Back over to Fratelli’s for lunch today.   I like having an Italian restaurant so close to work. 

Loren ordered a roasted chicken sandwich with fries off their lunch combo menu.

He said it was ok.  Nothing to write home about, but he said the fries were good.   As for me, I ordered the lunch eggplant rollatini which came with a side of pasta.

I really liked this dish.  The eggplant was cooked very well.  It still had some texture to it which was nice considering a lot of times eggplant can be mushy.  They were filled with ricotta cheese and with the pasta, it was more than enough food for lunch. 

Total bill was $16 with a drink.  They’ve got a lot of inexpensive, tasty items on their lunch menu.

Fratelli Italian Restaurant and Bar
120 Commerce Blvd, Ste 1
Oldsmar, FL
813-854-1717

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Felt like some Italian food for dinner, so we decided to try Jonny Primo’s again.  They started us off with some bread.

Mmmmm… bread.  This was some good stuff, lots of garlic in the oil too.  Loren ordered a salad and I ordered a cup of pasta fagiole.

The soup was really tasty.  There’s a part of me that believes soup or salad should be included with the meal though instead of costing an additional $2 each.

As for the meals, we had a lot of food on both plates.  Loren ordered the Giobotto which has chicken, sausage and beef with green olives and peppers. 

Loren loved this dish.  Lots of interesting flavors all blended together into one yummy mouthful after another.  I ordered the angel hair bolognese.

This dish had some tasty goodness as well.  Some ricotta cheese on top plus a very flavorful sauce.  We both ended up with enough leftovers for two more meals.  I swear, by the time I was full at the restaurant, you could barely tell that I’d eaten anything.  I gotta say, they definitely pile on the food here.

And for dessert, we were going to try the chocolate cake, but they were out.  Instead we got the caramel lava cake that we got last time.

This time they got it right.  The last time we were here, the caramel wasn’t very lava like.  This time, there was a yummy pool of it on top of the cake.  The only downside was that I had ordered it without nuts and there were still some in the dish. 

Total dinner ran us $35 and like I said, we both ate pasta for the next two days for lunch.

Jonny Primo’s Italian Grill
33180 US 19 N
Palm Harbor, FL
727-772-7874

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If you haven’t checked out www.Restaurant.com, you’re missing out on some great discounts at local restaurants.  We found a $25 coupon to Lonzalo’s on there today and headed out for some Italian food.

We’ve eaten here a few times.  They didn’t seem very busy for a Saturday night, but not having to wait for a table is always a good thing.  We had one waitress come by the table and say that she’d be right with us, but then she never came back.  Eventually, another waitress took over our table and brought us some bread.

The bread was warm, but it was very dense and a little chewy.  There was just something about it that wasn’t quite right.  It had a little too much elasticity for my taste.

Our meals came with soup or salad, so we got one of each. 

The pasta fagioli had a nice tomato flavor to it and lots of beans.  There were definitely more beans than pasta in it.   We also got the calamari.

The calamari had a good texture and the batter was nice and crunchy; however, the plate had a lot of small pieces on it, some of it just fried batter.   I just felt as though I spent a lot of time searching for the actual calamari pieces.

Loren ordered the Salmon Lonzalo, which was one of the specials tonight.

Salmon with artichokes and capers in a lemon sauce.  He enjoyed it and even had some leftovers.  Both our meals came with a side order of pasta that was enough for a meal in itself.

Unfortunately, neither of us liked the tomato sauce.  I don’t know how to describe it, just that it had an odd flavor to it.  I kept thinking along the lines of nutmeg or allspice, but I’m not sure that’s it.  It just didn’t wow us.

For my entree, I ordered the chicken portobello.

The flavor wasn’t much different from their chicken marsala though this was supposed to have a sherry sauce on it.  It was tasty.  Two big pieces of chicken and plenty of portobellos covered in mozzarella cheese. The mushrooms were a little chewy, but overall it was a good dish.  I had leftovers as well. 

After the $25 coupon, the total bill was $20. 

CLOSED

Lonzalo’s of Oldsmar
3970 Tampa Road
Oldsmar, FL

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Went to lunch with one of my friends from work today.  Since she hadn’t been to Lonzalo’s yet, we headed over there for some Italian food.

I’d been here a few times since it changed over from Alberto’s.  Honestly, I never would have known anything had changed if it hadn’t been for the sign out front.  The food’s about the same. 

She opted for an eggplant parmesean sandwich and it was huge.  She ended up taking half of it home for dinner.

I ordered the chicken marsala over angel hair pasta.

It had a really nice flavor to it.  Plenty of chicken and mushrooms, but a little too much garlic.  Actually, it wasn’t that there was too much garlic, it’s that some of the pieces were too big.   Our waiter was definitely on top of things.  He checked up on us a few times and filled drinks.   This was a great lunch for $8.50.

Lonzalo’s of Oldsmar
3970 Tampa Road
Oldsmar, FL

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We went to the movies this morning and saw “The A-Team” and then headed out to Tarpon Springs for lunch.  We drove through the Sponge Docks and ended up at Costa’s for lunch.

