Gio Fabulous

I was just passing through when the hunger bug struck me so I pulled off the interstate in Ellenton, Florida to see what I could stuff into my pie hole. I drove around for a few minutes and narrowed my choices between Gio’s Fabulous Pizza and Martini Bar and Chili’s. I decided to roll the dice and go with the local fare and let me tell you — the place is FABULOUS. I started off with some complimentary garlic bread with oil. It want your generic garlic bread but moist, spongey, textured, and just the right amount of flavor. I then ordered the Rustica pizza with ham, onions, and Gorgonzola. The crust was nice and crispy and the Gorgonzola was not overpowering at all. I think the other toppings were a little sparse, but still a very satisfying lunch.

STAY away. I have nothing good to say about this restaurant the worst service I’ve ever had. I’ve also never ever been treated as HORRIFICALLY they treated me after asking for a manager. After being told by two that there was a manager a manager never showed up 20 minutes later we left. So many restaurants around that want your business.

Got order wrong so me and wife ate seperately… brought me a cheese pizza when ordered a pepporoni… so they took it back and added pepperoni real quick and returned it… wow

If you are shopping at the outlets, stop st Gios for great food and service. Our server Liam was very courteous and prompt with our food. The vodka rigatoni pasta dish was scrumptious

We visited Gio’s for the first time last night and it was a very good experience. Our server, Luke, was informative and attentive. I had the homemade gnocchi with bolognese sauce and it was really good. It is rare to find homemade gnocchi in all but the upscale restaurants since it is a very labor intensive process. My wife and our friend both had pizza and they said they were very good.
Bottom line… We enjoyed Gio’s and we will be returning.

Okay. Let’s be real for a minute. Maybe two. I went here based on the recommendation of someone who hadn’t been here in years. They insisted the pizza was phenomenal, and being the foodie I am I had to see (read taste) for myself.
Good news: She was right. We ordered a cheese pizza and added pepperoni and onion since it’s our favorite. The pizza took roughly 15 minutes to come out, but it was well worth the wait. Slightly too much oil, but that’s really picking nits for the sake of being a critic.
Bad news: We had to wait roughly 10 – 15 minutes to sit despite there being ample tables available (I’ll explain in a minute) which is a bit irritating when you are unsure as to why you can’t take one of the 10 open tables in front of you. A simple explanation would have sufficed. We also had to ask for things like pepper and Parmesan cheese more than once, and by the time they finally brought them we were already halfway done with the pizza.
Ugly news: Management. Look, having been a manager in retail for a long time, one of the keys to being successful is having a full, properly trained staff. That was clearly lacking here. Two waiters for the entire place, the hostess was cleaning tables so customers walking in were not being greeted and/​or helped immediately, and the staff was clearly overwhelmed. If you’re having trouble finding help, it’s understandable, but the manager (s) should be there to help ease the situation instead of being no where in sight (if they were even there at all).
Final statement: Most of the time great service can negate out bad food, but good food almost never negates out bad/​insufficient service.

I only gave one star because the pizza was good. As for the everything else, zero points. The knife I used to cut my tomato and mozzarella broke with the first cut. The complimentary bread was ice cold. The table to the right of us had empty drinks during our entire meal. The table to the left was seated long before we arrived and when we left, they server was boxing up one ladies dinner that she never received and the rest of her party was already finished eating.
WORST PART: as we were walking to our cars, we passed by the window seats facing the parking lot and I could see dead bugs between the booths and the window glass! German cockroaches and spiders! Thankful they were dead but it still turned my stomach!
We will never return!

Good meal before or after shopping at Ellenton. They have all the usual Italian favorites.

Went to Gio’s tonight for dinner. We were a party of 5, so the wait was 20 minutes. That was ok. The problem was that a waitress or waiter never came to our table to take our order. For 20 minutes. Now the waiter served the table 1 foot away from us, but not our table.
We left to go to Ferraro’s.
Now I want to like this place, but there just seems to always be something.

