Anthonys of Little Italy

Had to come to little Italy when we visited cleveland. Lots of choices on Mayfield but we ended up at anthony’s and I’m so glad we did. great service. great food. we had pizza, pasta and salads at our table and we decided we should sample as much as we could amongst ourselves. this is the real deal! great service. sit outside so you can savor the neighborhood because this place is about locals and not tourists.

Food is reasonably priced.
Service was unsatisfactory. My friend didn’t receive her side order of spaghetti until we asked for our food to be packed.

My first visit to Little Italy in Cleveland — many Italian restaurants to choose from and I was happy to choose Anthony’s. It was an really nice summer evening, so I sat outside. The restaurant was not as busy as others on Mayfield Road, and I’m not sure why. The waitress was very attentive, and the food outstanding. I had the gnocchi’s with Marinara and a meatball. These gnocchi’s were really well done (not mushy; nice and firm). The small ceasar salad (wih anchovies) was also excellent. For those like me who are out of town, I highly recommend Anthony’s!

Another AWESOME meal @ Anthony’s of Little Italy! Calamari, bruschetta app, gluten free pizza, chicken parmigiana and grilled chicken Caesar salad. Katie and Sara were so wonderful and helpful!

I’ve been coming to Little Italy for Sunday mass with my father since I was a little squirt of 5 years old, now 46, we only come as a family for holidays and of course the Feast. Today was Father’s Day, and in honor of my father, we decided to come to Holy Rosary and have lunch afterwards. We included, my father, mother, wife, and 2 boys.
I had never eaten at Anthonys but since the place had no one seated at noon, we had hoped for fast service. After being seated, we asked if they had a lunch menu, after all, it was noon and wanted something light. After speaking to the server, we discovered that they only had a dinner menu and no children’s menu. We did ask if they had smaller portion sizes.
The server did come back from the kitchen explaining that they would allow the boys to order half portion sizes. Odd that this seemed to be uncharted territory for an established restaurant. I mean, how many parents are willing to pay $ 20/​kid for a la-​carte pasta for LUNCH?
The order placed: boys ordered Cavatelli, my father spaghetti, the wife Marsala and my mother and myselfI had taste for a FULL dinner salad (Menu had half $ 5/​Full$ 9 order).
The time from when we placed our order to serving was nearing 40 minutes and for 3 plates of pasta, one Marsala, and 2 large salads was unacceptable. We were the only people seated.
The food finally came and it all was presented very nicely which is nothing out of the ordinary for this type of restaurant. Neither is A La Carte but what was odd was a restaurant that didn’t provide a lunch dinning experience.
When it came time for the server to hand my mother and I the plate of fresh greens, I became confused. The FULL order of salad looked to be a half order on a HUGE plate. Confused, thinking the server may have only put the order in for a half salad and my mother looking as if a plate of garnish was handed without the entrée, I questioned her.
I said, «miss, are these full orders of salad». To her credit, the server did agreed that it did look wrong and went to the chef to see if the order was wrong (4 pieces of Escarole touching end to ends, as if to cover the plate with cheese and 5 halved cheery tomatoes). Minutes later, she returned.
Before I tell you what she said, I first would like to say that I almost always give the benefit of the doubt for human error. After all, we all make mistakes. I also understand business and profit, and gradations of restaurant concepts and a satisfied returning customer. First, a customer is most willing to pay for some type of experience (customer service), 2. food flavor– is sometimes secondary or equal to 1., and, 3. Value. Pick 2 and your customers will almost always will return.
Now for what the server said when returning: «the cook said we ran out of lettuce».
BREATHLESS and seriously pissed,
I addressed my concerns with the server for wanting to speak to the manager. Here is why and what I believe is more damaging to a restaurant than any of the 3 things mentioned of a satisfied customer. Dishonesty.
The chef was willing to charge the customer for a half size at a full size price as long as the customer didn’t cause question… on Father’s Day. I am giving the benefit of the doubt to the server as she seemed very apologetic but wondering if she may have been new as a server who has worked there would know that something was wrong. After all, a server is the most import connection to customer satisfaction. In the end, she DID remove the 2 salads from the bill.
I would rate Anthony’s food eaten on a scale from (1-​Poor to 5 Excellent-​3 Average), a marginal-​3. The sauce was nothing special but good tasting. The salad was flavorful but nothing special and after 5 forks full I was finished, and the Marsala was average but could have been better. I’m thinking the chicken was frozen at cooking as the Marsala sauce was VERY watered down as well as the pasta not drained correctly (water at the bottom of the plate).
I would not return again nor would I recommend this place.

