Critic's Review
Vincent's is open and they serve lunch, so that's a formula that works for me.
Another 150 seat restaurant on this tiny block makes parking even more impossible; if you can't get street parking in August you can forget about getting any in season. I had to park in the lot, with isn't very far away. It's $1.50/hr, but for some reason gave me 48 minutes for $1. The meter wouldn't take change, so I decided to risk it rather than putting in another buck.
The place was dead empty, with 1 guy at a table and a couple of people at the bar. This is what happens when you have no hours or menu on FB and no web site. An enthusiastic Italian guy showed me to a table; at first trying to steer me to the pizza bar.
I took a table in the rear; the place is a big rectangular room with a large bar in the center. This place is built for a standing crowd.
I asked for iced tea, but they only have flavored, bottled tea, so I just asked for a seltzer with lime. It came with lemon; I'd asked for the tea with lemon, so I can see the confusion. I didn't correct him.
The lunch menu is a subset of the dinner menu, and not very impressive. Pizza, mix and match pasta and sauce. Not a lot of Food. This is the Kitchenetta guy; I wanted to try something more interesting than Rigatoni with meat sauce. They had a Scungilli in spicy tomato sauce with sounded a bit more adventurous; I decided to be adventurous.
Music is markedly not Italian, with Corinne Bailey Rae filling the air continuously. A big part of the place is the Raw Bar, with features Oysters. There's a dude manning the table who didn't get one bite in my entire time here.
The restaurant itself is just a room; no designer was involved with this venue. Warehouse like; tables spread out to barely reach the 150 needed to a liquor license. You come here to eat.
A guy comes out of the kitchen and tries to put croquettes in front of me. "That's Scungilli"? I quip. He scampers back to the kitchen, comes back out and brings it to the bar. Then he comes out with something that looked more like it.
Very red sauce. Whole cherry peppers. Here we go.
Pretty good. Scungilli is pretty foul stuff; eating a big, sliced up snail needs good stuff around it. If you ever see this on the menu at 101 Ocean or Louis Bossi run like hell from it because you'll be spitting it across the room. This was pretty good. Vincent knows how to make spicy tomato sauce.
My only complaint was that they didn't take the stems off the peppers. C'mon guys, there's a lot going on here, who wants to bite into a stem?
A refill on my soda. I don't think I'll be doing Scungilli again anytime soon, but it was good enough that I polished it off.
The manager dude who seated me came to take the plate. "You made me cry", I said, my eyes watering from the last bite of a hot pepper. "You did a good job", he said, "your grandma would be proud". My grandma was Ukrainian, so I'm not sure about that. But I got what he was saying.
The special was $14 and they charged $2.95 for a soda, so it was over $20 for lunch. The food seems reasonably priced; it's $10 less than Bossi's for pasta and I'll bet anything that it's much better. I think the menu is weak, however; mix and match pasta and sauce is bush league.
Conclusion
Kitchenetta is one of those places that you just can't go anymore; the bumper cars parking, absurd pricing and strange metal decor; and they're only open for dinner. This place is more accessible, with Italian food that makes Louis Bossi's seem like the Macaroni Grill. It's not Little Italy, but it's better that other stuff you can get here in Fort Lauderdale. I'll be back to this place. Finally there's a reason to visit Lauderdale By the Sea.
They put cream in their "carbonara", which pretty much proves that this restaurant's roots are in Fort Lauderdale and not Italy or NY.
of casa amigos. A bottle cost $38-42 dollars.
Most I’ve every paid!! Let the buyer beware!
2 drinks and a pizza 60 dollars what a rip off.
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