Lido 73 — Restaurant in Islamorada

We stopped at Lido 73 to get a bite to eat on our way home from Key West. Lido 73 is a small roadside Italian restaurant in Islamorada. I noted that it had a 4.6 out of 5 star rating and boasted authentic Italian cooking.

Upon entry we noted that we were the only guests in the place, which isn’t abnormal considering it was the late afternoon - after lunch but before dinner. We were promptly greeted by a server and seated. The decor is cute. I became excited to see a ceramic painted Trinacria on the wall, as well as brightly colored asparagus which I took to mean someone with a Sicilian background had a hand in things and thus the food would be genuinely authentically Italian.

Looking at the menu I saw “Authentic Sicilian Arancini” and immediately ordered. I don’t often get the chance to enjoy arancini outside of Sicily. I then asked the server about the filling, as authentic Sicilian arancini have different types of filling inside. Was it a meat-sauce, the menu did not offer a description and I wanted to know what to expect. The server seemed confused as to what I was asking, but he obliged and went into the kitchen to ask. He came back telling me that it’s just rice and butter. Needless to say I cancelled that order. Arancini are not rice balls, there’s supposed to be something savory inside.

Apparently cancelling my order was an issue because the cook(s) had already started on it, or something. I saw the server go into the kitchen, some words were exchanged in Spanish and he had a concerned look on his face.

We ended up ordering Cacio & Peppe and a Pasta Bolognese. Both pasta dishes came out hot and fresh with two slices of Italian bread on the side. The cacio & peppe pasta was tossed in an ample amount of white sauce, with a little black pepper mixed in. The bolognese tasted like it was fresh out the can. We were not offered any grated Parmigiano, but on request we were provided with a dish of odorless grated cheese - I have to assume it was “Parmesan”.

Let me backtrack a bit - while waiting for our food we were given glasses of water. I noticed mine had a hardened crust of leftover food particle on the lip and asked our server for a clean glass. He promptly took that glass and provided me with another glass of water. This one also had leftover food particle on it, but at least it wasn’t on the lip of the glass. I didn’t bother bringing it to his attention, I already felt like I had done enough with cancelling my arancini order.

The most authentic thing about this restaurant is the decor. Cacio & Peppe is not supposed to have a sauce. It’s a 4-ingredient dish: spaghetti pasta, black pepper, pecorino Romano, and parmigiano. That’s it. No combination of these four ingredients should form a thick white sauce. Another tip: Pasta doesn’t come out with bread on the side. That’s redundant. Bread with a side of bread? An equivalent chain restaurant version of this place would be Olive Garden, and that’s being generous.

We ended up paying $67 for two sub-par dishes of pasta. No drinks. No appetizer. Just Barilla pasta and sauce straight out of the jar.

No idea how they got that 4.6 rating but I’ve got to stop listening to these reviewers, people do not know what they’re...

I’m a local and work in hospitality; my friend and I chose to check Lido 73 out for the first time- we hung out for a few hours, great, we closed our tab early so our waiter could get their tip and leave, but we were finishing our food/drink with the intention of continuing with a new waiter. 1.5hrs after the first waiter left and we were never given a new waiter, so I walked up to the outside bar to request some beverages, but the outside bar was out of Prosecco. I walked inside to ask if they had more Prosecco, and the hostess with black glasses said they did, and would send a waiter out to our table. A few minutes later, the manager, Jesus, came out of left field to say we were “cut off” because we had too much to drink? He said the hostess I had spoken too inside was uncomfortable serving us (even though she wasn’t serving us…) We were confused, as we had never interacted with the hostess prior to me walking inside. We had not been loud/disruptive/slurring/spilled a drink/thrown up, we were just sitting there having a meal….. I asked “on what basis do you think we should be cut off?” and Jesus ultimately claimed it was that my “personality” was “outgoing” which he “had maybe mistaken for drunkenness?” and that we “had been there a while…” Mind you- half the time we were there, we hadn’t been check on by a waiter or any staff. No one new ever showed up to our table. Neither Jesus nor the hostess had interacted with us prior to then, so I’m not sure how he could have made any observations about my personality- which was grossly inappropriate of him to say. Jesus’ inability to find our tab only further proved his baseless call. We shared the name of our server so he could find our tab- once he looked at our tab and interacted with us, he agreed we were completely fine and he expressed that he had made the incorrect assumption that we were drunk. He tried to offer us free desserts and continue service once he realized we were “completely fine.” I requested to speak with the hostess who had also made the incorrect call because we deserved an apology, but Jesus refused to bring the hostess outside. I walked inside to speak to her to better understand why she felt that we shouldn’t be served, but Jesus stepped in, admitting that he had made the incorrect assumption himself, not her. I’m unclear whether he initially lied to us and blamed a coworker for the baseless call, or if the hostess made the baseless call herself, but we were incredibly offended, expressed it and left. I completely understand making mistakes, but this was an incredibly uncomfortable situation as a customer. Teach your staff better- if they incorrectly accuse someone of being drunk—which they absolutely should not be doing in the first place — they shouldn’t blame their mistake on the customer’s personality. It was wild that he had zero reasons as to why he made the call. Zero. It’s clear they were just trying to get us to leave and were willing to say anything to do it. It was also poor service that we weren’t immediately given a new waiter after ours left in the middle of our meal, or that we were even checked on for that matter. We won’t be...

Would have been the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had, had it not been for the good company. Came for Sunday breakfast on a beautiful day and met up with our party who was seated outside. Manager nonchalantly says “it might be a bit noisy” as there were workers using post hole diggers behind us (they were renovating our the outdoor dining space)-a bit annoying but not a huge intrusion with only ‘crunch’ ‘thuds’ of hand tools. He sat us at the table closest to the construction despite there being tables further away and having 5 children along. After placing our order, no kidding, the jackhammers and chainsaws started running about 15 feet from us, and didn’t let up the entire time. We thought it would be short lived but should’ve moved inside. My son got stone dust in his eye it was so close. Some people in our group liked their food, but mine was dismal. Ordered the “ultimate focaccia” - ultimately disappointing. The sound of the hard dense “focaccia” hitting the plate rivaled the jackhammer. It would’ve been a solid brick if it hadn’t been soaked in the grease of the saddest bacon you’ve ever seen. Over medium eggs were cooked over easy. The dish was missing tomatoes entirely and the sautéed peppers were 4 halves of small sweet peppers swimming in cooking oil. Mentioned the missing ingredient and the waitress says the “normal cooks who do breakfast aren’t here” and “the menu was supposed to change today but…not sure.” Had to wait forever for the check while our teeth chattered and ears bled from the jackhammers and chainsaws as it was health hazard level loud. Totally unprofessional customer service and environment, likely an OSHA...