Johnny V

Skip it. We had eggs and toast appetizer. 3 quail eggs 3 pork belly with «toast». Pork was overcooked. Very chewy. «Duck, duck, duck» was ok. Low quality duck. Not much flavor. The leg was a bit dry. Sea bass was well cooked but very, very fishy and came in a weird fish broth. On both plates, the spinach was very bitter. Each plate was around $ 35. App was around $ 17. Cocktails were ok, $ 13 a piece. Meal was $ 170 for 2 with tip. Service was fine. Fire this price I expect better quality ingredients.

The food was excellent along with the service. Spoke with the GM, he also was a great guy. I highly recommend the BBQ Salmon.

Food and ambience were exceptional. We had Duck and Mahi Mahi and it couldn’t have been prepared better. Our waiter was also excellent. The only reason why I am giving only two instead of five stars was the comment of one of the employees that brought the food. He advised me that the plate was as hot as my fiancée and I should be carful touching it. In a restaurant like Johnny V, I would have expected manners and not some waiter hitting on my company or trying to be inappropriately funny.

Outstanding food, service, and wine & cheese menus! Surf and Turf carried us away! The bar has an extensive cocktail list and personality to match. Jim our waiter was so attentive and gave us great recommendations! Cheers!

The food was good. The crab cakes were a little small for an appetizer but the filet melted in my month. My friend got the sea bass which was maybe 5oz, over priced at $ 39 so skip the bass. Our Server could of been more engaging. I would return just for a few cocktails and a small appetizer but wouldn’t stay for dinner.

The service was great and the martini was strong! The food was ok. Had the chicken and waffles and it was pretty bland. Not a lot of flavor at all. Didn’t finish it.
A little disappointing to my stomach but I was pretty buzzed from one martini and smiling from compliments from a charming Jamaican busser.
All in all it was a nice experience but I wish the food had been more appetizing.

Love Johnny V’s… the menu is fabulous (the cheese menu is amazing!) and it has a great vibe… some fabulous fish dishes here and desserts to die for! ;-)
Always on our «to visit» list when in Fort Lauderdale…

My boyfriend and I were walking around and early for a surprise birthday dinner which was next door, so we decided to stop here for a drink. It was pretty empty — but it was still pretty early for any dinner rush. We sat at the bar which was really nice and our bartender was really sweet and helped us immediately. I definitely would love to come back to this place and try it for dinner. The menu looks great and looks like a wonderful place to go on Las Olas.

Great find in otherwise mediocre Las Olas.
Excellent mushroom stack, duck meatloaf and extensive cheese selection. Good service.

Was great overall food. Creative, and portions are pretty serious for anyone. Just be in the mood for some rich/​heavy items mainly on the menu and say good bye to that «diet» for one night ;-)

Amazing wild mushroom pancakes followed by the mag tag blue salad that was to die for. Our server Ed’s recommendations were spot on and he was truly wonderful! I had a mimosa with fresh squeezed oj that was also fantastic!

Had a very nice dinner here over a long weekend on my first visit to the area, and I will say it was a tasty welcome to Ft. Lauderdale. The outdoor seating is a particular bonus, given the very mild and welcoming climate.
Their wine selection was quite good — I don’t usually drink wine and I finished a very nice glass. The tomato soup seems to be a house specialty, and the sample they brought before the meal did not disappoint.
Both my dinner companion and I really enjoyed our dishes, and I think it’s safe to say we’d both go back.

Have eaten here several times before and always enjoyed it. Was in town for the weekend and planned dinner with my brothers and their wives. We were a party of 8 and were seated in the back in a room off the main back dining room where we were the only ones. It was a perfect place for a large party since it was quiet and allowed easy conversation. The waiter was prompt and thorough going over the specials. We ordered appetizers which all vame out together, except my salad which he forgot to put in, fortunately the salads were very large and splitting my wife’s maytag blue cheese salad was perfect so I canceled my salad. The entrees were all delivered at the same time and were all well prepared, I had the grilled Mahi Mahi with plantain rock shrimp dressing and cranberry-​mango chutney. The fish was perfectly cooked and the stuffing was amazing. My wife had the duck, duck duck, a great dish for duck lovers. We were there for quite some time in the back room and there was never any rush to get us out. Only negative was when the waiter hit my wife in the head with a plate because of a table poorly placed behind the curtain behind us.

