Tony and Nello’s

True Southern Italian food.
We have lived on this island for 16 years and Tony and his family are family to us and all the other neighbors. Everything is always really fresh and tasty. You will not go home hungry.

Ate here for dinner over the weekend for the second time. First time my boyfriend and I did take out pizza, which was delicious. Some of the best pizza I have had in the area. Although it was a bit costly.
This time I took my mom to dine in as we love Italian food and I was dying to try their vast menu of entrée dishes. My mom is also vegetarian and they have a great variety of meatless dishes. My mom had the eggplant parmesan and I had the baked spaghetti. My dish was literally ginormous and I loved how it was filled with vegetables. Great ratio of sauce and cheese as well. Both of our dishes were good, but we are pretty picky about Italian food and it just wasn’t our favorite.
Our server was very nice and very helpful and knowledgable about the menu. This place also has a great atmosphere. It has that neighborhood restaurant feel, where you go in and people greet you with a smile and ask how your family is.
Even though it’s not the best Italian we’ve ever had I would still happily return here again as the food is still good and it’s a nice change of pace from having to drive downtown or to St. Pete Beach.

The atmosphere in this restaurant is very lively. People of all walks of life are enjoying their dinner or company. The staff is very good at keeping your drinks filled and food on the table. Not only that but they are very nice people.
All of the food portions are bigger than you would expect and you will more than likely need a box to take home leftovers. This is one of the very few Italian restaurants in this area that makes me think fondly of Colleta’s back home in Memphis, TN.
So, are you really hungry? Get the Spaghetti and Meatballs! Thank me later.
Go check them out!

Heard and read good things about this restaurant but I have to say I was very disappointed. I had eggplant parmigiano and my wife had the chicken parm. It was hard to tell which one of us had the worse dish. My eggplant was like eating spoonfuls of moist bread crumbs. My wife’s chicken parm was overcooked and very dry. The salads wrer soaked in dressing. I don’t think I will be returning there any time soon.

Always has the best Italian food. The tiramisu? I could eat an entire sheet pan of that heaven. It’s our new regular Sunday dinner place.

The best pizza around ! We stumbled on Tony’s a few months back and it is now our go to place for pies. The flavors and quality are top notch. We haven’t stopped in to have a meal there but are planning shortly and will update the review but the pizza still rocks even after it cools a little on the drive home. As others have noted the portions are huge so the money to value to quality ratio is very high! They have a pizza for every taste so don’t stop with just one, try them all !

Walked in around 11am for an early lunch, luckily there was only one other table seated. The waitress came out promptly, and took my drink order while I perused the menu. I decided upon the Veal Monte Di Procida.
While I was awaiting my main course, the waitress brought me a salad and bread. I have to agree with another reviewer that said their tomatoes are out of this world. They tasted like they were grown fresh in their own garden. The bread was good, not «Oh my God» good, but good nonetheless.
The main course took about fifteen minutes to come out. The food is prepared fresh, and hey, you can’t rush perfection. Not a place I would come to during peak lunch time if I was in a rush, but if you have some time to kill, I would say come give them a shot.
The Veal Monte Di Procida came with shrimp and broccoli rabe. The veal was great, the shrimp were excellent, but I did have a bit of trouble chewing the broccoli rabe. When the owner saw that everything else on my plate was destroyed with the exception of the broccoli rabe, he advised me to let him know next time I came, and he would prepared regular broccoli for me. The owners are attentive, authentic, and friendly.
I want to come back to try one of their pizzas, and maybe another dish. If you find yourself in the area, I would recommend coming by to give them a try.

A friend had told me about Tony & Nello’s and their traditional Italian cuisine, and I’m so thankful they did! I grew up in NYC and really missed the food Little Italy had to offer after I had moved away. Not only are the portions and the service outstanding, but the special Grouper Primavera entrée was just spectacular! I will definitely be returning with my family and my appetite.

I can’t say enough good things about this place! Everything is great and the portions are huge. The staff are always friendly and have great suggestions when we can’t make up our minds, as the menu is huge. We always have leftovers for days. Chicken rustica, pizza, bruschetta, and tiramisu are my go-​to favorites.

Pizza is amazing. plus the owners are pretty cool, we came in LATE and was starving… asked what was available. they said pizza only… fine no prob. 15 – 20 minutes later… got a steaming hot Pizza Napolitana, tomatos were a tad too big and sliced too thick but the flavor was amazing. went back a few days later and got 2 10 inch pizzas… was sooo good.

Best. Pizza. Ever.
Not even kidding. The thin crust NY style was so delicious. It was the perfect thickness and had amazing flavor. We were there with our 4 kids while camping at Ft Desoto. The service was excellent, the kids colored on the paper table cloths while we waited, and the prices were much lower than we expected. We camp at ft desoto frequently and I can see this being a regular stop from now on!

Somewhat below average experience — came in during the midafternoon and we were the only party in the establishment at the time. Service was quick and drinks were filled frequently. Unfortunately the pizza was disappointing. We ordered the Bianca and a seafood mix pizza, the Bianca was good but unfortunately our special order was missed (wanted chicken), the crust was excellent. Unfortunately the seafood pizza was so greasy that I sent it back. I hate being an obnoxious patron, but after eating one piece of the pizza that entire slice area had pooled with grease and water. The wait staff was friendly and polite with dealing with the issue and didn’t charge for the pizza, but it didn’t save the overall experience from being generally disappointing.
Also worth mentioning that the 10 inch pizza was far larger than originally expected, not really sure how they were measuring that.

