Leo’s Italian Grill

I have eaten here twice now, and both times the food was outstanding. I won’t advertise the names of the two most popular five star Italian restaurants in town, one is on alternate 19 and the other one is off of Tampa Road, however Leo’s is at least as good and is priced well.

Horrible dining experience. Just ate here last night. We ordered 2 plates of spaghetti and meatballs and the meatballs were bad… spoiled meat bad. Also ordered chicken parm and chicken marsala. The meat wasn’t bad thankfully but the flavor was very bland. I was surprised that they actually still charged me for the chicken parm to replace the spoiled meatballs. When I mentioned it to waitress, she advised she could only comp the $ 1.99 salads (2) we had. Will never be back again. Not really worth the price even if the meat wasn’t spoiled and definitely not worth getting sick for.

Yuck. The croutons on the Caesar salad tasted stale and moldy. The ‘house dressing’ on the house salad appeared to be plain olive oil– no vinegar or flavor. The ‘scallops’ were disgusting, I seriously hope I don’t get food poisoning from the half of one I ate. When I notified the waitress, she apologized, but left the meal on our bill. I have never been to any restaurant who charges its patrons for uneaten food when it’s complained about. I will NEVER return here and urge you to avoid this place. Don’t let the full parking lot fool you– that’s just the ‘heavens waiting room’ crowd there to dance to the overly loud lounge singers.

Don’t waste your time or money. The food and service are lousy. It seems like everyone at the bar knows each other. When my hubby & I walked in for dinner all of the bar patrons just stared at us like we were intruding. The server acted like we interrupted her social hour. The food was terrible. My chicken parm was soggy and awful. My husband’s spaghetti was awful and a very small portion. We waited a long time for our check. Would never go back!

I’m leaving two stars because 1.) it was a Saturday night and 2.) the band was lively. The server was clearly overwhelmed, the food took about an hour, the server placed plates on top of items that made the plates teater, didn’t bother to make sure they were placed flat (with red sauce being served, this scared me). The chicken on my Greek Salad was cold, not sure if it was supposed to be? My boyfriends chicken parm was good except drenched in an obscene amount of sauce, and the rolls were luke warm and tasted like freezer burn. I don’t usually leave such a long review but I was pretty disappointed with the food.

We walked into an empty restaurant. Should have been our first clue. Staff was nice. Food was terrible. Ordered an unsweeted ice tea, recieved a drink that tasted like root beer& sweet tea mixed?! Waitress said someone had poured root beer in the tea? Hmmm Okay??? Garlic bread was burn. Caesar Salad Dressing I’m pretty sure was Italian. I ordered Eggplant Parmesan was «okay» but not enough to ever go back for. Boyfriend ordered Lobster Ravioli which was so covered in a marinara when they brought to table you couldn’t see the ravioli. He scraped off the sauce to reveal what looked like burnt grill marks across the ravioli’s (interesting technique for pasta!?) And the filling was non existent and dry like card board. The waitress did remove the ravioli from the bill. Any way we gave it a try because it was local and our children’s school promotes it but we definitely will not be returning.

Very sad food. Great staff. Leo the owner is a terrible excuse for a person. Treats the staff with zero respect. And it shows in the food quality. The staff was wonderful to us even as he demeaned them.

Creepy Twilight Zone feel. Strange red lights seemed to glow for every wall. A mafia nightmare from hell. Some dude signing Motown with his one-​man-​band DJ setup to a table of 5 elderly, 1 mac daddy gentleman and 4 ladies in a dining room fit to seat a wedding reception… creepy weird. BUT!
food was ok. mussels marinara wasn’t bad. the bruschetta? pass. that was just crappy toast with chopped tomatoes, bottled parmesan sprinkled on it, and chopped scallions? yeah, you read that right… scallions. who the f*#k puts scallions on bruschetta? Figured we were ahead of the game when we survived the mussels so. played it safe and just ordered the (NY) pizza. And it was GREAT! We get curious when places claim to name their pizza NY Style, because to us, its just pizza. Never knew there were others, besides «Chicago style», which is just deep-​dish to me, so whatever. But Leo’s pizza was pretty dang close to what I’d eat back home so good job on their pizza «stylings».
Leo’s… best enjoyed simple and a little alcohol helps overcome the creepy tone.

