Florentine Restaurants & Pasta Markets

Florentines fans, an offshoot of Florentines way back in the 80’s is Pasta Market. They’re still in business. Similar but some differences naturally. They still do the bread and cheese spread, they call them bread sticks. Locations in Los Altos, Sunnyvale, San Jose. Check them out.

I am giving 5 stars for the original Florentine only… First time at Florentine was back in 1958 when Mike first opened it. His pizza was incredible. Ate there many many times during the 1960’s-1970’s. Then there was the «Florentine Pizza Club» when I was in high school about 1966 – 68. You could buy the club card for $ 5, and be entitled to two pizzas of the same size, any time you wanted. Those were great times back then… ate a lot of pizza with friends… we’d split the cost… I think prices then were around a $ 1.50 for a large salami. Then things started to change. Mike opened other Florentines. Bill ran the Cupertino Florentine and he knew how to make pizza the way Mike did. Well, nothing stays the same anymore and whoever took it over did not know how to make pizza… last time I ate there was about 2003.
The only pizza place that makes anything close to what Mike used to make is Mary’s Pizza Shack which started in Glen Ellen in Sonoma County, and now is a chain with restaurants in many locations. Every time I eat pizza at Mary’s, it reminds me of the «Glory Days» at the old Florentine… thin, New York style sourdough crust, Italian seasoned red sauce… those were the days!

I’m devastated this place closed. Anyone know where we go to get the bread? My family has been eating and loving this bread for 30 years!

The place is closed down-​not sure whats happening with a space.
It was my wife’s and i favorite place to go eat. It was simple and cozy. Nothing fancy! It reminded us of simple restaurant in Italy,

Sorry to say this restaurant is now closed. Was heading there for lunch today and found it closed up with no sign on the door explaining why. Definitely looked like things were removed from the restaurant so I’m not sure if we’ve lost this one for good. I think it was the last location left and was the original location from what I understand. Thanks for all the terrific meals! You will truly be missed.

Ordered Rigatoni and Lasagne online for pickup.
Arrived, they said they’d never received the order, but they’d put it in «as a rush order».
25 minutes later, our rush order was ready.
The Lasagne was almost entirely cheese, with almost no sauce, and very little flavor.
The Rigatoni with Meat Sauce was… unspeakably boring and poorly spiced.
I’ve eaten here before, but not for many years. I can’t imagine coming back.

Food was terrible. Stung even more with the high prices. The only redeeming part about the meal was the bread. The interior is old & smells strange. Definitely needs to be cleaned thoroughly – which may explain the «pass» health rating. Wouldn’t eat at this establishment again.

Let me start out by saying that they have really good bread! And spread. Which is why we decided to choose Florentines for dinner but it had been several years since we dined here. We went on a Thursday night and there was only one couple dining in the restaurant. The first thing I noticed was that the inside needs a serious face lift and some DEEP cleaning. We sit down and I pick up a menu and notice how sticky it is not only that, it is taped together. Throw it away! The server comes and takes our order. I ordered the chicken piccata and the rest if my group ordered pasta dishes. A few in my group wanted angel hair pasta but they were out. The server barely checked on us to see if we needed any more drinks while we waited for our food. At this point we are the only ones in the restaurant. The first dish comes out about 45 minutes later and the final dish takes another 8 minutes. The food was mediocre definitely not worth the average $ 19 price per dish. The server still barely checked on us and we still were the only ones in the restaurant. It was an overall horrible experience. Florentines only saving grace may be the bread, for takeout.

This is the first time I’ve eaten food from here, and it was awful. We had our meal delivered, and ordered a pizza, a salad, a soup and two pasta dishes. My whole family disliked all the dishes. The pizza was the least bad.

This is our Friday night family place. Super friendly. Solid comfort food. Great with kids. It’s such a nice place to relax at the end if the week. We love it.

My husband and I invited our parents to this restaurant for dinner, since we love Italian food and live close by. They came all the way from San Mateo to dine at this place with us, and it was the most embarrassing experience ever.
The restaurant was out of key items, so we asked for substitutions. When the bill came, we noticed we were actually charged extra for the substitutions. We politely attempted to discuss this with our waitress Delilah, yet she rudely implied she doesn’t care how we feel about our experience, or if we come back, and to just pay the bill. «You guys don’t have to come back that’s ok.» She also refused to let us talk to the owner.
We are foodies and definitely go back to restaurants, as we always give positive feedback and recommend to friends if we have a good experience. We definitely do not recommend this place to anyone. Food was ok, service was terrible, ambience was boring, and we were the ONLY people there.
Sad, that we live so close yet won’t be going back, primarily due to the poor service.