3.5 stars (rating decreased due to service). If you are interesting in fine dining in Fort Lauderdale with a casual vibe, then Johnny V is your place. I had been to Johnny V years ago with a big group and sat at the large table in the back of the dining room. Last weekend, on a beautiful cool South Florida night, my son and I sat on the patio. If the weather permits, I recommend the patio so you can enjoy the weather and the hustle and bustle of Las Olas.
The menu has a nice variety of fairly creative starters and mains. We decided on three starters and one main to share. We were offered an amuse bouche of Smoked Tomato Soup served the tiniest of crostini spread with goat cheese. The soup was so delicious I would have ordered a whole bowl if I could. We also received focaccia served with a cheese spread.
We enjoyed everything we ordered except for one item. We had:
«Bacon, Eggs, and Toast”-can I describe a dish as adorable? Yes, the simple combination of crisp pork belly, quail eggs, fig marmalade, and toast points was fun to eat and tickled the tastebuds. I just could have used more of those delectable quail eggs to make my sandwich creations.
Breast of Duck Meatballs-​one of my the favorite items that we tried. I am not sure which I liked better, the actual meatballs or the tasty mushroom mash they were served upon.
Tuna Tartar-​a special that night, I did not care for this dish. It was basically medium chunks of tuna in a soy based sauce. Nothing special-​especially for $ 29!
Scallops-​this was the one main we shared. The scallops were perfectly prepared, albeit a tad salty. They were topped with a crab mixture and placed on top of mashed potato mounds. Not amazing, but solid.
A word about the service. It was pretty bad. I saw others servers reading specials to tables. I had to ask about the specials. I also had to ask for bread. We really did not get much attention at all. This is not the first time I have had poor or indifferent service when dining alone with one of my sons at a fine dining establishment. It is a coincidence or do servers automatically think «bad tip» when they see a woman and child alone without a male? I do have to note that the server did somewhat redeem himself when he took the Tuna Tartar off our bill when he saw we did not enjoy it.
I do look forward to returning to Johnny V to try more dishes and hopefully, we will get better service next time.

Great Restaurants. If you love great wine. This place is for you. This food is to die for. I have never been there and have one disappointing meal. This is the place to be seen and the place to dine.

We had the filet minion, surf and turf, and Johnny’s favorite cake. Everything was absolutely delicious and perfectly prepared. Our server, Greg, was very good, polite, prompt, and well timed. Next time we are in ft Lauderdale we will look forward to returning. The special appetizer of the day, stone crab claws, were not the best we’ve ever had, but everything on the menu was great.

The cheese tray is a fun treat. More cheeses on the menu than you can count. The main entrees, however, are pretentious, mediocre, and overpriced.

Ok, gotta say this… review my earlier posts, or the 100+ posts under my former user name. Also look at my reviews — generally 50 words or less so enjoy this one! I seldom bash a restaurant, but last night this was an embarrassing moment for this Las Olas mainstay.
Double date last night at Johnny Vs. We were seated, ordered apps, salads, drinks, etc. My buddy’s wife ordered the salmon filet and my buddy order the duck. We’d ordered several app’s so we decided to order the chicken and share.
Mind you, this is one of the most expensive restaurants on Las Olas… what a poor, poor experience. My buddies duck and his wife’s salmon arrived within 7 – 8 minutes of ordering. Our chicken arrived 30 seconds later with a wilted spinach accompaniment. Upon cutting into the chicken, it had a red center.
We sent it back to finish cooking, and 15 minutes later — after our date couple finished their dinner — still no chicken. After asking our guests if they would be embarrassed if we refused the chicken, we asked the waiter to have the manager come over.
The manager came, and we asked him to cancel our order citing the delay. He was cordial and walked away — presumably to cancel the order.
Literally 10 minutes later, the waiter appeared with our chicken. We explained that we’d asked the manager to cancel the order — the waiter muttered under his breath and went clearly pissed — but blamed the lack of communication between the manager, the waiter and the kitchen. We asked for our check.
So here’s the interesting part. We get the check, $ 98 for two vodkas, two wines, a beer, four salads and a mushroom stack. They had removed the entrees but my date and U paid for ½ the bill but never even saw an entrée.
Sorry Johnny V, but the lack of communication and the indifference is appalling. I’ve eaten here before, never thought it was great, but tried to keep it in the mix for Las Olas. They also own Luigi’s and Tuscan Grill… they’re still on my list.
But Johnny V’s –not this crap for this pricepoint.

