with ridges) was smothered in sweet vodka sauce, more than you would get at most restaurants. Even the bread that the meal was served with could not soak up all the sauce.

Most dishes are served with soup or salad and home made bread.

Other Italian dishes include fettucini alfredo, fettucini carbonara (fettucini alfredo with ham and bacon), linguine with clam sauce, linguine with garlic and broccoli, and rigatoni with mushrooms and tomatoes.

Star also serves a pizza omelette (stuffed with mozzarella cheese and covered in tomato sauce), home made lasagna, (light noodles topped with ricotta cheese, ground beef, herbs and spices smothered with tomato sauce and baked with mozzarella topping), veal cutlet parmagiana and chicken cutlet parmagiana sandwiches, mozzarella cheeseburger and pizza burger with mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce, and chicken consomme.