First time dining at Fiore. I went there Saturday night with my family. My son talks about this restaurant as he frequents it a lot since he lives in Forest Park, and I finally know why he loves it. The restaurant has a large dining area, bar area and a small bakery & store attached to the restaurant. There's a small outdoor patio as well. The decor is so cool...red, white and grey. The manager, Gael, took me on a little tour back to the kitchen and it was spotless like the rest of the restaurant. I've worked in the food industry before and I've never seen a cleaner kitchen.
The staff at Fiore is great, all smiles, and they treat their customers well. Our server was Michelle and she was on top of everything. She was engaging and attentive.
The manager Gael treated our table of 5 to grilled bread with whipped ricotta & honeycomb to start. I could've eaten that all night! My son & his girlfriend started ordering and the food explosion began, each dish wow'ing me. The five of us shared everything which was so fun. Every item was full of flavor and so delicious. Everything!
We started out with roasted cauliflower with whipped garlic, breadcrumbs & parmesan. Highly recommend this dish! Next we had a couple different Neapolitan pizzas, a classic margherita and their special sweet pepper, Italian sausage, onion & goat cheese pizza. Fiore does pizza well with that amazing charred crust with air bubbles just like I fell in love with in Italy. Next we had a pasta dish with an Italian sausage ragu, pecorino & basil. The pasta was cooked perfectly to al dente and the sausage ragu had a little heat and was very tasty. We finished with two desserts, a classic creamy tiramisu and a blueberry cobbler topped with ice cream. The tiramisu was like none other I've ever had. It was the lightest and creamiest tiramisu. I would just go back for that alone. OK, who am I kidding? I'd go back for that bread and whipped ricotta, the pizza, the pasta ... hell everything else on the menu!
Of course, we ended the meal with our family tradition of a limoncello toast in memory of my dad. You have to try the limoncello. Gael makes it himself, and it's one of the best I've had. You can buy it in the little grocery store attached to the restaurant.
There really isn't one negative that I can think of from my experience on Saturday. The atmosphere, the staff, the wine & cocktails, the delicious food...all fantastic! I wish I could rate it more than five stars! read more