My mother is new in town and we decided to give this place a try. Found a coupon in the local flyer for a 14 inch take out pizza, $ 5.99 Wednesday and Thursday. Wow! It was delicious! Ready in 15 minutes, and truly NY style! I would definitely consider coming in and sitting down for a nice Italian meal.
Only reason it’s 4 stars instead of 5 stars is the staff. When we went to pick up the pizza, the hostess was more than happy to seat us and even get our pizza until she saw we had a coupon for the pizza. There seems to be bad treatment from the staff when you present a coupon. Which is odd, considering the restaurant is the one who puts these coupons out to begin with.

My boyfriend and I went to Leo’s for a delicious Italian dinner this evening. However, it wasn’t until after receiving the appetizer (mozzarella caprese salad, which consisted of soggy tomatoes and very little mozzarella) and soup that came with my dinner, that I thought: «How many stars did this place get on Unilocal?»
Turns out, we should have read the reviews before we went.
The bread was dry pizza dough with decorative dried Italian spices and no flavor. I could’ve sworn that my soup was Campbell’s canned Chicken & Rice, and my lobster ravioli was bland. My boyfriend got the penne pasta with shrimp and although the amount of pasta was more than he could eat in one sitting, he got no more than 6 pieces of small shrimp.
The only good part of our experience at Leo’s was the entertainment (it was Motown night and the live music was performed by a very talented gentleman), our waitress, and the tiramisu.
I don’t usually write negative reviews, but I felt very mislead by the Leo’s self-​described «Italian Grill» advertisement and the food was way over priced. If I am paying the expensive price of that of a gourmet Italian restaurant, I think it’s fair to expect that quality level of food.

I had the Chicken Francese. It wasn’t great and it wasn’t terrible. It was just average. The lemon was a bit over powering.
The rolls were terrible. They tasyed very stale. They didn’t bring enough olive oil and spices for the amount of bread they brought. I had to really soak that oil up to make the bread edible. When the plate was empty that was it. The waitreas didnt bother offering to get more.
The Italian Wedding soup was decent but had way too much salt.
I would try it once more to see if they improve.
I give it 2 stars because it is way overpriced considering the quality of the food. I ate here for lunch on a Sunday and it cost me $ 18.00 without a tip. I feel like I got robbed.

No I’m sorry. I ordered a pie just to go half mushroom half Canadian bacon. The bacon looked more like little pieces of ham. Nice waitress. It wasn’t terrible but their pizza just didnt do it for me. I will not be back.

We just moved to the area and I did not look at reviews before going. We went for Saturday lunch. It was empty but we’ve seen a big line at night so we decided to try it anyway. Our server was outstanding. The food was excellent! The bread they brought before our food was unique and delicious. The salad was bland but I only use oil & vinegar so I’m used to bland. I got gnocchi, it was homemade which is hard to come by, and it was fantastic. My husband got the eggplant parmesan sandwich. He said it was really good but he prefers the skin removed. My son also had gnocchi and liked it. He said the tiramisu was great, he put it in in his top three. The portions are very large. The place was very clean. But I could see how it would attract an older crowd for dinner but if the food is good who cares!

Leo’s is very supportive of the Business Community~
has a monthly evening event open to business professionals the first Tuesday of the Month~ They have always been kind and accommodating. Love the Pizza ~

Everything was really and plain bad. The food here is without flavor, period. I won’t write anything else just to not sound like a hater or something alike. Avoid it, honestly.