Once a staple in the community has fallen on hard times. Expecting the classic Italian dish once served many moons ago, I received underwhelming dish after underwhelming dish.
The minestrone soup was similar to V8 juice with steamed cabbage and the balsamic for my girlfriends salad was close to a Kraft Italian served on wilted romaine.
Then come the entrees… The chicken cannelloni was missing all the ingredients. No pesto, no sun dried tomatoes and no ricotta. It was closer to a grilled chicken quesadilla than what she had ordered.
My tagliatelle bolognese, if that’s what you wish to call it, reminded me of a dish down the street at the local Thai restaurant.
The only reason we stayed for the rest was to get our hands on the bread and cheese spread; could’ve gone for more.
Get Chef Robert Irvine over here stat, this place needs resuscitation.

I was here with a group of friends .we reserved a table advance. By the time we reached there table was set with menu !!
Zuccini sticks and the bread was fantastic .
Lasagna with mushrooms was a highlight. So much flavor .! No words ! Just love it !!!
Waiter Alphanso was the one we were coordinating with since the reservation. He is so helpful and very attentive .!
Will be back .!

The best place to go. Longtime favorite. When I lived in another area, I always loaded up & took some back home!

I come here for the one thing that I can’t find anywhere else! The bread and cheesy spread! I think it’s a mix of tabasco and cream cheese but I can’t be sure. whatever it is I can’t satisfy my craving anywhere else but here! The seafood and pasta is average but I don’t crave anything on the menu in particular (except for the cheesy spread)!

I haven’t dined here since 2010 (back then I didn’t have a Unilocal account) and I came here last night with my parents and grandpa to have a Father’s Day dinner. Let’s just say that this restaurant had and, maybe, still has a lot of potential to be good.
Here are the problems with this place:
— Not enough waitstaff — it took forever for someone to come to take our orders, bring us bread, etc (there were only two waitresses working, it seemed)
— It takes an eternity for everything to arrive (water, bread, main dishes… EVERYTHING) and it wasn’t even busy when we were there.
— The menus, silverware, tables and many other things in the restaurant were dirty.
Here are some positives:
— THE BREAD AND CHEESE SAUCE ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD.
— The prices are relatively reasonable.
— My main dish (a simple spaghetti and meatballs) was pretty good.
Overall, I think this restaurant could benefit from an intervention from Gordon Ramsay. Not sure if and when I’ll be back.
3 stars

This place used to be much better. I took my friend for his Birthday dinner (he requested this place) First off, they’re trying to sell sirloin roast cuts as Rib eye steak.
They cook it in a skillet or flat top and I asked for medium and it was so well done I could not eat it. I took one bite and it has zero flavor. I sent it back and got chicken picatta instead. It was ok at best. The server also charged me for the Rib eye when the bill came. He did adjust the bill after I asked him to.
I will not return to this place, it was terrible service and food. The best thing they have to offer is the cheese bread appetizer.
There was only one other couple in the restaurant @ six pm on a Friday. That pretty much tells the whole story right there!

It’s pretty good! I cam here last friday night with my boyfriend and it wasn’t crowded so it was nice to get seated right away because I was starving. Right when you get seated they bring you bread, (the best bread and spread ive ever had). All the servers were really friendly there. I ordered the Half/​half which is half spaghetti and half of their spinach raviolis with veil. I asked to subsitute it with Alfredo sauce which i usually love! But this time it was not that great, maybe I should have stated with the original sauce it came with oops. It was still pretty tasty over all though. I love that the meals come with a choice of soup, salad, or desert. ]
Over all had a good experience here!

My family and Florentine’s go way back, to 1983. They used to have multiple locations but now this is the only one I know of.
It’s hard to find, tucked into a small strip center, the Allario center. (The anchor store used to be Allario Audio/​Video — now it’s a bank.)
The décor is cheesy Italian, poorly lit and hasn’t changed since 1983, could really use a lick of paint. Not really appealing.
None of that matters, though. What’s important is the pasta. They do it right. On our last visit, I had the angel hair, my wife had the gnocchi. Both were fantastic. Combine that with the amazing bread served with their famous cheese spread and you have pure heaven. The fact my house salad was made with wilted lettuce didn’t matter. It’s all about the pasta.
The portions are generous, the prices fair, and the service very friendly.
Also, they sell pasta and sauces to cook at home, so you can re-​create that amazing food in your own kitchens. So don’t let the dinginess of the place fool you — Florentines pasta is good eatin’.

I used to go here once a month or so a long, long time ago… like when Shoe Fair and Economy Imports were there! The atmosphere and bread frankly are the best features to me. The specialty items were good and the sausage and meatball dishes recommended. The pizza is ok but has had a lot of competition over the years! Ok college date type environment!