Terra Fiamma — Restaurant in Florida

I dont usually give such low scores. Consider yourself cream of the crop in that sense. I had stayed away from here for the longest time because of the mediocre reviews. I said the heck with it today and went there. There was no one in the place because it was rather early. I received good service to start because there wasn't anyone else there.

I ordered a whisky, a water, and Chicken Parmesan. I wanted to be good, so I got vegetables instead of pasta. Score- Me: 1, waitress: 0. It came out with pasta. The meal came with a soup. I got pasta fagioli, which was good. It was odd that it had chunks of chicken. It had taken me 40+ years to receive a pasta fagioli with chunks of chicken but, hey I can party too if the chicken comes out to party. It would have been splendid if I had gotten the soup earlier so I could eat it all before the food arrived. I had a little left of the soup when the main dish came out. It looked very good, despite it being incorrect.

In anticipation, I first took a taste of the sauce. I will explain the disappointment in an example. Imagine back to when you were a kid, on a day you were bored out of your mind. Your parents tell you that you'll be going to your grandparents house! You know that you always get cool toys when you go over there. However, this time they give you a box of 48 crayons and a coloring book. Even more disappointing, you open the crayon box and discover that 47 of the 48 crayons are white. THAT, was this sauce.

They managed to make tomato sauce taste more bland than crushed tomatoes straight out of a can. It is like it went through a taste-removal machine. Next, I cut into the chicken. It was a little hard. The cheese looked good, and was good. The chicken? Oh, the poor chicken. What was that taste? It took me about 1/2 the portion to figure it out. I was deliberating between thinking it tasted like an elderly person's plastic covered couch, or mold. (If you could image a smell being a taste) Then it hit me. Corn tortilla!!!! It tasted exactly, 100% like a corn tortilla. How? Noooo clue but it did. Remarkably well too. Similarly to how a "pepperoni pizza" jelly bean can taste exactly like a "pepperoni pizza". You ask yourself how can they make a jelly bean to taste like a pizza. But you taste it, and it does, and you are like "wow, science!". So yes, corn tortilla-infused chicken parm. I even dissected the chicken from the breading to isolate the taste. And to my amazement, it wasn't the breading! I figured (before testing my hypothesis) maybe they used cornmeal for the breading. So I ate just the breading alone to find out. Nope, not the breading. I took a big bite of the remaining bread-less chicken. OMG! They discovered corn tortilla flavored chicken! Personally, I'd sell the recipe to the Mexican restaurant a few doors down as a novelty dish.

On to the bill. Ok, so apparently the waitress wanted to leave so she asked everyone (numerous people showed up during my visit) if they mind paying for what they owed up to that point. Apparently, she wanted us to make it rain dollars before she bounced out.

The most I had every paid....EVER (did I mention that I had at least 21 years of drinking experience, legally, up to this date?) for a top shelf whisky at a swanky hippity-dippity bonafide Speakeasy was around $11. And those were tumblers filled with the spirit. This was a $15, 2 ounce pour...maybe if I give it the benefit of the doubt, at an empty Italian restaurant with no decor, overlooking a parking lot. The drink cost me $3 more than my tortilla-infused Chicken Parm, with a side of non-vegetable pasta, and chicken induced "bean-soup" AKA pasta fagioli.

Crossed that one...

3rd Review of Terra Fiamma Restaurant, and Bar.

Date: Monday August 12th, 2019

If you’re seeking a place to spend your free social time to dine out, or just have a few cocktails with your friends; well Terra Fiamma is without a doubt one place you should most definitely consider. Terra Fiamma offers indoor, and outdoor dining. It’s been a bit of a time span since our last visit to Terra Fiamma, but not by any means disappointing. In fact it was just as enjoyable, if not more so. Once again we had a fantastic time at Terra Fiamma. The service was superb as usual. Our bar tender was a young woman by the name of Lexy. She was so pleasant, as well as professional at her job. She couldn’t have been nicer to us if she tried. The General Manager Mr. Ronnie Gaeta was very accommodating, & welcoming to the both of us. He obviously is very efficient at his job there at Terra Fiamma. The entire establishment runs smoothly, and seamlessly. I attribute today’s experience at Terra Fiamma to Mr. Ronnie Gaeta. I’m extremely impressed each time I dine at this establishment. This service, and atmosphere seems to be consistent in a good way. I can’t stress that enough. Each of the Individual customers were so friendly, as well as kind enough to allow me to take a few photos of there private social time at Terra Fiamma to accompany this review. I realize that is something that they did not have to do, but after I asked would it be alright for me to take a few photos to capture the atmosphere of this establishment on this particular day; each customer made their self available for my brief moment in their private time at Terra Fiamma. For that I am grateful, and would like to say thank you to each of them. This includes A young woman that was sitting beside me at the bar as I was enjoying my cocktails, as well as my delicious meal. Her name is Jonette. Thank you so much Jonette for extending you are wonderful personality, and including me in your private time. I realize that this is something that you did not half to accommodate. That makes me more appreciative that you decided to allow me to take a few photos. There’s something special about those individuals that frequent Terra Fiamma. There’s something special, and wonderful about each and everyone you encounter there. She too is a great example of the wonderful cozy feeling that seems to permeate Terra Fiamma. For that I thank each and everyone of you. You have a wonderful establishment. Please never change. There’s a unseen magic at Terra Fiamma that I can’t put my finger on, but I feel it each time I go there for an evening out. Keep up the great work guys. Let’s not Forget the cook, or cooks at Terra Fiamma. My thanks to those who prepare the wonderful cuisine. The end result is superb, and never disappoints. The next time we visit Terra Fiamma I must get your name to include in one of my reviews. You Deserve it big time!!! You obviously know your craft very well. Thank you once again Terra Fiamma!!! Two satisfied customers. David Mulligan, & Frankie...

This restaurant was recently featured on "Dirty Dining" (WPTV app - May 24) as it was temporarily shut down for 7 major health code violations.

Went there for a holiday dinner. Nine people in our party. We really enjoyed the food! Some new twists on some Italian classics and the presentations were great. Not all of the timing was good as there were strange lulls for drinks, silverware, and parts of meals. Acoustics we're bad as it was REALLY LOUD in there. Also it seemed pricey for the food and casual setting ($600) and considering that we only had two pitchers of sangria's and maybe 6 cocktails total for our table. It was a holiday celebration so we weren't paying that close of attention to it, but I have no idea. We've taken more people to Louie Bossi for less which in my opinion has a nicer ambiance, so who knows... But the food was good so I would definitely go back if I ever have to be that far west again.

Editing my rating to a two...went back for lunch. Waited for 15 minutes after we were seated and no one waited on us. We asked a runner to try and track down our server. They weren't busy, so we don't know what happened. The bartender ended up waiting on us. We found out she was the bartender because she explained it to us after she she waived off a server as one eventually tried approach us after about 35 minutes. We wanted to order the lunch special, Italian sub & soup and wanted the sub baked but were told that we could only have the sub heated if we ordered it separately. I find that to be weird. Again the timing of the food coming out of the kitchen was bizarre. There was huge lull between the appetizer (we ordered chicken parmesan bites) and then my friend's soup, my salad and pizza arrived all at the same time and then a really long time before his sandwich arrived. And he didn't order the Italian, that he wanted, because the chef wouldn't bake it, so he got a chicken parmesan sandwich also on the special menu and that was baked...just a weird, bad experience. Not worth our time.

The first time raised an eyebrow. The second time revealed that something is...