This is a tale of two restaurants. As one might when celebrating a birthday, I ate out twice in one day. At lunch, the food was delicious and the service was impeccable, but not at all stuffy. Dinner was another story. While Anthony’s had promise, my hopes that we would be the exception to what seems to be their rule of slow service were quickly dashed — there were several unexplained 20 minute lulls in our meal, where no staff were standing around but nothing was happening. For the same price at lunch, we left feeling like it was a special meal that was a good value. Dinner at Anthony’s left me wishing I had taken the cautions regarding slow service in other reviews more seriously. Given the number of restaurants in Little Italy, I’m surprised they’re not forced to improve; you can’t make a living on good spaghetti and meatballs alone.

This is the first time I write a Unilocal review since I don’t normally write reviews but I don’t want other people to experience what we experienced.
This review is 90% for the restaurant’s service. I went here with my boyfriend and his family for Mother’s Day Dinner celebration. We went here in the past for Valentine’s day and had a good experience. But this time it was beyond terrible service, worst we’ve ever experienced in any restaurant.
We had a reservation at 8:30PM and showed up at 8:45.The restaurant was not busy at all for a Saturday night compared to other places. Only a few tables filled.
The lady who later turned out to be our waitress checked me in and said our table was «being prepared». We stood for 10mins until another waiter realized we’ve been standing there for a while and told her she should have sat us down even though our silverware weren’t there yet which was her excuse.
We sat down and no one came to our table for 15mins to get our drink order, not even water. The waitress finally showed up, took our drink menu. Brought our drinks 5mins later and we ordered 2 apps to share. Those showed up 20mins later and we still had no silverware. So our apps were sitting cold until I can finally flag the waitress down, if I didn’t ask, she would have not given us the silverware. Calamari and stuffed peppers were OK, overpriced for the size.
We ordered our food and those didn’t show up for an hour. An HOUR! And that whole time, our waitress never checked on us or even refiled our empty waters. I had to again flag her down for that too. When the food arrived at around 10:30, only one of us had a good chicken marsala. Three of us had the veal and/​or chicken parms and they were terrible. Veal tasted old. And there was so much cheese you can’t enjoy/​taste anything else. And don’t get me wrong, I love cheese, this was just too much, I had to pick them off. Gelato was good tho.
The bill came out to be over $ 250 for 5people. We were the last one at the restaurant, had terrible service, waited a LONG time, food was horrible and overpriced. NOT COMING BACK. Not recommending this place to anyone. Very unfortunate. We should have just left.

I had a really lovely time at Anthony’s. The service was excellent (though it could have been since we were one of only 2 tables occupied when we got there at 6:00 on a Wednesday). We never had to wait more than a few seconds for a refill, more cheese, napkins, etc.
The menu is pretty vast with a good selection that would make anyone happy. I am super indecisive so I had the waiter choose between a few options for me, and I ended up with the chicken piccata. It was full of flavor and the chicken was very tender… Would definitely recommend it. We also had calamari as an appetizer, and it was perfectly cooked… Not rubbery like some places. For dessert, we had cannoli which were amazing! The crispy shell was obviously fresh and the cream was sweet without being overpowering.

I have dined here a couple of times and the food is always incredible. This time I had the blackened salmon and pasta with a creamy pesto sauce and it was delicious.

The food is good but not exceptional. The bolognese sauce is a bit heavy handed with tomato paste. It could be a bit lighter but this is very minor. The reason for the mediocre review is due to the service and pricing. The service was incredibly slow even though there were only 2 tables seated and the prices are ridiculous for what it is. Like I said, the food is good but in no way justifies an $ 85 price tag for LUNCH.

Phenomenal. My wife and I were in town and saw that Anthony’s was well reviewed. We were showed to our seats by Kimberly the manager who walked us through the menus and let us know her favorite dishes. My wife went with the pasta with blackened salmon and creamy pesto. I went with the chicken florentine. Both of us found the food to be incredible. So fresh and light. A wonderful experience. We travel to Cleveland every couple months and will return without a doubt.

Really enjoyed the arancini appetizer! The build your own pasta was delicious, I got the ravioli with the spicy arrabiata sauce and it had a lot of kick, just the way I like it! My friend had the chicken Parmesan, which was huge. Our gracious server was happy to make a doggie back for us. Save room for their home made gelato, I had the pumpkin cheesecake gelato and it was rich and creamy. Next time we are in Little Italy, we will stop by again.

My wife and I had a wonderful dinner at Anthony’s on 12÷13÷14. Starting with a delicious calamari that was very tender and a good marinara. My wife had veal parmigiana and a side of fettuccini Alfredo, while I had the cheese tortteloni, not torttelini. Tortteloni is a larger thicker version of tortellini. I had the vodka basil sauce. We finished it off with a pumpkin cheesecake gelato and a tiramisu gelato. The entire meal was delicious and our waiter Andrew gave us great service. We highly recommend a night out here.

