Cassariano Italian Eatery Lakewood Ranch — Restaurant in Sarasota

I was looking forward to some great Italian food and this cute little place near UTC Mall missed the mark.

The waitress was very friendly and the manager was helpful with wine. We really appreciated that or this would be 2 stars.

I wasn't fond of being told we could not order appetizers and wait to put in our food, she said it was kitchen rules. Mmkay.. She promised the food would not come out together and we could tell her when to start our entrees so we said okay.

My dinner partner changed his mind about his entree, before our appetizers even arrived, and asked to change it to the breaded veal on the bone. Our waitress said she would check and see if the kitchen could. Wait. You assured us we could tell you when to fire our dinner and we are the customers

We ordered minestrone soup and a caprese salad. The tomatoes were ripe and the fresh mozzarella was good. The minestrone soup was not good and tasted more like vegetable broth. There were no beans or pasta or hearty vegatables. Just a medium yellow liquid and vegetable pieces. I love minestrone soup and this was sub par.

Our veal bolonese and our breaded veal arrived and looked great. We were ready to enjoy

The veal bolonese was missing something. I asked for some fresh basil and added some parmesan cheese and that didn't help. The meat should absorb the flavor of the sauce and it was pretty bland. The sauce was thick, however, it needed a little garlic or oregano or something. On a possitive note the pasta was cooked well

The veal chop was a mistake. The presentation was amazing, maybe this made our expectations higher, I am unsure. Neither of us liked the veal. It was pounded extra flat and cooked to well done, hurting the dish. The asparagus with it was good, the potatoes were not.

Overall we were underwhelmed and talked about leaving the leftovers, since we barely ate any of the food.

I was glad I had a Groupon for the meal. This brought our bill down or I would have been more upset.

This was date night and complaining was off the table so we just paid and left. We threw the leftovers away because we just felt a little yucky after dinner.

Another positive , the location is good and the people...

Having recently moved from Northern New Jersey and being able to pop into New York City for more great Italian food plus also having lived in Italy and travelled to Italy many times, it is my humble opinion that Cassariano Italian Eatery did not disappoint. The sommelier was friendly and knowledge and did not steer us towards the expensive wines but to our taste. And the Tenuta Giulia from Veneto region was very good. Not too powerful that it took over the food. It was a very nice compliment to each dish. Now for our waiter, Andrew. You know when you meet someone born to do a specific job because their heart is in it? Well, Andrew is one of those people. His concern for our enjoyment of our meal, and our time spent at the restaurant became an experience that would want us to go back was achieved. I can't say that very often about a waiter. Andrew was the best. Now for the food. We started with the seafood salad. Very fresh and tasty. I was going to order that just for myself but Andrew suggested we share it because it's large and I wanted to try so many other items on the menu. He was right. We skipped a salad because the seafood salad was large and had enough greens in it and dressing was pretty much the same. So we went right to our pasta dishes. My fiance had the homemade pasta with bolognese sauce. Most chefs make bolognese sauce with beef and beef alone and it lacks flavor. This bolognese sauce was made with veal so it was very tasty and no meat fat in with the pasta!! I usually make mine with pork, veal and beef but next time I'm going to use just ground veal. Thank you for that experience. I had the homemade spaghetti with lamb meatballs. This was very good as well. The pasta in both dishes was excellent. The only difference between their meatballs and mine is I add pignoli nuts. I couldn't stop their. I had to have the short rib special over truffle mashed potatoes. Good thing I was too full at this point because I get to have that for lunch today. Lastly, Wednesday is half off wine under $90. Now you'll know where to find us on a Wednesday evening. Good...

Absolutely delicious. My husband and I went to this cute little place for date night. I absolutely love Italian food and Italy holds a special place in our hearts. Right when we walked in we were greeted by a lovely lady, who got us seated quickly. Isadora was our server, and extremely friendly and just a joy to chat with. We stuck up a conversation with her and found out that her family was the owners of the restaurant. We got her recommendations on entree choices and settled on Ravioli di Ricotta e Noci con Gorgonzola e Pere for myself and Pappardelle in Salsa di Funghi e Salsiccia for my husband, which I was shocked he ordered it, but Isadora recommended it and mentioned that there were no big chunks of mushrooms or anything, which was reassuring to my non mushroom loving husband. My ravioli Isadora mentioned was her brothers favorite. Once the food came out, oh man, it was so good. The ravioli I was a little nervous about, walnuts, ricotta and pears?!? Odd combo at first glance, but it was brilliant and so delicious. I know I will find myself craving this dish and another trip to the restaurant. My husband absolutely loved his Pappardelle. I’m a vegetarian, so I couldn’t try it, but the noodles looked amazing and also looked homemade. In between making sure we ate every single last bite of our meals, we chatted with Isadora about her family and Italy, and she gave us a few cities she recommended outside of Rome and Florence, which we had already visited. We really enjoyed the atmosphere, the food was amazing and Isadora was completely wonderful. I highly recommend...