Johnny's Italian Restaurant, Clearwater, Florida, Italian Restaurant Details

Food:

HOW TO TOTALLY SCREW UP CHICKEN PARMESEAN
I was craving Chicken Parmesean last night so I trotted down to the nearest Italian restaurant, Jonny's. The waitress brought me a water and a small fresh-baked loaf of bread with a plate of olive oil dip. That was the highlight of the meal. The entree came out and I immediately knew I wasn't going to like it. The sauce looked like it was out of a can, the cheese was just a slice of mozzarella put on the chicken after the fact. It wasn't even baked on, you know, so it gets slightly bubbly and brown. The chicken was pounded flat and dry like it had been pre-cooked and reheated. It was placed on top of and smothered in sauce which made it mostly soggy, and the sauce was a disgrace. I've worked in a lot of restaurants so I know how these places handle their food when I taste it.

Word of advice for Jonny's:
1. Don't make your sauce from purely canned tomatoes. It TASTES canned.
2. Don't leave your sauce on the stove all day on low heat, slowly bringing it up to temp, and then stick the whole pot back in the cooler at the end of the night. Guess what happens? Toxins build up from bacteria growing and then getting killed off with the heat. See, it sits in the danger zone far too long in the heating and cooling process (41-140 degrees, in case you never got ServSaf certified or anything). You need to bring the sauce up to temp and THEN keep it on low. And you need to pull out more sauce as needed from the cooler. You also need to pack it down into hotel pans to cool before covering and putting in the cooler. Most Italian places do this entirely wrong and it makes for a really acidic, toxic and dangerous sauce to be serving customers. My indigestion last night was horrific.
3. DON'T and I mean DON'T pre-cook your chicken for chicken parmesean and then reheat it in the fryer. It gets dry and tough. DUH.
4. Consider making a hand-made pasta. Tagliatelle or fettuccine are easy.
5. Try baking the cheese onto the chicken after it's been fried and don't smother it with sauce afterwards. Keep it crispy please.

Basically, don't cut corners and your food will be MUCH better. Take it from a former veteran line/prep cook.

Food:

Excellent food and service. Best Ialian I've had, in fact. Our meals were ready quickly and our server was attentive and friendly. Everything from soup and sald to entres and bread was delicious. I'm just sorry I didn't know about this place sooner.

Food:

Johnny's has classic Italian dishes in a nice atmosphere. I got the chicken Parmesan and wasn't disappointed. When the pasta that came out on the side didn't come out the way I wanted, it wasn't a big deal but the waiter noticed and apologized, he along with all of the staff was very nice. The bread and olive, like at many Italian restaurants, is addicting! We also sometimes get pizza from here for takeout - it comes out quick and tastes good. Just to let you know, it sometimes can get pretty crowded here - so you may need to make reservations!

Food:

My wife, daughter and fiancé went to Johnny's tonight to celebrate my brother in law's 52 birthday. We had a party of ten at our table and we all ordered from the early bird menu. The bread was superb, the salad average and the meals were average to good. The problem was the service. It was horrible. Our waiter was rushed and inattentive. He never asked us if we wanted drink refills. We had to find another waiter to fill our drink orders. We were only half way through our meal when the waiter asked us if we wanted take out boxes? I told him I had barely started my meal. The guy never even asked us if we wanted desert. When the waiter returned with our bills about half the party paid early bird special prices and the other half paid full prices. So he had to spend 10 minutes adjusting the bills. To make matters worse the waiter would not honor my brother in law's ten dollar gift certificate. He and his wife eat regularly at Johnny's. He went to the manager to complain and the manager told him that the gift card wasn't valid without explaining why it wasn't valid. The manager was a tall, heavy set middle aged guy. He was very brusque and unfriendly. No one in our party will ever eat at Johnny's again.There are too many superb restaurants in the Tampa\Clearwater area to put up with average food and poor service. The prices and portions were reasonable. I guess this is a case of you get what you pay for.

Food:

This was our first visit to Johnny's. Let me say, the food was excellent. Delicious classic italian. Unfortunately, the service was not great. We waited forever at the bar for a drink. When we asked what looked to be a waiter if there was a bar tender available, he said yes but I'm sure she's busy. The bartender finally came over, we finally received our drinks, my wine glass had dried lipstick on it. It took our bartender forever to give us our check. She clearly did not care on how long she made patrons wait. When we got to our table, there were used wine glasses sitting next to our table, on a ledge at eye level that were never removed from the last table. Not a big deal, but gross. Our waiter was ok. Forgot our drink order. I also find it really annoying that there are televisions everywhere with advertisements playing. That really kills that old Italian ambiance. If you like good food but below average service, try it. If I loved closer, this would be a to-go option only.