Prima — Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach

Updated review: As with every food review I write, this one has to be done really well. First off, as we walked up to the place, I noticed that it's in a perfect spot, designed to be near all the other "happenings" in New Smyrna Beach, on Canal Street, which is AWESOME. The decor was really cool. Fresh herbs in pots, succulents, beer on a top counter, so you could see all the wonderful options they offer. Inside is quaint but also open, if that makes any sense. We met a lot of patrons, and everyone just seemed so happy. Greg, we've known for about 4 years now. Mark was our bartender, on our first visit, and he was wonderful and funny (now, we know Arden and Alex, and they are wonderful people, too). We did sit at the bar, which is where we usually like to be, if it's just Bob and me. The menu! Wow. So much to choose from, all a bit unique. We started with the three garlic knots, which were the best I've ever had, and the 3 meatballs with ricotta cheese. Oh the yumminess of all of it. Goodness, I ate with vigor and made sure to taste everything. I wanted the Carbonara pizza, but ended up choosing their White Pizza. It was incredible. Bob had the stromboli and based of the noises he was making, I knew he loved it. They make their own dough, a specific way, and it's just to DIE for. I couldn't eat all my pizza, so we ended up giving it to some friends of ours, to try, later. It was a lot of food! The wine selection was brilliant. I even ordered their cannolis, but I made sure to make Mark eat my other half (ha! Now, I share it with whomever is our bartender/server). THE BEST. After leaving there, we knew we'd have to do a run. Whew. It was worth it. In the update, we've tried more dishes, i.e., sandwiches, salads, and of course, eaten more of those garlic rolls. Again, everyone was so happy there. Customers talking to each other, the staff, it was so pleasant. We've made a lot of friends there. Trust me, it's worth it. We go almost every Friday evening. Everyone at Prima makes us feel like we are family. You...

New Symrna Beach has surprised me with so many amazing Restaurants. Prima is a perfect example of great food near Canal Street. Prima is a great example of a restaurant that has found an niche and does it well. Let's start with the Garlic Knots, if I'm being honest I usually never order Garlic Knots, not that I don't like then but because I normally don't find much of a difference between them from one place to another, but as I was reading other reviews there was a consensus that these where the best Garlic Knots east of the Mississippi. Hard to argue that point after trying them. The bread was hot soft and delicious and with the abundance of Freshly chopped Garlic and a gallon of butter, it is a much have.

We also love a good Sangria and they have one at Prima that hit the spot.

Then comes the pizza. We ordered three of there specialty pizzas. Pizza Verde, Honey Gorgonzola, and the and a new one to the menu, called something pig (sorry forgot the name). All three amazing and unique and I would highly recommend each one. By the way we ordered small pies and they came with 6 good size slices. I find that people can be very particular about Pizza, to much sauce or cheese or not enough. You can never have to much of a good thing. I found that they had a perfect balance of ingredients and the flavors worked together amazingly. By the way the winner for me was the Honey Gorgonzola.

The desert where decent but when I come back I'm not saving room for desert and just going to stuff more pizza down...

I am so happy for Greg, and was really excited to try prima! Heard so many great things! All the normal pizzas looked great! Our server was pleasant but not really on top of things. If you are forced to eat GF, like me, you're hoping this will be a great GF pizza, you know that the crust will suck, but your hope is that the treatment they give it, the topping and the sauce will trump the always terrible crust. In this case, unfortunately, it did not. My SO commented that it's like they decided that since they couldn't throw the dough, the pizza wasn't worth making. I wanted to say only good things. But here it is. If you are unfortunately cursed with a GF diet... Order a caprese app or something. I wish I had. The cheese wasn't even melted fully and the pre made crust was under cooked, mealy. My advice to any pizzeria is this.... Just tell people you have no GF options, rather than offer something sub par... It only hurts your rep. I went from super stoked to be there, finally!!.. to really hungry and sad, in about two bites. I'm so sorry to have to write this, but that's what these reviews are for, to help people find the right place for them to eat. I truly believed this would be a terrific experience, but I know there's plenty of better GF pizza options around, therefore that's where my family will eat. Maybe some experience will help the pizza guy who was chatting up the table next to us, to pay more...