Some bread for the table is always appreciated in my book.

It would have been better warm, but otherwise it was nice and fresh.  My entree came with a salad.

Lots of feta cheese on top and a tangy dressing.  We also ordered some dolmades.

Loren enjoyed them.  Not too much rice inside and a nicely flavored filling.  He ordered the souvlaki sandwich.

He said the pork was tender and overall it was pretty tasty.  I ordered the pastitsio.

I thought it was really bland.  The texture was good, but it just didn’t have a lot of flavor.  I’ve had this dish at several restaurants and this was just lacking compared to others.

I also have to mention the service at the restaurant as it was rather non-existent.  Our food came really fast.  Normally, this isn’t an issue, but when you’re still eating one course, you don’t expect the next before you finish.  Once our entrees arrived, we never saw our waitress again.  She never cleared any plates from the table or came back to ask if everything was ok or if we needed refills.  Luckily, we didn’t need anything else. 

Lunch ran us $25.  We haven’t eaten at a lot of places in Tarpon Springs, but I think we’ll try some others before we try Costas again.

Costas
521 Athens Street
Tarpon Springs, FL
727-938-6890

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Went out to lunch with some folks from work today and one of them suggested an Italian restaurant I hadn’t been to called Zerillo’s Italian Grill in Westchase.  

Unfortunately, when you walk in the door, the first aromas you get aren’t of the food, but of the cigar shop next door.  Luckily, the dining room didn’t smell like tobacco too.  They weren’t very busy for lunch, but then again, I don’t think too many places are on Tuesdays.

They have a nice, inexpensive lunch menu with a lot of choices including pasta, pizza, calzones, hot and cold subs and wraps.  We got a wrap, fettucine alfredo, fries, sausage and peppers, and a baked casserole.

Surpisingly, I wasn’t the one who ordered the fettucini alfredo, but I’m going to have to go back and try it.

The sausage and peppers are served over your choice of pasta.  The waitress did submit the wrong order to the kitchen, but got it fixed pretty quickly. 

Underneath the layer of mozzarella, there was a cheese ravioli, stuffed shells, and manicotti.   The sauce had a little sweetness to it which I liked.   For $7, this was a great lunch item.  None of the items were over $10.

I’ll definitely have to go back and try some other things.  As were leaving, we saw another table with pizza and it looked really good.  

Zerillo’s Italian Grill
11653 Countryway Blvd
Tampa, FL

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I knew I was going to have a long day at work today so I didn’t even bother taking anything out to cook for dinner.  Instead, we headed over to Sea Sea Riders in Dunedin.

Even though they had heaters on the porch, we opted for inside seating since it was a bit chilly tonight.  We’ve eaten here a few times and it looked like they changed their menu quite a bit.

Our entrees came with a choice of salad or cole slaw and we got one of each.

It’s a good thing our waitress warned me that their cole slaw is normally served with peanuts on top.  I’m not a fan of peanuts and would have been rather dismayed had they been there.  The cole slaw was ok.  Loren said the peppercorn ranch salad dressing was pretty good.

I ordered the clam chowder.

My first reaction was that it smelled more like a chicken soup.  It didn’t have the really creamy texture that I expect in a chowder and it also had some sort of spice in it that I couldn’t quite identify and didn’t particularly care for.  The clams also had some grit to them.   Definitely not the best chowder I’ve had and I probably wouldn’t order it again. 

Loren order the Mahi Mahi.

It had a nice presentation.  It had a spicy coating on it and was served over some sort of cold beans and a cilantro sauce.  He seemed to really enjoy it, his plate was clean when he was finished.

I ordered the same thing I usually order, the blue crab crusted grouper.

I have never finished this dish.  It’s two large pieces of grouper served over linguini with spinach, plum tomatoes and a lobster tarragon sauce.  I don’t even need the grouper, I’d be happy with just the pasta in that sauce any day.  The grouper is flaky with a nice crunchy outer crust.  I don’t think I would be able to tell you that it was blue crab in the crust if it wasn’t listed on the menu that way.  The sauce is very light, but has a nice flavor to it. 

Two entrees, chowder and a drink ran us $52.  It does seem a little high to me, but the food is really good and I usually have leftovers for the next day.

Sea Sea Riders
221 Main St
Dunedin, FL

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We had just ordered our drinks at Fish Tail Willy’s when the power went out in the entire shopping center.  We waited for a few minutes, but when the lights didn’t come back on, we decided to find another place to go for dinner.

Angellino’s in Palm Harbor changed hands and is now called Jonny Garlic’s.  Not the Johnny Garlic’s of Guy Fieri fame, just a local restaurant with a slighly different spelling on the name.

We both ordered soup to start off with.  I got the pasta fagiole and Loren got the New England clam chowder.

Both were really good.   I could have eaten a big ol’ bowl of soup with some bread and been quite happy.

The bread was tasty too, there just wasn’t enough of it.  Loren ordered the chicken marsala for dinner.

