Gigi’s Italian Restaurant

Went there on a Friday night after have been here many times before a couple of years prior. As a point, my wife and I just wanted some «good» comfort food after having plenty of seafood over the last week. I had the bolognese over imported angel hair pasta, wife had a wedge salad. Sauce had no taste and pasta was mush, not «al dente». Wives salad was good so I finished it along with some bread to fill me up. Very disappointed with a simple meal that should have been better especially for the price paid. Best to taste sauce before taking the plunge. Italian eateries are proud and known for their sauces and «will» let you sample if asked.

Maybe we are spoiled with all of the fantastic Italian restaurants in upstate NY, but our meals were mixed. My wife really enjoyed her lasagna.
My Sis in law had to send her eggplant parmigiana back. My Brother in law had the linguini with clam sauce. He had the white, I had the red. They were both so-​so.
Prices were fair, and so was the food.

Although we visited the restaurant off season, the restaurant was in full swing. The food was amazing and the menu fitted the whole families taste. Great service and in a timely manner, «best on the beach for 17 years», and I completely agree. Would definitely recommend and will definitely come back!

I was pretty surprised to see such low scores for this place. It had one of the better pizzas I have had anywhere outside of Detroit and Chicago.
It seems like many bashed the place for its high prices, which makes sense. But in theory, it IS an Italian restaurant and prices usually do increase at such places with all the wine flowing and what not.
Speaking of, the wine is quite good. They have no beer but I filled up on pinot noir (two glasses) and got a little loopy by the time we left. They give you good rolls with your meal. We also ordered «cheese sticks» as an appetizer, though they were mozzarella sticks and not breadsticks as some of us imagined. Oh well.
For my dinner I ordered the ‘individual’ pizza that can be customized with a myriad amount of toppings. I opted for pepperoni, jalapenos, banana peppers and onions. It is kind of like a thin crust style, and it was absolutely delicious. I ate the 11-​inch pizza all in one sitting — maybe I was hungry? It was just hard to put down after I kept eating it, it was delicious.
The service was good and the atmosphere is really relaxing. Even with some young kids inside, it was pretty much peace and quiet. My only knock was how most entrees don’t automatically come with a salad. I mean, it’s an Italian restaurant and I thought that was customary.
I won’t cry about spilled milk, though. It’s a good hangout and a meal on the beach. Get the pizza!

Pizza is hit or miss and it sure is pricey!
We’ve gotten pizza to go there a few times and one time it was $ 27 for one pizza. I almost passed out by the price.
The pizza is good, but it’s nothing extraordinary. There are other spots by the beach that are much better. The crust is nice and thin but could use a bit more flavor.
The carry out area is a little awkward. It’s just right in front of the door and there’s not really a place to stand off to the side.

Went for a visit tonight and won’t be coming back! Pasta was soggy, asked them to remake it aldente and they brought it back the same way! Gross is not the word was so looking forward to dinner and left hungry.

I had the pizza margherita. When I ordered, I thought $ 15 was a bit much for an individual size pizza but I soon realized it was more like a small-​medium size so I didn’t mind the price. And I wasn’t expecting the margherita to have regular pizza cheese on it in addition to the fresh mozzarella, but I still enjoyed it. Looking forward to trying more of their pizzas.

I don’t know what to say… hit or miss… sometimes the pizza is spot on and other times so soggy it is like dough is not cooked all the way. Other foods are just OK and we will leave it at that.
Management and service is great! Location, convenient. Prices fair. I judt wish the pizza crust was cooked longer…

Great little place on the beach. We ordered shrimp scampi and some bow tie pasta with Alfredo sauce. Both meals were tasty. Our son is picky so he just had some Ziti with butter and parmesan plus some meatballs. They were pretty darn good. This place was recommended by our hotel staff without batting an eyelash when we asked. We could only imagine how the pizza would have been. Yum. They brought out garlic bread, not too fancy but hit the spot.

This was the worst Italian food we’ve eaten. Veal was tough and sauce was tomato paste with very little seasoning. Terrible food. Would not recommend.

A standard on St Pete Beach. .. they’ve been there for a long time and the reason is obvious — good food and good service + they have pitchers of sangria. It is a tad pricey, but the portions are large. The calamari is great, the cheesy garlic bread — oh ya. .. so many options with the entrees and my favorite sauce choice is the creamy onion. They have a kids menu too. Enjoy!

Food alone would’ve garnered a «2 star». I ate early, the place was half full. Nevertheless, they insisted on seating people squished together on one half of the room. I got the «elephant in the room» seat, a table for 2 that is BUTT UP to a table for 4 (about 4 inches separate it. Nobody likes sitting that close to another party. It was simply uncomfortable (and talked about within earshot by the two parties of 4 who were there). My meal was ruined by the open-​mouthed chewing and comments of pre-​teens. Shame on this restaurant for not having good «sense of place».
Second The food is overpriced. My $ 14 spaghetti was bland. The tomato sauce tasted can-​like, not the «cooked over an Italian stove for hours with great seasonings» I was expecting. Tinny diced tomatoes only. I ordered sausage – it came tough crusted and dried out – so much so I had to move it to the bread plate to saw at it to bite size pieces. Five slices of garlic bread (cooked separately, all crunch, no soft middle) to entertain arrived. Salads cost extra. (at the price, a small one should’ve been included). The shiraz was sour, not smooth. Probably last of the bottle and had sat a while. Desserts sounded good but not at $ 7.50 a pop for the slivers coming out. They must’ve been making over $ 100 per cheese cake «pie».
Service. Poor. Non-​working servers sat at a prime table in front of everyone to «hang». Two hostesses wore sweat pants/​leggings. Can we say (well-​defined) BUTT CRACK? Who wants to look at that during a meal? THEY should’ve been embarrassed. One server had remnants of pink hair. It took over 10 minutes for them to come pick up my payment. That’s with several standing around doing nothing. This was a $ 22 disaster from the start.

