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Last Update: Nov 11th, 2020
Anthony's Pronto is Closed

Anthony's Pronto

656 N Federal Highway
Fort Lauderdale FL, 33304
954 289-3685
Overall Rating
1.8
Food
Service
Ambiance
Value
Last Review
07/05/2020

Details

Hours: 7 days, 11am-9pm
Parking: Private Lot
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Wine and Beer
Outside Dining: No

Pros

Side Salad instead of Fries

Cons

No eat-in Capability
Supermarket Dry Pasta
No late night service
Mediocre Food
Outrageous Prices for a Storefront Takeout

Critic's Review

The narrative is that they've moved; but it seems more likely that they sold the brand, phone number and customer list to Pizzacraft. So the Taco guy who makes Italian food I never wanted to even try is now making Anthony's supposedly superior Italian food.

Meanwhile Pizzacraft is closed for "renovations".

Review 7/5/20

Anthonys pronto 2020

When Anthony first opened this place I mocked him for opening a place without his flagship pizza and his delusion that his "other" italian food could stand on it's own. A year later; the signs in the window tell it all; Pizza and Wings. I checked his menu to see the pricing on his pizza and wings, since they don't have a coal fired oven here; the "feature" that made Anthony's in the first place. The prices are outrageous; but stupid people are desperate in these hard times. $20 minimum for a pizza. Making matters worse is that there's limited flexibility; you cannot get a topping on a Grandma pizza, and you HAVE TO get 1 topping on a "Whole Square" pie; the starting price for online ordering is $23 and it includes 1 topping.

The prices here are absurd; they've raised the price point a LOT since opening. You'd be hard pressed to agree to pay these prices at a really good Italian restaurant much less this little take out storefront; but I haven't had a pizza in months and I haven't had a pizzeria grandma pizza in a decade. I'd planned on making Eggplant Parm this evening; but I decided I'd get a pizza. I was on a fasting day so I'd only had bone broth all day; a perfect day to gouge myself with carbs.

I also noticed on their web site that they were opened late on Sundays, I could pick it up at 10pm and eat it hot out of the box.

Anthonys hours

Except that the hours on the web site are wrong. I get that businesses are running different hours after the shutdown, but it's been 3 and half months; there's no excuse for this. Luckily I decided to check something at about 8:05pm and I saw "Closes in 55 minutes"; time to shit or get off the pot, as my Dad would say. I ordered a Grandma Pizza.

They have the option to pay when you pick up, which is a good thing; it said it would be ready at 8:45. When I walked in at 8:42, the pizza was ready.

Pronto inside 2020

Girl in mask; very mechanical environment. Pay, sign, and out the door.

The description of the pizza:;

Whole 19" pizza. "Grandma Pie" - Tomato Sauce / Mozzarella Cheese / Romano Cheese / Basil / Olive Oil

Romano Cheese doesn't belong on a pizza, so I ordered the pizza with Romano only on half of the pizza. I figured I'd try Anthony's recipe, but I didn't think it would work.

I expected the box to be bigger. A 20" pizza box is really big. Opening it overwhelmed me with a feeling of sadness. What a sorry looking pizza.

Anthony's Grandma Pizza

Anthony obviously didn't attend high school, because this isn't a "square" pizza. Not even close. It's also not 19".

Anthonys pronto ruler

For you math enthusiasts, A 19" x 12" pizza is 228 square inches; which is the equivalent of a 17" round pie. This pizza was 181 square inches of food; about the equivalent of a 15" pizza; 20% smaller than I expected.

I wasn't ready to eat yet, but I tried one slice from each side of the pizza. This is not a Grandma Pizza; at least not a good one. It wasn't bad; it tasted like a typical South Florida Pizza. The slice with Romano was definitely wrong; like when you cringe as that friend at the pizzeria douses his slice with table sawdust; this didn't really taste like fresh romano; it tasted like table sawdust.

I decided I wanted a real grandma pizza, and I'd just made some tomato basil sauce base yesterday; an outstanding grandma pizza has cheese on the bottom and a fresh tomato sauce with garlic and olive oil on top. I spooned some sauce into a saucepan; added oil and garlic and simmered for 1/2 hour. When it came time to eat, I covered 4 slices with the sauce and put it into the oven on tin foil (I didn't want to crisp the crust) at 325 degrees for 12 minutes. Don't ask how I came up with that formula.

