Sorrento Pizza & Pasta

Ok, I know this is fast food Italian, but I do expect it to be edible! I had the tortellini with Alfredo sauce and it was so bad, the sauce tasted like flour, no flavor whatsoever. Not going back.

5 stars for great customer service!!! I work at a non-​profit in NYC and we had to order a last minute catering order for a big group in Minneapolis, MN and Sorrento’s was able to accommodate our large order! Not only that but everyone was so sincerely nice and helpful, from the woman who took our order, to the delivery driver, to the manager that called for follow up. Our drop off location kept changing and the driver was very accommodating and patient. Thank you Sorrento’s for going above and beyond!

For an authentic inexpensive lunch, there’s not much better in the skyway. A ½ order of everything is always more than enough, and then there’s a side salad & choice of bread. Get the extra olives, $ 1.50 more, but the tangy spiciness is AWESOME! Everything’s right around $ 8. They even have a loyalty punch card, where your 8^th meal is free. My favorite? Lasagna carbonara. Mmmm

No ones like eating fast food, but I don’t have a complaint for the price and quality here.
Tasted like home bolognese sauce-​flavor was rich. Salad dressing was delicious as well-​red wine vinegar/​olive oil concoction was great.
Super affordable for pasta and a salad for $ 7.

You cannot be serious. That is one of the hottest arriabiatta sauces I have EVER had. Really only North Beach in San Francisco beats this little place in the Minneapolis skyway. Delicious sauce, great garlic bread… Man open for dinner!

I came here based on the positive spaghetti reviews.
1) Portion sizes are not gargantuan as others have said.
2) You can get two pieces of bread (garlic or bread stick) if you pass on the lunch salad
3) The spaghetti sauce was decent, but unspectacular
I’ll go back because it is the best skyway Italian I’ve had, but that’s not saying much.
Service was really slow. It wasn’t busy and it took the kitchen a while to get my order ready.

Amazingly good! This is often my go to place for lunch. Today I tried the lunch special chicken parmigiana, served every Thursday. The chicken was superb; extremely moist and tender. No knife needed. Best chicken I have ever eaten. It is served over spaghetti with their homemade red sauce. Authentic Italian at its best! The recipes are the owners Italian grandmothers’. I usually order the lasagna; it’s also exceptional. The meatballs are large, all meat and tasty. The full sized portion is enough for two meals.
The lunch items are served with a salad and breadstick or baguette, or skip the salad and add another breadstick. The salad is mostly iceberg lettuce (I would love romaine or a mixed blend) but the dressings are homemade and wonderful. Don’t forget to grab a punch card, buy 7 and the 8^th is free.
Make sure you add a cannoli for dessert. Sweet, crunchy and made fresh with love.
The owner is very friendly and always cheerful.

I discovered this skyway Italian restaurant several years go after taking a job downtown nearly a decade ago. My co-​workers and boss introduced me to it, and since then I’ve tried to come here on a regular basis. I’m sure everyone has a «rotation» if you work in a locale such as downtown Minneapolis. This has featured heavily in my personal rotation. I started frequenting this restaurant when they were in a much smaller space in the Soo Line Building, and found their expanded space in the Northstar West building superior to the former in terms of space for seating. However, this place is so popular, I have in the last few months have found the dining area to be at capacity, leading to an awkward Minnesota encounter where I have to *gasp* sit right next to another patron in tables that are «touching». Recently, it has come to my attention from frequent skyway lunchtime excursions that they are working on an «annexe» in the Qwest building just two blocks from my office.
To me, this is a boon to me because this food and Sorrento Cucina represents the sweet spot between mediocre Italian and high bough Italian. The amazing and delicious every man Italian food, that your mother would make if your family was Italian. The meatballs are something I would want to have in my freezer to eat for dinner, but they wouldn’t taste the same microwaved later that night. They have the classic Italian flavor that so many places attempt but fail at so readily, Their sauce is has perfect flavor; a delicate balance between savory, a bit a perfect balance of sweet flavor and a killer recipe. So order their Spaghetti and Meatballs, and judge for yourself. Their lasagna is is served in massive proportion, the first time I had this, I could not finish it, and this was coming from someone with a big appetite. Definitely good for leftovers. Another highlight is the Chicken Parmigiana that is a weekly special on Wednesday. They also serve this on Thursdays off menu. Great taste and tenderness on the chicken, and very well done breading along with tender penne. Did I mention the meatball or sausage subs, loaded with peppers. In general, the menu is very delicious.
Value-​wise, the price is usually reasonable for the food quality. You pay just slightly more than an average skyway dining establishment but are willing to fork it over due to the high food quality. The servers and owners are extremely friendly, consistently delivering a high degree of service.
As for the salad… it is certainly average (though not bad) and I have grown to enjoy it, along with the dressing. You really should enjoy this place due to the entrée.
In summary, this is an independent Italian restaurant, using family recipes, with a very high food quality to value ratio. Friendly staff and delicious flavor should make this a regular stop if you work downtown.

