This place is amazing. I had the special chicken & shrimp with pesto and sundried tomatoes over spaghetti which was amazing and a lot to where I had leftovers of the chicken. It comes with homemade bread and a salad. I had the garden salad with their homemade creamy balsamic dressing. Yum!! Was enticed by the Nutella tiramisu. Holy cow!! I want to lick the plate!
Employees are attentive the second you walk through the door. They have a case full of sautéed sides you can choose or take out. I got some grilled zucchini to take back to the hotel room. They dressed it with EVOO and balsamic. It's meant to be eaten at room temp but can be reheated. I also ordered the white pizza--it was delicious but "dry", since I'm used to the wetter red pies. The plain regular tomato-cheese was also good--nice thin tasteful crust. They had a 2 slice and soda lunch deal for $6.99 and didn't mind wrapping one for home. They are a full Italian menu place with many infused seafood dishes. The kitchen is open and visible from the entrance--love seeing the passion at work! They proudly explained their dishes and how they were cooked. My favorite item was the dessert svogliatelle--an orange-flavored delicate filling in a layered pastry served warm. Worth every cent of $3.50.
So, if you're vacationing on St. Pete Beach and you're trying to ascertain which places are worth your money and which aren't, let me tell you: Tuttorossa IS worth your money. I live about 10 minutes away and can't believe I've missed this place. The restaurant owners took over an entire strip mall and made it into a lovely restaurant. THIS was a divine experience. We wanted simple Italian-American food, and we didn't want to pay a bunch of money, so we took a chance here instead of our regular Italian restaurant (Pia's, which is lovely, but I can't resist her specials and, as I said, we were looking for less expensive). First, one of the owners - who was also cooking - showed us to our table, which was nice of him to do as the servers were all busy. Second, the pasta is touted as "house"made instead of "home"made, which has always been an irritation to me. Now, the food. We ordered the garlic cheese bread, which was so thick that by the second piece you don't want to eat any more. Our meals both came with salads, which were mixed greens and nicely done. The dressing (we both asked for it on the side) was the house, a creamy Italian vinaigrette of some sort, and was delicious. It's the first time in recent memory I've finished the dinner salad that comes before the meal. The entrees were wonderful: Cannelloni and lasagna. The cannelloni was not just stuffed with cheese - it was mostly meat. What a nice surprise! The lasagna was also not overdone with cheese. Neither of us finished our meals (portion size is huge) and we're both looking forward to dinner tonight. Helga waited on us and she suggested the cannelloni and the lasagna. She was diligent, polite, and between her and the kitchen our food was timed perfectly - we had a chance to finish our salads and she was able to clear away our plates before our entrees arrived. When my dining partner told her he preferred something else because the merlot was too sweet, she took back the glass with no argument. We told her we didn't mind paying for it (after all, it's not her fault we chose the wrong wine) but she took it off our bill. In all, probably the best experience at an Italian-American restaurant on St. Pete Beach I've ever had. The lack of a fifth star is because I found their tomato gravy (sauce, for many of you) a touch too sweet. It tasted like I expect a pizza sauce to taste. But don't let that stop you!
