Chianti's Pizza & Pasta — Restaurant in Florida

I had the chicken Alfredo and garlic knots. The knots bread was well prepared, but so oily there was a puddle on the plate, and still not much flavor. I asked the server if they made their Alfredo fresh, to order, from scratch. She went and asked and said yes. She also confirmed that they only use cream, butter, and Parmesan (plus garlic and seasoning). So, I ordered it.

The chicken was cut into weird little shapes that look like McNugget rejects. And, it was GREY. The chicken was GREY. I tried a bite and it was too tough to chew. I couldn't even cut it with my fork. The pasta was cooked properly, but greasy looking from the start. I tried a few bites and all I could taste was oil. I had to ask for Parmesan, and it came in a scratched up plastic container.

The server was friendly and attentive. None of this was her fault.

I asked for a manager, who was wearing a chef shirt (clearly NOT a chef). He had been sitting with his laptop near the front door the entire time. He explained to me that they make their Alfredo with cold ingredients, in a plastic tub where it sits and waits to be used later that day. If you are making Alfredo correctly, it becomes a solid paste a few minutes after it cools off. This tells me they are adding oil or some other FILLER to keep the "sauce" ready to pour and heat up. GROSS! I also learned from the server that when they pre-cook the pasta, it then sits in a vat of OIL to keep it soft, until cooked. This is not traditional Italian. This is also not "Where old world taste and good friends meet." as their slogan suggests. I can get better food from a microwave pouch. YUCK!!

BTW, the manager left my table in a huff when I explained that what they served me is not what I was told I was going to get. I tipped my...

So I went for the first time to Chianti’s last night. Service was decent and the food was okay. I got the chicken gorgonzola, after reading reviews raving about it, with a side Cesar salad. Let’s start off with the complimentary “garlic knots.” In my honest opinion these are a big flop. They are super small and don’t have much flavor. They are like if you took Publix’s pizza dough and made an 2” piece and drowned it in olive oil with a little minced garlic. The best tasting thing for the meal was the Cesar salad. That had a nice flavor, I just wish the portion was a little bigger. Now onto the main course. The chicken had no seasoning, like seriously. The only flavors you could taste are unseasoned chicken and plain bread crumbs. That was seriously it. Now, I will admit I do enjoy very aggressive and complex seasoning, and I understand that they need to cook for the majority of people and seeing the regular clientele, you could tell that bold flavored would not be to there liking, but still you can add some salt and pepper, who knows maybe even some garlic and onion powder. Other than it not being seasoned well, the chicken was also slightly over cooked and dry. The actually sauce was quite nice and the sun dried tomatoes added a very nice and much needed burst of flavor. To my surprise there was not much gorgonzola to be found at all, yet it is in the name of the dish. Serving size was small, I think I got between 6 to 8 forks worth of pasta.

Overall the meal was so-so. I can see why it was not that busy on a Saturday night. I might try it again one day, but it won’t be high on my list of...

We were the very first people to have dinner at the Longwood location on opening day. I do realize that there will always be issues with that in mind, but our experience was beyond horrible. The only good thing was the young waitress herself, who provided excellent service. First, we had to send all the drinks back because both soft drink machines were 100% flat and they knew it. They had no hot tea. The iced tea was disgusting. Other than our waitress, there were at least a dozen other staff and managers gathered around the register, trying to figure out how to work it. The credit card machine was inoperable. The menus were not ready to be handed out, just the sliver of printer paper that they were on. The food... The pizza was soggy and tasted worse than frozen from a grocery store. The salmon was not cooked thoroughly and brought to my 90 year old father COLD. Not warm and cooling off, but actually COLD. The staff looked to be all teenagers. I even noticed the one making my pizza drop the dough on the floor from throwing it too far in the air. That dough was disposed of and a new one started without the theatrics. This location was not ready to open. If there were that many issues, from the register/CC machine to the soft drink machines to the kitchen staff not knowing how to cook, they should have not rushed to open their doors. Then again, they had no signage whatsoever to even indicate they WERE open. From the outside, it looked closed. Perhaps it should stay that way. We will not be coming back. It's a shame that Carmela's closed. They had been in this location for decades and...