Café Ragazzi

I stumbled upon this hidden unique restaurant, and wow , starting from the greeting at the door up upon the seating at the bar. A phenomenal experience, Ana the bartender blew my mind. From alll the recommendations she gave I ended up letting her take the wheel , the old fashion drink to the food , an amazing experience, Ana makes the the experience like no one else , every recommendation she suggested I took. To top it off the divine apple tart that’s made in house just feels like a kiss from the gods and to pair it off with a nice Porto. An outstanding experience i definitely will bring my wife with me next time when she isn’t sick. Thank you Ana amazing experience definitely returning!!!

I recently dined at Cafe Ragazzi and had a fantastic experience. The food was delicious, with each dish showcasing authentic Italian flavors and fresh ingredients. The highlight was definitely the expertly prepared pasta and rich sauces. What truly elevated the experience was the excellent service. Omar, in particular, made me feel very comfortable and was exceptionally knowledgeable about pairing the wine with the food. His recommendations were spot-on and enhanced the meal significantly. Overall, Cafe Ragazzi offers a wonderful combination of tasty food and top-notch service, making it a great choice for a memorable dining experience.

For nearly three decades, Cafe Ragazzi in Surfside, Florida, has been a cherished gem in my life. I first stumbled upon this cozy Italian restaurant in 1997 while attending graduate school, and it’s safe to say it’s been love at first bite ever since. Fast forward almost 30 years, and now it’s a place I proudly share with my family, who enjoy it just as much as I do. In my opinion, Cafe Ragazzi is hands down one of the best Italian restaurants in South Florida. From the moment you walk through the door, you’re greeted with a warm, intimate atmosphere that instantly transports you to a quaint trattoria in Italy. The culinary creations are nothing short of perfection—classic Italian dishes elevated by exceptional ingredients and a touch of magic. While the entire menu is a masterpiece, a few dishes deserve a standing ovation. The Linguine with White Clam Sauce is a revelation, perfectly balanced with the briny sweetness of fresh clams. The Chicken Marsala or Francaise are rich and comforting, cooked to perfection every time. And the Fettuccine Alfredo? Creamy, decadent, and everything you dream of in a pasta dish. Whether it’s a special occasion or simply a desire for an unforgettable meal, Cafe Ragazzi has been a constant source of joy and culinary excellence for my family and me. If you’re in South Florida and craving authentic Italian cuisine served in an inviting and timeless setting, this is the place to be. Here’s to many more years of dining at this beloved treasure!

The food was fresh and flavored - great portions - excellent service - salmon cooked just right - ravioli stuffed with crab & lobster meat topped with shrimp was great - setting was perfect easy access to parking

Amazing restaurant, the food was great and everyone was friendly and welcoming!! Had the best experience as we came here almost every day over a 2 week span! Great place!!

Authentic Italian Ristorante Great servers and host's Food was amazing Omar the manager and Veronica the server couldn't do enough for you Tremendous drinks and the bread and piccante tomatoe salad are tremendous

Our group of four (4) visited this gem on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 for dinner. Try it you will like it. Ask for Omar, the manager, and Ana, the server. Tell them that Mark sent you. Try the Burrata with prosciutto, the calamari y zucchini, the grouper special, the piccata francese, and the vitallo piccata. The "Brady" cabernet sauvigon was excellent. Our first visit of many to come. Omar, keep it going! Thank you for a special evening!

What a wonderful night! Food, service, and atmosphere are excellent. Everything in the menu looks delicious and I can tell you that each dish that we ordered was amazing. The service is outstanding, Tato, Martin, and Felix did an excellent job!!! The restaurant's atmosphere is delightful! One hundred percent recommendable for any occasion.

Been going since they opened. Haven't been lately got expensive Went last night had an excellent meal . Will go back. I was happy to see it was busy but not like the old days when there was a line

I have been a long time customer of Cafe Ragazzi. I have not been to this restaurant for a few years due to bad experiences. I went to the restaurant on 2/14/2025 and had an incredibly bad experience. The waitress struggled to take the order and made several errors. The vent over the table leaked throughout our meal and a staff member came out with a mop to remove condensation from the ceiling over our table while patrons were all around. What a joke. I ordered the carbonara and asked the waitress if the dish had too many onions and she assured me it did not. The carbonara had WAY too many onions. We asked for a credit on our bill and they brought us some crappy shots instead. This restaurant should have closed a long time ago. Avoid!!!!

