***** La Via Ristorante & Bar, 4443 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, Florida 33073, (954) 601-1234.

Got a real good Italian restaurant for you guys…La Via Ristorante & Bar located at the Promenade At Coconut Creek.

Real simple story going on here…inside and outside patio seating, full bar area…reasonably priced- appetizers, salads, in-house-made pastas, wood fired personal pizzas, meat/chicken/seafood entrees and in-house-made desserts.

Jeff Eats and two other couples recently “did” dinner and I gotta tell you that La Via served-up some delicious stuff!

Ordered dishes included…zucchini strings ($10), meatball (pomodoro sauce over fresh ricotta cheese-($8), garlic loaf (wood fired garlic bread-($5), chopped salad ($8), Caesar salad ($8), margherita pizza- ($12), chicken parmigiana (with pasta side-($18), eggplant parmigiana with pasta side-($17), shrimp arrabiate ($26), meat lasagna ($20), tiramisu ($5), Sicilian cannoli ($4) and I gotta tell you that everything was right on the money. For sure, some-things were better than others, but like I just said, everything was right on the money! Just between you guys and Jeff Eats, the joint’s meatball with a few chunks of that garlic loaf- alone was worth the trip, but that’s just between us!

La Via has been around for something like 6-months and is owned by Salvatore Mauro. For you historians out there, Mauro is the former co-owner of the “legendary” Casa D’Angelo in Fort Lauderdale…for what it’s worth, way-back on June 30, 2008 Jeff Eats kinda did a negative story on Casa D’Angelo- not sure where I’m going with all of this, but trust Jeff Eats when- I tell you that Mauro and his wife Faith/La Via’s co-owner definitely got something real good going on food-wise at their latest restaurant venture.

Jeff Eats really enjoyed La Via Ristorante & Bar- upscale looking (but your tee shirt-shorts ensemble works), delicious food, solid service, reasonable prices, flat screen tvs, big portions…

As I mentioned at the top of this tale, La Via is located at the Promenade At Coconut Creek which- could be the poster child for South Florida’s White Elephant Shopping Centers. Personally, I can’t figure- why a veteran restaurant guy like Salvatore Mauro would pick such a crap-location…maybe he knows something I don’t, but I just don’t see it! Not for nothing, but some heavy duty cash was “invested” in building La Via- from the wood/gas fired pizza oven to a glass enclosed room that allows diners to watch a fresh pasta machine in action!-like I said before- location!!

Anyway, I really enjoyed La Via Ristorante & Bar.

Give it a shot- I’m thinking- you won’t be disappointed!

You can check menu/prices/info at laviarestaurant.com.

La Via is open, Sunday-Thursday 11:30am-10pm (bar till midnight) , Friday-Saturday 11:30am-11pm (bar to 2am), closed Monday…