Enjoyed my visit, the lunch special was great value. If I could suggest some things it would be to tidy up some areas. just didn’t add to the ambiance when I went to look for the rest rooms

Hmmm. Family owned. Seems like everyone knows everyone. The average age is around 70 – 75 maybe? Live music. Not really very good live music. But live nonetheless. Is that Rod Stewart’s distant cousin?
For an older crowd this appears to be a fun place. Lots of older couples dancing and enjoying themselves. I really like seeing that, but this place isn’t for me. The décor is a bit dated, but looks like they just redid the inside — if that makes sense? Maybe their decorator has been retired the late seventies and did this as a favor? I don’t know.
The food is moderately priced, but not especially great. For an Italian place the pasta was only fair. The salad was really a letdown.
I won’t be back, but that isn’t to say this is a bad restaurant necessarily. It just isn’t the right place for me, or probably anyone under 65 years old.
2.5 stars

Day/​time of visit: Sunday dinner
Atmosphere: casual, family owned
This restaurant was very busy on a Sunday night around 6 pm. There was a Beatles cover band playing. I was totally not expecting a band at a restaurant like this (family, sit down) during early dinner hours on a Sunday. The BAND WAS WAY TOO LOUD and I was seated very close to the stage with the speaker pointed directly into my right ear. When the band took their first break someone affiliated with the band came over to our table and put down a ‘tip can’ and asked us to donate to pay the band because ‘they don’t get paid much’ — so tacky. Yes, the band situation immediately made me crabby about the restaurant. RECOMMENDATION TO THE OWNER: don’t have a band playing until later and if you are going to have a band play that early do not allow them to continuously turn up their amps throughout their set and attempt to guilt your customers into paying them. On to the food…
Ordered a 14″ Spinach White pizza (ricotta, mozzarella, romano, spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese) and garden salad to split with the BF. The pizza was very good — thin crispy crust, lots of cheese, and more than plenty for 2 people (we took ½ the pizza home). The side salad was nothing special (iceburg lettuce, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, black olives) and not worth $ 4 for a single portion. Our friends ordered pasta dishes and they were absolutely huge portions and looked great. The bread in the bread basket reminded me of crescent rolls seasoned with italian salad dressing mix (old school recipe).
Server was very good and friendly.

We were so disappointed by this experience. The ambience was terrible… in fact we felt quite saddened by the tired décor, server moving in slow mo, and the drone of the AC in the absence of music.
Burnt bread, overcooked pasta drowning in sauce that was so heavy with butter that it had no other flavor. One of our party of five got the steak. Words can’t describe how pathetic it looked. Cleverly sold as a «New York Steak» it was a piece of flap steak ladened in gristle. The spaghetti & meatballs had very little flavorless red sauce. Just so, so bad.
The portions were large, I’ll give them that. But I would much rather have a little bit of decent instead of a boatload of terrible.
And all of this wrapped up in what I consider a premium price for Italian dishes. Our local pizza takeout has better pasta for far less. (Thank goodness for Gino’s on Tampa Rd.!)

I would really have loved to write a review for the food at Leo’s (they are now located on US HWY 19 N in Palm Harbor). I made reservations on
for 8:00pm. I called twice before-​hand to make sure they had them. The young girl who answered the first time confirmed our reservation, and the second said (30 minutes before the reservation), «Just come in and we’ll have a table for you.»
Needless to say, my fiancé and I arrived at Leo’s (looking good I might add), and they couldn’t find our reservation. They were scrambling around like chickens with their heads cut off. The manager came over and said «I’m sorry, we’re full — and everyone who’s eating here is staying all night.» (She was a shining example to disregarding customer service reps everywhere.)
Then the BEST thing happened… my girl and I, all dressed up, left Leo’s and picked up some Chinese take-​out at China Wok (which was actually the most amazing Chinese in the area — no lie, I’m writing a review for them next). We then went home with the Chinese take-​out to watch the Twilight Zone Marathon. We were the best looking people in our home. BEST NIGHT EVER — THANKS, LEO’S!!!