I have a friend who was refused service there because a Scientology security guard came in and told the owner not to serve him. The owner denied this was the case, instead saying, all of sudden at 1:30 in the afternoon, that the pizzeria had now run out of pizza. This blatant discrimination should be more than the subject of a Unilocal review, it should be a legal matter.
Lina D.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Seminole, FL
The Best Italian food, pizza and dessert at Café Milano. I am straight from Italy and my family and I live this place! It is original Great Italian cuisine!
Chad D.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Iowa City, IA
Well this was absolutely horrible. Ordered delivery and got the garlic bread and two pizzas, the pepperoni and the prosciutto. The garlic bread was burnt and had so much garlic on it that 4 days later I still have bad breathe. Now don’t get me wrong, I like garlic, a lot of it but this was like eating straight garlic in burnt crust. The pizzas were pretty bad too. The pepperoni was edible. Crust was ok but the pepperoni looked like it was pulled off a frozen pizza. No flavor at all. The prosciutto pizza was pure crap. It looked like Oscar Meyer deli meat was crudely chopped up and thrown in the pizza. Pizza sauce was way too thick for a thin pizza and the cheese was over cooked. You know how cheese gets all oily and has those little bubbles when it’s cooked too long? That’s how this was. This pizza was so bad that we didn’t even keep the leftovers. It went straight in the trash.
Kerri M.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Palm Harbor, FL
Horrible experience. We should have listened to the reviews on Unilocal but wanted to give it a chance. Food was terrible. Meatballs were hard as a rock. Chicken Parmesan was burnt. Salad was brown. Pizza was average. Service was absolutely terrible. The lady waiting on was extremely rude and seemed put out that she had to wait on us. The owner charged us for several items that we did not order. Make sure to check your bill! It was not very clean. We will never ever go back.
Mark H.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Dunedin, Tampa Bay, FL
Fuck this place. Checked hours on the following: Website Google Unilocal All said open at 7pm on a Tuesday. Drove around the building twice attempting to park and could see the open sign lit up nice and bright. Parked, walked over and found a shitty hand-written note on the door saying they were closed today. Fuck this place.
Angela l.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Lake Forest, IL
One cook and a lady man the restaurant of 10 tables. Both sometime wear the hats of hostess, cashier, bus girl/boy…I can appreciate how this small business tries to make it. We got seated right away before our reservation time. The wait for our pasta and pizza was normal. I love the penn with sausage, pepper and generous portion of olives! Tasty! The vegetarian pizza was ok, bit of oily but not greasy. We got what we were expecting –thin crust-but kind of surprised at its been drowned in the olive oil. The lively music they played was very pleasant; Including some Italian, even though I did not understand a word they sang. The lady server checked on us several times during the course. Lack of smile? Maybe. But by no means unpleasant. They were just very busy on a Friday evening with more than 3 quarters of tables occupied.
Ekaterina F.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Brisbane, CA
I would never think that an eggplant pizza is good. Well, it was not just good — it was AMAZING. Next time I got a mix of eggplant, mushroom and pepperoni — also great. Than you, Donato, for making it and being so friendly and great!
Laura W.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Clearwater Beach, FL
A girlfriend of mine took me here last night. She has raved about the place and I can say that I agree with her, the food is fantastic. We had bruchetta and I had a pasta dish that had penne, mushrooms, chicken in a gorgonzola sauce. He also gave us a complimentary appetizer which was a garlic, onion tomato mix on a pita like bread. It was delicious as well. It was some of the best italian food I have had in the Clearwater area. The place is cozy and has a nice intimate feeling to it. I will definitely be back. I would also say, that I knew ahead of time from my friend that the food and service takes a while, but both are worth waiting for. As long as you’re not in a rush and with good company, it’s a great place to visit.
Fitti K.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Clearwater, FL
AMAZING ! I’ve traveled to Italy many, many times and I have never eaten Italian food in the U.S. that comes so close to what you would be served in Italy. The Service was great, and even my boyfriend who’s not usually a big pizza eater said he’d definitely come back and that the pizza was phenomenal. We will definitely come back !
