Pazzo Italiano Destin — Restaurant in Destin

Living in the local Destin area means alot of options for a variety of food. Summer is a huge challenge with the out of town visitors, traffic and timing your dinners to miss the wait. We were looking for Italian so I decided to forgo the usual places we eat and try something new. I called ahead and asked what the seating time looked like and was pleasantly greeted. We were told it would be about 45 min for a party of three at around 6pm. They put us on for seating inside and we proceeded to make our way. Upin arrival it was obvious that the rush was just begining, despite that the staff was cordial and inviting. They offered us an early seat on the patio and we decided tonwait for our seat inside.

I ordered a house red Sangria no ice and to.my surprise they didn't cut my drink short as often happens when I order at other places without ice. It was a deep red with lots of flavor that black berry particularly stood out in. They delivered a fresh basket of bread and a house mix of herbs and olive oil. Very tasty and hard to stop eating!

For food we ordered the following, house Lasagna, Chicken Piccata, and Penne Alla Vadka. We found all three dishes to be very good! My wife comme Ted that we would definitely be returning to try other dishes on the menu. We've been to many of the Italian restaurants from ft Walton to Miramar and she rarely suggest returning for another dish. My Penne Alla Vodka was better han expected. Often this dish can be watered down but I felt this dish was spot on and went well with the Sangria.

My daughter chose not to eat all of her lasagna so she could try the Tiramisu. She said it was the best she has had in the area and granted it top honors, lol! My wife and I split the cheesecake special which we both found delicious.

Over all Pazzo was better than most Italian restaurants in the area. It is a quaint restaurant in a Plaza with reasonable outside seating. The atmosphere inside is quite nice, a little noisy but well worth your time with a responsive and attentive staff. The price was on the higher side of similar restaurants in the area however, the service and food justified our expense. We will return when season slows to try other dishes. I'm interested in...

My husband and I had a 6:30 reservation for Friday evening. We arrived a mere 10min. early and were happy to wait, but they seemed slammed with business (which is 👍fine) and a bit nervous that they didn't have a table ready for us. I kept saying it was fine, but could tell the hostess was nervous waiting on someone to finish their meal of our table for 2 🙃. We were seated by the just about 10min. later than our expected time. It was seemingly, first available table beside the hostess station at the door. And, shortly afterward, the table behind us at the beautiful Christmas tree was ready and open for guests. (I had said I would wait for an optimal table, and "no problem". But, I think she was just wanting to turn tables, instead of reserving tables for new guests.

It was our FIRST time to eat at Pazzo's. We moved here last Feb. We always had seemed to choose a day to dine there, when they were "slammed"; so, I made a reservation at 10:30am. This is just a friendly reminder to the hostess to SAVE reserved spaces for the reservations. The appetizer was Calamari and seemed chewy and undercooked 😶. (We may have been comparing it to the tenderly cooked Calamari we had the week before in Orlando at The Capital Grill on I-drive.) But, we couldn't eat it nd told our kind server; she did take it OFF our bill.

The rest of our meal was lovely. We ended with sharing a dessert, bcz. we were very satisfied/full. Dessert was "ok", but, we have made tiramisu ourselves and love having the lady fingers saturated in an dark roasted espresso (we sometimes add Kahlua 😊). This one was mostly relying on the mascapone cheese for moist flavors.

We WILL go again with a reservation in hopes to be seated as someone who took time to plan an evening out as a couple. And, we will expect a cozier location within the tasteful Italian Restaurant. We may bring friends, next time, in hopes for our reservation to include them a spot to try the wonderful food choices. [And, we will try the Calamari once again to see if it has improved on its' texture for consumption (😶"chewability"). Hope the chef...

We were excited to go to Pazzo’s after reading the reviews while in Destin on vacation. We felt it would be a good place for all to enjoy, including teenage kids. Unfortunately, it was very disappointing. Most of the food was bland at best. The dressing on our Caesar salad had very little flavor, mostly tasted like mayo. The bread would have been good maybe at a deli for a Reuben but didn’t fit at all in an Italian restaurant. The boring bread is served with traditional herbs and oil however it is in a bowl that is pretty much filled with just oil so if you like bread dipped in oil you will love this place. A couple of the entrees had little flavor but the Chicken Marsala was the worst we have ever had. The taste was barely recognizable. Have only sent one dish back in our entire lives but would have done so with the dish. However, the server didn’t check on us once during our meal so we never had an opportunity to (she was nice though). None of the staff took our earlier plates so had to eat amongst the dirty plates at a crowded table. Would have loved to share my opinion while I was there, but the server didn’t ask how our meal was nor were we acknowledged on the way out even though there were multiple people at the hostess stand.

I rarely post negative reviews (1 other) but when you pay nearly $200 for a family of four, I thought I would share my experience. By the way, an additional charge is added if you pay with a credit card. I have never seen that at restaurant before except possibly a small, diner type establishment maybe. Felt tacky to me.

By the reviews, seems like many other people like this place, so maybe I am part of the minority. Hope they do well for themselves. I just know we won’t be going back next time we...