Paisano’s Italian Bakery

I love this bakery. It is open every day and has very good breads, take out soups and dinners, pizza, sandwiches and a huge assortment of pastries and cookies. What more can you ask for. Everything is great and freshly made. Get the cannoli they don’t fill the shell until you order it. My favorite bakery in Sarasota.

I’ve been meaning to write this review for the past several months. I stumbled upon this wonderful gem of a bakery last October after getting my haircut next door. I’m so happy that I visited. Not only is the establishment very clean, but there are so many decedent choices. We picked up tiramisu, cannoli, a black and white cookie and an assortment of other cookies. Everything was delicious, fresh and homemade tasting. I’m from Chicago and I can genuinely say this bakery is much better than any of the bakeries I’ve been to back home, plus much more affordable. I long for that black and white cookie which by the way is NYC authentic. Can’t wait to go back one day.

Love this Bakery, Napoleons are to die for and fruit tarts are amazing. Everything I’ve tried here is delicious,
BUT half the staff is pleasant and the other half are rude and impatient. My last visit there was a woman with glasses who was quite a Bitch towards us, rushing everyone who was deciding and then trying to say «have a good day» after to compensate for her rude attitude.
I will absolutely go again, but I will be looking through the window to make sure the rude workers are not on the clock!

Bought the Manhattan clam chowder and the Italian wedding soup. Had them before and they are good. Had a cappuccino and a rainbow cookie. Mmm.

Friendly, courteous family owned and operated bakery. Plenty of delicious treats! The pine nut cookies are my favorite.

RUDEST STAFF, ever! Always in a big hurry… don’t even give you a chance to think! They talk so fast… NY style… and are incredibly impatient. One other person in the shop, and they told me that I needed to «make up my mind», as others were waiting. Are you kidding? Gave them another shot… same result. Baked goods are just okay… I have had much better, for sure. I’ll not be back.

This is no longer the bakery it once was, in fact I use the term «bakery» loosely — will explain. The quality has dropped below acceptable but the prices have increased substantially.
I made my final visit to Paisano’s this past Friday. I vowed that I wouldn’t return again but needed Italian bread, which was good the previous time I bought it. I also picked up a few Biscotti. I cut into the bread that evening to serve to guests and it had the consistency of Wonder Bread — Not Italian bread, If it wasn’t for tasting «off», the Biscotti were totally tastless!
I found out that the items I had enjoyed the most, like Sfogliatelli, were not even made at Paisano’s — they flew them in from New York (no wonder they were good).
I will continue to search for a decent bakery and suggest you do the same.

The case is always full and if you have a hard time resisting temptation, RUN! They have most pastries that you could dream up. The main draw for me is for the pizza dough which is perfect in a pinch! At 2.00 a round you are no more than 30 minutes from a killer pizza party. Their classic italian wedding cookies are good, as are most of their treats. If you are looking for quantity and variety they will always have you covered!

Delicious authentic Italian Bakery right here in Sarasota… fresh breads, pizza and amazing cookies and baked goods.

I figured all the rave reviews had to be good… right? Was looking for an italian rum cake that could rival that of Termini’s in Philly. While this bakery certainly looks enticing, it fell short… in my opinion. Their «rum» cake hardly tasted of rum, and in fact, had icing that was too sweet. It hurts the teeth! Also tried their pizza sticks. Again, looks good… but way too salty. Ended up throwing most of it away. One shining star in the bunch… the pignoli cookies. Excellent, albeit very expensive at $ 19.95/lb. The search for the perfect italian rum cake continues…

I grew up spending summers at my great aunt’s house, which was two blocks away from Arthur Ave. so I’d like to think I know what I’m talking about when it comes to authentic Italian and so far, Paisano’s is the most authentic bakery in Sarasota. Their pignoli cookies and cannolis are the real deal!

This was the third and final stop on my father and my Gulf Gate area foodie tour today and the only one that didn’t blow us away. The case of goodies looks simply awesome when you first walk in, but I should have trusted my initial instinct about bakeries who put sprinkles on rainbow cakes. It’s just not right, and usually indicates that they don’t really know what they are doing. Beautiful cakes and cookies are nice, but if they don’t taste as good as they look I won’t be back.
We ordered rainbow cakes, (wrong consistency and flavor of the cake, chocolate that was too thick and kind of weird tasting, and the sprinkles, ugh) biscotti (totally wrong texture, not hard or crunchy enough), an almond macaron (which was spelled incorrectly as a macaroon, which it definitely was not) and a raspberry linzer tart that was very sub par.
So yes, maybe I’m just a spoiled NYer with parents from Brooklyn who was lucky enough to grow up with access to some of the best cakes and cookies in the world, and maybe I should have turned and left when I saw the sprinkles (which, by the way I DO love on my ice cream but don’t want anywhere near my beloved rainbow cakes) but I didn’t. Oh well. Two out of three ain’t bad.
And yes, I will be eating salad for dinner tonight.

This is a fabulous bakery. The goods are more authentic than any I found in Little Italy of NYC. An amazing variety and everything so well prepared. No shortcuts here. I am hooked on the Zeppole. Good thing I don’t live closer. I’d be in there every day! Keep up the great work!

Outstanding! One of the best Italian bakeries. Highly recommend.

amazing. We just moved to Sarasota from Providence, Rhode Island, and this is most definitely a Rhode Island bakery. The Cannolis are to die for, and the fact they fill them right there is awesome! so fresh. I also had a slice of the Ricotta Cheesecake, the bottom was a bit tough to get to, but it was delicious none the less. My husband had the death by chocolate slice of cake, he wasn’t crazy about it, it looked like there was too much «regular» frosting on it, but I didn’t try it. My daughter had a cupcake, and she approved! :) Can’t wait to get more sweets.

Love, love, love! By far the best Italian bakery I’ve been to south of New Jersey. Don’t pass up their Italian Cream Cake, Death by Chocolate, Rainbow cookies and Lobster Tail pastries. Delish!

This is the real deal on italian bakery items. While many are excellent, some are only very good… but still, worth going to and enjoying. I heartily recommend their ricotta style cheesecake, as it’s authentic and very moist. I frequently go here for a quick lunch too, as they offer eggplant, pizza, and many other lunch items. But, the baked items (sweets and breads) are the real reason to go.

This is one of those hidden gems. Nice little Italian bakery with way too much to choose from. Everything looked so good.
We tried rainbow cookies which were really moist and good. Lady kisses which the kids said were delicious. Rum ball was ok but I have had better. Lastly linzer cookies which were really good.
We will try this place again. Cant wait to try new stuff.