Zito's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

I usually don’t give a bad review after 1 bad night, but I won’t be returning to this restaurant so it is what it is. We had a 7:30 reservation. All 6 of us arrived at 7:20. We were not ultimately sat at our table until 45 min after our reservation at 8:15. The restaurant wasn’t full, but the table they wanted to sit us at would not leave and they kept us waiting outside in their waiting area for 45 minutes. While making us wait outside in the heat, no one came over to offer us water, drinks or even a cursory apology. One of us had to keep going up to the hostess stand every 10 minutes to be told it would just be a few more minutes. I don’t typically ask for or expect free anything when things are beyond a restaurants control, but they had no interest in clearing out the people sitting at the table, and they took the reservation for 6 at the time they took it. Eventually we were sat without an apology and we ordered our entire meal family style to be coursed out at the restaurants discretion. This was at 8:20. Among the things we ordered was what everyone had raved about and the top entree listed, their veal parm. After serving the appetizers, salad and pizza courses, at 9:15, almost an hour after we ordered, and right before serving the last course, the waiter came over to tell us they were out of the veal parm and then brought over a menu to ask if we wanted to order a different entree. 3 of the 6 entrees have veal by the way. Anywho, this was the first “apology” we’d received that night, without an explanation for why it took them nearly an hour to tell us the entree we ordered was 86’d. The food was fine. Probably better than fine. But the service was so objectively terrible, and the people there, including the woman who appeared to be some sort of manager or owner, was so indifferent to how shitty the service was that none of us have any interest in returning to this restaurant. 2 Italian restaurants in this spot have sadly come and gone. This one is probably also not long...

I’ve been looking forward to trying this new restaurant in my neighborhood, but my Friday night was ruined the moment I walked in. I had a confirmed reservation, but the hostess was completely clueless and unprofessional. She couldn’t find my reservation under my name, and even after I showed her the OpenTable confirmation on my phone, she didn’t bother to read it—just kept asking for my phone number like a robot acting confused.

Then, to make things worse, she tried to seat us outside—in 100-degree heat—when no one else was even out there. I told her I specifically booked an indoor table, and she flat-out argued with me and claimed I must have reserved outdoor seating. I explained again that I saw the indoor and outdoor options and would never choose outside in that kind of weather. Still, she refused to acknowledge the mistake and insisted there was no indoor availability.

At that point, I had enough and walked out. I attached a screenshot of my indoor reservation confirmation and even made a second test reservation for the next day to prove how OpenTable clearly distinguishes between indoor and outdoor seating.

The most ironic part? When the valet brought my car, he asked why we were leaving so soon. I told him the hostess was clueless, and without hesitation, he rolled his eyes and said, “I have to agree with you there.” Clearly, this wasn’t an isolated incident.

Invest in staff that knows how to read a reservation and treat guests with a basic level of competence and respect. You lost what would have been a $300+ bill—and a customer who was genuinely excited to support a new local spot. Major...

From Cocktails to Cockroaches!!!

I’ve driven by this place so many times and was excited to finally check it out, but it ended up being a major letdown.

We had indoor reservations and were seated in the far left corner by the ivy wall. Not long after ordering, a huge cockroach started crawling up the wall right next to my friend. She has a phobia of bugs and immediately panicked. She screamed, jumped up, and nearly knocked over the table. She was visibly shaken and couldn’t relax for the rest of the night. At that point, none of us had an appetite.

We asked for the food to go, but the staff seemed more bothered than apologetic. They gave us a 15% discount, but the experience was already ruined. To top it off, they forgot my partner’s meal entirely.

Valet was just as frustrating. We were trying to leave quickly and head somewhere else for dinner, but the valet couldn’t figure out which car was ours. We told him it was an orange Rivian, and we could see him at a completely different car. He came back twice, said he couldn’t open it, and still wasn’t near our vehicle. We offered to unlock it from our phone, but then realized he was trying to open a white car. We had to tell the second valet he was at the wrong one. No wonder it wouldn’t open. Just… wow.

It’s a beautiful-looking spot, but behind the aesthetics? Cockroaches, careless service, and total disorganization. We...