Lorenzo’s Ristorante Italiano

Great Italian cuisine. Great friendly service. I love going to this restaurant but I am a quick diner and that sometime keeps me away. This is a great place to have a nice, slow paced leisurely paced dinner. The food is hand crafted and sometimes takes longer to prepare. The flavors though may be worth the wait. The marinara is divine and the broccoli rabe is so nice. Not a foodie, the bar is great for football and you can eat off the menu too! The best of both worlds!

Great place to dine in with the family or even takeout. Food is very good, only downside is that they never delivered all these years.

It is so interesting to me reading other Unilocal reviews about this restaurant which are less than flattering; I scratch my head; honestly I’m downright puzzled and perplexed. I have eaten at their old location many times and here at the new one and have never had a bad experience, always 4 stars. In fact, I took my Ethnic Dining Group there and let me tell you these are some very serious «Foodies» who have eaten all over the world; we all universally declared it a Four Star Unilocal experience. Last night was to be no different than any of my previous experiences, a very solid Four! Some of you might remember Antonio’s in East Haven, Antonio’s had the very best cold mixed seafood salads I have ever had, last nights salad at Lorenzo’s was a walk down memory lane. Fresh tender calamari, shrimp and scungilli in a ceviche like Italian vinaigrette that was simply «dead-​on-​balls perfect», a quote from «My Cousin Vinny». We split a home made Cavatelli, sausage and boccoli rabe entrée, I seriously have not had a better one anywhere, it was Delicious with a capital D. Wine selections by the glass or bottle are more than adequate and reasonably priced based on the quality. Service was good and so far my dining forays to Lorenzo’s have all been «DOB» consistent!!!

The BEST service… The best food !!! I have been ordering dinners and pizza from this place for years… They are always very friendly and helpful. The meatballs are excellent.

I’ve only ever had their boneless wings and their pizza but both were a great experience! And their dirty Martinis were made to order. Not the best location but they make up for it in class.

Not good.
The restaurant is located in a strip mall, which is fine except that the area and strip mall look sketchy at best, and that’s in daylight. (There’s a halal market nearby that looks pretty great, though.) The restaurant is very pleasant inside, though the «hostess» was sitting at the bar when we entered and looked bothered when she had to get up to seat our party of two at 7:00 — hardly an off hour.
Our server was very pleasant (the only reason for the second star), but she kept bringing us food that would not pass muster at an Italian-​American chain restaurant. I had chicken parmigiana drowning in a red sauce that was not delicious. Came with pasta, the not-​drowned-​in-​red-​sauce pieces of which were chalky. My friend had the chicken special, which tasted off. Dessert was slightly better. House-​made cakes, though for some reason the butter cream that had been described to us by our server turned out to be cream cheese frosting.
I’m told the pizza is good.

Usually a good dine in experience, last couple take out orders haven’t been the same as I’ve come to expect from an otherwise positive dining experience.
Staff is always courteous and friendly

First of all, the food is nothing special. My real complaint is Lorenzo’s tacky offering dubbed «Ladies Night.»
Recently I attended this mediocre establishment for a decent sized dinner party. We were a group of mostly women and 2 men. When we noticed the special priced dinner menu, we were all initially excited to have the option which includes an app, dinner, and dessert. Our waitress was very rude when we asked her if it would be possible for my father (who was paying for all of us) to get a «Ladies Night» meal. She wasn’t in the mood for discussing it, and had no interest in trying to satisfy her customers.
For two years during New Year’s Eve celebrations, our family has come with a party of approx. 20 to LorenZo’s. Next year we will find a location without tacky, sexist meal deals (and owners). And as for mentioned, the food is nothing to write home about anyway!

My wife and I live in Los Angeles and visit our kids in CT often. The highlight of our trips is family dinners at Lorenzo’s for some of the best Italian food anywhere. No matter what you order, you can’t go wrong. The ingredients are fresh and the sauce second to none and weve eaten at Italian restaurants owned by Mario Batali and Scott Conant (and were disappointed). We go to eat because of the flavor of the food not the hype. This place delivers if you want classic Italian food in a nice setting with great service. Our favorites are the Chicken Parm and Linguini with clams. Worth getting off of I95 for!

Terrible pizza even worse food. Hey Lorenzo maybe it’s time to give the Mexicans the boot out of the kitchen and you start getting a little more hands on with the food. I came here a couple months ago and it was a shit show! The food was absolutely horrendous and I was embarrassed for taking my cousin and her family there. Veal Marsala was over cooked and tough and the marsalla sauce was barley palatable. Omg the pizza is like cardboard with ketchup on it your better off eating Ellio’s frozen pizza. The only two things I will even eat from here are the pepperoni rolls and the fresh baked bread is really good. There’s too many great Italian joints in the surrounding area to waste your time and money at this place!

To me, Lorenzo’s means pizza. And oh what great pizza it is.
It’s not as charred as Zupardi’s Apizza down the street but it is excellent nonetheless. It’s a little bit on the thick side and reminds me a lot of Grand Apizza pizza of New Haven. I’ve enjoyed their pizza numerous times and it’s always been consistent. Sausage, pepperoni, meatball, you name it. It never disappoints.
I can’t comment about their other food items. But my parents have been here several times and have nothing but good things to say about the non-​pizza Italian food items.
One word of advice; be very careful when driving on Elm Street. The entrance to this strip mall is hectic as hell and is an accident waiting to happen. So don’t bother crossing traffic. Just turn right and go with the flow of traffic.

