Antonio’s Pasta Grille

About a year ago or so, my girlfriend and I dined at the Temple Terrace location and the food & service was so memorable that we chose to celebrate this Valentine’s Day there.
However… might as well close that one too. [UPDATE: they apparently have]
NEVER GOING BACK. EVER. Without a doubt, the absolute WORST dining experience I’ve had in my life! Anticipating a busy night there, I made reservations and true enough, there was a line of couples at the front desk. I wove my way thru to the hostess and told that we had reservations for two. Amazingly, she had no list to consult or verify our reservations yet ushered us to a table… ahead of couples who had clearly been there before us.
No silverware or napkins on the table. The service was abysmal– we sat for .30 min before our order was taken. The waitress was more interested in what was going on elsewhere in the restaurant, barely listened to our orders, didn’t know the menu at all (we had to point out and describe our selections from the menu) and completely forgot to ask for our side dishes. When our salads finally came, they were wrong and by that time, we had STILL not been given silverware or napkins. The waitress, who seemed to be in the middle of an anxiety attack, kept mumbling and doing the «dump and run” — bringing cutlery and plates and dumping the on the corner of the table without a word and running off to the next table. the hostess had to bring us refills for our drinks. A male waiter came by and presented us with another table’s order. When we declined the food, he seemed distraught– never apologized– and began scanning the other tables in a panic.
As we waited and watched the chaos around us, we grew genuinely concerned that when it came, our food might have been «tampered with» by a spiteful kitchen or wait staff.
The second round of refills were presented in Styrofoam cups without ice, again with explanation or apology. When our order finally came, the waitress failed to properly place the plate in front of each of us– giving my girlfriend’s to me to pass to her. The presentation was awful and was accompanied by a random and unexplained bowl of penne pasta and red sauce we had not ordered.
The food itself was only so-​so, the chicken bland and over-​cooked. I swear that the Italian sausage in my order was Johnsonville from the Publix around the corner– and were accompanied by a bowl of penne pasta and red sauce we had not ordered. We had another 30 min. wait for the check and never got our sodas refilled the 3^rd time.
The manager, who was dressed unprofessionally in T-​shirt & jeans (to their credit, the rest of the staff were in «uniform»), was going from table to table making half-​hearted apologies to the MANY dissatisfied diners. Smiling and chuckling all the time as if everything was a joke. The manager spent a large amount of time with the unhappy couple immediately behind us, eventually comping their entire bill and having the waitress deliver them a huge slice of cheesecake. As she served it, she loudly announced, in a voice usually reserved for a 3 year old’s birthday party, «look what I’ve got»
We waited another 15 – 20 min. for our check and the waitress, who we let know our dissatisfaction throughout, had the gall to ask ««How was everything?» in a tone that indicated that she had not processed or even listened to our complaints or those of the other diners. The waitress tried to cover her a** by saying that she’d been in the restaurant business for 15 yrs. I call shenanigans on that– too many basic wait staff failures.
My girlfriend had to use the restroom and found it filthy and devoid of toilet paper or paper towels. The trash can was overflowing onto the floor.
Looking at Unilocal after returning home, I found that ours was not an isolated experience.
2÷11÷14− «the bread basket had a live cockroach in it»
2÷8÷14− «The fish and chicken dishes are dry and tasteless… new owners disheveled and unkept appearance is inappropriate for a food establishment. Their lack of respect for women and customers overall leaves a bad taste in my mouth. They can’t be bothered to put paper towels in the restrooms anymore
1÷17÷14− «It was like watching a train wreck. Car by car — — Service was awful. Food poor, at best. Atmosphere painful. Watching waitresses fail at basic tasks»
¼/​14– «cold pasta … Oh the meatballs. They were cold and raw inside and completely foul. I took one bite and returned it right to my dish. They also have me some rotten Parmesan cheese… the butter had rotten garlic in it.
As I said before, never going back… ever.

This restaurant closed. It was sold 6 months ago and it went downhill fast. The food was tasteless and the olive oil seemed like it was mixed with cheaper regular oil to stretch it. So sad, this was such a temple terrace tradition for many of us in the city. Let’s hope a new owner will purchase the place and make it an awesome Italian restaurant…

This is the kind of place that normally would have gotten 3 stars from me. An affordable, Italian-​ish restaurant.
And then the bread basket had a live cockroach in it.
Now, I was here on a work lunch with my bosses– and this is the only reason I stayed. Had I been here on my own will, I would have run screaming out the door. Cockroaches are my BIGGEST fear.
The waitress very apologetically took the bread basket away quickly, and when she came back, offered 20% off the bill. In my opinion, 20% off is reserved for «hair in my food» type issues. A live cockroach??? I think at least 50% off would have been appropriate.
After we all regained our appetites, we ordered our meals, and overall were pleased with them. Nothing to write home about– pretty generic Italian dishes– but nothing that was bad. Our server was very attentive and friendly (I think she had anxiety during the whole meal).
I am a realist– and having worked in a restaurant, I know that keeping bugs out of the kitchen is challenging. That being said, having one crawling across the bread is plenty of reason to never return to Antonios.

