La Fontana Pizzeria Restaurant (Coral Springs)
La Fontana Pizzeria Restaurant, 2890 North University Drive Coral Springs, Florida 33065, (954) 575-5502.
Just off the top of your head: How many days of rain do you think Coral Springs gets on average in any given year? My “Google” says 65!
This afternoon I had lunch at La Fontana Pizzeria–wood oven pizza, appetizers, salads, panini, calzones, pastas, meat/chicken/seafood entrees, desserts. You can check menu/prices at www.LaFontanaPizzeria.com.
La Fontana has NO indoor seating. It does have 60 outdoor seats under various umbrellas and canopies– if it rains, this joint is up “sh@t’s” creek. In addition, if it’s really cold or really hot, this joint is up “sh@t’s” creek. Don’t exactly get the business model here, but one of the owners did tell me that if the Quizno’s next-door to La Fontana goes out of business, La Fontana Pizzeria will rent the space for inside seating.
Okay—let’s talk food.
Based on the fact that La Fontana is a pizzeria and highlights “wood oven pizza” on its menu—I decided to try a 12″ margherita pizza ($8.50). Let me be kind, it was edible, but that was about it. The pizza had a thin crust that was soggy and had virtually no taste. I also had meat tortellini alla boscaiola ($16.95)—it was good but nothing to get hysterical about. I also found the pasta dish at almost 17 bucks on the skimpy side.
Now, I know that my “taste test” was sort of on the limited side—but based on this brief outing—I won’t be back.
Not that it really matters, but on May 12, 2011 the Sun Sentinel gave this joint 3 1/2 stars (food only- 4 stars). Based on my 2-out-of 2 dishes…”Dining Correspondent” Judith Stocks must have eaten in a different joint than I just got home from.
I will tell you that brothers/owners Spartico and Tony Tare were as pleasant and helpful as could be. Hopefully for their sake, it doesn’t rain too much this coming Summer– or for that matter this coming Fall, Winter and Spring. One other quick thought, hopefully the 3- flies that were annoying the crap out of me while I was trying to eat, aren’t permanent restaurant fixtures.
La Fontana is open 7 days a week 11am-11pm.
Hey Jeff, been there twice. Stocks must have gotten paid off. Food is maybe fair.
This one is sort of like a car wash. You don’t know if you are going to open until you see the weather in the morning and you could close anytime during the day if it starts to rain.
Had pizza there once and it didn’t rain. Nothing great.
I’ve eaten here a number of times and it was always excellent.
Judy, Judy, Judy,
if you at the sun sentinel thought that this was a 3 1/2-4 star restaurarnt you must have also thought that the world was going to end last Saturday at 6pm.
the food here is just fair.
the service is fair.
the food is way overpriced.
the portions are small.
Not worth the drive from Miami.
Food was fair at best, portions were small and prices were too high.
Jeff:
Too bad you didn’t get there before the Sun Sentinel did, then I wouldn’t have gone there. I tried this one based on Stock’s review and like you later did found the pizza lousy and the pasta and other dishes fair, overpriced and small portions.
Just curious as I’ve never been to La Fontana: What happens if your eating and all of a sudden it starts to pour? You do know it happens frequently in Florida, Don’t ya?
HGH:
Just had a chance to read your post.
To answer your question, based on what I saw…if it started to rain while you were eating, the canopies and umbrellas that I “saw” wouldn’t stand a chance and you and your food would get WET.
Thanks for reading…
nothing special and overpriced.
Jeff, quizno’s closed and Scottrade took the space. These guys have nothing food, high prices and a bunch of umbrellas going for them. They are soon doomed.
LOUSY!
From: spartaco&tony
Subject: la fontana in coral springs
Message Body:
Hello Jeff how are you ? first of all sorry about our english if you really don”t understand everything. ok we consider everything you wrote as a true, but our problem is because we are very autentic north italian cousine and is not the same what did you try around usa for these fact .we build our buisness 1990 in ferrara very old city closet to venezia when the competition was 99.99% italian and we been for 9 year the best pizza.the costumer before we left telling us why u living AMERICA is here u doing great. but we love here too and MIAMI was our dream. so we start at Spris pizzeria in south beach 2000-2008 for many year the best in south fl, we left with 800-1200 pizza for day and you can ask, everybody know us. we left the place because our dream was something family style as in italy,so we came in coral springs because we like to work with wood oven.to be honest we didn’t have money to find better. the place was dark corner nobody want it and nobody didn’t make here and
was 2008 the moment the recesion start, so we was big enough to understand is not gone be easy with only 4 table outdoor and all the problem as raining or very hot to convint the costumer to sit.only god can understand our sacrifice. anyway we won 2011 the best italian restaurant in coral springs and parkland in forum and this year somebody call we won too, but i have to ask them for more informations. all the costumer come to us and they tell us we find ourself as in italy, the food, the music, the homemade product , our present in every table ,but is true nobody is perfect we make mistake too, but we are here everyday 14-18 hour to try to make everybody happy and we growing because our costumer understand we are survived what this moment need ,so please try to give us another chance because you will do for good reason for really AMERICAN DREAM HERE IN CORAL SPRING. sorry about our story and thank you for your time. with respect spartaco&tony
Jeff
They added a eat in area.