Fornello Italian Cuisine just opened its second location in the Winston Park Center in Coconut Creek, taking the place of the old bagel restaurant. It’s so new that the sign isn’t even up, and the address isn’t on Google. But it’s worth checking out for its massive menu of homemade Italian and Brazilian dishes, ranging from good to great.
Owner Marcello Parissoto explained that his first location in Boca is a smaller family concept. This high-end bar concept has a very nice bar area, TVs everywhere, brand-new furniture, and draping plants. Some minor harsh fluorescent lighting by the kitchen aside, it feels new and polished.
Marcello’s story is that he lived in Boston and ran two successful restaurants that he sold in 2012. He moved down here and saw an opening to combine two cultures: Americans, who typically eat from 5 pm to 8 pm, and Brazilians, who eat from 8 pm to 12 pm. Hence, the TVs and the midnight daily closing time. He wants to have all sorts of sports playing year-round, including international soccer, UFC, and American football.
The menu is so enormous that it’s almost dizzying. I’ll say it’s a couple of shades under The Cheesesteak Factory’s size. The menu is Italian and Brazilian, but there is an emphasis on Brazilian. Certain items, like the specials, are in Portuguese only, and the Brazilian food shines compared to the Italian, which is well above average.
There are appetizers, soups, subs, calzones, strombolis, wings, wraps, salads, burgers, regular pizzas and burgers, Brazilian pizzas and burgers (with regional ingredients and styles from Brazil), pastas, savory pastries, seafood, pork dishes, a kids menu, dessert, and a three-page cocktail menu. It’s a lot to take in.
We had a big group, and we started digging in. Marcello uses a top-of-the-line Marsal SD 866 Gas oven (pictured below) that can make 18 pizzas at a time, and that’s where many dishes, including the garlic rolls ($5.99), went through.
Like most items, the portions are huge. I’d have to say this was one of the better garlic rolls I’ve had, just because it was clear the ingredients were really quality. Big, airy bites with a nice marinara dipping sauce. The garlic was cooked well and roasted but needed to be spread more evenly.
The beef meatballs ($11.99) needed a better sear as they were a bit too soft. The tomato sauce and melted ricotta was piping hot and simmering coming out of the oven.
The coxinhas ($12.99) were fantastic. They’re a traditional Brazilian dish made with potatoes, breaded and fried with shredded chicken and Brazilian cream cheese. My Brazilian wife called these “coxinha bites” because they were unusually smaller than normal.
What took the plate to another level was our discovery of Marcellos’s house mayo. He blends fresh herbs like parsley, scallion, garlic, and a dash of cilantro. We started using it for everything, and he even sells bottles of it for $6. It’s fantastic. (He also has a house Pimento pepper sauce that caused me a lot of pain and heat on the front part of my tongue.)
I ordered a Fornello salad ($17.99)—grilled chicken, romaine, tomatoes, peppers, onions, boiled egg, fresh mozzarella, and balsamic dressing. The ingredients were fresh, the portion generous, and the balsamic vinegarette tasty and bold. I have no complaints here.
My wife ordered the picanha steak ($20.99) with yucca, and I have to admit it was one of the best ones I’ve ever had. It was cooked with a heaping of onions that were almost caramelized, along with some smokiness from the cast iron skillet it was cooked in. It was so simple but effective and perfectly cooked. I highly recommend it.
Someone in our group ordered the shrimp in garlic oil ($16.99) and couldn’t stop raving about it. Again, nothing complex or complicated, just simple techniques in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and quality plump shrimp.
I ordered the penne alla vodka ($18.99) to balance things out and include some more Italian-leaning dishes in our review. It was very solid and quite enjoyable. It was not the best I’ve ever had, but there were no notable deficiencies. The side Caesar was tiny but tart in a good way.
My wife ordered some Brigadeiro ($3.00), which is a great price for four large cups. It’s made with condensed and evaporated milk, cocoa powder, butter, and chocolate sprinkles. Everyone at the table loved it, but it was clearly a decadent and sugary dessert.
They were known for their pizzas, so we had a large 16″ pizza ($27.99) for the house that we really intended to dig into the next day. It was outstanding. Half was called Cinco Queso, which had a couple of unique soft Indigenous cheeses, like the aforementioned Brazilian cream cheese, catupiry. The other half was a chicken pesto with red peppers and basil. Both were great in their own way.
At this point, we were stuffed and defeated, so we agreed to come back another time to check out some of the specials, like Feijoada, a pork and bean dish (only available on weekends).
Marcellos intends to make this a franchise and expand into east Deerfield Beach, a more densely Brazilian and South American area, and then Wellington before heading south to Miami.
Sometimes, restaurants try to be a jack of all trades and masters of none. Fornello is an exception in my experience with restaurants that have too many items and do none of them very well. Although I would definitely lean towards his Brazilian dishes more so than the Italian, he does an admiral job and is a talented and driven guy.
Fornello Italian Cuisine
5359 Lyons Rd
Coconut Creek, FL 33073
561-672-7960
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