Two chicken breasts with onions, mushrooms and prosciutto plus a side of  smashed potatoes.  He said it was tasty, but there was so much of it that half of it came home for lunch tomorrow.  

I narrowed my choices down to the lobster ravioli or the fettucine alfredo.  Since I’m compelled to try the alfredo at every restaurant I go to, that’s what I ordered.

It was a huge plate of pasta.  The sauce was good and it had a hint of nutmeg I think.  By the time I was full, my plate didn’t look much different than when I started.  I brought the rest home as leftovers even though I know alfredo sauce does not reheat well.

The dessert menu was on the table and we both took one look at it and had to order the caramel lava cake.    

I’ve had chocolate lava cakes before and when you scoop into it all sorts of gooey chocolate oozes out of it.  The caramel didn’t quite behave that way though.  The caramel just seemed to sink into the cake, so it seemed more as though the cake wasn’t cooked quite enough.  Don’t get me wrong, it tasted pretty good, but I was expecting an oozing flow of caramel when we cut into it and it just didn’t happen.

The food didn’t seem any different than when it was Angellino’s.  The restaurant wasn’t all that busy for a Friday night, but the weather could have been a factor.  Total bill ran us about $37 and we both have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow.

Jonny Garlic’s Italian Grill
33180 US 19 N
Palm Harbor, FL
727-772-7874

Food
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Have you ever gone to a restaurant on the night it’s going out of business?  I gotta say, it’s a rather surreal experience.

We had a Restaurant.com coupon for Sophia’s in Clearwater, $25 off a total bill of $35, so we headed out there for dinner.  There weren’t any other customers there when we arrived, but we figured it was probably just slow because it was a rainy Thursday night.

The owner brought us some menus and while we were looking them over another customer came in and sat at the counter.  She started chatting with the owner who told her she was going out of business tonight because the landlord raised the rent. 

At this point, we started to question whether or not we should eat dinner there,  but the owner came by the table and said she didn’t have everything on the menu, but could make most things. 

We decided to give it a try since we had the coupon anyway and she was willing to honor it.  We started out with some cheese sticks.

The sauce was tasty and the cheese sticks were pretty good.  Loren got the chicken caccitore.

He liked it.  I got the baked ziti with ricotta and meatballs and was less than impressed.

The meatballs were obviously out of a bag and there wasn’t any ricotta in it at all.  I didn’t like the sauce either, it was a little too garlicy for me.

About half way through our meal, the U-haul truck shows up and they started dismantling the restaurant around us.  People were moving out kitchen equipment and taking things off the walls.   It felt a little awkward.  We got our bill, dropped a $20 on the table and headed out.  Even if they weren’t closing their doors, I doubt I’d have gone back.

Sofia’s Italian Restaurant
1710 N. Hercules Ave
Clearwater, FL
CLOSED

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We braved the cold a second night in a row in search of food.  A new restaurant, Kuzina Mediterranean Grill & Bar, opened up recently where Winners used to be, so we headed out to Oldsmar to check it out.

The interior was cozy.  The naked trees were an interesting design.  They brought bread and hummus to the table to start with.  Loren liked the hummus, said it was very garlicy.  I liked the bread, though it would have been better if it had been warmed.

Because we just can’t say no to appetizers, we ordered the calamari.  It was very good and the sundried tomato sauce that came with it was excellent.

For dinner, I ordered the Wild Mushroom Rissoto and Loren got the Salmon Farfale.  I was disappointed in the rissoto.  All I could taste was parmesean cheese.  It was completely overwhelming.  The cheese even began to solidify on my spoon, it was so thick.  Loren enjoyed his salmon pasta dish and I took his leftovers to eat tomorrow.  I’d probably order his dish again, but I’ll pass on the rissoto.

Since I didn’t eat all my dinner (yeah, I’m using that as an excuse), we ordered dessert.  Let’s face it, I’m not passing up a chocolate dessert.  It was listed on the menu as “Molten Chocklate Lava Cake”.  I’m not real sure what “chocklate” is, but I figured I’d take a chance anyway. 

Because they make the dessert to order, it took about 15 minutes to get to the table.  They should probably let you know that ahead of time so you can order it early.  Though it was an ooey, gooey chocolate dessert, it really didn’t have the deep dark chocolate flavor that I crave.  The cake was really bland and the interior “lava” didn’t have a strong chocolate taste either.  There was a darker chocolate sauce on the outside that was good.  It could have used some whipped cream or ice cream on the side to make it sweeter.  Don’t get me wrong, we ate the entire thing, but I probably won’t order it again.

The service at the restaurant seemed very inexperienced.  Granted they just opened, but our drinks went unfilled at times and when we sat down, our table was set for four and even though there were only two of us, the waitress never took the other settings away. 

We probably will go back again and try some other dishes.  Appetizer, two dinners, dessert, and an iced tea ran us $46.     

Kuzina Mediterranean Grill & Bar
3980 Tampa Road
Oldsmar, FL
813-749-7550

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