Restaurant Review: Antonios Pasta Grille

After a glowing recommendation from my friend Pam, I decided to check out Antonio’s Pasta Grille (2755 Ulmerton Road, Clearwater, FL 33762) while I was out in Clearwater the other day.

The restaurant itself is very much “Every Day Italian”, a clean and traditional looking place that isn’t fancy but is very welcoming. The waitstaff is friendly and we were seated quickly. For a big guy like me, I found myself very comfortable in the booths. I imagine that knowing their clientele’s eating habits, they plan for plenty of big guys like me to frequent their establishment.

With a few minutes of being seated, our drink order came out with a serving of bread. The bread itself was a little harder than I like, but it was more than made up for by the garlic infused pesto that they serve. Oil mixed with a combination of parmesan cheese and herbs makes every bite of bread taste like I was touring the Old Country. I normally tell people not to fill up on bread, but this combination makes it hard to resist.

The bread course was followed by a salad course, a delightful side salad with thick cut vegetables throughout. The salad was actually unnecessarily fancy with cheese and pepper ground at the table. By the time I finished the salad, I was actually feeling myself getting full before the main course even arrived.

Kara ordered the Tortellini Con Prosciutto, a dish of cheese filled tortellini, sauteed with mushrooms, peas and prosciutto ham in a Parmesan cream sauce. If decadence could be purchased in so few words, this would be it. Talk about creamy and rich. I only had a few bites before I was overwhelmed by it’s richness. This is truly a dish only for those who really enjoy hearty, cheese-filled foods and the heat of prosciutto.

I had the Pork Chops Roma, which was a mix of hits and misses. Served in a bowl, this is a grilled bone-in loin chops topped with sauteed spinach, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and fresh diced tomatoes finished in a shallot garlic lemon butter sauce and served over Parmesan creamed potatoes. The hits included the sauce, a slightly tart but delicious drizzle that seemed to make it’s way into every bite.

The artichoke hearts were by far my favorite part of this dish, lightly grilled and tender. The spinach was a slight miss, being a bit too wilted and flavorless for my tastes. The only disappointment was the pork chops themselves, dry and hard. I admit I’ve been spoiled by amazing pork chops at places like Carmines, so I wasn’t expecting any miracles here. Overall, the dish was satisfactory even if the star of the show was sub-par.

As a whole, Antonios represents good value, good service and better than average taste. It’s a place you could take your whole family or a first date and you would be just as satisfied.

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