Acqua Pazza Coastal Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in North Port

A Mixed Bag Experience...

Went on a Saturday afternoon, 5:45. Seated quickly, restaurant only had 4 or 5 tables occupied. One large group of about 16 seated just before us (only 2).

The dining room is beautiful. Nice atmosphere!! My only suggestion here is to keep an eye on the setting sun poking through the windows and reflecting into diners' faces. We had to ask to lower a blind.

Liz helped us out all evening. She was awesome and this review shouldn't reflect negatively on her - at all. We ordered the fried risotto appetizer (arancini) - 4 fried lumps. They weren't bad but not really good. The cheese sauce around them was stellar, however.

We ordered the Chicken Sorrento and Shrimp Di Almafi (this is how it's spelled on the menu. I think it should be AmaLfi). The mains took well over an hour to get to our table. We understood as there was a table of 16 that ordered right before us. We weren't really thrilled about it, but we understood.

The chicken was top-notch, fantastic, beautifully prepared! The shrimp, not so much. The menu describes the dish as coming with a lemon cream sauce. What I got was plain-Jane alfredo. I actually double-checked the menu to make sure I didn't read it incorrectly. Nope. I let Liz know and she absolutely made it right with zero excuses. Like I said, she was great. Still pretty hungry, I ordered the pistachio crusted salmon. The salmon comes with risotto (remember, we had the fried risotto as an app) so on the recommendation of Liz, I opted for broccolini as a substitute.

The fish came out quickly but still had risotto on the plate. Not a huge deal, but a definite lack of attention to detail. The salmon was fine, not great like the chicken. Risotto was pretty bland.

Towards the end of our meal, after nearly 2 hours, Angela, who I assume is a manager or supervisor, came over to chat. She was a peach and made things right. It was nice having a dialogue with someone who understood where we were coming from, who took complete ownership and made things right. She said the shrimp dish didn't even look the way she would have expected and was floored the substitute didn't happen. Stuff happens...

So ultimately, the chicken was the star of the show, the shrimp could have been better (or cooked as described) and the salmon order was overlooked, which is careless if a dish has already been sent back. Like I said up top, this was a mixed bag experience.

It sounded like the large table and new kitchen staff threw off the timing and quality of the service. They understood, we understood. Staff removed the salmon from the bill, were very apologetic and offered free dessert, which we declined (we're not looking for anything free).

I think it's fair to say we'll come back and give it another shot. I hope that another large table doesn't throw such a wrench into the machinery like this next time and the kitchen absolutely nails the food. There's so much dang potential for this place and I want it to succeed.

Liz and Angela, thanks for making things right. See...

Came across this place after driving an hour to go to Banyan House for my birthday dinner. Banyan House was such an all around massive disappointment that we didn't even get to eat a meal there. So we left and stopped here. Food was bland and boring. Orecchiette was really really bland. I had to add salt and normally I am not a big salt person. It tasted like they didn't even salt the pasta water to be honest. I just boxed it in hopes I could doctor it at home. My boyfriend got the lobster ravioli. Was ok. Maybe because I cook all the time, and I make pasta and ravioli myself, I have higher expectations. The service however, is what stood out. We had such a terrible service experience at Banyan so it was refreshing to see Jackie welcome us warmly with a smile. She asked about our night and we told her about the bad time at Banyan. She was kind and personable. She even took it upon herself to talk to her manager about how bad our night was and that it was my birthday, and they took care of our bottle of wine. How nice! I don't ever ask for things for free. We just talked about how bad it was across the street. She then explained that Banyan House was a sister store of theirs and they felt badly for the night being ruined so they wanted to help make it a better experience. We tried the warm Italian sipping chocolate they had at the bar. That stuff is tasty! All in all, food is meh, atmosphere is awesome. Beautiful tile work and the restaurant overall was clean and really nice, but Jackie was pretty cool. I wanted to be sure to give her a shout out for helping to remedy an otherwise crap...

My husband and I loved the food but had a sad welcoming experience. I had made reservations 2 weeks prior for 6:30pm,as we arrived at 6:05 pm we were told that our table wasn't ready(understandable) very young girl tells us we can sit a bar and just points at it. We walk over and I pulled the first seat out, getting ready to sit a male bartender places a glass of water in front of me on bar and tells me "this seat is reserved" and just walks away. No sign said it was but he didn't apologize and show me to another seat. As we sat in other seat feeling embarrassed a female waitress that noticed the interaction approached us with a lovely smile and greeted us and offered menu's as well as recommendations which was superb, mind you it is 6:15pm . A party of 4 came in and said had Reservations for 6:30pm and were walked right in? We are at this point thinking we made a bad choice, still wait until 6:27, I asked an other young lady if our table is ready and she says "it's been ready for you?" (Eye roll)Anyway thank GOD for our waiter TYLER he was amazing, so courteous, well spoke& attentive. Made outstanding recommendations that did not disappoint as well as the bartender Angela.She even came over to check on us! These two people turned it around for us! Definitely will give it an other go as long as we get Tyler and Angela, all the stars are for them! I am sorry for the young host at check in. Needs some more training or maybe she would flourish in an other position...