CALI - Brandon — Restaurant in Florida

I can't say enough about this place. This is the undisputable, A#1, 100% FIRE the choicest joint of joints for ALL FOOD HEALTHY, TASTY AND EYE APPEALING!!! If it doesn't look good, no matter the actuality of the flavor, our mind transfers translation to taste buds "HORRIBLE, DO NOT PROCEED!", and that's usually also the norm for most health food experiences for most people. NOT HERE! This food isn't just cooked, it's created like a fine dining high-end masterpiece of a desert, all the dishes here are as such!!! The sourdough, which BTW is made or rather I say created fresh daily in house. The sandwich my aunt had that was created from was just exquisite she remarked. I had the Brazilian bowl and this dish was as colorful and fragrant as it was succulent and the beef was extremely moist in the dish. We had chips and salsa w guacamole and ofcourse it's in house, made to order!! The beverages were delicious as well. I had the sweet tea and my aunt had the cucumber and mint iced drink. Their entire menu is as creative as it is delicious and very health conscious to boot. Very; unique, hip, in touch, healthy, eye catching, mouth watering DELICIOUS!! So, they must be pretty pricey, yo right? WROONNNNGGGG!!! Oh, so that means small portions then!!! Aaaeeeennnnghhhh (my buzzer sound) and WRONG AGAIN!!!! The portions are pretty generous I gotta say but without over feeding you to the point of disgust!!!! They got a menu w a little something for everyone, no doubt! Go check them out!!! And when you get there, tell them Tyger Anthony sent you. Take care and...

Whenever I order food at Ciccio Cali's, I always get well-made, flavorful, great food! Normally, I order it in the store and wait for it, but last week, I ordered through their website and set a time for my pick up. When I got there, there was only one bag of food on the pick-up shelf and it had my first name on it. I grabbed it, peeked in the well-stapled paper bag, saw my cookie (their cookies are like a delicious meal unto themselves!) on top of the food container, and assumed all else was well. When I got home and was ready to eat, I saw that the food prepared was not what I had ordered! It was too late to return to the store because it was almost 9pm. I ate the food and ended up discovering a new dish that I probably would not have tried otherwise. And it was great! (Big Italy bowl with spaghetti squash and hummus.) I called the restaurant the next day and spoke with, Tim, the manager. After I explained what happened and gave him my order number from the previous night, he apologized and said they want to make things right! He filled my correct order from the previous night, comp'ed me 2 cookies, gave me a coupon towards my next purchase, AND had the meal delivered to me free of charge!! What started out as a complete Murphy's Law mishap turned out to be a blessing in disguise! I will forever support Ciccio Cali's in Brandon. They truly went above and beyond to demonstrate that they value my business. Thank you,...

Update July 2018: I went back to the restaurant and menu appeared to have improved. I saw the managers offer to call and discuss my unhappiness (previous review), but there was no phone number, so I never did. Not sure if it was the multiple complaints from people or what, but I liked it so much that went back a few more times after my visit in June. The restaurant changed the entrance and it appeared to be a little bit more restaurant-like experience than before. The staff was great and friendly. They made a mistake on one of my to go orders and quickly corrected the error. The restaurant was less chaotic, but parking sucks because they are building right next door (not their fault obviously). Prices are reasonable and kid friendly. I will be going back.

The menu has changed and the quality appears to be suffering as well. I used to go to this location a couple times a month and I was last there right before Christmas. The chicken was burnt and over cooked. The MX bowl was soupy with the black beans. The staff is always friendly and the restaurant has a nice clean atmosphere. However, last time I was there the restaurant looked a bit chaotic and unclean... I get it that it was probably busy earlier that day but it wasn’t that late for it to be cleaner. This is not the first or second time the food was overdone, but I always returned because the food for the most part tasted good. I will probably not go there...