Il Paradiso Cafe

It was excellent and now CLOSED! THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!

I have to go to Orlando about once a year for business and usually have a hard time finding a good place to eat, especially in Altamonte Springs. I read about Il Paradiso on Unilocal and figured it’s worth a try. Wow! The eggplant parmesan was so good that I went back to the restaurant twice during my recent visit. Don’t let the strip mall location or the lack of patrons discourage you. This is some of the best down-​to-​earth Italian food that I’ve ever had. I wish they were in Atlanta!

Il Paradiso is an Italian restaurant in Altamonte that we never would have found without Unilocal and my Iphone. In fact, I’ve driven by the strip mall countless times and never knew it was there. When we arrived just before 6pm, we were the ONLY ones there and the owners were literally standing inside the door waiting for us. I thought this might be a bad sign for a Friday night. The owner, Sal, and his wife seated and greeted us. Sal asked about how we found him and I actually handed him my Iphone to look at the Unilocal reviews, which were 4 five star reviews and 1 two star. I agree with other Unilocalers that the place is casual and unpretentious and Sal seems really authentic, like a kindly Italian grandpa. He told me before we left he wanted to know how many stars he got!
My first impression was that the prices were a little high, but this is definitely one of those quality over quantity places. I ordered the lobster ravioli, my husband, the special (both ~$ 17) which was a 4 cheese mushroom stuffed ravioli. Salads came first, the balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing was fantastic, packing a lot of flavor and bite. My entrée was wonderful (even though it consisted of only 8 raviolis) but I tried my husbands and his was even better! There was a richness that was very filling and you could tell everything was homemade. Again, quality not quantity.
Hot bread is delivered table side and between salad, bread and entrée we were quite full. But not too full for dessert! I was thinking Paradiso was a 4 star restaurant until dessert. Everyone has a dish they use to gauge a restaurant, well one of mine is the cannoli. I must say this was the best cannoli I’ve had, the perfect bland of creaminess and sweetness. I tried hubby’s tiramisu which was great too, not bitter but smooth and creamy. I’m so excited to find this restaurant, we are already planning on coming back with friends. Business picked up by the time we left and I never got to tell Sal I was going to give him 5 stars. I guess he’ll either read it online or I can tell him when we go back!

This is the type of review that is hard for me because I am such a strong believer in locally owned and operated restaurants. I really root for them to succeed. I also love Italian food. I could eat it every day. I really wanted to love this place. I have made Marty go here more than once — against his will — because I really wanted to love this place. Sadly, I can’t say that I love this place.
The last time we went was for lunch. We had tried to go somewhere else first only to discover that that place had closed down so we were hungry and figured we would try Il Paridiso one more time. Let’s just say when the phrase you most hear out of the server’s mouth is «I’m sorry» you know you are in trouble. They had one large party and several two tops seated when we arrived. At that point the chef appeared to be out in the dining room going over the orders from the large party. Apparently there were fewer orders than there were people and he was trying to sort out the discrepancy. The server apologized. After we finally placed our order we realized that one of the other parties that had been sitting there when we came in, had never even been given menus. The server apologized to them.
When we placed our orders, she told us we had a choice of an Italian salad, a house salad or a Caesar salad with our meals. When we asked the difference between the first two she said he makes the Italian himself. It has lots of different things in it and everyone loves it. So I ordered the salad that everyone loves. Marty ordered the Caesar. When she brought them out she got our orders confused. So she apologized. As it turned out they weren’t three different salads after all. They were the same plate of lettuce with an option for three different kinds of dressing. The Caesar didn’t even have any cheese. As she cleared the salad plates I had to grab my bread plate (with bread still on it) back from her as she started to take that away too. I had to also grab the bread bowl back and assure her that we weren’t done with it since we hadn’t even gotten our entrees yet. So she apologized.
For an entrée I ordered the linguine with garlic and olive oil. I didn’t realize that the garlic and olive oil was a $ 3.50 upcharge over the red sauce but it didn’t matter because when it came out I had the plain red tomato sauce anyway. So our server apologized. Interestingly enough marinara sauce — which I assume has more flavor and actual seasoning than the plain tomato sauce is also an up charge here.
Each time the server would come over and refill one of our glasses yet leave the other person’s half empty. I finally had to ask her to fill refill both of ours. So she apologized. After all these missteps the kicker was when we discovered that our server was the owner’s wife. Seriously? It’s your own restaurant and you are that clueless? I’m afraid that this second visit confirmed that for us this is a case of Il Paradiso Lost.

