Esposito's Pizza Bar Restaurant — Restaurant in Davie

I've seen Esposito's a lot in passing as I always walk past it to visit my favorite spot, Jade Tea. On Saturday evening, after exhausting every possible food choice, my wife and I decided we would give Esposito's a shot. According to my wife, all other Italian restaurants in the area are the same, to which I have agreed. Let's start with the atmosphere. If I'm not mistaken, Esposito's has had a remodel in the past year or so, so the interior is new. It sports the same tired aesthetic that every restaurant wants to have, which is boring and gray. I remember when Italian restaurants had personalities. Having that said, we sat at our table immediately. Our waiter was in training, so technically we had two. The booth we sat at was comfy, although I dislike the whole paper as a table cloth shtick. If you are going to commit to that, at least cut the paper straight. But I digress. My wife ended up having the fettuccine Alfredo with salmon, to play it safe. It was accompanied by some garlic rolls and she also got a side Caesar salad. I got the Crusty Cheese Pizza, which is a Detroit style pizza. We also got a bruschetta. Our two waiters did not understand us when we mentioned it. We kept saying bru-ske-ta and it wasn't registering until they said it back at bru-che-ta. I winced at the retort. Our bruschetta came first, and I'll say it was quite delicious. The little dash of red onion added some excellent flavor to an already fresh tasting appetizer. The bread, however, was sad. It was too thin to hold up the toppings and it folded over like a linguini. Our waiter forgot the garlic rolls in the oven, but once they arrived, we took a healthy bite. Also pretty decent, it just needed to be a little hotter. My wife enjoyed the garlic kick. Our main courses arrived at last. My wife's fettuccine Alfredo looked quite good. The salmon was flavorful and not dry. The pasta was also surprisingly good. I would critique that I found it had way too much Alfredo sauce, it was almost soupy. My wife enjoyed the dish quite much, and we also had some to take home. My pizza was also quite good, although it had a little too much cheese for my liking and aside from the lovely marinara on top, it lacked a little extra to take it over the top. The bread was tougher to chew but I enjoyed it just fine. The pizza was also massive so I had some to take home. The TLDR I would return to try something else. It wasn't offensive and I was pleased with the outcome. Prices these days are still egregious. 8 dollars to add a piece of salmon to an already 20 dollar pasta? Seems a little greedy to me. My bill came out to be around 72 dollars, sans tip. Definitely on the expensive side for an Italian restaurant of...

I was told to try this restaurant and finally did and I was very disappointed. First clue should’ve been walking in at 6 o’clock on a Monday night in South Florida I was the second table in the door. The first thing I noticed at the temperature and the restaurant was not comfortable and I jokingly said to the waiter is the air conditioning broken and he proceeded to tell me that with people going in and out the front door it increases the temperature in the restaurant however like I said earlier we were the second table in the restaurant so I really didn’t see the foottraffic that would have created that issue. I ordered calamari and homemade marinara and the homemade marinara was orange in color and had no flavor. It was like a vodka sauce. I ordered Pasta Fagioli which had no pasta and was not a traditional pasta fagioli and I believe I should’ve been told that when ordering it. It had no meat and no tomat0 in it. It was the white version but was basically just navy beans. The chicken Parmesan portion was small and the plate was loaded with pasta and sauce, I guess to make up for the small chicken portion. The waiter was a nice kid however he clearly has never been trained how to properly wait on a table and to manage the flow of drinks, appetizers, salads and dinner. I am no food critic but I am critical of food especially when you’re paying good money and eating out. If you just want to eat, it is just as easy to stay home but when you go out to dinner you’re expected to have something done for you that you normally wouldn’t do for yourself. The owner of the restaurant was there and there was only two tables in the restaurant while I was there. After having a pleasant conversation with the waiter and the waiter telling me that the owner said the pasta fagioli was New York style and this is not a typical Italian restaurant. I’m not sure what that means when 90% of the menu was Italian except for the gyros which I thought was weird. I know that he reported back to the owner you would think the owner might’ve stopped by the table just to talk but he never made himself seen. Hopefully he’s back in the kitchen working on his homemade marinara recipe and the...

Let me start by saying I’ve been here numerous times and have always enjoyed our dinner, but they lost a customer due to the managers poor attitude. I Ordered chicken parm, but instead of marinara I substituted vodka sauce. The dish comes out with peas. I ask the server why there’s peas and he said that’s how they make their vodka sauce. I asked if it was premade and he said it’s made to order. So I said again, well why is there peas? And he said because that’s how they make their penne alla vodka which I did not order. Just vodka sauce... I hate peas so I tell him I do not want the dish. Server is very nice, but the manager comes over and says “so you don’t like peas” and I advised I do not, I just wanted the vodka sauce. He said that’s how vodka sauce is made and then proceeded to tell me how they have been “making it that way for 10 years”. I said well that’s fine if it’s how YOU make it, but that’s not how vodka sauce is made. Peas are specific to the dish, not the sauce. He then proceeded to insult me by saying so you wanted pink sauce? Uh no I WANTED vodka sauce how vodka sauce should be made without peas and stated once again, peas are not specific to the sauce it goes with the dish. In that case why did I not also get prosciutto??? That’s also traditionally in penne alla vodka if that’s what we’re basing this on. Regardless of how they make it, how it’s made, whatever it may be, the manager seemed very irritated and abruptly asked me “well do you want us to remake it or what”. At this point I just wanted my check. Unfortunately this one negative experience outweighed the other good and I will not be back. Maybe the manager needs to read Italian food for dummies or something to brush up on his knowledge of food so next time he doesn’t insult his customers...