After my sister’s graduation incredibly long and boring graduation ceremony, we needed some food to recover emotionally and physically. Thankfully, Antonio’s saved the day. I went with the lasagna (with extra parm, of course) which was the most gooey, melty and burst with a strong fresh tomato flavor. If you ever find yourself at a boring graduation in Tampa, check this place out.

Used to be great. It is now under different management and kitchen. It is a Lebanese Italian menu.
It was like watching a train wreck. Car by car — — Service was awful. Food poor, at best. Atmosphere painful. Watching waitresses fail at basic tasks. I’m not sure what happened but we won’t be coming back.
Shame. It used to be our favorite Italian place in Temple Terrace.

I ordered to pasta bolognese with a side of meatballs, pretty simple traditional Italian dish; can’t really go wrong with it. Boy was I wrong. I managed to force down some of the cold pasta as I was completely hungry and about to go to class with no other options of food in the near future; but the meatballs… Oh the meatballs. They were cold and raw inside and completely foul. I took one bite and returned it right to my dish. They also have me some rotten Parmesan cheese to really throw the whole thing together! How nice of them!
I will never go back here. I am absolutely shocked that I wasted 20 $ of my money here. Very curious as to how they stay open… On a positive note though; their bread was good! Not the butter though, the butter had rotten garlic in it. Good luck to whoever ventures to this gem!

Just ok we had the Italian side of the menu. Cobb salad and dried mozzarella it was good but not memorable. Service was great. Others had clam linguini she rated as good.

Had a fine dinner with family. Everyone enjoyed the fried calamari app and the had two entrees recommended by other reviewers and our very efficient waitress. The Chicken and Sausage Vesuvio was a wonderful blend of flavors and sided with some unique Parmesan-​scalloped potatoes. The dense Italian meatloaf was served on the same fine potatoes, and nice sauces for both. No room for dessert and took lots home. Ambiance was nice, service excellent, speed acceptable and overall better than most Italians we have tried.

It used to be mainly an italian restaurant, now they have new lebanese chef and they added lebanese menu. It is an extensive menu with many hard to find lebanese dishes. As an appetizer, we started with tabouli, it was pretty good, although I prefer it with more lemon juice. My husband ordered kafta kabob with flavored rice on the side, it was delicious, the kafta was an authentic lebanese. I on the other hand ordered an egyptian dish, chicken fatah, which is basically made with chicken breast, rice, yogurt, pita breat and toasted nuts, it was pretty good. It looks like i will be going there many times to try all of the dishes on the menu.

WHY have I not been here before? Best meal I’ve had in months.
Asked a friend of ours out to dinner while the boyfriend is out of town on business. We narrowed down some potential places and ended up agreeing on Antonio’s since we’d both not been there before.
We walked in a half hour before they closed. Not a typical move of mine, but they welcomed us warmly as if we were the best people on the planet.
The specials looked delicious, but we ended up ordering off the menu.
Friend got the chicken & sausage vesuvio. I am currently looking up the recipe in hopes to recreate it for him. He loved it.
I ordered the meatloaf marsala. What the hell just happened on my tastebuds?!
It’s served on a bed of scalloped-​like potatoes, meatloaf that is so tender and perfectly made swimming in marsala sauce and topped with red onion rings. WHAT?!
Yeah, that happened.
We also got a calamari appetizer. Beautifully cooked. Perfectly crispy and the sauce was delicious.
The boyfriend isn’t much of a fan of Italian food, but I’m determined to get him to Antonio’s and have him proclaim his undying love for this Antonio guy.

I went here with some friends and I wasn’t too impressed. I mean, it was fine, but it’s sort of hard to screw up basic Italian dishes.
I ordered the chicken parm, which came with a side salad. The salad was swimming in dressing and there was a pool of it once I ate the greens out of it. They served some bread with seasoned oil to go with it. No complaints there. Chicken parm came and the chicken was huge. Like mutant huge. It also came with enough pasta for four people. You get tons of food but nothing was really memorable. I ate maybe ¹⁄₃ of the chicken and a few bites of pasta and surrendered. I boxed it and let my friends take it home… It wasn’t going to hold well and I knew I couldn’t eat it a second time in one day. So yeah, if you’re looking for quantity, this is the place. I won’t object to going back if that’s where a friend wants to go, but it doesn’t make me want to drive to Tampa for pasta.