Holy cannoli, Batman! This food was delicious, and they kept the line moving efficiently during the lunch rush. I was impressed that this is in the Skyway, because it definitely competes with my hometown Italian diner. The portions are enough for leftovers, but when lasagna that good is in front of me, I take on the role of Garfield.

PROS: Pasta and all beef meatballs are incredible. Price and food portion is perfect for a quick lunch downtown.
CONS: Their salad and salad dressing is a little stale in comparison to their main course. I think an authentic Italian restaurant such as Sorrento should put a little more effort into their sides.
PARKING: As expected, given its located downtown, parking is a pain.

I would eat at Sorrento’s even if the food was mediocre because the people who work here are THAT nice. It’s very clear that they take pride in their food and want you to have a great lunch.
But the food is NOT mediocre. It’s quite possibly the best food I’ve had in the skyways, and it’s pretty cheap too. I love the double-​crusted spinach pizza, which comes slathered in some exceptionally tasty red sauce. I also really love the Chicken Sorrento with mashed potatoes and this buttery garlic sauce. I had to make myself stop eating the mashed potatoes to prevent gaining three pounds and/​or falling asleep at my desk. The vegetarian lasagna and the shells are also very good.
Tip: Get a to-​go container and take back the leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. You can order half-​portions of the pasta dishes, but it’s much more cost effective to order a whole order and eat the rest tomorrow. And trust me, you’ll need to eat the rest tomorrow. Some of my office lunch companions have some pretty big appetites, but I’ve never seen anyone finish a whole order at Sorrento’s.

Sorrento’s is all around the gem of the skyway.
The line is usually long but moves nicely, and the friendly staff, huge portions, very reasonable price, and delicious (and authenic) food make up for it.
The family that runs it is straight out of Italy and know their way around good Italian food.
Each meal comes with garlic bread or breadstick and a side salad– usually runs you about $ 7 (without a drink). And most of the time, the half portions are PLENTY of food or a whole portion will easily end up being my dinner that night as well.
I’m a huge fan of the Penne Rosa and the Chicken Parmesan.

Are you kidding me with those meatballs?!?
I haven’t had Italian food this good since I lived in San Francisco. Seriously, I can understand why the line is out the door during lunch time.
Also, I had excellent customer service. I placed a phone order and didn’t realize there was a minimum for delivery. No sweat. I needed a break from work anyway, so I hoofed over there to pick up my food. The guy behind the counter gave me a coupon because he felt bad that I had to pick up instead of delivery. Totally unexpected!
Get here early if you want to avoid the rush, but the food is worth the wait.

3.5: Good place if you’re craving pasta with red sauce. A bit of a factory feel to the service as not a single smile was cracked by any of the staff/​family members behind the counter.
I had an insane urge to have spaghetti for lunch one day and a co-​worker suggested this place, selling it to me as a «straight-​from-​Italy» family joint and that pretty sold it to me.
I arrived pre-​lunch crowd and was greeted with bored faces with an air of disinterest permeating the air in regards to serving their customers. Did I expect effusive warmth? No, but I have been to Italy before and a «hi» or any sort of greeting is pretty common.
But then they spoke, and it solved the mystery of the aloofness. «Straight-​from-​Italy» through several generations in New York/​East Coast. Sigh. I was rather let down by this unavoidable fact as I knew my search for a true Italian food place in MN would continue, but I got the spaghetti I wanted and left.
The serving is a healthy portion of pasta topped with two XL meatballs accompanied by a salad and garlic bread or breadsticks. The salad was sad looking in the bowl so I got mine without it; they gave me an extra piece of garlic bread to replace, but considering I didn’t want the first one I felt slightly guilty tossing the bread away after I ate the food.
The marinara was good. Amazing? No, but better than Noodles & Co and other places in the skyway where the red sauce literally tastes like crushed tomatoes with no spices. Meatballs were moist, but nothing compared to Swedish meatballs in robustness of flavor. Again, I tossed the garlic bread as I didn’t want it, but it looked like your basic french bread doused in tons of garlic-​infused, olive oil.
I’d consider going back to Sorrento if I want quick Italian again, but it’s not on a must-​go place for food in general.

