<p>A calzone filled with sausage is served with a colorful house salad at Tuscany Cafe in Ilwaco, Wash.</p>

Could it be déjà vu? I feel as if I’ve written this review twice already and that’s because I have. I will not go into details, but merely admit that this feels a lot like a review I did two years ago, and one I did about 10 months ago.

As any regular reader of this column knows, I’m a stickler for authenticity. We could argue back and forth about the artistic license a restaurant should be allowed to have, but I have certain expectations, unrealistic as they may be.

The word “Tuscan” gets used more than it should. If your restaurant is called Tuscany Cafe, should I not expect the menu to be dominated by dishes specific to the region of Tuscany? Am I permitted to scoff at the inclusion of generic “Italian” dishes such as fettucine Alfredo and spaghetti and meatballs, given the tourists’ desire for familiar foods? The Caesar salad, though created by an Italian, was invented in Mexico, with the materials left on hand after a rush. Does that make it an Italian or Mexican dish? Pan-fried oysters and local Manila clams steamed with white wine are local Northwest dishes, and I’m all about the promotion of locally sourced food. Should it be allowed to coexist with the true Tuscan dishes on the menu? These are important questions to me.

More important is the dining experience. Tuscany Cafe will always do well. I’m not a restaurant owner, so I’ve got the luxury of telling my opinion without having to weigh it against a good business plan. If you’ve got a waterfront view, you will have customers. Giving the customer what they want is paramount to success. But I also did a long stint in an authentic Italian restaurant. Our customers had the option of the real deal, and chose it over the Olive Garden and its clones. For two weeks each month, we focused on a region of Italy on top of the regular menu. When it was time to cover “Toscana” every summer, we used a lot of white beans and arugala, bread crumbs and heirloom tomatoes. I’m quite well versed in the food of the region. Perhaps it wouldn’t be prudent to serve authentic regional food on the Coast, but the market does exist.

All of that aside, there was plenty to enjoy about Tuscany Cafe. I did enjoy their Caesar salad ($7.95), which was at least true to itself; no unwelcome additions to the classic mix. Bruschetta ($7.95) was as expected, small toasts with tomato, mozzarella, basil and Parmesan. Seafood crostata ($10.95), a similar appetizer, contained chunks of prawn and scallop resting on a tinny tomato sauce with Greek olives and broiled with mozzarella. Not terrible, not terribly good.

Insalate di Tuscany ($8.95) was definitely the weirdest of all. Mixed greens with a sweet honey balsamic dressing were inexplicably garnished with more fruit than vegetables. Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, lemon, orange and sliced kiwi (complete with fuzzy skin and the produce sticker) crowded around the tossed salad. Why? I have no idea. The menu gave no indication it would be anything of the sort.

A cup of tomato basil soup ($4) was presumptuously garnished with bleu cheese. Luckily, no one at the table that night was averse. The soup itself was a bit gritty, thick, sweet, reminiscent of pizza sauce. A minestrone ($4) with shell pasta and vegetables was better, but underseasoned. A bit of salt and pepper improved things. We were served soft, doughy breadsticks that had a lot of extra flour still on them. Soft butter accompanied. I’d have obviously preferred a crusty, housemade bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but by that point in the meal, I gave up such expectations of authenticity.

Rather than the contemporary Italian music I expected, there was a lot of Rat Pack. I practically started laughing when “That’s Amore” came on.

However, all was not lost. I did enjoy the chicken Marsala ($16.95). Although this is really a Sicilian dish, it was done right. The chicken was not overcooked, and had absorbed the raisinesque sweetness of the fortified wine. There was the perfect amount of butter for the level of richness the dish should have, and I loved the mushrooms. Delicious potatoes au gratin overflowed from its baking dish, the density ensuring I couldn’t finish more than half. Steamed asparagus was drizzled with Alfredo sauce, which I found an odd choice, but it was tasty, I must admit.

Rigatoni with Italian sausage ($15.95) was barely sauced, the cracked pasta, sausage slices and mushrooms seeming naked. One guest likened it to a frozen, one-pan pasta kit she once bought, but I didn’t find it quite so objectionable. Pan-fried oysters ($18.95) were twice as large as I ever encounter, and were not consummated by the creamy dill sauce promised by the menu. I made do with the lemon wedge garnish to enhance them. Not floured or pankoed, but rather coated with a Shake n’ Bake type crumb, they were not overcooked, but tasted “off.”

Even with my disappointment in the food, I did find the evening enjoyable. A good server, good view and good friends can go a long way, after all.