Jonathan P.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Tampa, FL
What a terrible experience! Service was extremely poor and owner RIPSOFF customers. DONOTWASTEYOURTIMEORMONEY. The idea of this nCROWD coupon is to advertise and get new customers in the door. I bought a $ 20 coupon($ 40) value for two specialty authentic Italian brick oven pizzas & salads of your choice. That means when I go to settle the bill, I should have to only pay extra for drinks, tax, and a tip. When we arrived, we made our server aware that we had a reservation and showed her our coupon. She told us we could choose any pizza on the menu which came with house salads. The coupon states ANY2 pizzas and ANY2 salads. PROBLEM #1: We were never offered the choice of anything but a house salad, which consists of lettuce, tomato, cheese, onion. The idea of coming here was to have a choice of pizzas and salads(several options on the menu). PROBLEM2: When we came up front to pay the owner, he rings up the bill with ala carte pricing and charges full price for all items. $ 10.95 each for house salads and full price for pizzas $ 13.95 and $ 14.95. He then proceeds to deduct the $ 40 coupon; apply tax, and 20% tip to the total bill. PROBLEM #3: I always tip 20%, however the service was so sub standard, I wanted to tip less this instance. The server never brought out water to the table after asking for it. We ordered a glass of wine and a cappuccino, and were never offered a second drink. The server was miserable and did not smile or make eye contact with us. It took us 20 minutes to get the bill as well. It seems if they think they are getting a required 20% via terms on coupon, crappy service is acceptable. There was only 1 other table being served simultaneously, so customer service should and could have been much better. PROBLEM #4: Nowhere on this promotion does it say gratuity is a mandatory 20%. The owner argued otherwise with us and mentions to us that they all share the tip. PROBLEM5: Accounting: This deal was for 2 pizzas and 2 salads for $ 20. The Bill ended up being $ 66.07 before the tip, which he insisted was $ 13.69 or 20% of the total bill. This deal should have been priced on $ 40 which is what the coupon value states for 2 pizzas and 2 salads. Add my cappuccino for $ 3.95, glass of wine for $ 7 = $ 50.95 + $ 3.57 for tax and tip % of my choosing. The owner did not agree or budge on his position. This is false advertising and illegal. We paid the bill and told him we would never come back for the above reasons just to get out of there. It was obvious why there were only 2 tables sat on a Saturday evening for dinner.
Paul V.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Manhattan, NY
This place is an absolute joke. I didn’t read earlier reviews before going in because I was taken here as a guest. I am simply copying and pasting a section of a review below of this same restaurant from Ashvin M. written on 4÷1÷15 because the same EXACT thing happened to us: «The owner or THIEF that works there sweet talks you and acts like he is very friendly offering you olives and bread for free… NO there is an additional charge. I do not mind paying for good food or service, but I absolutely despise people that stoop so low as to rip off their own customers, this makes no sense to me and this is why this business will be closed shortly.» I’ve never been so blatantly cheated or scammed in my life, not even from a mattress or car salesman. Who expects to be conned by a restaurant? We went on a Living Social coupon and we called the company after we went. They refunded us the $ 12 they took from us for the appetizer and told us that they were going to launch an investigation into them. Not surprisingly, the place was empty. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place at all costs. I have no idea how they think they could stay open for long with this mentality. If there food was good it would be one thing, but it was nothing special at all. I had a pizza and it tasted like an frozen Ellio’s pizza. In the end we had a choice of fighting the guy over an appetizer or just accepting that this was a totally pathetic situation and paying the money just so we could get out of this slimy place. The experience ruined the whole rest of our day.
Jodi M.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Clearwater, FL
One star because the staff was friendly. Mediocre Italian. Not worth the price. Dishes are poor quality. They didn’t tell us they couldn’t take debit cards until after our meal. So we had to walk to an ATM. NOT safe for Celiac’s.