We went for dinner. I had Antonio’s pasta and my wife the chicken Marsala. Both dishes were great. The Marsala was a decent portion. The Antonio’s pasta was huge! The bread is fresh and warm, and I would come back for the bread and dipping oil alone. Overall the food and the service of the wait staff was was excellent!

Antonio’s Pasta Grill located at: 11 401 N 56^th St — Tampa, FL was the restaurant my daughter Kristen chose as her USF Graduation Eve dinner. Our party of 8 was taken care of in pure perfection!!! Our meals were amazing as our conversations continued over the next 2 days about how great dinner was!
I have to honestly say the quality of food (taste/​price/​portion/​presentation) was beyond compair!
I would recommend this restaurant (but also this specific location — because Customer Service can make or break a business and the staff here is Outstanding!!!).

This may be the New Yorker in me, but this is not a place you want to go to if you’re limited on time. It took a good 30 minutes for our orders to come out. I had the chicken parm, which was average. I could have made better at home. Tried my friend’s sausage/​pepperoni pizza, which was do-​able, but burnt.
Coming here again? Nope.

Best Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to, hands down! There’s nothing bad on the menu, you really can’t go wrong but the lasagna was phenomenal. Blew lasagna at other Italian restaurants out of the water!
Also the dipping they bring out with the bread is delicious and the atmosphere is delightful! I highly recommend this place.

I went to Antonio’s to have lunch with a friend and her husband. We arrived first and were seated at a booth. While walking in I noticed a large lettuce leaf on the floor. No one ever picked it up. our waitress walked over the lettuce leaf multiple times and never got a bus boy to clean it up nor did she bend down to get it. As we sat down we were given some bread and olive oil to enjoy. The olive Oil mix had way too much cheese and red pepper flakes in the oil to really enjoy the flavor of the olive oil. it was sad that this occurred but what was even more sad is that the plates we were given were chipped. I could overlook the chipped plates but when i opened my silverware my fork had dried food bits on it. So I asked for another set and with no apologies I got fresh silverware.
Throughout the evening we had minor issues with the food. Mostly it was because of the amount of red pepper flakes in the food. For example, we had ordered Fried Calamari as an appetizer, Shrimp & Scallop Grand Marnier and Chilean Sea Bass Moldano, The Fried Calamari and the Chilean Sea bass like the olive oil, had too much red pepper flakes. I myself do not eat a lot of spicy food but my boyfriend who lives on kemchie even commented on the crazy amount of pepper flakes.
All in all, the only thing I really enjoyed about the meal was the calamari. My dinner was okay but again they went overboard with the garnishments in the dish. The dish just had way too many sun dried tomatoes in it. They were hard and hard to chew. I will agree with other reviewers that yes they do give out large portions but if it’s not cooked well or seasoned well, then what’s the point. I took my leftovers home and ended up throwing it away after I picked through the shrimp and scallops. I don’t believe I would ever go back to this establishment. Save your money and eat at another establishment.

I tried the Caprese Salad. It was terrible. Do not get it, no matter how good it sounds at the time, you will be disappointed.
I still need to take a minute to overcome how terrible that salad was before I compliment the place…
The bread was awesome, and it better be, else I will leave an Italian Restaurant unhappy.
I was with a large group and we had the private room in the back. Just about everyone else in the group enjoyed their food, I was the lone dissenter.
That being said, all the good reviews on here convinced me that I will have to give it another shot and order some real Italian food next time I come.

Huge portions the food was very good and I would come back. The magherita pizza can use improvement but the service and the pasta was very good.

It’s OK. It’s not terrible. I have had better, but I think the thing that saves this place is the portions and family style seating. Both go hand in hand. It’s basically like a less done-​up Buca di Beppo in Brandon. Huge portions because they expect you to share. Try the dishes with the sun-​dried tomatoes. Delicious.
But, basically, if your family is in town and they don’t mind Italian or sharing, then give this place a try.

Staff was extremely friendly and helpful! I loved the ambiance of this place. I have to be honest… From the outside, it doesn’t look like much, but when you walk in, it is a nice, cozy Italian restaurant. This place came recommended from a friend and I can see why now!