Petrella's Italian Cafe — Restaurant in Florida

I personally worked here and have witnessed way too much cross contamination. Their tongs they use to handle noodles are the same tongs they have dropped on the ground, which are then picked up and used again without washing. They are the same tongs they use to handle meat related dishes, along with “vegan” dishes as well (if you have eaten a vegan dish, it has touched meat). I have watched Tony and CJ personally “cook” their seafood, and 9 times out of 10, it’s still raw. I’ve seen entire plates of food come back just to be tossed or fed to the employees, who then were stricken with food poisoning (myself included after eating a spaghetti dish). It became so bad that I and 2 other employees had to start going next door to Publix to buy our dinners to keep from throwing up. Even their ice machine has black (not green) mold growing in the back of the inside, and the wall behind it is rotten completely through, leaving a giant gaping hole. I’ve seen countless times where a burger is still raw coming back, spaghetti, lasagna, ziti, zepolli, and everything else under the sun. The only thing I would even THINK of recommending are their salads, simply due to them not being cooked or fried. Even the meatballs are preserved after being cooked each day of business until they are out of the said batch, to the point where the meatball pan and meatball water starts to become green. And PLEASE don’t get me started on the Marsala or manicotti… There have been countless strikes from the Health Department (all recurring warnings dating as far back as 2015), yet nothing has been done about their abhorrent methods and rituals. I am VERY surprised this place is still in business and I will NEVER eat here willingly due to the health risk. I don’t understand what management has going on, but something NEEDS to be done before a stomach bug is the least of their worries…

Edit: Oh, and one reason the service and waits are so abhorrently awful is the servers and hostesses like to stand in front of the line and gossip or watch TikTok...

After many years of loving the Italian food from Petrella’s, I am sad to be writing this review. My husband and I finally got the opportunity for a date night and decided to eat here. We were seated and waited on promptly, and then decided on the stuffed grouper and tonight’s special, lobster ravioli with shrimp Alfredo on the side. Our food came out in a timely manner my husband enjoyed his food , I started eating the shrimp Alfredo first and nothing seemed amiss. I took a few bites of the Alfredo and then moved on to the lobster ravioli. At first bite nothing seemed wrong but the more I chewed I realized that the lobster that was inside was immensely fishy and most of all, it was rancid. I spit it back out and ask my husband to try and he agreed, they were rotten and definitely not safe for consumption. The waitress came to the table and I let her know I wasn’t pleased, she left and returned with the bill for which she took off a discount of $4. She told me maybe next time to order something I was more familiar with , I ensured her I definitely was aware of what lobster in general should taste Like and that the lobster in my meal obviously was no good, I was very polite and ask that it be removed from my bill, she then spoke over me and hurriedly picked up the items from our table and rudely mentioned that I would be charged for the 4-5 shrimp I ate (prior to biting into the horrible lobster ravioli). Eventually she came back after speaking to the chef and took my meal off of the bill. We left, dissatisfied with our experience and as we began driving we both did not feel so great. Here we are 4 hours later and we are both extremely ill. It has been waves of stomach pain and cramps ever since we left. date night gone horribly wrong thanks to petrellas. i will not be back for a very long time, and I definitely will never order another lobster ravioli...

Went here today 12/18 for lunch and took almost 10-15 minutes to be seated, they weren’t busy either, 10 minutes to get a drink order, another 20-30 mins before we got to order food, about 45 minutes to get the food and they forgot to bring my sons food out so tack on another 10 minutes for that to come out, we had to ask about 3-4 times for refills, and still didn’t get them when asked until about 5 minutes before we left. We got there around 1-1:15 didn’t pull out of their parking lot till 3, seen our waitress maybe 3-4 times the 3 hours we were there nearly, The food was gross, cold no taste, and all around just nasty. Spent 55$ in there for lunch! I paid and I DID NOT leave a tip for the horrible service we received. Upon walking out the front door the waitress followed me outside and said excuse me ma’am did you leave a tip on your card or on the table or did you intentionally not leave me a tip? I said no we didn’t leave one she responded with a laugh and a really then said to me don’t bother coming back here, I said well your service and food was horrible so no worries there. Got in my car called the restaurant and asked for a manager, told the manager what had happened and she was dumbfounded by what I said and only thing I got was I don’t know what to say other than if you come back I assure you it won’t happen again. I responded with well we were told to not come back so we will never be back because of the 3 hrs spent in there and the most unprofessional experience of my life. I had 2 small kids with me being youngest is 2 it took everything they had to be good as it took so long. I will never recommend nor ever will I go back to this place! Absolutely disgusting food and...