Everything was amazing to the vibe in the restaurant to the actual table they say is at. A party of 7 is always hard and we had a great square table so we could all talk and share dishes. Malcolm our server was great, honest and very accommodating. The food was spectacular the mushroom pancakes were outstanding and the sea bass (which I had plain with lemon) was the best I’ve ever had. The winner of the night however was the crème brûlée… WOW. We all loved and it reminded us of our grandmas strawberry pie. Can’t wait to come back.

Very nice restaurant for a special night out. Wait staff was very friendly and helpful. And perfectly attentive
The food was really good. We started with the duck meatballs which were juicy and flavorful. I like the calamari (it wasn’t extraordinary though) and especially the dipping sauce. Finally the mushroom pancake was moist and savory.
For dinner, the three of us shared the scallops and snapper. Both yummy. Scallops were soft and buttery. I did taste a bit of freezer burn in the green beans but my companions didn’t.
The mofungo was delicious and I absolutely loved the callalou – really good
For desert we shared the crème brûlée – yum yum

$ 60 for two appetizers?
Really?
Tuna tartare and
Bacon and quail eggs
Pork belly
We were hungry late at night
Won’t go back anytime soon too many other places to choose from

Delicious and classy. Been here many times and it never disappoints. The bread and cheese dip they give to each table is literally incredible and everything I have had here has been good. Great ppl watching as well if you eat outside!

Love this place. The separate cheese from around the world menu is a huge plus. I love to take friends here when they visit from out of town. The food has never let me down, its simply amazing.

There aren’t too many restaurants that leave me speechless. I can count 3 but Johnny V is now one of them so that makes the count 4. The service, the ambiance and obviously, the food were all 5 star worthy. I was invited there for a first date and talk about knowing how to impress a girl. I feel bad because he was as interesting as watching paint dry in the dark BUT the meal kept me entertained so… yeah, back to the restaurant.
It’s not as big as you would think watching it from the outside but it has enough room to host 1 – 2 large groups with other patrons in the restaurant. They have every spirit known to man available, a few bottled craft beers and an extensive wine list. The food was great. Seared ahi tuna that made me tempted to lick the plate, an entrée whose name escapes at this moment and a dessert with 3 different ice cream flavors. The waiter was exceptionally helpful in offering recommendations from the menu as well as the chef’s specialties of the day. I always say to go with the chef specialty since the menu usually remains the same. Unless the menu is seasonal, go with whatever the chef specialty of the day is. I guarantee you that he put his foot into it why it’s so damn good.
Thank God this was a date because I doubt I like myself enough to spend this much on dinner! It would have to be a REALLY special occasion for me to do so, like if I won the Nobel Peace Prize or something. Between a shared appetizer, 2 entrees, dessert and 6 drinks, let’s just say he’s probably mad that the first date was the last one since the bill plus tip was around $ 175 – 180 area. Yikes. As my friend Danielle R suggested, head here for happy hour where you and your wallet can dine on a dime and still be happy when you leave :-)

Not that I am likely to be back here, but we came here for a group dinner on a recent business trip and the food was really good. It was a standard 3 course meal with a tasty salad, entrée (I had mushroom risotto, which was very good) and dessert.
It was a Friday night, and there were open tables, so I assume you could stroll in if you were in the area. I can’t comment on the price, but the staff was nice, the restaurant itself is hip looking with modern art on the walls, and the food was very good.