Disappointed.
Have to say we expected better of the #2 Italian establishment in Little Italy. Someone must’ve called off because the hostess was our server for the evening. Service was slow even after it took 15 minutes for someone to come around for our drink order. The house salad was decent; the fried green tomatoes tasteless. I ordered the chicken parmesan while the other two in my party ordered the spaghetti bolognese. The chicken parm was pretty good but the bolognese sauce was overcooked and heavy on the tomato paste. The meat in the bolognese tasted like ground pureed meatloaf… was kind of bizarre.
Overall, the experience was just ‘meh’; we won’t be in a hurry to return.

Poor waitstaff, seemed overwhelmed even though it was almost empty. Received no bread, had to ask for water. Cocktails were weak and much too sweet. The Ravi tasted like a bad Shirley temple and I sent it back. Tomatoes in the caprese salad were not ripe. Stuffed peppers were good, but served Luke warm and Marina was too sweet, blech. Only saving grace was chicken piccata.
Will not returning, your better off going to Maxis or somewhere else on mayfield.

Any traditional Italian restaurant that will go out of their way to make a special vegan meal gets 5 stars from me.
I was looking for a new place to check out in Little Italy and noticed Adam R.‘s review that mentioned vegan options at Anthony’s. You have to call or make a note in your reservation, but that’s no big deal.
The night before my dinner, the manager called me to discuss my dinner options. I was offered stuffed peppers, spaghetti and meatballs, or lasagna. I could be Garfield the cat when it comes to lasagna, so you know what I picked.
When I arrived the next night and checked in with the hostess, they noted that I was the vegan and a first time diner and made sure to give me a very warm welcome.
We started off our meal with cheeseless bruschetta and my fiancé had an order of arancini balls. He gobbled them up, so they must have been good. I don’t think you can every really go wrong with bruschetta, so I enjoyed my appetizer. And then our entrees came out. My fiancé had some sort of chicken and I had some of the best vegan lasagna (besides my own recipe, of course) that I’ve ever eaten. It was made with seitan, a meat substitute, a flavorful sauce, and a little bit of Daiya, a vegan cheese. It was really delicious.
My server told me that the lasagna is good but I need to go back and check out the vegan meatballs. If they’re half as good as the lasagna, I can’t wait!
Also important to note, there are gluten free options. Again, it helps to call ahead or make a note in your reservation, but kudos to the owner and chef for accomodating special dietary needs.

Portion of each meal is hugee, and will definitely make you full. I had my lunch there with my parents there and we ordered different types of pasta. One of my favourite dish is the seafood pasta. Totally recommend it! They all look similar, especially since it’s all covered in red tomato sauce, but don’t worry each dish have different taste from one another. Dining inside the restaurant is also very classy, kind of like fine dining, so it’s really nice for more formal events.

Deanna and her hunsband have owned this place for 14 years. Last night was truly magical and some of the best vegan food we’ve had in Cleveland. Walnut fig salad with heirloom tomatoes and a balsamic lemon dressing (no oil), heirloom tomato flat bread with fresh basil and a balsamic reduction, and our main course of mushroom walnut meatballs, an insane cheesy seitan lasagna (best I’ve ever had) made with fresh vegan noodles and a veggie ravioli with cashew vodka sauce. This feast was mostly oil free too! I never knew little Italy to be all that accessible to vegans but Deanna and our vegan server Abbey made us feel right at home. The only catch is you MUST CALL AHEAD so they can prep these delicious items. While they aren’t on the regular menu they are more than happy to make them. Highly recommended!

Probably the best Italian meal I’ve ever had! I didn’t have any idea where to go for dinner while I was visiting Cleveland, but I heard that all the Italian restaurants were wonderful in Little Italy.
The first one we saw was Anthony’s. We glanced at the menu and decided it looked like the kind of food we wanted, so we stayed. I am so glad we did!
I had the Veal Parmesan and Meat Ravioli and both were just wonderful! I also had the house salad (with dried cranberries) with their homemade vinegarette dressing, and also the Bruschetta appetizer. Everything was very very good!
Beautiful atmosphere and excellent, friendly service.
I’m looking forward to going back! :)

It was a beautiful walk through little Italy to get to Anthony’
and greeted by friendly staff upon arrival. Though the menu was a bit smaller they had some really enticing choices. The pesto butter for our bread hit the spot. We ordered eggplant fries for our appetizer, a chicken and artichoke flatbread and an eight ounce pork rib eye.
The eggplant fries came out hot and ready, a very decent sized portion for an appetizer at a great price. The marinara and garlic/​parsley sauces really added to the dish. The flatbread was good and the pork loin was very succulent with a full grilled zuccini. The service here was absolutely amazing. The owner takes interest in his customers and is visible throughout the evening. He even stopped to chat with us for a good ten minutes. If you are looking for a quaint place with large food portions and a fantastic waiter staff I would definitely suggest this gem.