Marola’s Restaurant (Coral Springs)
***** Marola’s Restaurant, 929 North University Drive, Coral Springs, Florida 33071, (954) 796-0544.
If you want to know about an absolutely terrific Italian joint…Marola’s Restaurant in Coral Springs–you gotta do me a favor and first- read Jeff Eats’ review of Fra Diavolo (Januray 9, 2007). Go ahead, I willl wait!
Now this may-be a bit convoluted…but I’ll get there.
Marola’s and Fra Diavolo are “some-how” owned and operated by the same folks. The ownership story is a bit confusing—so I’ll let you figure out who (or is it whom?) is related to who (or is it whom?). You can “read” Marola’s story and check menu/prices www.marolascoralsprings.com.
Over the years, I must have eaten at Fra Diavolo at least 15 times. The food has always been delicious…service has always been terrific…super-reasonable prices.
The other night…dinner at Marola’s “netted” me fried calamari,mozzarella fritta, penne alla vodka, veal parmigiana, zuppa di pesce, veal marsala. Now for the skinny—the food was delicious, the service was terrific and the prices were super-reasonable. For you Early Birders out there, like Fra Diavolo, Marola’s has a deal— EVERY entree on the menu comes with soup or caesar salad, dessert and coffee.
As I mentioned before, I’ve eaten in Fra Diavolo quite a few times—based on memory and my very sensitive tastebuds, I’d “say” that Marola’s food tastes just like Fra Diavolo’s stuff. A cursory review of both menus, tells me that Fra Diavolo has a bigger menu but Marola’s prices are a few bucks cheaper…for example Marola’s veal marsala goes for $16.95 and Fra Diavollo fetches $19.95. For the inquisitive, you can check Fra Diavolo’s menu/prices at www.fradiavolorestaurant.com.
Enough nitpicking…I really enjoyed Marola’s.
You now know about Marola’s and have been re-introduced to Fra Diavolo.
Marola’s is open for dinner- Sunday, Tuesday-Thursady 4:30pm-10pm, Friday-Saturday 4:30pm-11pm, for lunch Tuesday -Friday 11:30am-3pm. The joint is closed on Monday.
hadnt heard of this one. fra diavolo is terrific, those early birds are great. one thing you didnt point out is that on the early bird dinners, there are full portions of everything. no smaller offerings. definitely going to try marola’s.
We tried Marola’s on Saturday night. My veal parm and my wife’s veal marsala were delicious. Highly recommend.
Jeff:
By far and away this has to be one of your best finds.
Last night my wife and I and another couple ate at Marola’s.
We got there about 8pm and the restaurant was busy but there were a handful of empty tables.
We were immediately seated and a basket of hot delicious soft garlic bread with a marina dipping sauce was delivered. It was so good, we ended up going through 2 full baskets.
Delicious Caesar salad came with all entrees.
I had a veal chop parmigiana, my wife the chicken on the bone cacciatore, my buddy had chicken parm and his wife and eggplant. Everyone loved their dishes which came with pasta sides.
For dessert we split 1 tartuffo which was enough for all four of us. It was excellent.
Throw in 1 glass on wine, and one soda and with tax and tip it ended up costing us %56 a couple.
Both of us left with doggy bags.
The food was delicious,
The best way to describe this place is that it is a casual Italian joint, you can wear shorts, that’s a step or two above the lbest local mom and pop Italian restaurants.
We really enjoyed it and will definitely be back.
i enjoyed the food. found the marinara sauce a bit on the bland side.
tried it and loved it,
great find.
good food. 1 step above the best mamas and poppas
good but fra diavolo is better and fra has bigger menu.
really like this one.
also like fra their sister restaurant,
good food. good service. good prices.
garlic bread is outstanding.
good solid food. great garlic bread.
Jeff
Second time tonight
First time delicious
Tonight bad news
Food stunk
Service stunk
Won’t be back
Jeff, not exactly sure what happened here but a really good restaurant totally fell apart for me and my husband last Friday night. Prior to Friday we had been there twice before. Good food and good service. On Friday and it wasn’t very busy it took us 15 minutes to get the waitress to take our order. Twice we had to ask her to bring us garlic bread. The veal parm that I had was soggy and the penne side was as skimpy as could be. My wife’s shrimp parm was rubbery and overlooked with the same skimpy penne side. The garlic bread was delicious but it took for ever to get it. There was two maybe three waitresses and they were so busy talking to each other in the front and weren’t really paying attention to their tables. .
Not sure what’s going on here but our main dishes weren’t just mediocre they were lousy. .
Very disappointed ane based on the skimpy portionsl, lousy food and in attentive service we won’t be back.
Jhe & TA:
Just had a chance to read your comments.
Hopefully Marola’s owners read your comments.
Just so you know, I and Mrs. Jeff Eats and another couple ate there two weeks ago and I have to agree that the food, service and portion size were not good. For what’s worth, I gave the joint the benefit of the doubt and figured it was just an off night. Based on your comments I may have been too kind.
Thanks for reading…
I have eaten there several times.
The last time out about a week ago the shrimp parm and veal parm weren’t very good. The pasta sides were miniscule. The service was also not too good. The garlic bread was delicious.
Not sure why Marola’s has started to slip but it has.
Place was good.
Last time I was there which was last week, veal parm was lousy, minuscule pasta side. Garlic bread still good but I’m not going back.
We won’t be back. Food was horrendous and the portions seemingly cut in half since we were least there. In addition the service stunk.
the food is exellent and gui the maître D is absolutely wonderful he know to run is business
bravo for the food and your hospitality