Stefano’s

Fresh Grouper marinara with Brussel sprouts was beyond the best thing I have ever had on the beach! This is a very private restaurant with some of the greatest food décor I have ever seen! Soo much fun and such down to earth people. I will, with out a doubt, be back here to eat the grouper and enjoy the wonderful ambiance with my guests! Thank you Stephanos A+++

Fabulous food! Nothing in this restaurant matches and it’s very artsy as everything is for sale. The grouper marinara and brussels sprouts are unbelievable good! The wine is also amazing, all organic.

Over the last 2 years my partner and I have consistently visited Stefano’s for the best Italian food around and they have never disappointed. Evelyn is wonderful and Dania is the very best when it comes to customer and friendly service. Hope to see Merv back too… she’s a great, funny server! We have been excited to bring our family members and friends over the years and they too have become fans. Love the homey/​warm atmosphere, great homemade sangria and my favorite dish, Michaelangleo!

Come on. Really? All these good reviews for an overpriced, mediocre restaurant?
Stephano’s is where you go when Thai Pan Alley is closed. Overpriced, overpriced, overpriced! Baked salmon with no sauce, no seasoning with white rice, something called Michelangelo — not bad — and a large pitcher of sangria that was half ice — $ 80.25??? Seriously? The couple at the next table had something on their bill comped. Last time I was there the food was comped because the mussels were salty as f***, and the carbonara was curdled and flavourless. Service has always been good, but you can’t eat that.
Go to Thai Pan Alley, pay $ 32 before tip for two and have a good meal. Stephano’s needs to wake up and get real. Just because you say you’re authentic doesn’t mean your food is worth $ 100. $ 34 for the large pitcher of sangria. Pull your heads out of your asses. Rip off.

We have come to IRB for a week each year for the last 4 years, and this is our favorite restaurant in Pinellas Co. We took a flyer on this place on our first visit, immediately booked a second visit before we left, and two visits a week is now a tradition. Evelyn is a charming, welcoming host and Stefan (while also charming) is an outstanding chef. Go-​to dishes are the Seafood Stefan Fra Diavolo, scallop skewer over key lime linguine in butter sauce, lobster ravioli, an excellent gluten-​free brownie with salted caramel ice cream, and the limoncello layer cake dessert is a culinary mic drop. The ambience here is fabulous – cozy, eclectic, homey, with a dining room playlist to match (and all of it curated by Evelyn). If we lived here we’d eat here every week.

First time visit with my family. SUCH a homey feel inside. Food was delicious. marsala sauce tasted a bit like it had soy sauce in it though. Everything else was perfect!

My wife and I met with a couple friends from Manhattan (we’re both from Oregon, but with a combined 60+ years In the food and beverage industry) and found the fare excellent from beginning to end. Evelyn, our server and part owner, made the evening one of our finest experiences in many years. She understood her menu and shared their ability to accommodate our individual requests for subtle menu variations. There was nothing but an honest effort to guide us to great menu selections. She was neither too perky or scripted. It’s hard to explain our experience here other than to say Evelyn made us feel as though we were home. I felt as though I’d been coming here for years and was one of her favorite regulars. a hard task to accomplish on a first meeting! Kudos from Colin and Angie Call and my Sister in law Marcia and husband Bennie

I ordered to go the brisket ravioli and it was good. This is a very small restaurant and the food is made at the moment. I made a reservation for New Year and they would have a special menu for the occasion with their most popular plates.

Love the food and ambiance!!! It is quite different from what you would expect in a beach resort town… well worth a try! Food is delicious and service was great! You have to try their specialty, fiocchi!!!

Delightful dining experience. Quaint charm with the freshest food. A great Caesar salad with crunchy bread. A fabulous tomato bisque worth the trip,

Friendly almost family like greeting at the door. Lovely décor. I ordered one of the specials– brisket ravioli which came with a delicious shrimp bisque. My friend wanted something like surf and turf. She ordered the petit filet with a skewer of shrimp. Much to my chagrin she ordered her filet well done. However, this was the best cooked most tender piece of filet I have ever seen or tasted. The ravioli I ordered was just wonderful.
I have to say everything about this meal was perfect. We wanted to split a cannoli but what was served were two mini cannolis. Delish! Do yourself a favor and have dinner at Stefano’s. You will be happy you did!

Had dinner here tonight with my husband and daughter while on vacation. We sat outside to enjoy the lovely weather and revel in the fact we couldn’t do this home in Cleveland this time of year. The food was absolutely fantastic. The bread was warm with a crisp crust and soft center. I had the fiocchi a delicious pasta filled with pears and cheese in a cream sauce. My husband had the grouper which was cooked to perfection; light, flaky and moist. His linguine was served with a red diablo sauce which had a great flavor and nice spice/​heat but not overpowering. The brussels sprouts were also very flavorful. We finished the evening with a warm brownie topped with salted caramel ice cream and whipped cream (my daughter’s favorite part of the meal). All in all one of the best meals we have had in a while at a great local one-​and-​only restaurant. We also spent time speaking with what we assume were the owners. They were very friendly and personable and I could tell they take real pride in their food. I highly recommend this restaurant.

