Sophia's Fine Italian Cuisine — Restaurant in Holmes Beach

Pros: this is probably the best steak I've had outside of the original Palm Restaurant. The meat is unbelievable, and Chef Luigi cooked it perfectly - hard to do for a Texan who basically likes it hard seared, kissed on the rear, and sent out to the table. The grilled octopus is gorgeous too. The calamari was fine, though not special. The spaghetti with white clam sauce was stunning; not the creamy goop with overtones of paste you get in so many "Italian" restaurants, but a translucent sauce that enhanced what were clearly very fresh clams. I have to take a moment and rave about the Caeser salad as well, two large pieces of lightly grilled Romaine served with the perfect amount of anchovies and dressing. Cons: Salt. What is with the salt? We've dined at a lot of restaurants, including many with a Michelin star or two or three (whether you think that matters or not, there it is). We've both lived in Italy on and off for years. We both love to cook and use salt in our cooking. But here? A veal chop had to be sent back because the amount of salt made it inedible. Three orders of the same pasta, and one arrived saltless (which we'd prefer anyway, we can always add salt but you cannot subtract it!), while the others were so salty, our friends finished about a quarter and then gave up. We encouraged them to send the dishes back to the kitchen, but they said the chef was so nice, they'd rather not bother him. Go figure. More cons: This place needs to get its reservations together. We'd made a reservation for our party a week before. I called the night before to confirm time and date. And still, no one could find our reservation. Fortunately there was a large table available, but from what I was told by the other members of our group, this was a regular occurrence. The lasagna should come with a warning sign, because it resembled a "deconstructed lasagna" than anything we'd ever been served before, including in Italy. Although the menu does say there's bechamel on it, we didn't expect that to be the main thing! The pasta was excellent, but the sauce had a lot of oil, enough to make it unpalatable. The person who ordered it ended up just separating the pasta from the rest and eating it without sauces. The desserts: large, and the chocolate was excellent. The canneloni are... odd. Shells are nice and crusty, but there's zero sweetness to the inside. For us personally, the desert portions are too large, more American-style than European. Things we'd have loved to see: A sorbet choice, nothing fancy, but a real palate cleanser at the end. Also, something on the menu that was plain. Yes, we could probably have ordered spaghetti with just a bit of oil or butter, but it would be nice to see a few very simpler offerings. Everything doesn't need to have a...

I don't even know how to begin because everything about our dining experience was perfect. I seriously can't remember when I had a better dining experience.

We had family in from Germany and wanted to take them out for a nice dinner. We live in Tampa and didn't know anything about the restaurants in the Anna Maria Island area.

I Googled best restaurants on Anna Maria Island and came across Sophia's. We made reservations and showed up on time. The place is small but I could already tell by the table settings we were going to have a great dinner. There was a tropical storm coming in, and I guess everybody else canceled their dinner plans because we had the place to ourself.

We were greeted by our server, who made us all feel comfortable. He told us about the specials and took our drink order. Everything on the menu had some familiarity, but it seemed it was all just taken another step to raise the bar.

For instance, our Ceasars salad was a whole head of grilled romaine with the dressing and shaved parmesan on the side. The dressing and flavor of the grilled lettuce was amazing. One of our appetizers was Burrata Sophia with mozzarella (real mozzarella, a soft ball, not sliced) and crispy prosciutto. We also had deep-fried calamari and vegetables. They were fried with just a light breading and were perfect.

For dinner, three of us ordered the ribeye, which was covered in arugula and tomatoes. They were cooked to order and tender with a great flavor. Three of us had the pesto gnocchi with two huge tiger shrimp. Again, it was cooked to perfection. I love pesto, and this pesto was perfect. One of us ordered a special pasta dish that was finished tableside where the server shaved an actual truffle into the pasta while mixing it in a hollowed out parmesan wheel. Amazing!

Then we had to try the desserts. The cannoli was crisp and the cream light. The bread pudding was delicious, and the take on tiramisu was original and delicious.

Honestly, I can't say enough about this place. You...

We had an absolutely stunning meal this evening at Sophia's Italian Cuisine. For those locals who don't know it, Breakfast at Victoria's is now open at night starting 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

I ordered a steak with some reservations, since it's difficult to sear a steak hard but leave the inside rare and still edible. It came with gorgeous potato something or other that I can't even begin to describe except to say it was fabulous.

My wife had linguine with white clam sauce which was not drenched in cream like you normally get. It was in a light, effervescent sauce, with perfectly al dente linguini and cherry tomatoes. She doesn't even like tomatoes and she ate every single one of them.

For an appetizer we split the Caesar salad, which I assure you is large enough for two - a lovely full head of lettuce cut in half, homemade Caesar dressing and real anchovies. For dessert, the chocolate mousse and cannoli, both gorgeous and way too much!

I cannot emphasize how happy we are to have this restaurant of this right here on Island. Brady, our waiter, was absolutely spot on with every recommendation, and just friendly enough to make us welcome. He was never intrusive but always there if you know what I mean. The chef, Luigi, restored my faith in a restaurant's ability to serve a great steak.

I can't tell you how many steak restaurants I've tried in my life, only to come back home and say "heck I'm going to cook it myself and get it the way I like it". This meat was superior to anything I've ever had in a restaurant, with the possible exception of the early Palm Restaurant in Los Angeles circa 1972. Not cheap by any means, but not New York prices either. Strongly suggest...