Trattoria Abruzzo — Restaurant in Florida

RED FLAG WARNING: After 300+ reviews and ten years of supporting local restaurants, I officially make this my #1 WORST dining experience of all time. We arrived tonight at 5:30pm. It had just rained. All the windows were open in the restaurant as well as an entire open bar wall area. A few flies appeared at first. Our Caesar salad and bread came out, which happened to be delicious. By the time our main courses arrived (grilled calamari, pizza, and veal saltimbocca), there were flies everywhere... to a scale I've never seen in any restaurant in my life. We're talking dozens upon dozens of flies. We moved to the back of the restaurant when we complained. The manager apologized and blamed the flies on Mother Nature, a broken AC unit and the open doors and windows. The restaurant wasn't dirty by any means but it made the whole experience awful. We couldn't eat. I just swatted flies the entire team. Killed about six. Mind you this is a casual/upscale restaurant with $20-$30 entrees. The manager Michelle said she was going to discount our meal and then offered to give us a dessert to "compensate." When the bill arrived they charged for the dessert!!! and only took 10% off. The best part is that the owner was actually angry we were complaining about the flies. Folks, I don't complain much. Check my yelp account. I rarely do bad ratings. But when I tell you that there were dozens of flies I'm not exaggerating. The place was a swarming with flies. All the owner had to do to solve the problem was close the open bar wall as soon as it started raining outside, but no she refused. Even though no one was sitting at the outside bar she never closed it. She didn't even have the decency to come over and apologize to us or the other tables. We were laughing and counting the number of flies climbing on peoples heads and outfits. The waitress was mortified and completely understood where we were coming from. So was the manager. But from what I could tell, it's the owner of who is the BIG problem here, not the staff. I'm sorry but when you have a massive fly infestation and no AC you need to close your damn restaurant. End of story. But it's obvious to Me that the owner is a disgusting greedy person and could care less about the customer. This is also the only restaurant we've eaten in where no one has masks on. Just saying. Oh and they charged $10 for a side of plain pasta for my 3-year old daughter. Greedy AF. Ugly. Unsanitary. Those are the words that sum up our experience tonight. The sad part is, the food was actually good. High quality ingredients no doubt. It's unfortunate That We had to share our first meal out as a family since the Covid pandemic with a swarm of flying insects. I probably ate 100 fly eggs given the number of times they flew on my plate. I would never recommend this restaurant to my worst enemy. The attitude of the owner was downright repugnant. For the record I could care less that they only took 10% off the bill. I don't complain to get discounts like other people. I only complain when it's absolutely necessary. And this was just that awful. What really angers me is the owner and her complete lack of action. All she had to do was close the windows and doors. But no, better to be greedy and maximize seating Capacity. Horrible. I'd give -10 stars if I could. Do not eat here. Go to la trattoria for Italian. Hell go to Wendy's....

My low review is more about the restaurants policies than its food. My wife and I have been visiting this restaurant about every 1 1/2 weeks. The food is very good. My wife and I go for Happy Hour drinks but also order dinner. For Happy Hour, you have to sit at the bar, outside, or at a high top adjacent to the bar. We noticed the last 4 times that the bar was getting a bit too crowded for our liking during these COVID times. The 2nd time, the owner was gracious enough to let us sit at a table away from the bar yet allowing us Happy Hour dink prices. The last time we visited about 1 week ago, the owner wasn't there and the hostess would not allow us to sit at any table away from the bar. It was early (3:30 pm - we go early to avoid crowds as my wife is somewhat high risk) the restaurant and bar were empty. We told her that the last time the bar became very crowded and we felt uncomfortable and could she allow us to sit at a table and still have Happy Hour drinks. Again, we were ordering dinner and not just HH bar food. She apologized but said no. We sat at a high top and by the time we were almost finished, the bar became crowded. We became very uncomfortable especially after one of the workers passed by our table on the way to the bathroom without a mask or gloves. We left and made a promise to ourselves that the next time we go, we ask for a table away from the bar to enjoy HH drinks and dinner. Well, we went today at an early time (3:30) and there were already people at the bar. We asked for a table away from the bar to enjoy HH drinks and dinner. The hostess said no. She said we can eat outside but we replied no thank you as it was almost 100 degrees. She went to the back to ask someone for permission (we don't know who) but she came back and said no. We replied thanks but no thanks and left to go somewhere else. We will never frequent that restaurant again. They obviously have no regard for patrons during this time of crisis. We frequent a lot of restaurants and a majority of them have HH throughout the whole restaurant during these crazy times. Whether it's Bice, The Pearl, Vergina, or Real Seafood. They all use the whole restaurant for HH and dinner. Not Trattoria Abruzzo. They just lost good customers over a stupid policy. Again, these aren't ordinary times. Make your customers feel safe and comfortable. That would be the intelligent thing to do. Not this restaurant. Goodbye Trattoria Abruzzo. It was nice knowing you...

Boy do I have a review coming ... #0002

This restaurant was brought to our attention on a previous post. Thanks to those for the suggestion.

Trattoria Abruzzo; located in the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt. The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating, includes an open air bar with seating on both sides; inside and out.

The menu at Trattoria Abruzzo is a complete soup to nuts list of Italian specialties. Plenty of appetizers, homemade pastas, meat dishes and desserts to choose from.

My wife is a meat sauce/ragu lover and ordered the Pappardelle di Bosco. The sauce/gravy was meaty, flavorful and coated the fresh house made pasta without being clumpy. The pappardelle pasta itself was nice and thin and properly cooked; al dente but not under cooked, just the right chew.

For me there are lots of real Italian dishes I love but my test is usually the Pollo alla Parmigiana. When the breast is too thick the component ratios are off. Trattoria Abruzzo’ ratios were spot on. The chicken breast had to have been pounded and not just butterflied, perfectly thin at about a quarter inch thick. Perfect breading and browned just right, crispy and not burnt. The cheeses on top must have been broiled to melt and brown them, perfect. The dish came with a side of fresh, homemade thin spaghetti with homemade marinara, again the perfect chew.

The side pasta was all I really needed but we ordered the Tortelli della Mamma also. I had to try their fresh homemade meat ravioli with veal, beef and what I assume was swiss chard. Again the pasta was a perfect thickness and cooked to just the right chew. The pasta to filling ratio was also spot on. These ravioli’s were so close to what my grandmother/Noni used to make. It brought me back to her hand rolling big sheets of pasta for her veal, beef and swiss chard raviolis on a big old flour coated table in her San Francisco basement.

Our waitress along with all of the service help was pleasant and attentive. No reason to meet the management except to let them know how good the food was.

We will be back to Trattoria Abruzzo. They have a brick pizza oven that we need to test. There were also too many good looking dishes coming out of the open air kitchen like the pounded veal chop that looked like a tennis racket with the bone sticking out and a veal...