We were hesitant to go based on the most recent reviews talking about body odor. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it must’ve been those reviewers smelling themselves because it smelled fantastic! The food was wonderful. The atmosphere was comfortable. The service (Cynthia, we’re looking at you) was outstanding. Will definitely go back!

We got in at 530p on Memorial Day for a pizza dinner. Easy access parking next to the restaurant. There was a terrible body oder as we walked in the front door it carried a harsh sulfer scent. It was nvery busy, there was one other group in the restaurant. Attire was casual, shorts, t-​shirts and sandals. No music, kinda dull.
They pushed all the seafood specials, we just wanted a good Italian pizza. We ordered the garlic cheese bread with red sauce for an appetizer and a thick crust pepperoni and sausage with mushrooms pizza. The waitress seemed surprised we wanted thick crust (which was essentially thin compared to most pizza places). I think their specialty was thin crust.
Service was prompt, food was timely, waitress checked back with us often and filled drinks. I’ll search for another Italian place on the Gulf Dr. strip.

Great little restaurant on St. Pete beach for some delicious Italian food. We appreciated it was across the street from the Bön Aire and little to no wait!
We were seated promptly and ordered drinks within a few minutes. Highly recommended the sangria. Garlic toast arrived while we looked over the large menu and placed our orders.
Create your own pasta. The vodka sauce was very heavy.
Lobster ravioli. Couldn’t taste the lobster.
Steak. Superb.
Caesar salad. Amazing!
Create your own pasta. Aglio Olio has too much garlic.
Pizza. Perfect!!!
Salted caramel cheesecake. Omg yum! Not sure it’s worth the $ 7.20 price point, but delicious!
Decent kids menu!
Woman’s restroom is gross. They house a vacuum, brooms, and dust pans in the one toilet stall. Plus it smells atrocious.

This should be three and a half stars! This is a smaller place with a red and black theme. And one very nice fish tank.
The pace here is deliberate– some what slow.
They have sangria and it’s ready good. Small pitcher serves four to five glasses. They serve you garlic toast with your meal. There was two items tonite, ravioli and pizza. The ravioli was with Bolognese sauce. You get choice of pasta and sauces. I mixed meat and cheese ravioli, get all cheese with meat ot Bolognese sauce. Too much meat in sauce to taste meat in ravioli. Thin crust pizza is their thing. The dough is spread really thin, crust is almost burnt (very crispy!) They have nice sauce not sweet and has chunks of tomato. Sausage is fresh made. Pepperoni was nice spicy flavor. Even with extra cheese, they can improve on what is on pizza

Love the Pizza. Service was good even though they were busy with the spring break tourists.
Also love the sangria.

I can’t believe this place isn’t rated higher.
We just ordered a Margarita pizza for take out. We were treated like royalty by a bald gentleman that I assume is the owner or manager. He even offered the kids some bubblegum from a basket and gave plates, napkins and fresh parm cheese.
This guy treated us like we spent $ 150 bucks in the place. The restaurant smelled amazing, and had a great Italian atmosphere.
Definitely earned our business, and this place was a whole lot better than the other pizza place nearby.

Once again, I come across a restaurant where I wish I could give half or even quarter-​stars. I would have given this place 3.5, but since my wife and I loved it so much, I will go with four…
Anyway, I was frankly surprised to see how low the rating was on this place — shocked really. I did notice that most of the poor reviews are old (literally years ago), but it all counts in the end. Our experience was nothing short of great. It’s got a great location on the one of the corners of what appears to be the main drag in St. Pete Beach. From the street, the place looks so beautiful, enticing. It’s the sole reason we decided to give it a shot. Inside, the ambiance is romantic, rustic, and very, very cozy — homey.
As far as the food was concerned — I have no complaints. My wife had a personal pizza, which she loved, and I had the their early-​bird special chicken — cooked very well with fully steamed broccoli — just the way I like it. The service was very good and the waitress was very friendly.
Dessert-​wise — my wife had their chocolate cake (which was death by chocolate, really), and I had the tiramisu — very good — it wasn’t dry like others I have had. Overall, it was a great little find at a beach we plan on visiting again soon.

This place was borderline three stars for me but I decided to be nice and go with four for the time being. What has me on the fence is basically the value. Their food is «pretty good»; i.e. I would not go so far as to call it great, but definitely good enough to keep coming back, so that in my mind is what I refer to as a pretty good meal. The real issue is the food combined with the price; I feel like their prices are just slightly above what the food delivers.
In any case; my wife and I have a place in St Pete Beach so when we’re wanting some decent Italian food, we come here. The caprese salad is great; I posted a picture of it. Typically one of us always gets the chicken parm; it’s pretty decent and we split it. The other will get something at random. I’ve found that their ‘pompeii’ preparation on chicken and veal is pretty great. Blackened prep on salmon is as well. Their Marsala sauce; so so. The other preps I could take or leave.
Their pizzas are great, but pricey.
They have early bird from 4pm to 6pm; definitely don’t overlook that, it’s a much better value, but limited menu.
If the entrees were perhaps a couple dollars cheaper, I’d consider things priced just right for what you get. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed regardless though; if you’re on the beach and want Italian, don’t pass this place up.