Wanted to love this place. When arrived we were the only patrons in the restaurant. We decided to go to the bar. When asked what water we wanted still, sparkling, etc. I said regular water. We were served Acqua Panna. Ok maybe it was a mistake. We will pay for it. Then asked my friend what is she having to drink. Ordered a dirty martini with blue cheese olives. Didn't ask me what I would like and just proceeded to make the martini. I am assuming we cannot multi task. My friend gets the drink and has to ask for the blue cheese olives. Still no one else in the restaurant. I ordered an aperol spritz. We offer an appetizer, the fried calamari and zucchini. It was a large portion for 2. It was good. Not overly greasy or overly fried. We also ordered the pear and Gorgonzola cheese pizza. Ok now there are 2-3 other tables occupied. Waited. Had to ask the status. Pizza was fair but not great. Could have been cooked longer. I expected overall a better experience food and service wise.

Pretty decent ribeye for a steak house! We celebrated a retirement at this location and was scheduled in from 5pm-7pm to allow space for the dinner rush. For drinks we had the red sangria and for our entree, as mentioned, we had the ribeye that came with two sides--we chose mash potatoes and broccoli. The ribeye was the best serving of medium well I've had, ever. The restaurant was so nice and offered a glass of sparkling champagne to toast our guest before we departed. Parking is available in the rear of the building for a fee.

Food was delicious. Ambiance was elegant and classy. The young ladies that served us were very professional and friendly. My daughter and her friends were dazzled and we can't wait to visit Miami again to come back. Don't forget to try the tiramisu!!!!

I wanted to love this place because is a few minutes walk from my house. We sat last night for dinner. Service was confused and as if they were super busy, which they were not. We order a glass of Prosecco and it came a glass of rose, the manager changed it for us. It was as if the bottle was opened for a while or stored without proper lid because it was without bubbles, I did not complaint and thought perhaps the second glass would come fresh. No, it was flat again. We ordered the Arugula and Beets, Fish of the day, a grouper, Gnocchi and a Capellini Pomodoro. The Capellini was good. The Gnocchi was chewy as the manager confirmed they don't make in house and looked more like a pasta than a Gnocchi, ir was uneatable. We left everything. the Catch of the day - grouper, was frozen, uncooked and the Lemon sauce that came with it had sooo many seeds, mu boyfriend eat a few pieces that was cooked and left the remaining with all the seeds showing. We told the manager about it, nothing was done. $170 tab and for sure, we will not be back. I don't recommend this place at all.

Sadly disappointed! The spaghetti and meatballs are a bag of frozen salty ikea meatballs with dry red sauce on cut up spaghetti noodles$26 The Cesar salad with homemade dressing was good but had way tooo much dressing on it so it made the salad slimy mushy $12 Pollo Francese Lemon chicken with broccoli was lightly breaded and cooked well, the broccoli was fresh but the mashed potatoes taste like instant potatoes. $25 The fried calamari was ok, lightly breaded and very large portion for 2$18 The apple tart looked sad / under cooked. Put it in the toaster oven for an additional 5 minutes and it was surprisingly much better $10 It did come with fresh bread and bruschetta which was nice. Would I order again? It's a no for me.

Extremely average for a ridiculous price. I wouldn't come here again ever. Got average, maybe below average Italian for a 300+ dollar bill for 4 people. Way overpriced, service was garbage and food was mid. Don't come here. Much better Italian in Miami Beach for the same price.

Have you been waiting on Miami Spice? Guys you have to give Café Ragazzi a shot. You will love iit! I was here last week and the service is still amazing and they cater to all your needs. The variety on the special Miami Spice is magnificent and the taste even better. The ambiance is very nice leading to a great evening. Great for a date or with the family. If you with the regular menu, you NEED to try the fettuccini a la Ragú! Simply delicious. Give Café Ragazzi a try, you will love. It.

This place is amazing !!!! First of all the customer service was outstanding from the restaurant manager Omar !! our server was great ! Food came out with great quality!!! If you're looking for tasty Italian food and good service well this is the place !!! I don't live in Miami but will definitely be visiting this place again while in town !

Great ambience. Great service. Many options including wood stove pizza oven. Pasta and other dishes equally fresh and tasty.

Honestly I have no idea why this place is only 3.6 stars . Ppl get off your high horse. Flat out amazing, hospitality was even better. nice bread with bruschetta as a complement when I sat down. Classic . Had the crab ravioli, give me that and that again. Just head on in no need to read more. Let's go! Tell them I sent you. Probably won't help, but you never know.

The food was incredible and the staff was excellent, especially Veronica who gave great recommendations. Highly recommended place for great Italian food.

We were visiting Surfside, Florida for Valentine's weekend and we were looking for a place to eat dinner. This area was very busy due to the time of year and beautiful weather. Also we needed to find a restaurant that we could walk to from our hotel. We found out about Cafe Ragazzi on Google and decided to try it. We walked by several restaurants that were full and wondered how long we would have to wait to get a table. Luckily we were seated immediately. It was a romantic atmosphere with low lighting and white tablecloths. To start, we were served warm complimentary bread with olive oil and diced tomotoes which was a nice addition as we perused the menu. For my entree, I chose the linguine carbonara. It was delicious and I had plenty to take home which is always my favorite. If you are looking for good Italian food, I recommend you try it. Also the service was great.

I cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. How this place doesn't have 5 stars is beyond me. We had a last minute change of plans due to the tragedy in Surfside the weekend we arrived. Having to change most of our weekend, we decided to dine locally and called to see if there was any way they could fit in our group of 8. They said absolutely and that they would make it work. About 30 minutes into our meal, the restaurant was at capacity, so it made them fitting us in all the more impressive. We arrived less than 10 minutes after calling and were greeted by Santiago. He was fun, friendly and very attentive, not just to us but to several other tables. He took our drink orders, gave recommendations and helped a couple of girls in our group who have dietary requirements (that aren't exactly Italian restaurant friendly) and he still made it work for us. The food was fantastic! I seriously can't say enough about it. Between the 8 of us we tried 6 different entrees. I ordered the special and it was definitely worth it. Lobster and crab stuffed pasta...still drooling! Santiago also continuously brought out warm bread for us and made sure we were always content. What made this an even better experience is that he took the time to show one of the girls how to de-shell prawns. This kind of customer service goes a long way. Finally another man came to ask how our meal was so I assumed him to be the manager. Definitely a nice touch having him come by to meet and check on tables. Clearly I'm a fan of this place but definitely check it out for yourself if you're in the area!

Overall a lack luster experience across the board. Service was confusing and the food was bland.

horrible just horrible I came here with my family and the food was far from fresh it looked like if you left in the dessert for years on end and let's not talk about the olive oil it was filled with mosquitoes and also the water tasted like you mixed it with bleach with the food tasting like it was microwaved just horrible couldn't even finish my plate. The only good thing was the waiter and the service

Was visiting Surfside and wanted some Italian food. My husband and I stumbled upon this place. I was skeptical because one of the workers didn't make us feel welcomed (we're a black couple). I also thought it was weird that they stood by the door like they were on guard (see pic). I understand they may have been trying to be attentive but I'm used to servers being more discrete and not making the patrons feel uncomfortable. But I must say the food was DELICIOUS!!! So authentic!!! I wish there was a location where I live.

On our weekly parents night out... this time after the Art Basel...we were crazed looking for an available reservation on a busy Miami Saturday night. We had always seen this cozy Italian restaurant in the corner (of I don't know what street) that we finally decided to make the move and go. Thank goodness we did. The food was delectable I had the Rigatoni De La Nonna and added some grilled chicken. It was delicious. They don't have an actual cocktail menu but you order anything and the bartender will make it ( to standard). The ambiance was chill and the restaurant was cozy. Also, the service was fantastic. Great experience! #melissarecommends

Came here to celebrate my father-in-laws birthday. This used to be "the" Italian spot years ago. We were disappointed. Service was great, but food was not great. Kids ordered a margarita pizza and fettuccini Alfredo. Pizza was excellent, fettuccini was bland, needed salt in water to season pasta. I ordered linguine and clams, it came out as a soup. I never send anything back, but it was swimming in liquid. The server told me that they had just given me extra sauce, like I should be so lucky. Re-ordered a risotto, it was fine. We also ordered carpaccio, it came with rotting arugula and huge chunks of Parmesan. For what they are charging, we expected legitimate Italian, high quality food. We were underwhelmed. Such a shame, was a great local eatery.

It took a while to get menu or water. But once we ordered all went well. The food good . Get a half order or split with someone.

Had a lovely Sunday dinner here. The hostess quick sat us and it wasn't too busy. We both got pasta. I had the Carbonara but requested it with thin spaghetti (I'm not a fan of linguini) and my friend got penne with vodka sauce. The waiter brought us some bread to munch on and some bruschetta dip. It was very tasty! The pasta was cooked perfectly with very large portions. I took half of mine home and will be enjoying it tomorrow :)

I live in the area so I like to try as many restaurants near me as possible. We came with no reservations on a weekday they were pretty busy but we were seated quickly. There's one or two tables outside but seating is mainly indoor.Service is great, everyone always wants to make sure you're well taken care of. I love pasta and Italian food. But this just didn't his the spot. I had raviolis that weren't cooked enough, they still had a bit of a chewy almost crunchy, and I'm not the type to send food back unless it's really horrible. I may have to go back and give them another shot sometime because they had such great service.

Our experience at this "Italian Restaurant " goes down as one of the worst ever! Table of six. Three of the dinners were inedible. The manager was totally rude and ignorant. He grabbed the plates we nicely complained about and never offered alternatives. So in summary food was garbage and management was totally incompetent and hostile. Stay away from this place. Very, very, very bad.