Came here with a group of friends after many years absent and i happily discovered that i still love this restaurant.
The service is not pushy, we spent hours there just talking and having cocktails and a great time without feeling like we were being kicked out. The waiter wa sgracious enough to let us hang out even though we were the last table there after dinner.
Everyone was friendly and nice and food was as good as i remember!
The pancake stack was delicious. We got a bit of roasted tomato soup compliments of the house which was fantastic.
The sea bass was perfectly cooked and the scallops were delicious.
All my friends liked their food also and i cant wait to take my husband there.

We went for the $ 35 summer special. The restaurant wasn’t busy and the service was good. Loved the amuse bouche, salad and entrée. The dessert looked amazing but the shell was disappointing and too hard to eat.

I’m upgrading my review. #upgrademe
We had the most AMAZING dining experience here a couple Fridays ago. I met my old college roommate here for din din. The original plan was to meet on Las Olas and do Happy Hour (HH) and I suggested Johnny V’s as I remembered they had a great selection of wines by the glass and some bar eats before 7 pm. I ordered a glass of cab priced at $ 7 and we decided to get an outside patio table. I wish I would’ve ordered a second class of that cab b/​c after happy hour pricing it was $ 16 a glass! Shiver me timbers, head for the hills, that’s expensive!
We started with a cheese tasting being that we were already drinking wine. We choose 3, and it came with a bunch of other yummie enjoyments (see pix). My friend picked the L’Explorateur cheese, which maybe my new favorite cheese it was decadent. We thoroughly enjoyed this #doit!
Next we decided on 2 appetizers to share the Porkbelly & Quail Eggs (think it’s called bacon & eggs) and the Tuna. The clear winner was the bacon & eggs, it was simple but delectable in it’s flavoring, it’s also perfect for sharing. Would highly recommend trying this dish. The Tuna was good, but compared to the other 2 shining stars it didn’t have much of a shot in my book.
My old roommate was in awe of this place, she now lives in WPB and couldn’t stop talking about how good the food was and how she wished they had something like this in WPB. She liked it so much so she was going to take her Dad there the very next night!
Job well done guys you were definitely on your game.

I had never even heard of Johnny V before Savanna’s UYE for Dine Out Lauderdale. While this place is probably a bit too expensive for my tastes, I’m glad we got to give it a try.
When Savanna had made the reservation for 14 of us, no one had told her that groups of 8 or more could not partake in the Dine Out Lauderdale menu. That exception is nowhere on the website either. After a minute or two of confusion, Alex, the manager, came over and told us that since the person who took the reservation neglected to mention this, that we could still order from that menu. This was met with gratitude from the group, obviously, but I would suggest they make that caveat more clear in the future on their website as well as the Dine Out Lauderdale website. Other restaurants list exceptions, and even Johnny V has a notice there that the menu isn’t valid during the Boat Show. Additionally, Steak 954’s menu clearly says that it’s only available for parties of 8 or less, so obviously it’s possible.
I started with the smoked tomato soup, which is served with whipped goat cheese crostinis. This was the highlight of my meal. The soup is aptly titled: flavorful, with a slight smokiness. I wish there had been more of it, and more of the goat cheese crostinis as well. They were delicious.
The second course’s menu option differed from the options given on the Dine Out Lauderdale site. I had planned on ordering the slow braised beef meatballs, which were to be served with whipped herb ricotta, greens, and a red wine vinaigrette. Sounded fantastic. Sadly, that was not actually on the menu at the restaurant. There was a meatball option, but it was duck, which I do not eat. So I ordered the cajun ceasar salad, which was small and rather forgettable.
For my main course, I chose the grilled sliced New York strip, which was served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a barbecue demi glacé. When I had ordered this, I asked for it to be medium-​well, and specifically said I wanted very little pink. However, the steak was cooked medium-​rare (quite a difference). Thankfully, our server Michael quickly took it back and had it cooked longer, and then it was perfect. I was not a fan of the barbecue demi glacé, since I feel like it overpowered the flavor of the steak. The roasted garlic mashed potatoes were quite good.
The three berry crème brûlée «pot pie» sounded intriguing, so I chose that for dessert. It came served in a macadamia graham crust, which I thought I’d like more than I actually did. This was just okay. I love crème brûlée, but this was underwhelming.
Michael thankfully split all of our checks (trying to separate it on our own would have been a nightmare), and thanked us all for coming. He even pointed out the 20% gratuity added to our bills for parties of 6 or more, so that we wouldn’t accidentally double tip. Although it was easy for me to spot, I appreciated his being forthcoming about it, as I’ve seen plenty of servers choose to let you find out the hard way.
I thought I’d leave here really impressed, but I didn’t. I don’t know that the food here is worth the high price tag outside of Dine Out Lauderdale.

