Critic's Review
Fabio has renamed this place; but don't be fooled. It's the same guy as before; the same guy who owned Paneretto Pizza over on Cordova Rd.
The place was up for sale, but I guess he decided to try to re-brand it. His last Venetian style restaurant didn't work out (and he couldn't sell it), so he changed it to a different venetian style restaurant. Oh, and Cafe Italia is next door, with one of the best chefs in the county.
Delusional Fabio puts up Yelp and Tripadvisor (mostly fake) reviews trying to convince himself that people still love him despite this being his 3rd try in 6 years trying to peddle his Italian ideas. It's like he still doesn't know he's in Fort Lauderdale.
Review 3/5/15
Who opens an Italian cafe next to an Italian cafe? Fabio does. This place started as Panaretto Express, but nobody came. Fabio opened Panaretto Pizzeria over on Cordova; his attempt at trying to push fancy Italian pizza in a country that pines for NY Style PIzza fell short and he sold out to his partner. Panaretto Express morphed into La Cucina Veneziana a year later, and I never had much interest in trying their $18 spaghetti and meatballs.
I peeked at their menu and they had mussels for $12; I thought I'd try them, maybe with some soup, to check out their culinary prowess.
I arrived at 2:15pm; there were 2 customers and 1 dude behind the counter. There was nothing on any of the tables; no menus around. I wasn't sure if they offered service or if I had to order at the counter, which is the trend nowadays. No-one acknowledged my existence, which you'd think they do with just 2 people in the place, so I went up to the counter to see if it was a full service restaurant. The dude said it was, so I sat down and waited for him to give me a menu.
The place was less interesting than I expected. It has a sterile feel; this place is clearly run by men. They have blackboard specials, but none for lunch. I supposed they would have made a dinner special for lunch if I asked, but $28.80 for Mahi or $15 for a meatball didn't interest me in the least.
They have a lunch menu; the image they have on their website is postage stamp size, so I couldn't read it. They don't have mussels on the lunch menu, but things are a bit less expensive. Chicken Scaloppine is $11.50; you can get it with your choice of sauce. I decided to try the "Limone", since piccata has failed me recently. I ordered an iced tea with extra lemon; it came with a tiny sliver of lemon.
It became clear to me that the Dude didn't speak English very well (he had to think when asking me whether i wanted pasta or vegetables with the chicken), so I let it go.
As I was waiting, one of the other customers left. Caruso and other Italian language music played. I wondered why I had no bread. Bread is a basic staple of Italian eating.
The outside area here is the de-facto smoking lounge for all of the smokers in the office building; a steady stream of puffers eliminate outside dining as an option here.
The food came out in 8 minutes.
Not a load of food; a lonely piece of bread with no olive oil anywhere to be found. I asked for salt and pepper. The sauce was perhaps the best I've had yet with Scaloppine; unfortunately the chicken wasn't remarkable. I guess they don't use olive oil here at all; the chicken wasn't sauteed in butter and oil; it was just like a piece of protein in the lemony sauce.
The vegetables were a weak offering. The beans were OK, but the peppers were too mushy and the eggplant and zucchini were sliced so thin that they shriveled on the grill. Again, no brushing with olive oil took place.
By now I was the only customer in the place, and the Dude was singing along with the music in Italian. It was time to leave. My plate and iced tea glass was empty; he asked me 3 times if I liked it, but didn't offer me a refill on the iced tea.
Conclusion
I think this place is capable of making good food, but the experience is lacking in every way. A $14 lunch shouldn't leave you hungry (and thirsty); but the real story is that it's just not a comfortable place to eat. It's one of those places where Italian speaking people gather at the bar, and everyone else is just part of the scenery. Considering that their prices what you'd pay at a full service restaurant, I find it difficult to consider it even a reasonable value. My feeling is that they're cutting corners on lemon, bread and olive oil, and at the prices they're charging it's a bit insulting.
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