CasAntica Ristorante — Restaurant in Sarasota

May 9, 2025 / 7:30 PM - Two for Dinner before the FST Show.

Well been walking past this place for about 4 years coming out of the garage and going to about 40 other restaurants I have reviewed here on Yelp. (I park and WALK back to the MainStreet and other Restaurants. We then see the show and I come back to this garage and pick up my GF, bride, Mistress (smile))

Love the decor. Happily greeted at the door. A little quiet in now the off season beginning. THAT is no problem, but I worry for local business always.

The service and "zone coverage" wait staff was exceptionally efficient, speedy and attentive/suggestive. REALLY well done.

Wine for the boss at $10.50 a glass, not too bad, I went with Pellegrino for ~ $7/liter. I wanted a little spritz of cranberry or a mocktail since I am not a beer or wine guy and don't drink "soda" pop/Coke/Pepsi garbage. They said they don't have cranberry juice or mixers because no liquor bar. Need some thoughts here for a lemonade, some kind of juice (fruit or vegetable??)

The Bufal Caprese mozzarella and tomatoes app was nice to split. We had asked for bread even before ordering the app and had hoped it would have arrived with this app with its oils and seasoning, but it came later and with about 2 tbls of marinara sauce, no butter or oil or etc? There was some comments about bread and getting with an entree or something I forget the whole thing. Also some issue with NOT being able to order a side without also ordering an entree? I guess many don't need a big entree and just have an appetizer and maybe a few sides and they are satisfied. My issue is with this there were ZERO entrees that were 'vegan' or vegetarian or non animal product, oiled, or cheesed?? So my go to would have been a vegetable side and maybe a salad....... 7/10

My wife chicken marsala was very tasty but the chicken was a bit tough, maybe she has spoiled us all by making hers by beating the chicken very nicely OR we get better chicken product at our home. 7/10

My mushroom ravioli in red sauce was a VERY flavorful sauce and the pasta was nice and fresh, not sure I got a good taste of the mushroom insides but the texture was good and it was a good dish. IT was a bit oily and salty for my taste but ok. at $26.95 it was around $3 a ravioli (I am a little tongue in cheek on this quip) but it was kinda expensive. 6/10

We had a tiramisu to split that was a perfect size for exactly that purpose. It was a VERY good tiramisu. We would have loved to have seen a gelato option as less "sleep" inducing/carb loading for the play and a bit better for us, but we enjoyed this dessert!! 9/10

All in (food, tax, tip) it was about $80 per head. A wee bit expensive but very enjoyable.

Would like to see a vegetable / light pasta dish and some sides or options with less oil and salt and...

What an odd restaurant Casantica has become. I used to go there years ago for a lovely evenings on dates at a romantic restaurant. Now it’s just strange and has no identity. My date and I were dressed quite nicely only to be greeted by the owner in shorts, a type of tank top and sneakers. THAT’S the image you, the owner, chooses to present to your customers. Pretty insulting pretending that you have an upscale romantic restaurant when you wear shorts. Like hey.. “spend a lot of money in my place, but I can’t be bothered to dress nice and set an nice image for you.” Nonetheless, the place is horribly run. I’d describe it a mixture of sad, comical and strange. The hostess literally took 3minutes AFTER we sat down to figure out how to give us our menus. Another worker had to explain how to give us the menu (how hard could it be.. there were only two of us). I’ve worked in restaurants for years, and watching their serving skills was excruciating. Every worker would only bring one item in their hand at a time. No condensing steps or efficiency whatsoever. Literally one item at a time carrying it like it was a priceless Faberge egg. The workers kept bumping in to each other like keystone cops.. even the owner. Literally ONE item at a time. Barely anyone spoke English, only our server who also had an accent… the strange thing was though, that the workers were not Italian (I assume the owner is Italian) but the workers appeared to be all of one particular ethnicity (Latin of sort) and they seemed uncomfortable almost. I know this will sound strange, but both my bf and I came up with the same thought like are these ppl being trafficked?! They seemed very controlled and clearly were not actual restaurant workers. They had zero restaurant skills or experience… zero. As for the food… it was just decent at best. My Caesar salad was heavily covered in dressing. One bite I got a big glump of it. We asked for butter for the bread, the busboy brings two tiny cheap butter packets hard and cold. How is the butter supposed to soften when the bread is cold too? Each entree comes with absolutely NOTHING. No veggie, no starch… nothing. A side is $7 extra. Each of our entrees were very heavily coated in oil and butter. We were never asked if we’d like refills on our beverages. Boxed up our own food without a utensil. This place cheaps out on everything. The ambience is actually nice, but they need to do something about the stale, musty odor in the place and here’s a thought… maybe clean your restaurant. My chair literally had a caked on section of heavy dust. I’ll never go back. What a poorly run, awkward restaurant with such potential. Btw… everytime I saw the owner in her shorts… you made me angry that I wore a very nice dress only to be insulted by your lack of respect for...

Honestly, with the service provide tonight this place should have ZERO stars. We just got married today and decided to come here for a nice dinner. Instead, we received the worst and most unprofessional service by both staff and management. Our server had mistakenly heard the wrong meal and wrote that on the pad. She was immediately corrected but never corrected herself. Meal comes out wrong and my husband point out that he had ordered something wrong. MISTAKES HAPPEN, I get it. What was wrong here was the fact that the 17 year old server then argued with him for 20 minutes. They don’t remake dishes but she, while arguing, never explained this. We then asked for a manger several times without one ever coming to the table. What we got instead was a woman coming and demanding payment, which we had no issue doing just wanted to talk. Once again, things escalate between her and my husband. She’s gets the card for payment and walks away telling us we can go. Obviously, we weren’t leaving without the return of our card. I went inside to discuss the instance with the manager since I’ve been in the service industry and management for several years. Had to beg for the manager to talk to me just for it to end with him walking away telling me I need to find a new husband. I’m sorry, to find what? A man like him? No thank you. Husband finally comes in and they, rather than ever listening to what happened, threatens to call police and calls him stupid. I will absolutely NEVER return to this place. I visit many places and can confidently say that this is the most unprofessional restaurant. I don’t recommend this place to anyone. Want a nice authentic Italian restaurant? Try the other ten in their area or there’s an amazing one in Venice.

Edit for response: Let’s not discuss respect when you walked away from me like a child insulting my husband and disrespecting me after I came in and calmly and RESPECTFULLY spoke with you. *17 year old as she herself had told us. I really hope you record and save your reaction too. Use it to better yourself and hopefully put some decent training into your staff. We will not be returning,...