We had a great meal here. All of our dishes were great and the service was top notch.

Great for large groups — they took an 830 reservation for 25 on the same day. That’s pretty amazing. Our server was really nice and got all of the orders right even though people were switching seats — that’s pretty amazing. The wine by the glass wasn’t good — and it’s an Italian restaurant — so that also was pretty amazing. The food is served in gigantic portions — for the money it is amazing but not so much for the presentation. The brick oven pizza was meh, the new york cheesecake was surprisingly good, the shrimp fra diavelo was very good, the egg plant was good, the fried calamari was good and the bread was good — but nothing great. Go for a solid family style meal at this place that is good for groups but don’t expect much and you will have your expectations exceeded.

Food was excellent. Piping hot and huge portions. I know what I’m having for dinner tomorrow!

Great restaurant. Huge portions at a very competitive price. I’m a big eater and I could have easily shared an appetizer and dinner entrée with a friend.
To top it off, the people there are great. I highly recommend this place if you’re in the area.

Went here for on our last night of vacation with the whole group. After an hour of waiting we finally got our food. Service was super slow and had to ask for refills every time. By the time we got our food it was just luke warm and he portions were so big I think one plate could have fed four people comfortably.
Outside of the bad service and huge portions the food was very tasty and well seasoned. Definitely won’t be back though.

I am giving it a four (well maybe 4.5 is more accurate) because it was really good and I will return. Was worried when some of the reviews stated that the food was just ok but not great. Where I live not many Italian options nearby and honestly I did not want to drive far. Saw this place on Unilocal and decided to give it a try. I liked that most reviews said that you get huge portions for the prices.
I ordered the linguine bolognese as I love a bolognese sauce and the stuff mushroom. My mom even tried a bit (concerned she said hers had a hair but I am going to assume it was mine as we ate at home and not at the restaurant and none of the bites I had contained hair) and she thought it was delicious. That plate could have been split between myself and another person. I love big portions for the price. I am not giving a full 5 star because I ordered the stuff mushrooms and not impressed. First, they were not stuffed rather meat and cheese were sprinkled and baked on top. Definite large mushrooms which could be easily split between two more people which was nice. I suppose when I think stuffed mushrooms I think a seafood mixture and I was advised over the phone it was stuffed with sausage. Not too bad but nothing I would be dying to order again as an appetizer.
I would love to return here and dine in with my BF so I can try other items from this menu. Really tasty food and I would recommend if in the area.

So so disappointing. We came here for lunch after snorkeling and walking around Egmont Key for a few hours so we were starving! Reviews on Unilocal looked good so I was excited. After we pulled up and got out of my car, my excitement increased dramatically as the most amazing scent of Italian food filled the air!
But then the excitement started to diminish. We ordered pizza, mozzarella sticks (for an app) and drinks. The drinks came quickly, which was no surprise since we got there around 4pm and the place was totally dead. The mozzarella sticks, however, took a good 20 minutes to get to us. Unless I’m mistaken, if the place is dead, sticks shouldn’t take anymore than 5 – 6 minutes. Not good. And the mozzarella sticks weren’t anything to write home about either. Tasted like the frozen kind you buy in the grocery store.
Now on to the pizza (which we also had to wait too long for). It was a 16 inch, huge, with very large NY slices. But this was a very, very average pizza. Absolutely nothing special about it. Cheese was ok, sauce was pretty flavorless and the pepperoni seemed low quality, not spicy and lacked flavor as well. The crust was pretty starchy (definitely needed more water in the mix) and just not very good.
It wasn’t horrible at all, but like I said, just your average Italian/​pizza restaurant that doesn’t stand out at all. Won’t be back.

All you need to know–
This is a great family run restaurant. The menu has almost every type of Italian chicken/​pasta/​baked dish/​pizza you can imagine. The portions are huge and some of the best deals anywhere. I love the wood fire oven roasted chicken. Half a chicken with rosemary potatoes and sauteed veggies. It’s delicious.
That being said, I’d like to address some of the complaints that other people have had. They cook all brick oven pizzas with cherry oak. It is a FIRE oven. It is standard for many items to be extra crispy or even a little charred when in brick/​coal ovens. Don’t order from the oven if you don’t want crisp.
They often don’t have a host, and a server will usually tell you that you can sit wherever you like! This is an island restaurant with about 17 tables and a bar, which means that in season Dec-​April, you probably want to have a reservation if you’re going at night. They do take reservations! It can get packed Fri-​Sun night.
The open sign says 11am-​11pm, but some nights they close early (10pm) if there is no one in the restaurant. People seem to forget that this is not a big chain. They close when they close. Anyone who’s heard of overhead should understand this. Also, anyone who’s worked in a restaurant knows that «closed at 11» doesn’t mean you can come in at 10:50 and sit down for another hour.
This place has one of the biggest and most extensive menus I’ve ever seen. Some of the older wait staff who’ve been there a long time know every ingredient, but the newbies take a little while to get brought up to speed. They have one bartender usually, and so drinks might take a few minutes, but they work hard! Patience people!