We had dinner tonight and it was a good experience. Service is friendly. Gnocchi were light and I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce. I had hogfish with rice and a kale/​Brussel sprout mixture. The vegetables were good. The hogfish was dry and a little over cooked but the preparation was still tasty. The bread served with dinner is really good.

Went here ion vendor take out got three dishes and it was like $ 70. The house dressing was so much lemon that we could eat it. Lasagna was good not great and for the price I would have expected to have a larger piece. Overall again price performance Was not there.

Friendly staff. Very quaint. Good quality food. This will be a place I go to again and recommend the IRB community continue to support.

In my opinion any restaurant that takes advantage of people who must eat gluten-​free for their health by charging six dollars extra for the pasta is not a place where I intend to eat. It definitely shows a lack of concern for the health of possible patrons.

I really, really want to like this place. It’s decorated in such an awesome way, you just feel like you’re in a good friend’s dining room. But as great as it feels to be in the place, the food makes it not worth going there. Especially when a few blocks further south on Gulf Blvd you can enjoy TJ’s. The food is better and the prices are about the same.
The bread before the meal is toasted, and the oil and spices for dipping is really good. But that’s the end of the good. We tried the spaghetti and meatballs, and the lasagna. Neither was worth ordering again. And for an Italian restaurant, those are the mainstay dishes. If you can’t do those right, I’m not going to bother with anything else you make.
If you’re on Indian Rocks Beach and looking for Italian food, keep driving. TJ’s to the south, and if you are up for driving about ten minutes further, try Amici, on West Bay.

Food, service, atmosphere= AWESOME. Had the seafood pasta, with shrimp, clams, fish, and mussels, in a lobster cream sauce. It was great. Loaded with seafood and the sauce was to die for. My mum got the lobster ravioli which she thought was also very good. She thought there could have been more lobster and less filling but was still delicious nonetheless. The bread and oil mixture served was great, however have never seen extra bread as being charged more. Oh well, still yummy. Server was awesome, can’t remember her name and the atmosphere/​décor was great. Will 100% be back.

My husband and I are residents of Indian Rocks Beach and Stefano’s is not only our favorite neighborhood restaurant, we consider it one of the best Italian restaurants in the entire Tampa Bay area. It’s hard to choose a favorite dish because we have yet to be disappointed with anything we’ve had there. The fiocchi is unique and delectable; the house salad with citrus vinaigrette is always fresh and light; the grilled scallops are among the best we’ve ever had; and the lobster mac and cheese is well worth the calories. Wines are reasonably priced and the service is always excellent. The décor is no doubt eclectic and unique; but at Stefano’s you’ll feel like you’re eating excellent food in the intimacy of someone’s home, versus mediocre food in the loud, impersonal and institutional ambiance of a large chain restaurant.

I returned to Stefano’s wanting to change my previous 2 star rating. I loved this place the first two times that I visited, and I was telling everyone I know about my experience here.
As I arrived I was seated right away. The waitress was very nice. Always very polite.
I stuck with what I know. I began with the fiocchi. I love this, it is a small pasta filled with pear and cheese, and covered with a white cream or cheese sauce. The pasta was cooked well, the pear has a clean fresh taste to it, and mixes well with the cheese. It all seems to blend together very well with the white sauce that has a hint of garlic taste to it as well. For the entrée, veal parm. The veal is tender breading is crisp and seasoned well. The red sauce served with the veal is tasty, has some spices in it but not overwhelming. The side of noodles taste as if they are made fresh here. I am unsure, however they are definitely not just boxed noodles. I opted for the soup with the entrée; it was a vegetable soup, and the vegetables appeared as if they were freshly chopped and placed in the broth. The broth was slightly overbearing, however it was OK. I finished off with a piece of the lemoncello cake and a glass of the raspberry chocolate port.
The food itself is wonderful. The service was OK. The waitress happen to be someone that I recognized from my previous visit when I was unhappy. We had a small discussion about that. I slightly overheard her telling the owner about what was said. The owner however began to get slightly loud, and just denied that my experience ever occurred. Also noted, he didn’t bother to come out and actually speak with me, his actual customer.
So why only 3 stars when the food was very good, and the service was good. Well, to begin, the owner doesn’t seem all that interested in keeping local business. He relies heavily on tourists, and if the locals manage to wonder in, they may get helped. He had absolutely no interest in finding out my experience from the past. Secondly the value. A meal for one person, 2 glasses of wine, appetizer, and desert with port is nearly $ 100. Although the service was good, and the food was good, I was not treated at all like I would be dropping $ 100 on a meal for one. Would I return? I am very torn. I absolutely love the food. However the owner himself doesn’t seem to care if he has any return customers. And the services is good, however not great; and for the price points, service should be great.
I have noticed that many of the 5 star ratings are from vacationers. I have a theory about ratings by vacationers, and it’s true of myself as well. When on vacation, or traveling, we want everything to be great. So in our minds everything is great, unless it’s very, very bad. Even mediocre is great while traveling. It has to be great, or that means that our vacation, or traveling wasn’t all that good, or sucked. So we convince ourselves how very good everything is.
So I am sticking with a strong 3 stars. I don’t believe I will ever be able to give more than that. It is disappointing on my part, as I really wanted to find this to be a 5 star restaurant again.