Anthonys grandma fixed

I probably overdid it with the sauce, but this was delicious. This was near perfect on the non-romano slices. Even the garlicky tomato sauce couldn't save the slices with the bad cheese.

"Romano" Cheese on Pizza is a Loser

I knew that romano cheese (or parmesan) doesn't belong on pizza, and I was certainly right about that. The sprinkled cheese, whatever it was, ruined the half of the pizza that included it. Even the garlicky tomato sauce couldn't save it. It was just bad.

Conclusion

I really don't get what Bruno is doing; You open a restaurant, build it into a chain, sell it to a Private Equity Group. Make millions of dollars. Then you open a storefront takeout restaurant that isn't nearly as good and price it over the moon. It makes no sense doing something this mediocre.

This will be my last visit to this place, despite living nearby. I can make better Italian food than this without having to put on shoes. I've gotten disappointing food twice, and the prices here are more about Bruno's ego than the quality of the food. The pizza I got today wasn't even a reasonable facsimile of a Grandma Pizza; the closest thing I've had in South Florida to a real grandma pizza slice was Sbarro's Roman Slice.

There's no universe where this pizza is worth $20.

Review 3/20/19

Anthony's Pronto

So Anthony Bruno has opened a pizzeria with no pizza; something only Anthony could think up. I thought I'd give it a try.

Italian food is pretty easy to make at home, so I don't usually feel the need to pay $20 for a bowl of pasta. The exception is eggplant parm, because buying an eggplant commits you to 3 meals in a week; plus it's hard to slice it really thin without a machine the way restaurants do. But no eggplant today.

I wanted to use their online ordering system, but not use my real name, because some people actually know who I am. I have gift cards for this. Pick a name, any name. Their system is actually pretty good; the only things I don't like is that they require both email and phone # (both bogus were supplied) and there's no option to pay when you get to the store. This guarantees a $0 tip, because who is going to tip before you find out if your order is ready on time or if they screwed it up?

The difference between this place and a pizzeria is that you can't just order an $8 meatball parm sandwich, you have to pay $11 and get a side with it. Who want's a side with a meatball sandwich? I ordered a salad, surmising that I could eat it later on.

They have some nice benches outside, but you can't eat on the benches. No outside place to eat the food here.

Anthony's Pronto Fort Lauderdale

Inside is chaos. 3 guys at the register, 2 people waiting. It's kind of like a kitchen with a counter. Did I say Pizzeria? Assoluti Tomatoes (foodservice special) and DeCecco pasta; Good stuff, so your plate of Rigatoni has a 25 cent per serving cost. Also available at the Fresh Market.

Anthony's Pronto Inside

They have an espresso machine and wine up front, as if you're going to sit in this place and drink wine? How about a nice Sub-Zero chiller guys?

Anthony's Pronto Wine and Coffee

I guess you could sit on the couch and eat a plate of eggplant. Or maybe not.

Anthony's Pronto Waiting Area

Someone notices me in the back. "What's the Name?", "Jones; I ordered a Meatball Parm". The food is ready.

I grabbed to enormous bag and sped home. It took < 10 minutes to get home

Anthony's Pronto Take Out

A take out menu in the bag, but no napkins or utensils. I could see eating the sandwich without a fork but how would that work with the salad? If you're taking this back to your office make sure you get a fork.

I kind of expected a sub, but this is a sandwich on really big bread.

Anthony's Pronto First Look

The ratio of meatball to bread was troubling. The bread was very soft and airy, so not as bad as I thought initially.

Anthony's Pronto Meatball Sandwich

Something that bugs me about restaurants is the staged photos. It's much worse when the photos are nothing like the product they're actually offering.

This is the picture on their website of the "Meatball Sandwich":

Anthony's Pronto Staged Meatball Sandwich

As you can see it's completely different. These meatballs are sliced, kind of black on the outside, with a strange texture that brings into question what they're made with. Hardly any sauce.

Anthony's Pronto Meatball Sandwich Open

These meatballs have a lot of filler; maybe half bread; they actually remind me of turkey meatballs. I had trouble keeping the sliced balls from falling out as I ate.

