Critic's Review
When I was younger and poorer meatball subs were one of my go-to meals; a solid lunch for $3 back in the day. Pizzerias in South Florida unfortunately aren't nearly as good as the ones in NY, but I still have the cravings now and then.
This place used to be called "Vito's South", but they've dropped that; nobody considers this to be South Fort Lauderdale, even though it technically is.
The adventure started out badly; I'm getting to like the idea of ordering online for pickup so I don't have to sit in a dingy room in a broken chair for 10 minutes waiting for cheese to melt. Vito's has 2 websites with 2 different ordering systems. The first one I tried was slicelife, which is pizza focused. This site offers a 10% discount, which almost offsets the bogus "Support Local" fee of 95 cents. The site didn't display a checkout button in Safari, so I couldn't finish the order. I decided to try chrome, where a search brought me to a different site, powered by menufy. This turned out to be a waste of my time, as they add a convenience fee for ordering 1 takeout item.
Apparently many morons pay this nearly 20% fee; or maybe they don't. I called on the phone, old school, and ordered an 8" Meatball Parm Sub. Remember this.
The sandwich board filled me in on the "specials"; another place offering you a soda for only $1 if you pay full price for 2 slices. It's amazing how all of these places have the same bad ideas. Notice the sign on the window has been changed from $6.49, because $2.75 isn't enough for a slice on special. For 100s of years, the standard pizzera special was a free drink with 2 slices ($5 for a decade). No more.
Inside there was 1 dude completely consumed putting together a large order. It was 5 minutes before he even acknowledged I was in the store.
The slices they had on display weren't enticing. These are the "gourmet" slices, probably $4 each. Hard pass on these.
It's a good thing I called ahead as my sub was in the oven. Ii would have had to wait for him to complete packing the order otherwise.
Packed in foil, it was still warm when I got home, even after a stop at the new Whole Foods Market.
Kind of a strange container for a foil-wrapped sub. Un-wrapped it looked pretty weak.
First things first, where was the sauce and the cheese? I took a bite and it was clear the bland meatballs were mostly filler.
Second, there was no way this was 8". You girls know about this trick. This was a half sub; no more than 6".
I added more sauce and tried again.
Another couple of bites and I had to add some cheese. Another disastrous meal in Fort Lauderdale.
Conclusion
Vito's fall well below the low bar of a South Florida pizzeria; deceptive product descriptions, bad specials and scrimping on ingredients guarantee it will be another 8 years before I'm back.
Review 9/20/13
A few years ago Office Depot was the only anchor open and Vito's was the only place to get food after 2pm. A lot of new places have opened, including Carrabba's across the street, and the small storefront is easy to miss if you don't know it's there. The "gourmet" in the name is kind of silly; there's nothing gourmet about this place.
Years ago, before there were credible internet reviews, Vito's was one of the place's you heard about. They're flagship location is next to TGI Friday's in the North end of town on US1. I'd gotten a pizza here once and an occasional slice, but always thought it was a bit sort on cheese and I didn't like the crust. Time to try them again.
Inside they have some chairs at a counter and a couple of table. It's a small place.
They sort of speak English, just not to each other. The counter guy didn't say a word to me; I assumed that he understood when I ordered a slice. It was ready in a few minutes; I sprinkled some oregano and garlic on the slice and I was off.
Not a bad-looking slice, but about the same as 4 years ago; the last time I was here. Over-floured crust and unremarkable cheese and sauce. The crispy, chalky crust keeps it from being something I want again. Not terrible but I won't be getting a whole pie here.