After years navigating the skyway, I recently discovered this gem in the Northstar Building.
I’ve been there a couple times. On my first trip I got a massive helping of stuff shells with red sauce. On my second trip, I got a massive sausage and pepper sandwich covered in spicy red sauce (it was a sandwich in name only). Each of these meals was fantastic. They each came with a side salad, which only serves as filler you don’t really need.
The only thing to consider when deciding whether to eat here is how much of a food coma you want to have in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I need to be awake in the afternoon. Otherwise, I would probably come here and stuff myself more often.

I feel strongly that Sorrento’s has earned the distinction of carbo capital of Minneapolis’s Skyway Economy.
In the 1993 film classic «Demolition Man,» the vision of the future includes an underground separatist movement, led by Dennis Leary, that exists to enjoy things that have been outlawed by the dystopian surface — like hamburgers. An entire economy exists underground, apart from the ground level, where Taco Bell owns a monopoly on consumer dining. This sometimes is how I think of the Minneapolis Skyways. Who needs McCormick & Schmick’s, Hell’s Kitchen, Manny’s and Zelo’s when you have more easily accessible places like Sorrento’s in the skyway tunnel system?
It’s become one of my go-​to spots for a quick lunch. I can walk out with a heaping half portion of lasagna, and perfectly toasted garlic bread on the side, for less than $ 7 and only two minutes of my time. You can’t beat it. On Wednesdays, I especially recommend the daily special: spinach lasagna. The spaghetti and meatballs is a comforting classic as well. Edgar Friendly would approve.

Ate there today for lunch for the first time — the spaghetti and meatballs was great — will be going back there for sure.

Family owned and run for several generations, straight from Italy; this place has delicious food!
The sausage/​peppers with sauce and the antipasto salad are my favorite!
If they had a location outside the sky-​way that served dinner, they’d be packed!

Sorrento is a great local place to grab some Italian food for a quick lunch: pastas, sausages, pizza, etc. They provide a great value for a reasonable price in large portions and salad and bread accompaniments. Everything seems to be made from family recipes or at least made from the heart. Their meatballs are pretty solid.
Their lasagnas are yummy, particularly the spinach one, which they feature two days a week. Beware, however, that if you don’t want a ton of the rich house marinara covering that white-​sauce spinach lasagna, you need to speak up.
The place gets pretty busy around the mob-​lunch times, so it’s better to go a little later. It’s run by a fine gentleman and his mother along with a staff and perhaps other family members. They are all very well-​meaning and kind, if eccentric.
One dig on the place, though, is that they use horrible styrofoam and plastic for utensils and dishes, whereas it would be great if they could somehow avoid producing all of that waste everyday.
The restaurant is cozy with a lot of room but during the rush it may be hard to find a seat. Adorning the walls are somewhat-​cheesy references to the old country but you can tell that making good food runs in the family’s history.
If you haven’t been, go over and try it out.

We had a team lunch so we took a walk to Sorrento’s. It is a smallish place in the skyway with a couple of servers behind the counter and a couple of cooks behind a wall. They had a different special every day and today was their lemon chicken. I went with the low carb order with a side salad and a pop. It came to $ 8.51. We sat down and they brought out the chicken Caesar salad a little bit after I sat down. The lemon pepper chicken was a little small, but it was very tasty. A little buttery it seemed like, but still tasty and lots of lemon sweet/​tartness. The Caesar salad had way too much dressing, if it had about half the amount of dressing it would have been a ton better. It was literally drenched in it. I couldn’t finish it, it was too much of a distraction. The salad was a good size for a side salad though. They should have moved some of the size of the salad to the size of the chicken breast.
Most of the team ordered the lasagna, which came out in HUGE pieces. They all said it was good, and someone also got the 3 meatballs special, but they said they tasted a little too much like meatloaf.
Overall, a lot of food for the price and nice servers. Overall it was just an okay place that I would go to again if someone really wanted too, but there are plenty of places to try still in downtown.