The salad was a good size for a side salad; certainly a better choice than fries. Ripe tomatoes; pretty much the same salad as at Anthony's CFP. His Italian dressing is very good; although it would be nice if they gave you a choice of dressing.

Pronto salad open

I ended up putting some blue cheese on this so my version may have been better than yours if you get it. Note that this picture was after it had been in the fridge for a while and not right out of the bag.

Conclusion

Anthony's Pronto is an idea that exudes arrogance; that Anthony's food is so superior that they can have a restaurant every 1/2 mile, and that people will pay $15 for a take out 1/2 chicken when they can get a whole chicken for $5 next door.

The sandwich I got was fine, but here's the rub. This is the restaurant's tagline:

Fresh, Classic Italian Dishes, MADE-TO-ORDER

but these meatballs were clearly sitting in a steam table for 1/2 a day. That sandwich on their web site was made to order; not this one. So why is this different than Mr Nick's or any other pizzeria or sandwich shop? The menu is really quite dull; Rigatoni 5 ways and a lot of chicken. Roast pork is the only thing that you can't get at 40 other places nearby; personally I'm not big on roast pork except maybe in a Cuban. Most notably there's no pizza; and pizza is where these types of places make all of their money.

This place will hurt Midici's take out business next door, but since there's no seating here it will have minimal impact on sit down restaurant business. This place is for people who can't cook; nobody who can boil water or open a jar of sauce is taking out most of this stuff. Gia Russa Tomato Basil sauce is better than this.

Comment Policy Add Comment
Ted
Reply
Must have lost a bundle on this; probably had to buy out his lease.
Administrator
Reply
Hard to sell $20 pizzas in a Winn-Dixie plaza, particularly when it's not good pizza.
Administrator
Reply
This place is ridiculous; they've raised the prices $2 across the board. $12 for a bad meatball sandwich; Pizzeria food at restaurant prices. Who is paying $18 for a take-out 1/2 chicken?
Ted
Reply
$16 for rigatoni and sauce. Bruno's idea of giving back to his community now that he's rich is to open overpriced restaurants. It's very sad.
Jason
Reply
Funny how all of the real food pics online look awful, yet so many 5 star reviews 🤔
Katie
Reply
Very accurate! Decent but nothing like the pics.
Administrator
Reply
They've now uploaded all of their staged photos to yelp; why do they allow photos of food not actually served to people?
Administrator
Reply
Their online menu has the meatball parm here at $11, so I guess $10 wasn't enough as it is on the published menu? I was going to order it but the picture looks like its on hard bread; and I don't want hard bread.
Kay
Reply
No Pizza or Veal? Another partial menu from Anthony. Do people really order spaghetti with tomato sauce from a take out place?
Administrator
Reply
People take out $16 burgers that aren't half as good as slapping some ground chuck in a frying pan. You can't explain it.
Joel
Reply
In NYC you can still get really good Italian cooking in Little Italy, Corona Queens and some locations in Brooklyn. South Florida Italian restaurants serve Chef Boyardee, tasting dishes. Especially on Las Olas.
Administrator
Reply
Most Italian food is "OK" here but it's just not worth the NYC prices they charge. The difference in NY is you can go to a pizzeria to get a superb sub or ziti or eggplant parm on the cheap that's better than the stuff restaurants serve here for twice the price.
Judy
Reply
There are 50 restaurants I can order take out from. So unless their prices are lower, what's the difference? A restaurant with no seating option?
Arty
Reply
They have pictures of kids eating ziti off a plastic plate with a basil garnish. I think the garnish is what makes it special. We'll see how much it costs.
Pete
Reply
Anthony's exists because there are no good Pizzerias in Florida. Compared to Big Louie's it's great Italian food. I'm surprised their NY stores are surviving.
Administrator
Reply
About half the reviews for the Islip airport location are by knowledgable pizza people. But even Carrabba's packs them in on Long Island. There's a lot of stupid people in NY. There's also a lot of bad pizzeria's. Italian people all love their grandma's cooking, but not all grandmas can cook.

Anthony's isn't bad. It's just the arrogance of calling his sit down pizzeria food "restaurant quality".

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