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People love Park Side. It’s perennially booked, with wait times for walk-ins often topping an hour, as befits a destination Italian landmark in the heart of Corona. Waiters in tuxes, followed by servers in vests, dart back and forth through the wicker-filled greenhouse dining area, complete with name plaques citing fans like Jackie Collins and former Met and Yankee Lee Mazzilli, and out through the main brick-and-glass partitioned central room to the kitchen. Near the entrance, photos of one-time celebs—Luciano Pavarotti slurping spaghetti, Pat Cooper in seventies nightclub wear—are fading at the edges. Big portions and big appetites, birthday and engagement parties, tables of older couples and quartets of aging men dining together define Park Side. The idea behind the food is as unchanging as the customers, but who’s to argue with success? Reliable dishes like dainty mushroom caps stuffed with heartily seasoned breadcrumbs and big bowls of steamed clams posillipo swimming in velvety, garlic-dotted tomato sauce neither disappoint nor excite; seafood dishes, whole grilled fish, and veal specials bring some freshness to the seasonal menu. This isn’t cutting-edge or even especially inspired cookery, but everyone in the place seems to be having a perfectly wonderful time. — Jack Robertiello

For a real local dessert, stroll across the street past the bocce court to the Lemon Ice King of Corona.

Stuffed mushrooms, $6.95; clams posillipo, $8.95

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• Better Eating Elsewhere (7/16/07)