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Last Update: Apr 17th, 2017
Anthony's Fort Lauderdale

Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza

2203 S Federal Hwy
Fort Lauderdale FL, 33316
(954) 462-5555
Overall Rating
3.1
Food
Service
Ambiance
Value
Last Review
07/07/2014

Details

Hours: Mon.,Wed-Sun.9:00am-9:00pm
Attire: Casual
Parking: Private Lot
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Beer and Wine Only
Outside Dining: No
Reservations: No
Delivery: No

Critic's Review

Over time, Anthony's has grown on me. When I first came down here I rebelled against all of the fawning reviews for the place, because it just isn't that great. But in comparison to other restaurants in the area, it really does qualify as a venerable choice. The restaurants are clean and comfortable and they have a lot of TVs and good sound systems.

Anthony's Fort Lauderdale Interior

There's New Yawk memorabilia on the walls, as well as some Dan Marino stuff; apparently he likes the place. While I guess Marino is Italian, I never really saw him as a food aficionado. His restaurants certainly didn't do very well.

Anthony's Fort Lauderdale Back Area

I remembered this time that they don't have brewed Iced tea here, but I went with the bottle anyway. Not bad with extra lemon. She brought it out without sweeteners; they haven't learned a damned thing since the last review.

Anthony's Ice Tea

With all of the buzz about meatballs lately, I ordered one of the newer items on the menu; the meatball and long hot pepper sandwich.

The music here is pretty loud, with some Frank Sinatra mixed in with Billy Joel, Boston, The Rolling Stones.

A big dude brought out the sandwich.

Anthony's Meatball Sandwich

Meatballs on focaccia with long hot peppers, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. If you haven't had long hot peppers; they're pretty spicy. As I was eating this I was thinking about the meatball heros I used to get on Long Island at pizzerias. Anthony's meatball sandwich is imperfect; the sauce isn't sweet enough and the meatballs aren't tasty enough. But it's a pretty good sandwich as it goes in this town.

Anthony's Meatball Sandwich Close Up

I'm not a fan of the pizzas, but you can add the meatball sandwich to the Wings, Eggplant and Ribs as good choices. And at $12.75 it's at the low end of the cost range when compared to other sit-down restaurant choices.

Review 10/9/2012

When you first move to Fort Lauderdale, the first thing you hear about is Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. If you're from NY, it's quite disappointing when you try it. It's not really pizza to me; they throw a bunch of stuff on some dough and flash cook it. It tastes pretty good, but it's not really a pizza to me. They've raised their prices; they now get $18.25 for a 1 topping 16" pizza, which I can promise you it isn't worth it.

But there are other things on the menu that are interesting; I've had the eggplant and it's quite good. But one thing you'll learn about Anthony's is that it's not as good as it could be in almost every way. They do what they can to take the joy out of the experience every time.

On the surface, Anthony's could be great. This restaurant is large and comfortable with lots of good TVs for Sports watching.

Anthony's Fort Lauderdale Interior

They play really good music; Billy Joel, Natalie Merchant, Jimmy Buffet, ZZ Top. It's one classic after another.

One thing that you need to know is that you can never trust the pictures of the food if they come from Anthony's. The food is very wonky and it never looks the same. And it never, ever looks as good in person as it does in the pictures.

I sat in the back, away from the 1 other occupied table. At 2:15pm, I was surprised at how empty it was. I ordered an unsweetened iced tea, forgetting that they don't have freshly brewed tea; it comes in a bottle

Anthony's Iced Tea

The Anthony's experience begins with the Tea. My server, who seemed like the one table she had was a bother to her, dropped off the tea and scampered away. There are no sweeteners on the table. She came back to take my order; I mentioned that I needed lemon and sweeteners. I ordered the lunch salad and a small order of Pork Ribs with vinegar peppers. She asked if I wanted gorgonzola, except there is no indication of how much that would cost; they don't have it listed as an option for the lunch salad, and it's $2.25 for a full salad. She didn't tell me it would cost more, so I just declined.

The salad came out right away; and it was bigger than I expected. It was sloppily made, with rough cuts of onions and tomatoes, chick peas, olives and a light oil dressing. As I dug in, I realized that there was no bread with the salad; the focaccia seems to be a big selling point on the menu.

Anthony's Lunch Salad minus the Bread

The ribs took quite a while; I guess that's what happens when you order something not on the lunch menu, and I almost finished the big salad before they came out. At no time did my server come back to the table, so I couldn't ask about the bread. It was about 15 minutes before the ribs came out.

Anthony's Pork Ribs with Vinegar Peppers

I noticed the focaccia on the plate, and as she tried to run away, I mentioned that I thought the salad came with bread. "Oh, sometimes they give it to me and sometimes they don't; I'll get you some". Too late now babe, I have bread with the ribs. The problem here is that's it's a server's job to know what comes with a dish, particularly with such a small menu as they have here; if the kitchen doesn't give her bread with the salad she's should say "I need bread for the salad". But this is Anthony's, so such things don't apply here.

Anthony's Pork Ribs with Vinegar Peppers

Another annoyance were the peppers, which were roughly sliced thin with the seeds intact. If you look at any of the staged photos of this dish, you'll see the peppers are seeded and quartered, so that the peppers are actually edible. I have a feeling that these ribs were leftovers, because the peppers also weren't very well marinated; some of them even seemed raw. Nevertheless, the ribs were very good; if you've never had italian ribs they're a nice change from the typical BBQ; if the peppers were made correctly this would be a fantastic dish. They did give me 8 ribs instead of 6, so it wasn't a total disappointment.

A local paper published the recipe for the ribs, so here it is.

Recipe for Anthony's Pork Ribs with Vinegar Peppers

1 rack pork spare ribs, cut St. Louis-style (about 3 pounds)
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 cup pickled cherry peppers with liquid
1 cup white wine

Have ribs trimmed and connective skin removed by butcher.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary leaves. Rub ribs on both sides with mixture. Place ribs in a shallow baking pan large enough to hold the ribs. Cover pan with foil and roast 40 minutes. Uncover the pan and raise the temperature to 400 degrees for about 12 minutes or until ribs are browned. Add cherry peppers, 1/4 cup of their juice and white wine. Return pan to oven and cook for 5 more minutes.

Serve ribs with a few peppers on each serving. Spoon a little of the liquid from the pan over each serving.

Makes 4 servings.

According to the recipe, "vinegar peppers" are just pickled cherry peppers from a jar.

The total for this was was $20.52; the lunch menu on their website says that the salad is $5.25 but it's now $5.75 and doesn't come with bread unless you ask for it, apparently. $2.65 for the iced tea.

Pretty good food, but it could be so much better, if only it wasn't Anthony's.

Comment Policy Add Comment
John
Reply

Anthony's is all about the Hype. First of all Dan Marino is no food expert, and he's the spokesperson. The food is ok, the family is nice and does a lot for charity, but the food is nowhere near the reputation. But hey, it's South Florida and the market isn't that sophisticated. Inside Fort Lauderdale is the only source I've seen who always calls it as it is. Average and could be Killer is right on.
Administrator
Reply
Compared to the Nutri-system food, it's pretty good

Next: Panera Bread