Critic's Review
This place is under new ownership; apparently the manager bought the place. What's unfortunate is that they have the exact same menu (including the terrible lunch menu) and they've raised the prices quote a bit; $3 on pastas. The food isn't good enough to pay over $20 for a $4 pasta dish here.
Review 2/6/14
A friend was in Fort Lauderdale on business and we decided to meet for lunch; the weather was supposed to be beautiful, so I thought about Serafina, one of the few places in town I'd never been to before. It's not the kind of place you go by yourself, and every time I'd planned a date here the weather didn't cooperate. It's not the kind of place I'd want to go in a rainstorm or on a windy day.
They reject the idea of a front door; there's an alley that leads to the entrance.
Outside is mandatory; they have a nice little dining room, but sitting outside on the water is the point of the place. The decor is nice also; old world but not gaudy.
The deck is fairly small, so no matter where you sit you'll have a nice view of the water.
I ordered an iced tea for a change; I'm off Splenda. They have the slices of lemon here; wedges people, you can't squeeze a slice of lemon.
I'm not eating bread (or so I thought), so the nice crusty bread was all for her.
The first thing that you need to know about the menu is that the menus they have posted on their web site are not the menu at the restaurant. The actual menu is much better. They'll also let you order from the dinner menu, so you can really get whatever you want at lunch.
We both ordered Eggplant Parmesan; for a moment I forgot that it would likely be breaded. Oh well, it's not like I'm allergic to breading. I'd have to cheat on the meal.
It came out pretty quickly. My friend kept asking me why I was taking pictures of my food. I didn't say.
It was a pretty good portion for $13. Very heavily breaded with lots of cheese. I tried to eat as little breading as possible. Overall a pretty good tasting version; but not the best in town by a wide margin.
The girl wanted dessert, I think, but wouldn't eat alone, so we settled on espresso.
A nice finish. Although I can't drink plain espresso. Not yet anyway.
Service was excellent. Around when needed without bugging us. The check came promptly.
The big surprise here was the menu; an example of a place where their website is probably costing them business. They need to get up the current menu.
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