Bar Italia Winterpark — Restaurant in Winter Park

The Bar is gorgeous and the staff is very friendly and very well accommodating. Bar was gorgeous and there was plenty of room to sit. Bar tenders were attentive and the vibe of the restaurant was great. Problem here was the food. The food was not terrible, but it also wasn’t great. Actually the proper depiction was subpar. We ordered the house pizza and there was no sauce or salt. The crust was a bit flavorless and quite literally a lasagna of ingredients layered on one another. It was a bit bland and didn’t mesh well unfortunately. The presentation was beautiful but the combination was lackluster. I ordered the one dish an Italian restaurant has the obligation to get right …. The chicken parmigiana. Unfortunately the sauce was a can blend (it was obvious) and there were no fresh ingredients at all. Tasted like the sauce sat for a while. The filet was crusted and slightly burnt at the ends. Again not horrible, but incredibly lackluster. The portion sizing was actually fine. No complaints there, but such a classic dish from such a beautiful restaurant need to be on point.

We also order fried calamari as our appetizer, and unfortunately, that portion size was not something to brag home about. The breading was not crispy, crunchy or fresh. Actually it was soggy. And it came with shrimp! It’s a calamari dish. Calamari and decent crispy breading is all that’s needed. For the price of this appetizer this from us deserves a solid 1 star.

Lastly are the cocktails. No surprise here that they are expensive. $11-$21 range. We ordered the peach sangria and I was totally disappointed with how little effort it took to make not only that cocktail but seemingly all others. It was a premixed syrup, followed by ice and a garnished strawberry. Done in four seconds. I may be nitpicking here but after having sangria from Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, I’m sure all would unanimously agree it tasted like the pink lemonade they sourced at Wendy’s at one point. It wasn’t a sangria. Cocktails were a mix of syrup and well alcohol and a lot of ice. The wine selection was decent. Not too much to complain there. Typical selection and wines we would find at Total Wine.

All in all we get that the restaurant is new but from the look of things there might be little changes. I didn’t think the place was too expensive. It was priced right for the area. About $35-$40 per person which is fine. I wouldn’t mind if it was $80-$100 per person but that have a lot of work to do for the food to be brought up to standards. Regular foodies will catch on very quickly. God forbid this becomes another Brio. Would hate to see that. For now it will be a long while...

This was a huge disappointment! I saw this place on Instagram, suggested by a Orlando foodie…

Our experience was the worst! First we order the drinks, we wanted a bottle a Prosecco, waiter said they didn’t have it. Best option was the La Marca splits but he brings them at room temperature without a bucket. He leaves the bottles at the table and walks away. When he finally returns to the table, we asked for a bucket, he said that the restaurant doesn’t have any. That’s when we noticed a few bottles of Brut and Prosecco at the tables without it. You can tell a restaurant doesn’t know the right temperature of the alcohol and/or what they are serving when they don’t have ice buckets. They have the option of a $125 bottle of Veuve Clicquot, and you don’t have a bucket? Huge disappointment! The option was a wine bucket that don’t have space for ice, it’s not cold and the big bottle doesn’t fit in it. Based on some reviews and the Instagram post, we decided to go for the Zucchini Fritti. What can I say, it was a huge cone of salty breaded crumbs with no zucchini. Worst part was that every time we needed something we were chasing the waiter, who was more concerned with helping the bar than our table. At this point we were all fed up with his apologies, and more than ready to ask for a manager. Unfortunately, he/she was nowhere to be found. We wanted to be fair so we decided to order dinner, try a little bit of everything. The Spicy Vodka Rigatoni is not spicy. Please someone assist the manager and/or chef with what spicy is?? There was no flavor in that pasta! Do not use the word spicy and/or 🌶️ next to a food item if you are not going to add it. I know spicy food and spices in general, it was so bland. At the end we ordered the dessert, we asked our horrible waiter for a suggestion, don’t know why but we kept giving this place a chance. He said the Caramelized cheesecake was the most popular item. If you are drinking and/or you don’t like minimum amounts of sugar… don’t order it. This was the sweetest most overwhelming dessert you could possibly have. Crust is brown sugar, no graham. There was so much sugar on this thing that it was sickening. I can’t give this place 4 starts or recommend it, there’s a lot of things that need to work on. We were there for more than 3 hours and the manager was a no show. Even at a cheap chain restaurant, you’ll see a manager walking around and asking how things are going. Not here! If you are all about aesthetics, this is the place. If you like good food and drinks, go visit other places in the Winter Park area...

If you have the slightest bit of respect for yourself, apply at a different restaurant. Management consistently plays favorites and bends the rules for certain employees, rewards disrespectful employees with management positions, and turns a blind eye to issues that are constantly brought to their attention. Jason Weathers and Anthony Simonelli flirt with the female employees who are barely over the age of 21. Jason has also had several instances where he’s singled out employees and followed them around the restaurant borderline harassing them to watch for “mistakes” but won’t pick up a spray bottle and a rag to actually help his employees. He’s also cursed at employees over minor mistakes and, for some reason, is allowed to keep his employment. An incident with another employee who instigated with me last night resulted in my termination. There were multiple witnesses who came to my defense and say that I was defending myself, however I was still reprimanded for what happened. There is no acknowledgment when other employees are disrespectful towards me but always an issue when I respond/defend myself…interesting. There are also employees leaving fake 1 star reviews at 12 a.m. and 9 a.m, times that we’re not even open, stating that “the girl with the dark complexion” gave them “horrible service” on a night where I only had 3 tables the whole shift and my night went smoothly with absolutely no issues. Management blatantly ignored my request for them to look into the review, even though it’s obvious it came from a family member of the other employee, seeing as though the woman who left the review wasn’t even seating at the 3 tables I had that evening. My integrity is good enough to admit when I’m in the wrong and I had every right to defend myself in and establishment where I’m constantly being singled out for things that are being swept under the rug by management. However, leaving racism reviews saying “the girl with the dark complexion” gave them horrible service with no details provided to back up that statement is disgusting and further action is currently...