We had heard good things about this restaurant and thought we’d check it out. We were pleasantly surprised. The calamari was the best I’d ever had. Came with 3 sauces (medium was very good) Portions were very generous. The table bread was perfect. Egg Plant parm was terrific. I’d definitely go back.

Paradiso is a rare strip mall find. Here, you will get delicious and authentic Italian food in a completely unpretentious setting. The mozzerella caprese is high quality, the bread is hot and soft, and the chicken parmigiana was amazing. The chicken was crispy, yet soft on the inside, with perfect tomato sauce and lots of cheese. The service is friendly and attentive also.
The only things I would recommend to make this place perfect is to dim the lighting a little bit, and to take off some messages in the menu like in the bottom it says, «$ 3 charge for sharing» and «limit of 2 bread baskets per entrée.» Come on, I mean who eats 3 baskets of bread anyway? Just to say something like that can make people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome unnecessarily when most people aren’t going to eat 3 baskets anyway. They could do without those messages and whatever nickels and dimes they lose from giving extra bread and allowing sharing will be made up for in the intangibles area; particularly in having repeat loyal customers.
Everything else, though, is amazing. It’s probably my favorite Italian restaurant in Seminole county, definitely one of the very few good restaurants in Altamonte Springs.

An amazing authentic Italian secret in Altamonte Springs. A must try. I tried the staple, perfect dish when going to an italian restaurant… Chicken Parm. The Chicken was perfectly cooked, the red sauce was fantastic, and the linguine was perfect al dente. My friend Lynda got this Eggplant over spinach and rice… AMAZING sauce. My wife did the Pumpkin Gnocchi and it was GENIUS.
Sal, the chef, needs a great handshake after your meal!!! Brilliant!

I discovered Il Paradiso Café while driving east on 436 in Altamonte Springs one day last week. I was at the stop light at Montgomery and 436 and looked over in the Ashby Square Mall shopping area and noticed what seemed like a new Italian Restaurant in the location where an Italian deli use to be. I said to my self that I would have to stop in. The following week we made a visit.
When we arrived at the restaurant we looked over the menu posted at the door. It seemed like an inviting place. When we walked in we were warmly greeted by the hostess. She showed us to our seats. The waitress soon arrived. Then we were greeted by Sal the chief, he told us all about his special for the night. Sal was born Salvatore Cristiano in Naples, Italy. He seemed very proud of his restaurant as well he should we would soon find out.
I opted for the Manicotti which arrived with bread and a salad with the house dressing. My wife did not see exactly what she wanted on the menu so we called Sal over and he was glad to make any thing she wanted. She had vegetarian pasta that included sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli in an olive oil sauce on penne pasta.
We heard singing in the kitchen as our dishes were being prepared. It reminded us of a trip to Venice where we also heard singing in the kitchen.
The salad arrived and the balsamic vinaigrette (Paradisco vinaigrette) dressing was to die for. As we were finishing up our salad I noticed Sal peering over at us from the kitchen to see if we were ready for our main course.
Our Pasta dishes arrive shortly. Mine was very good. I always have manicotti my first trip to a new Italian restaurant because I have found if they can make the cheese filling firm but moist they can make any other Italian dish. This was perfect. My wife’s pasta dish was also very good with just enough garlic and sweet sun dried tomatoes.
I have not yet decided what I’ll have on my next visit but I took the take out menu so I could study it in depth.
After our meal Sal came over to make sure everything was to our satisfaction. It was! This is definitely my new favorite Italian restaurant.