Review: Florencia's Ristorante - North Park

This afternoon we found ourselves walking around North Park, hungry and with no idea of where to go.  We eventually got to University Avenue near 30th Street where there are at least half a dozen restaurants and as many food choices on a single block.  With all those choices we settled on the Italian restaurant, Florencia's Ristorante. 

Florencia's has a typical Italian look.  The dining room is large and on the dark side, but there is also a small patio with about 6 or so tables.  It was a beautiful day so we chose to sit outside.  We also chose to sit outside because the inside of the restaurant was pretty warm.  You could feel the heat from the kitchen making it's way through the dining room towards the open doors.  The walls surrounding the patio were painted to look like a Venice canal.  It was cute even if one of the gondolas looked like it had a kidnapped boy in it screaming to be saved. My roommate was also amused by the fake fire logs which were lit and sitting in an alcove inside the dining room, without a fireplace.  The restaurant is on the South side of the street, so it was cool and shady.

The first thing I noticed once we sat down was that although it was 1:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday, there was only one other person there.  The table where we had initially sat down was next to the wall but it was wobbly, so we moved to another one next to the patio fence.  We had our menus in front of us but there was a sandwich board on the sidewalk with specials listed on it.  When the waitress, who was really beautiful by the way, came to take our order we had expressed interest in knowing what specials were available.  Instead of telling us anything about what specials were available, she simply said "we have a lot of specials", so I got up and walked out of the patio to read the specials.  Not an impressive beginning.

My roommate ordered "Fettucine Spicy Antonio", basically a spicy version of Alfredo sauce with tomatoes.   Looking at their online menu, this dish is listed as being served with Penne instead of Fettucine, and I don't know if it was listed the same way on their printed menu or if he requested the Fettucine instead. The meal came with a choice of Minestrone or a dinner salad.  He chose the salad with Bleu cheese dressing and ordered a Coke drink. I didn't find this dish terribly appealing.  The sauce appeared to be broken and the overall appearance of the dish wasn't appetizing.  I will give them a lot of credit for the sauce being spicy though.  Although my roommate didn't agree, I found the Coke to taste a bit watered down.

I ordered an Antipasto salad with the house dressing.  The salad was a good size for lunch, but the plate it was served on was much too small.  The first few times I stuck my fork into it, pieces of lettuce or the pepperoncinis would fall off.  They did not skimp on the meats and cheeses.  However, the dressing needed some help.  When she brought it, it just looked like a ramekin full of olive oil and that's pretty much how it tasted.  The flavor of the herbs and spices were good and very traditional for Italian salad dressing, but they didn't mix in at all.  It was in desperate need of vinegar and should have been served in a salad dressing shaker.

The garlic bread was made with a nice Italian bread, very crusty on the outside but soft inside.  It had a lot of garlic flavor, but it was very dry.  I dipped the bread in a little of the salad dressing at the bottom of my plate.  The oiliness of the dressing mixed with the dry bread made a very nice bite.

If someone were asking if I knew of a good Italian restaurant in the area, I would not recommend this place. However, if you find yourself in the area on a beautiful San Diego afternoon and just want to chill out al fresco,  this is one of the places you could go.