Puccini's

Waited 3 hours and our food was not even being prepared yet, we decided to leave and overheard our server telling everyone we were being nasty! We were not rude just decided we could not sit any longer!
Mar 8th, 2024

Please make this your next weekend reservation, food is wonderful, atmosphere is a personal experience and the BYOB policy is a nice change up to paying for overpriced cocktails. I enjoyed the Branzino special, amazing to say the least. My friends enjoyed their meals as well. Dont miss out on the salad for an appetizer, even if your not a salad person, its so good. We also met quite a few regular couples that come every week, take that at face value for the quality and service of Puccinis.
Feb 5th, 2024

We had an Excellent experience! Great Food and enjoyed "Tableside" Chef's cooking & meal prep! I'd say, "EaterTainment at its Best"! Fun!
Jan 18th, 2024

This is a 5 start review of reviewing the review section. Can't say I have eaten here yet but seeing the owner very passionate about defending against rude customers makes me want to give it a try. Passionate about the business usually means the food is spot on.
Jan 12th, 2024

Tourists come here all the time for the exceptional food but this restaurant has some real downsides as well. The most egregious: HOW DOES AN OWNER OF A SERVICE INDUSTRY ESTABLISHMENT STAY IN BUSINESS WHILE CALLING MORE THAN A FEW OF HIS PATRONS LIARS? My advice to anyone thinking of dining here is to read ALL the reviews and the owner's answers to the unfavorable ones. Buyer beware! Seating is reservations only and even so people are crammed into an extremely small space to the point that the restaurant is completely inaccessible to wheelchair users and others with disabilities, including me. The lighting is extremely poor, the service abysmal and the prices exorbitant. Perhaps worst of all, after spending all that money, you have to bring your own wine or other liquor. The restaurant only serves water, forget carbonated products or even cold or hot coffee. If you bring coffee, however cold from transporting it yourself, (they don't even have a microwave in which to reheat the coffee) you do get free dessert but you have to ask for it. Servers do not simply tell you about this. Several fine restaurants in and around Sarasota serve complete multi course meals with at least the same quality with much better ambience and service, as well as from scratch menu choices. I first rated it a three overall because of the food itself. All entrees are prepared on premises by an experienced chef. A very lucky few sometimes get to watch some part of his preparations, at least in ordinary times. The menu is different each night with limited but exquisite choices. Despite this, I will not return. If the food were any less tasty, I would rate it a one or two. Update: I've been debating whether to write this update. After much thought, I have downgraded my overall rating to a two. Here's why: The owner answered this review in a very sarcastic tone. He said, (I'm paraphrasing) so the food was good but when people fail to cater to your needs, you write a negative review. Now I'm writing a more negative one. The service was so poor as to make the night unenjoyable. The seating was uncomfortable for those who sat with me. I was using a very small transport wheelchair and still had trouble fitting in. It was so dark I couldn't read the menu. Half of a dining experience is the service. If they value their customers as minimally as their email to me seems to indicate, their arrogance alone would make me reluctant to patronize their establishment. Kid-friendliness: It is absolutely not a place for children. There would be absolutely nowhere for them to move and servers seem to have very little tolerance for anything, let alone a child's exuberance or still less, misbehavior. Wheelchair accessibility: Not only is the restaurant inaccessible to the point of being cramped even for people without mobility impairments but there's barely room enough for someone in a wheelchair to sit even remotely comfortably and there is no way someone in a wheelchair would ever be able to get to where you have to go to be able to watch the chef cook. A person in a wheelchair can't get to the bathroom, let alone into it. As regards vision impairment, lighting and the way the menu is printed made it impossible for me to read and my degree of visual impairment is only moderate. Worse, forget about anybody bothering to read the menu to you or to tell you what's on it.
Apr 7th, 2024