The pizza is 5 stars. The dinner is about 3 – 3 ½. The menu is hard to understand at times and the food really is nothing special. If you want pizza, go here absolutely. If you want Italian, try a chain before this place.

Love this place for their happy hour.
Great deals and selections.
Also love their arugula pizza!

It’s good.
We’ve been here twice. We usually stick with the subs and salads so I guess not much can go wrong…
Will visit again sometime.

This place makes one of the best parm sandwiches I have ever ate. I had the italian sausage parm one day and had the chicken parm the next day. Both were very tasty. The garlic knots are really good too. I wish they were consistent with the amount of garlic knots they produce per day as they only make a certain amount of them. Definitely coming back here for more parms.

Soley based on the reviews, my wife and I decided to try Lorenzos for dinner. WOW! this is truley the first time I got a bum steer from Unilocal.
My wife and I were dressed «well» and the décor is more like a diner than a classy Italian restaurant. I got the veal marsala, a staple in italian restaurants, it was not good. The veal was kind of «nervy» and tough, with the sauce having the consistency of brown water.
My wife wanted to try the tomato sauce, a great way to test an italian chef, again a disappointment. It was watery and bland. It seemed as if they just opened a can of tomato and just heated it up. We didnt want to take a chance with dessert. We just paid the bill and ran,

I just went with my girlfriend to dinner here. I was a little worried about this place from the reviews. Let me just say the reviews don’t match this restaurant.
As for the location, yes it’s in a strip mall. However, once you go inside the interior is so nice that it doesn’t matter.
Our waitress was very quick to help us. She didn’t seem to enthusiastic about her job, but maybe she just had a bad day.
The food was amazing. I got tortellini soup and Seafood Alfredo. It was a bit pricey, but I got what I paid for. The portion size is so big that we both probably have lunch and maybe dinner for tomorrow.
I definitely would come back and recommend it.

One glance through the menu proved that they love their creamy white sauce — it’s mentioned with practically every dish. Overall, from the menu and service this restaurant is more expensive and less fancy than other, more authentic Italian restaurants in CT.
Calamari appears and tastes like prebreaded frozen from the supermarket. Calzone (which they pronounced like non-​Italian Americans in response to my proper Italian pronunciation when ordering) was simply a mush of moz and white cream sauce in a folded pizza — very disappointing and less appetizing than it sounds. The ooze looked repulsive rather than inviting. My wife hates subway, but said she would rather eat that than the grinder she ordered. Meh. Doesn’t live up to the reviews at all. In an area with a higher Italian population, you’d expect there be good Italian food. this isn’t it.

Based on the reviews here we went to Lorenzo’s for dinner. First, it no longer is at 111 Elm, it moved to 39 Elm street a couple years ago-​from 1 strip mall to another.
The interior is nice, high ceilings, well lit with a warm, modern décor. We were seated near the kitchen in one of the comfortable booths. Our waitress arrived immediately with water and bread. I asked for a specific beer-​the waitress said they didn’t have it but didn’t offer another option-​so, no beer? Instead, I chose the house Pino from the wine list– it was quite good.
I ordered the Calamari which was good-​all rings, no tentacles. M got fried mozz. which came out pale and soft with an uninspired sauce. Service was good but quick-​our salads came before we finished our Apps. For dinner I had a combination-​chicken, eggplant and lasagna. M just got the lasagna-​both came to the table lukewarm with the same insipid tomato sauce. We sent them back to be reheated but they we only slightly warmer when the waitress brought them back. I sampled the dish enough to know the breaded chicken «breast» was formed and-​as the waitress told me– there was meat in the lasagna but I couldn’t tell what kind.
I didn’t plan on taking the food home but when the waitress asked my mouth said yes-​but I had no intention of eating it so I tossed it.
Nothing on the dessert menu tempted me so we asked for the check, paid and left. Sadly, we won’t be back. Sadly, because I really wanted this to be good.

My boyfriend and I went here for dinner tonight.
Can’t wait to go back. I got a glass of their Malbec, quite a heavy pour on it :)
I had the Escarole and Meatball soup of the day, awesome.
My bf had the chicken tortellini soup. He really liked it.
Both of our entrees came with house salads. My bf was pleased with the amount of salad dressing that we were given to go with it. They clearly didn’t skimp like some restaurants do. Then for our meal, be both got the Filet Mignon special. On top of the filet was a roasted baby artichoke and a slice of red onion. There was a delicious pool of peppercorn glaze. To go with it, there was this side of small diced baby red potatoes in a semi-​thick herbed cream sauce… um…it was to die for.
I even joked about sneaking into the back of the kitchen to get the recipe.
Too bad the entrée was a special… those potatoes were heavenly… sad that I can’t be guaranteed they’ll be on the menu next time we go.
We both ordered out steaks medium well and mine came more like medium… the waitress even noticed it and wondered if I’d like to send it back. Glad I didn’t, I actually had debated ordering medium in the first place anyway… the meat was perfect. The timing of each course was spot on. Like clockwork.
Next time we go I kinda want to pop over and take a look at their deli next door.
This place is in the corner of a strip mall, so you’d think it was a (as someone in another review mentioned and I thought the same thing upon arrival) «Gorden Ramsey — Kitchen Nightmares» type of joint, but when you really enter it, it was tastefully designed, really inviting and clean. Actually, I think we may have been slightly under dressed for it!
Oh and I forgot to mention that starting at 7pm. just before we left, there was live music from Tony Castle. He sang his own little Italian renditions. Super cute.