VC L.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Glendale, CA
Come here for the food not necessarily for the service or pricepoint. The food is spot on delicious, fresh and real italian. Prices are steep($ 12.95 for appetizer olives and bread), but I suppose this is how they manage to stay in business since this area doesn’t have too much traffic. Still worth it because food is great. Wish the waitress was a bit more attentive, but this is common in family run restaurants
Dylan E.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Clearwater, FL
The food is 100% authentic Italian, make no mistake. Made lovingly in a brick oven by chefs who KNOW how to cook, the pizza is out of this world! You get your own personal dish and it is quite big, but more importantly, is absolutely delicious. Definitely up there as some of the best I’ve ever had. The wild berry gelato was also particularly good. The atmosphere is very Italian, too — pleasantly cozy with a television playing Italian music videos. While the prices can be a bit high and the atmosphere isn’t totally my thing, the food is just too good for me to not sing Café Milano’s praises! Definitely recommended if you’re interested in scrumptious Italian food!
Ashvin M.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Largo, FL
DISHONESTBUSINESS! I have just finished looking through the first page of Unilocal reviews for this DISGUSTING business and found 8 reviews showing the dishonest business they run. All the victims of this purchased a coupon or discount from a third-party. My wife purchased a Groupon worth $ 51. This deal was to include 1 pizza and 1 glass of house wine each. We both had a pizza and wine each, shared a Caprese and 2 desserts. Here is a breakdown of prices: Pizza 1: $ 13.95 Pizza 2: $ 14.95 Wine:$ 6 Wine:$ 6 Caprese: $ 8.95 Dessert 1:$ 5.95 Dessert 2: $ 5.95 Total: $ 61.75 Groupon: -$ 51.90 New total with Discount: $ 9.85 WEWERECHARGEDANADDITIONAL $ 33.73 This business does not give you a receipt like a traditional restaurant, listing the items purchased. They instead give you just the credit card receipt or the one off the register, at least that is what they did with me. The owner or THIEF that works there sweet talks you and acts like he is very friendly offering you olives and bread for free… NO there is an additional charge. I do not mind paying for good food or service, but I absolutely despise people that stoop so low as to rip off their own customers, this makes no sense to me and this is why this business will be closed shortly. Advice to the owner: Clearwater is a fairly small town and word spreads fast. Your business is going to crap. I could tell from the way you ran to the window when you heard our car pull up as we were your only customer on a Sunday evening. So change your ways before you end up shutting down… Or not, really don’t care, never coming back. If you don’t trust my review keep scrolling down the page and look at the other negative reviews.
Alan R.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Littleton, CO
Great food and service. Penne Donato is outstanding as was the pizza. Gelato was great. Wonderful people and service. Donato is a great host & cook.
Kathy G.
Rating des Ortes: 1 St Petersburg, FL
Decided to check out Café Milano after purchasing a voucher on crowd . The food was good but it is way overpriced. The service not so much. Has to ask for a second beverage. Had to ask for a dessert. Had to ask for the check. After processing the voucher, I was charged for tax plus a 20% gratuity on the full amount. We won’t be back.
Stephenie P.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Tampa, FL
Wow. Unreal dining experience. Avoid. Took my mom and father in law out to dinner, ordered water, 2 sodas and 4 entrees. Using a gift certificate we were charged $ 96. The owner does not speak good English and uses this to bring you things under the guise that they are free. Had I known I was going to be charged for tap water I would have just ordered a soda. He offered us olives and bread and before we could decipher(olives and bread?) he was gone. The food was mediocre. The service was awful. I left hungry and thirsty. You would think a place that slow would be happy to have customers and would treat them well to get return customers. Instead I’m turning to Unilocal because talking to him about what we were charged for was impossible. We felt lied to and nickel and dimed. Never again.
John D.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Clearwater, FL
Excellent pizza and personal service. I like this place for a quiet Italian dinner.(Real Italians own it)
Peter B.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Palm Harbor, FL
Where do I start? Understaffed, under fed, under expectations. We had a certificate for this place, so we drove from Palm Harbor, which is out if our normal zone. The problems started right away… ordered drinks; had to wait a long time. I threatened to bail out, so the server comped my beer. Ordered a $ 5 salad. Got a $ 2 salad. Torn up romaine and 2 small unripe tomatoes. My pasta dish was so small, I woofed it down in 45 seconds. My wife’s pasta dish had so little meat, it was like a vegetarian meal. My son’s pizza was passing. So glad I had the $ 15 off certificate. This place is scratched off our list. We actually pondered finding a place to eat right after we left. Not good. Café Milano is really Café Milan NO!