La Famiglia italian restaurant — Restaurant in Destin

My family and I spent Friday, March 30 on the Emerald Coast, enjoying the first day of our 3 day holiday weekend taking in a little shopping, a little site seeing, and a whole lot of relaxing.

When it got close to lunch, we found ourselves on the campus of Destin Commons. We did a quick Google search for the restaurants that were immediately accessible and came across La Famiglia. We voted and decided that we would give them a try.

Even though it was Spring Break, parking was still rather easy to find and we were able to park right in front of the restaurant. As we walked up, we saw that there were several tables and chairs outside, 2 or 3 of which were occupied by patrons.

We walked in the front door and were greeted by the hostess, Brooke, who also turned out to be our server. She asked us if we would like to sit outside and even though the weather was beautiful, we declined, so she showed us to our table. She took our drink order - I ordered a sweet tea and my wife a Diet Dr. Pepper - and away she went to fill them.

She returned shortly, and asked if we wanted to hear the day's specials. We did, and she recited all of them without pause. I was amazed, as there were probably a dozen items on special. She laughed at my lame Dad joke when I asked her to repeat the 4th and 7th items on the list and handed us two menus.

We both decided on the 12" cheese pizza, but I added pepperoni and extra sauce to mine as is my preference every time we try a new pizza place. My wife took hers as is.

While waiting for our food to arrive, I walked about and captured some photos of the setting and decor. Because it is an Italian restaurant, it only stands to reason that the decorations have an Italian vibe to them.

Finally, our food arrived. Now let me get one thing out of the way: I LOVE pizza. I love deep dish, I love New York style, I love thin. But if you're going to do pizza in a specific "style", then you better do that style well...and La Famiglia nailed it.

The crust was super thin and crispy all the way around. It seemed very simply made, but I cannot verify that. The point is that it wasn't supersaturated with garlic butter sauce or Parmesan sprinkles or anything along those lines. The sauce, of which I ordered extra, came right out to the absolute edge and tasted great. I could actually taste the tomatoes in the sauce instead of it being overly spicy and assaulting my taste buds. Overall, the pizza was great and I enjoyed it immensely.

Now for a few of the smaller, less obvious details that I noticed, but impressed me about the restaurant. The tableware was robust. I hate when you go to eat somewhere and the dining utensils are bent all out of shape. That's something you won't have to contend with at La Famiglia. I made it a point to photograph the fork I used, but unfortunately you can't really tell how sturdy it is. Secondly, when we got ready to leave, Brooke offered us drinks to go and we accepted. When she brought back the cups and lids, I noticed that the lid had a peel back flap on it so that one could sip straight from it without having to completely remove the lid. I LOVE that feature on any to go cups from anywhere because everyone knows that it's just unSouthern to drink sweet tea through a straw.

Once again, thanks to Brooke for all the attention and fantastic service she provided during our visit. I absolutely hope to visit again after all the Spring Break traffic has...

This is an honest review so here we go. This was our first visit to this establishment and it will be the last. Our very first vacation to Destin, Florida. Let's start off with the food. Some of the dishes were okay. The pizzas were somewhat overcooked but flavorful. The Chicken Parmigiano was okay, a little undercooked and soggy with way too much sauce instead the cheese to top it off. Can you say heartburn from hell!!!

The chicken fettuccine plates were the best on our table. The waiter was "MIA" Missing In Action, for most of our visit. Second the atmosphere was ok. From the first time we stepped in the restaurant no one greeted us or sat us down to a table. We had to walk up to the bar and asked if we could be seated, Red Flag. I did however noticed how different the certain ethnicities whom walked in were greeted and treated. The white patrons whom walked into the door were greeted and sat down immediately. My hard earned money is just as good as the next person. I noticed the establishment was not very busy. I also noticed when a family of 3 whom appeares to be indian, walked in and waited for about 4 minutes and then they proceeded to walk to the bar. There were some other people of color who were at the front. They waited and then walked back out.

The owner never came to our table to talk to us, after I requested for her to talk with me. However, she did talked to everyone else. This restaurant will not make the list of restaurants to revisit. We will be back to Destin but this place will not be on our list. If you are a child of Judah and are visiting for the first time, do not come here!! Go to a restaurant who will appreciate you for who you are and be very grateful for you visiting them.

Update: Well from the nasty comment made from this establishment. It appears to me they are indeed unprofessional and my reviews are not based on feelings but facts. We were not treated like family. They did have someone reach out to me on my Facebook page and hurled insults in my messenger but they made insults appear to be educated. My reviews of this particular establishment are meant to help others, especially my brothers and sisters from the tribes of Judah. What is bad is she said I called her racists and went on a rant about whom she had a baby by and all her family are married too. Instead of apologizing for their lack of doing wrong to make things right. She made a nasty comment.

We selected this restaurant for my daughters special day which was her birthday. Only to be ignored and disrepected after I did in fact requested for her to come and speak to us about how her business is running and possibly help her train her staff on customer service. The fact is I work hard for my money and will not take any disrespect from anyone because we are indeed paying customers!!! Learn to run your business with respect, compassion and efficiency for all people. No matter their religion, ethnical background, culture or reqardless of how they look. Remember this, you are selling a brand!! Anyhow, I have said what I said and will not take it back. You should be fortunate that I was not a...

A little context: I'm not a true foodie, but I REALLY love food. I appreciate when people leave reviews because it's very helpful if they are thoughtful reviews. I generally stay away from leaving bad reviews because most of the time I believe you can work out whatever issues you have while you are at the restaurant. And if it's just mediocre, I don't feel compelled to leave a review. Which is why I usually only go out of my way to leave reviews for places I love. This is one of my exceptions...

When we arrived, the sign was clearly worn and it was in a strip mall. It was more of a diner environment, but honestly none of that bothered us because we frequent dives and weight our feelings on restaurant extremely heavy towards the quality and enjoyment of the food. So this in itself was no big deal.

There was no host. No big deal. A waiter finally came to greet and wait us. Another waiter came over and awkwardly greeted us and asked if we wanted anything to drink. After about 20 minutes, we finally got the bread and oil that another table that walked in 20 minutes after us had already received.

That awkward interaction (best way I can explain it) continued throughout our entire meal. Just...very quiet, shy, and slow service. Someone came in about 20 minutes after us and had a different waiter, yet left about 15 minutes before us. Again, not the end of the world as long as the food was as good as we anticipated based on other reviews. And that's where it went off the rails...

Our son got a sausage pizza. The sausage wasn't your typical sausage on pizza, but the kind with the casing that is sliced. And it had a gigantic bubble on it that essentially rendered most of 2 pieces useless (mostly just inedible crust).

Now for the worst part: I got fettuccine Bolognese sauce. It's always my favorite kind of sauce and is usually more on the orange (vs red) colored side. When it arrived, I thought it was odd that it was bright red, but I felt really good about the detailed reviews, so I jumped right in thinking it just looks different but will be amazing. Nope. It was literally the worst Italian sauce of any kind I've ever had. I swear to you it tasted just like chef boyardee straight out of a can. It was so tomato tasting it was as if they took tomato sauce and dumped it on top of the noodles.

Luckily, my wife had gotten a vodka-sauce based dish and only ate about half of it. So I stopped eating mine and pivoted to eating the rest of hers. That dish was fairly good and single-handedly saved this review from being 1-star.

If you're still reading this long review, do yourself a favor and if you still decide to come here, at the very least, do not order anything with Bolognese sauce. This was easily the most disappointing experience of our entire...