I attended the Dine Out Fort Lauderdale UYE hosted by Savanna (big round of applause) at Johnny V’s. As I walked in, I was immediately seated with our big group towards the back of the restaurant. The menu looked very appetizing and I started with a nice glass of Chardonnay which was really refreshing and really hit the spot.
For those that don’t know, Dine Out Fort Lauderdale is the Broward County equilavent to the hugely popular Miami Spice, where many upper-​class restaurants for one month of the year prepare a prix fixe menu of their dishes for one price.
As other Unilocalers who attended the event, the service at the beginning was not very good (our waiter Michael seemed rusehed and annoyed); however I beliebe he was initially overwhelmed by how many people were in our group, but as the night wore on, the service became much better. Michael would come and refillour glasses of water as well as with the onion bread, so the service, after beginning slow, gets high marks.
We were treated to the complimentary onion bread which I will not attempt to spell, lest I make a fool of myself. All I can say it was very soft and paired with the garlic roasted blue cheese dressing on the side, it really hit the spot.
My first course consisted of the Key West Conch Style Chowder, which came out very hot. Now this chowder was not your typical clam chowder, which is white and creamy. This chowder was red and had the right amount of spice in it, which is how I like it. I would order this again.
The next course was a corn crusted calamari. I echo what other reviewers have said in that the crunch and breading over the calamari tasted as if I was eating a tortilla chip; the calamari was a little hard to chew but the sauce that came with it (consisting of aiolu, chipotle vinaigrette and salsa) made the calamari a little more palatable, although it is not something I would order again.
For the main course I had the sage grilled Florida dolphin with a side of rock shrimp plantaion stuffing and a cranberry mango chutney sauce. The fish was tender and moist, which is always good in a fish. It had the right amount of sage grilled into it and the plantain stuffing was a highlight of the meal.
For dessert, I had «Johnny’s Favorite Chocolate Cake» which was a chocolate cake but it contained caramel, banana and peanut butter mousse and a side of malted milk ice cream. This was a very interesting concotion, but delicious.
The food was ok, but it did not give me that wow factor. Maybe I might come in for the regular menu to see if it might be different.
We were treated to the complimentary onion bread which I will not attempt to spell, lest I make a fool of myself. All I can say it was very soft and paired with the garlic roasted blue cheese dressing on the side, it really hit the spot.
My first course consisted of the Key West Conch Style Chowder, which came out very hot. Now this chowder was not your typical clam chowder, which is white and creamy. This chowder was red and had the right amount of spice in it, which is how I like it. I would order this again.
The next course was a corn crusted calamari. I echo what other reviewers have said in that the crunch and breading over the calamari tasted as if I was eating a tortilla chip; the calamari was a little hard to chew but the sauce that came with it (consisting of aiolu, chipotle vinaigrette and salsa) made the calamari a little more palatable, although it is not something I would order again.
Once again, a big thank you to Savanna for putting this event together as well as to all my fellow Unilocalers who made this a great event.

Awesome $ 35 four course meal thru July 31!!! The food here is excellent. I have eaten here three times and it always surpasses my expectations.
I went for the summer special menu. They are very creative with food presentation and the mix of flavors and textures. Service is always good. They sometimes don’t look busy from the front, but the restaurant goes way back and always gets a crowd. I recommend a reservation during all seasons!
They have a good happy hour on food and drinks I want to check out next. There is metered street parking in front of restaurant or lots to the north of Las Olas you can park in.