Started eating at Gio’s Portofino on Cortez back in 2001 (see separate review). This location is a bit less fancy but Gio’s still has the BEST pizza in the area (and having spent a lot of time in Philly, South Jersey and New York Nibbler knows his pizza). Fresh tomato sauce and cheese on a thin crispy crust. Can’t beat it with a Caesar salad and a Happy Hour martinis or a bottle of red wine. They offer lots of pizza variations but we love the simple Margarita pizza the most.
Caveat — For the best taste, this pizza has to be eaten here, fresh out of the oven. Over the years we’ve tried driving it home. Doesn’t work. Still tasty, but nothing like eating it fresh.

Enjoying Ferraros pizza tonight. After deciding to try Gio after about a 3 year hiatus I called in 2 pizzas to go. Once I arrived the pizzas were done. I then found out their computer was down and I couldn’t pay. I waited 20 minutes and finally had to leave. They never offered me the pizzas which were sitting there and I will once again not eat at Gio. A little customer service could have gone a long way tonight. I shouldn’t be eating Ferraros… Missed opportunity Gio.

Food very good. Atmosphere. Offensive
Get a clue !!! More people would go if you didn’t have a horn player sitting at the bar playing at 120 decibels. Yes the music sounds good but who the #%^*+. Wants to go to a place with the music is loud and in your face that you can’t even have a conversation. WTF are you thinking that anyone would want to go there and be subjected to that? I mentioned it to a server who said. I know we tried to tell the owner but he wants it loud.
Food is very good, We had been there 8 or 9 times and then sadly the last 2 times you drove us out with the music. We now go to the blue mangrove to have dinners and drinks, it’s a farther drive, frankly the food is not as good and the atmosphere although outside is not as cozy as GIO. BUT you know what they also don’t have ??? they don’t have offensive music playing in your face at 120DB.
In also reading all the other reviews I would agree that although the food is very good, the service is always pretty bad. Young kids who have no waiter experience at all that makes you feel u comfortable as they try to do their best but don’t do a very good job.

Usually the bar area is packed. Great drinks and the calamari is wonderful. Fluffy, not deep fried like normal places.

Very impressed by this restaurant! For an appetizer I had the caprese, which was very good, main course I had the spinach chicken Alfredo, it was outstanding! Dessert was the almond amaretto cake which was essentially a mix between a pana cotta and bread pudding. Had the raspberry Bellini to start and a grand marnier to end. The prices were unbelievable, I was definitely expecting my tab to be double. The only concern was that although the service was great, it was really only because the manager was babysitting the bar basically and also that the bartender didn’t know what was in a tiramisu (the people next to me were asking) this was a little surprising seeing that it is an Italian restaurant and tiramisu is sold at virtually any Italian or even pizza place. 4 stars because the service can be improved, but the food is definitely worth it!

Their food is great, but the service can be VERY lack luster.
Picture it — Saturday, March 7^th 2015. My birthday dinner with a party of 9, opps make that 10. They weren’t very happy about that +1. And we all know where a restaurant makes their money… the bar. And ALL my folks, except me, are big drinkers. And true to form, they kept the bar and their 2 for 1 special hopping.
The night and the service started off just fine, albeit a bit slower than anticipated. Then it came time for the appetizers to actually start showing up. You would think they would make an additional effort to keep the birthday boy, me, happy. Nope… kept forgetting who it was when they made comments.
To make a long story short…1)we got almost all of our salads, almost 2) they didn’t remember who ordered what when the entrees were ready 3)…and when it came to bill time. OMG … that was a real sad state of affairs. They couldn’t remember who got what. It tooks them, NO EXAGGERATION, 30 mins to get the bills corrected. No apologizes, no explanations, etc…
So here is my true recommendation — couples night, meeting a friend for dinner/drinks…do it. Got a group… go somewhere else.

I really wanted to give this place a higher rating. The visual ambiance and service was excellent. I think the live music was way too loud for my taste and I was seated almost as far away as I could get from the bar area. The low lighting and beautiful dining area would be a perfect date spot but you wouldn’t be able to hear your own conversation. Luckily I was alone. The pizza looked fabulous. I should have ordered pizza! I ordered Gnocchi Bolagnase. The gnocchi was gummy-​undercooked-​pasty. The bolagnase sauce was mediocre. I wish it had more flavor but I like strong flavor in everything I eat. Granted I could have got some red pepper so that’s on me. More Italian spices would have been better for me, but it may be mild due to the customer base. I would go back. But next time, I’ll stick to pizza.

