Stefano's Trattoria — Restaurant in Florida

We had a TERRIBLE experience with their catering!! Go with someone else to save yourself from the embarrassment of not having enough food to feed all of your guests. You cannot imagine the feeling of spending $800 and seeing a sea of empty food trays filled with only sauce and knowing that you had run out of food at your event.

While we had dined at Stefano’s many times and found the dinner portions to be generous this simply was not the case for their catering.

We used Stefano’s to cater for my wife’s birthday party. She spoke with Alejandro and he made some suggestions as to how much food would be needed for our guests. She told him several times she would prefer to add more items and have leftover food than to be short. We wouldn’t have minded spending more money to add more food. All the while, Alejandro kept assuring her it was plenty and that she didn’t have to keep adding.

Looking back, we should have realized that Alejandro was trying to keep the catering order under a certain amount because that is what his kitchen could handle on a Saturday night to maximize his restaurant’s needs.

On the day my wife stopped by to pay, she was given used (and sticky) buffet trays and beat-up metal hardware (in 2 different colors) to set up for the buffet ahead of time. She was also sent home with all of the Sterno cans as well (which we had to pay for in addition to the food) so that we could set everything up for the caterers ahead of time. The condition of these items should have been a RED FLAG that they were cutting corners. We have catered many other events and had never once had to set up anything ahead of time for the caterers.

The morning of the party, we got a last minute RSVP’s from a family of 5. Again, my wife texted first thing in the morning with Alejandro and asked if we should add anything extra. He suggested we add an extra tray of salad.

When my wife started to peel back the covers of the trays at the party, she quickly realized there simply wasn’t enough food for everyone. There were also huge amounts of sauce in each tray, which we felt was to try to cover up the fact that the food portions were much smaller than expected.

We were also surprised at the container Alejandro sent the marinara sauce in- it just didn’t look appetizing. It was a huge jar which looked like it had originally held garlic or some other ingredient and was being repurposed for sauce. This is what all our guests had to serve themselves from.

When we were cleaning up after the event, one of our guests that was helping with the cleanup, pointed out that she had never seen such shallow catering trays. We actually measured one at home and it was less than 2 inches deep!!

My wife texted with Alejandro and explained how disappointed we were with being so short on food.

Alejandro then went on to tell us that there were 40 pieces of eggplant, and went through the list of menu items that we got. It was then we realized that he had only sent enough of each item to feed about 40 people. Yes, we had lots of different items, but only enough of each item to feed about 40 people. His reasoning being that not everyone will want to have everything. (Which we disagreed with, as most people want to sample a little of everything). So should we have told our guests to choose either the eggplant parm OR the meatballs OR sausage? Choose either Chicken parm OR Chicken Picatta but not both??? Yet, we have texts in which he specifically states that the food we were getting, would feed 55-65 people. Hmm...

Mind you, we never once told him we were on any sort of a budget, nor were we looking to save or skimp in any way- we wanted to have a nice event with plenty of food and would have gladly paid extra to make sure there was enough. Simply stated, we were blindsided with how Stefano’s catered our event.

What a shame too, because the food was delicious- but if it’s not enough to feed everyone, then you’ve...

First timers here. Came on a Saturday night on a whim and based it on the many great reviews here. As most on here have mentioned, the atmosphere and food here are amazing. Very unassuming spot and you're pleasantly surprised when you walk in to here the live piano going and that this place is much bigger than you think. My wife and I absolutely loved the food although our dessert wasn't too much to our liking. The portions are plentiful as were the choices on the menu. Bottom line, been living in Orlando almost 30 years and this is definitely at the top of our list for great Italian food.

Had an issue with service but I think it was just a fluke. The place was busy that night as you would expect on a weekend. We were greeted by friendly folks at the door and seated immediately. This is where things took a little bit of a turn. We sat waiting 10-15 minutes before someone even acknowledged us. I'm not sure if there was confusion on the floor with the wait staff or not but we actually had 4 folks come by once they realized how long we were waiting. The 4th waitress ultimately took our drink and food orders. Again, it seemed to take awhile to get our app and food to the table but we were taken care of with a complimentary caprese. Our waitress could have done a better job checking in on us as she didn't come back to refill drinks until towards the end of our meal. We did order a dessert to share but it tasted a bit dry so we only had a couple of bites. We weren't charged for this and we were also comped a gift card for the issues we had that night. Mind you, we didn't even have to say a word, these things were simply noticed by the management staff. That goes to show how much they value their patrons and pride themselves on customer service.

That's the true character of a great establishment. You can have the best food in the world but if your service isn't at the same caliber as your food, no one would come back. We were more than impressed with the food and truly appreciate Stefano's going above and beyond on making things right. We can't wait...

Been wanting to go for years. One night our date got cancelled, the next time we walked up to realize it was Monday... Classic Italian, closed!

We were with a large group of 12 for a ceelbration and where we were sitting right at the kitchen entrance was not at all environmentally enjoyable. On the other end of the table was the server computer crammed in a little corner where there were constantly 2, 3, 4 servers stacked.

Food was pretty darn good. Gnocchi was cooked PHENOMENALLY... Nice and firm, not mushy, good texture. Flavors were pretty darn good. Steamed calamari salad was good... Could use a little more veggies (celery, cabg, avocado?). Snapper Genovese was good... Rich and lemony, pasta done well. Bread is excellent,not sure if they make it there or from a distributor.

I am no food critic, but maybe a bit slanted towards the American palate-- focused on butter/cream, salt, etc just to bring it out more and a little less diverse on the flavors. But still ate everything including the leftovers with Glee.

A little too many servers and runners it felt like... I am sure it gets the job done, but man it was constant. Unfortunately there seems a very elementary and less custm svc quality about 70% of them. Nothing bad, just not gleeful, sharp, or spot on. Several were. But reading the specials off a list like an 8yo reading the night time story, not really sure what it all means, without flow and clarity... Lots of faces with question marks (servers) and blank expressions... 4Rivers to Seasons 52, felt a bit better quality.

I would have liked to see more "home" Italian dishes and fewer typical of the restaurant template.

Sorry to be so critical, hopefully this helps. I say 3.5 stars, but going w benefit of the doubt til I have a chance to go...