The last couple of new restaurants we visited were really good, but our luck ran out when we went to the Lombardi Cafe today.

The place was empty for Sunday lunch.  Just one other table with a bunch of annoying children.  It’s an Italian restaurant with pasta dishes, pizza and sandwiches, but it’s sort of set up like a sports bar with a bunch of TV’s all tuned to sports channels.   Plus there was a DJ set up in one corner & a disco ball on the ceiling, so I’m not totally sure what the overall vibe of the place is supposed to be.

But, on to the food.  We started off with some calamari.

It had a decent crunch, but was a bit chewy and definitely underseasoned.  The sauce was really thin and watery.  The flavor was ok, but it just dripped off the calamari.  Loren got an Italian sub with potato salad.

It was huge.  Definitely enough for two meals and he liked it.  I, on the otherhand, ordered a Philly cheesesteak and ended up sending it back.

I’m not sure how to describe what it was that I didn’t like about the sub.  The first thing I did was just pick a piece of meat off and tasted it and immediately didn’t like the flavor.   I don’t know if it was herbs blended with it or what, but it just didn’t taste right to me.  I tried a couple more bites, but just couldn’t get past the odd flavor.  Loren tried it and didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with it, but it wasn’t something I was going to eat.  I also didn’t like how crusty the bread was.  The waiter saw I wasn’t eating it and offered to bring me something else, so I went for a simple ham & cheese.

It was ok, nothing to write home about, but at least it was edible.  I wasn’t a fan of the bread they used here.  It was just too thick and hard to eat.  I also didn’t like the potato salad.  It was too sweet and very generic.  Definitely not homemade.

I also got a dessert to go since I figured it wasn’t likely we’d be coming back to eat again.

Believe it or not, there’s a cannoli in there somewhere.  Talk about overdoing it.  I’m of the mind that you should be able to eat a cannoli with your hands.  There was so much extra filling, whipped cream & chocolate sauce ladled on top of it that you had to eat it with a fork.   The overall flavor was ok, but it was way too messy.  Total bill with a drink was $32.

Lombardi Cafe
34210 US 19
Palm Harbor, FL
727-330-7594

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