So I haven’t written a review in a long while, and I feel this establishment is definitely worth the time for a review.
Came here on a whim looking for someplace easy and simple to eat.
Upon walking in, I realized this was not a typical «pizza joint».
We were greeted by a hostess immediately and she was very polite and friendly. Our hostess also turned out to be our server and she had tagging along with her a server in training. He also was attentive and polite to our needs throughout our experience.
I won’t say the place was hopping busy at 6pm; but there were a number of seats filled and the bar area was definitely crowded.
The ONLY reason this place did not receive five stars from me was due to the loud, semi live music coming from the bar area. It was simply overwhelming throughout the restaurant and took away from some of the ambiance and overall dining experience.
Onto the dinner selection. I started with scallop sliders. They had what appeared to be a remoulade sauce that complemented the scallops beautifully. The presentation was nice and they certainly did not last long on the plate.
For dinner I had the spaghetti frutte di mare that included an abundance of shrimp, mussels and scallops. The sauce was just the right amount of «spicy» and I could not get enough bread to sop up the remaining sauce.
For dessert I ordered the Almond Amaretto cake. It was very light and tasty. Again, the presentation was excellent.
All in all, this restaurant was a great «find», even though I know it has been there since I’ve been living here.
I will try again, perhaps during a weekend night to see if the service is on the same par as a Monday night.
Two thumbs up!

The place was packed, I got the last seat at the bar. There was only one employee behind the bar. He stated that the other guy was pulled to the kitchen. The meals kept coming out with no bread available. When it did come out, most were already done with their meals and the bread was cold. I also asked for another Chardonnay, but was given a different kind of wine. I ordered the lobster ravioli which was a small portion for the $ 21 price tag. The bartender was moving very quickly in an effort to keep up.

Gio Fabulous is perfectly positioned to cash in on shoppers who are hungry after a day of discount clothing purchases. Their prices are high, a lot higher than they should be based on the ingredients that line the counters. They weren’t Barilla, but they weren’t homemade either. Of course, we knew when we walked in that we were going to be overpaying so I’m not holding that against the business.
What I will hold against the business is the service. When we came in on July 5^th around 1:00 there seemed to be two waitresses and a waiter. One waitress was hustling and bustling all over the place taking care of her customers fabulously. The other two were slow, inattentive and would disappear for long periods of time. As fate would have it, we were seated in one of the inattentive zones.
We were brought bread to begin with. It had fresh mozzarella and garlic baked into it. I refrained because of the cheese. J-​Fur devoured a loaf with the help of a plateful of olive oil and spices. She asked that I order her another one and then went off to the bathroom. During her stay, the waitress did not appear once to get her more bread or refill my water. In fact, the waitress did not come around again until our entrees were ready to be delivered.
My entrée was a pizza, no cheese, lots of spinach, garlic and tomatoes. J-​Fur ordered the gnocchi with no meat sauce. We both enjoyed the taste of our meals a lot. The pizza, even with no cheese, had great flavor and the crust was nice and crispy. It was taken right to that edge of being burnt and then removed. Maximum crispness with no flaky burning. J-​Fur loved the chewy gnocchi and flavorful sauce. Paired with the second loaf of bread (yes we were able to order it) it was a nearly flawless meal.
The meal was almost good enough to have me rate Gio with four stars. Unfortunately the service left such a bad taste in my mouth that, in the end, I couldn’t go the extra star. The great meal couldn’t completely wash that taste away. I hope this was just a bad day for the servers and this type of service isn’t the norm at Gio. Otherwise some pretty good food is being wasted on subpar service.

For the first time at this establishment
We walked up and looked at the menu
Placed on the table and we were made to g
Feel like we were not allowed or wanted inside to sit down and this was wrong we asked one question and the bartender just went rang it up and asked us to pay … We where not asked if we wanted to sit or any thing REALLY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE WILL NOT BE REPEATING ANY VISITS AGAIN…, I feel like I was judged by my appearance