Prima Italian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Wildwood

Highly impressed. I don't feel I am a person who is super easily impressed- I am from the North East and have dined in a lot of major cities (New York, Boston, Chicago) and have been to some excellent places. I appreciate good food, fine dining, and unique experiences. I am so impressed but Prima because of a few reasons, first off, the service. When my husband and I walked in, we were greeted by the manager, who just was so authentically welcoming, didn't feel staged, felt genuinely happy to see us, he said hello, welcomed us, and said something like right this way the hostess will help you next, at that second, the phone rang, and he said, "actually I will help you." with a smile. I worked in the food industry while in college, and if you know anything about it, a lot of places that wouldn't happen, the manager would have walked away "too good" to do a hostess job. Not here- he stepped right up to help his team, which not only shows good management, and character but also shows that this restaurant works as a team, so nice to see. Next reason I was impressed with the service, was our waitress Charlie (who by the way had on some of the prettiest makeup I've seen in a long time) was attentive, sweet, and def knew the menu. A former customer came by looking for her sunglasses and after she looked for them, Charlie even apologized to us for the disruption (which was not a disruption at all) You can tell they hold themselves to a very high standard.

The food was fantastic, honestly excellent. Was expecting good, but it exceeded my expectations. I've included photos of our meals, we were given some heavenly warm bread, with butter, (Charlie even brought us seconds) then got Pretzel Encrusted Calamari as an appetizer, which was great! For a meal I got the Short Rib Tortellini and when I tell you its bomb, it is BOMB. My mum was a chef and used to make beef stroganoff and it reminded me of that a bit like if you took perfectly cooked tortellini, fresh melt in out mouth short rib and then sauteed it in a beef stroganoff like sauce with porcini mushrooms. Absolutely impressed. My husband got the chicken parm, and when I tell you this man loves chicken parm, he orders it often if it is ever on the menu so he has had a good deal of chicken parm, and we used to go the north end in Boston (think Boston's little Italy) so this man has had some good chicken parm. He absolutely love love loved it. He was so happy, "this might be the best chicken parm I've ever had" I also got a drink, which I cannot think of what it was, but it was good! I also am an avid mashed potato lover so we ordered the truffle mashed with I could only eat a couple bites of (too full) but they were so good, and i brought them home and made breakfast potato pancakes, so if you're a mashed potato lover like me, I would highly recommend them. Also saw people drinking some blueberry or pomegranate drink that looks amazing so want to get that next time we go. We walked by the other day and saw they also offer cooking classes!! We plan to come back for that, it looks super fun. Atmosphere is gorgeous and updated, and relaxing, defiantly perfect for a romantic date night, a special occasion, or just if you want to treat yourselves! Thanks for a great dinner, looking forward to...

Prior to this evening Prima was the restaurant that I recommended people to go to. The food and service is good, it is pricey. After this evening I will never step in Prima again. Last summer I spent a month in the Villages seeing if it is a place I wanted to live. A friend took me to Prima and I really liked it. Then I saw they had cooking classes, went to one and was quite impressed with the restaurant. December I came down for one week to look at homes to purchase. It was during this week I ate at Prima, bought gift certificates as thank you's to people that had helped me out down here, as well as one for myself. The amount spent was enough that I was given an additional $20 gift certificate. I closed on a house in January of this year, it needed some work and tonight I went to Prima to use the rest of the gift certificate. The meal and waiter service were fine. Yet the waiter returned with the check and told me the $20 gift certificate had expired. I didn't understand and was confused with dates, times, it has been a busy year. I thought I had checked both gift certificates to see if there was an expiration date and did not see one, yet if that was the case, then that was the case. It is what happened next that didn't sit well with me. A manager came and gave me a $10 gift certificate. Which, of course was half of the one that they say was expired. On my way out I planned on signing up for one of the cooking classed. Yet, on my way out the manager was at a table and I asked him if there was an expiration date on the gift certificate. His response was something like, yes there was, do you want to see it and the way he looked at me - a challenge, you cheap old lady. I'm not sure what that look was about, but it certainly wasn't friendly. He added, next time you come in I just may give you another $10 gift certificate. Full stop. My response was no, I did not want to see it. It wasn't something I was going to get into a battle with this man over. On my way out I did not sign up for the class. I will not return with the hope of running into this manager to get another $10 gift certificate. As a result of this evening Prima gained $30 - the $20 "expired gift certificate," and the $10 gift certificate provided this evening. Prima lost a customer that solely recommended Prima to people that asked for restaurant recommendations, my future business whether for dinner or classes. There is something called good will. That manager could have easily comped the $20 gift certificate. Since he denied it I was okay with them saying it was expired. Yet, it was the way he handled it after the fact that does not sit well with me. Since living here I've learned there are plenty of other good restaurants in and around the Villages to go to. I like to have a favorite though, and Prima lost that spot thanks to...

Update: Recently went again and ordered a short rib roast and pasta for early dining and I took one bite and told the friendly server that I wasn't hungry anymore. I've had short rib so offer Florida, especial in Palm Beach county and it's completely different here. I'll go again for pizza but that's it unless I hear from them about a problem they had. Fabulous location that is authentic in every possible way. We're from Italy and will be moving to Brownwood area in the next month after close of home. This restaurant truly has everything to offer and includes an array of outstanding dishes from different parts of Italy. So whether you're a steak lover or enjoy pasta with white or red sauce you'll find it here and served fresh and full of Italian flavor. As a reviewer I'm 100 percent honest and understand all issues facing restaurants and commend this operation in many ways. The only downside was that our meals were not cooked as ordered, for example the prime cut of steak we ordered, as sharing enables us to present a more accurate review and for as many dishes as we can afford. The steaks looked great and were good but definitely medium well unfortunately and not medium rare as that's our preference. We mentioned it to the sweet server but I believe the server was very busy and didn't offer to replace the steaks. We sincerely wished to give this beautiful Italian restaurant a full five stars but can't because of that issue. However, if we visit the again in the next month we'll update accordingly and I'm certain that the only concerning issue won't happen again. We remain anonymous to be 100 percent authentic and fair and even rate Michelin level restaurants this way as it's the most accurate for you, the customer. If you need to reach us please feel free to comment. Overall everything was beautiful for our party of 4, and the salmon was fantastic. The Masked...