Espectacular el servicio La comida muy rica Gracias por recibirnos Café Ragazzi You are the best in Surfside

AWFUL!!!!!! From the service to the food! Just horrible! No wonder the place was empty! Stay away! Food is not fresh

It's been 1 week since we came here to eat. Scratching my head, trying to remember what we had to eat?? Since I can't remember, I guess it wasn't worth remembering. Though, I do remember someone recommending this place, but I will not.

7.25/10 The special mom ordered was fantastic. It was veal stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella with linguine (she subbed it for mashed potatoes), wine sauce a little bitter for my taste but still great. Very reminiscent of Argentinean flavors.8.5/10 if I want to be precise. Very pricey, though... it was over $40. I love pink sauce (cream with a touch of tomato sauce), and I asked the waiter for his personal favorite pasta. He said that the pappardelle and fettuccine are freshly made. After much debate, I settled on fettuccine with pink sauce (which is off-menu). The pasta itself was great, but the sauce was a little salty and not slightly sweet like I like it. I'd give it a 6/10. So overall, better than decent but not to my expectations. The waiter was kind, patient, and knowledgeable!

We visit this restaurant with my family for a food pizza, service and ambient, well the pizza was normal but the ambient and the service was fantastic

Cafe Regazzi was recommended by my hotel concierge. We were there to celebrate my birthday We arrived at 7:15 and the restaurant was relatively quite. We ordered a couple of bottles of wine and everything was going well. The restaurant began to fill up and we saw our waiter running around trying to handle the volume. It became more and more difficult to get his attention just to place our order. We finally did order our food and it arrived within a reasonable amount of time. We were a party of nine and they had no idea who had ordered what so there was a lot of confusion when the food arrived. There were some dishes that were very good like their osso buco and grouper special but the rest were ok at best. I had ordered a chicken Milanese and it arrived with no salad on top. This is no big deal and an easy problem to solve but despite my multitude of attempts of getting this rectified it never was. After 20 min my food was cold and I sent it back. The experience was so aggravating because they made me feel like they really didn't care. I got the check and they didn't provide me the details just a total. I told him that this was unacceptable and I wanted to see the detail. I bet you know where I'm going with this, but my dish was never removed from the check. I had to argue with the manager for him to correct it. To add insult to injury, a 20% tip was at it and of course couldn't be removed. The whole experience was terrible, and totally unnecessary. If you want to average Italian food and horrible service, this is the place to go.

I don't write reviews often but today I feel like I have to! I have ordered takeout from Cafe Ragazzi many times and they always are super friendly and their food is unbelievably delicious! Never I have been disappointed! Today, I ordered grilled branzino and eggplant with tomatoes, peppers and cheese (sorry I forgot it's name) - both dishes are incredibly tasty! I live very close and it is my italian place to go! Check them out, you won't regret!

Should have left as soon as we were greeted by a very rude maitre'd. Didn't think it could get worst but it did. Waitress also had a terrible attitude. Food had no flavor and took forever to arrive. Was not asked if we needed a second glass of wine or If we enjoyed the food. The maitre'd didn't even visit the table once after he rudely sat us. Won't be returning.

I ordered lasagna. Big mistake for those that love Italian cuisine. Chef was sloppy with his execution. Disappointing given the expense and effort. I don't write many reviews and I want to be fair, I come from San Francisco and super spoiled.

I have been at this place multiple times and my last visit will be the last. The food was horrible with an exaggeration of sauce in both our dinners. Service was bad but not from our server but from the manager.

We were the only two customers and the attention was poor. They served us cold and hard as a rock bread. We had about 5 different servers during our 40 minute meal. We were seated outside but had to walk in to ask for the check after waiting for someone to check on us. Poor service and food was mediocre.

We went to this restaurant and all 6 of us had a terrible meal! 2 of us had fish, I had the grouper was very mushy. I had the beet salad, the beets were frozen. Never new that beets could be frozen. The other 4 friends had Veal dishes- I think the owner has a brother a dentist! Because the meat was soooo tough! I guess if we broke a tooth, he sends to his brother I know we're not going back very soon

Excellent food and service. Good value priced menu and now takeout containers are aluminum keeping take-out food as it should be. Surfside's best Italian Rest. Parking caution: pay for parking as that township has a passion for ticketing!

The worse dinner, can't understand what happened. I had dine at the restaurant several times, so because the food was good I ordered out. What a disappointment. It was the worse dinner in the longest time. The pasta was so spicy and oily that it went thru the go container, and that was not a spicy that should have being spicy at all- pasta with meat sauce. The chicken was burned, to cover it up, they add a sauce from the jar, lots cheese and spices on top of the cheese to cover the horrible taste and smell. It was like eating a piece of rubber. We didn't eat 1/3 of the food, it was horrible and $53.00 was the worse money spent ever. Not sure if they changed chefs, owners or what... like it is now - DON'T EAT THERE.

This place was a good find! The service was good, and meals were great! They offered multiple unique vegetarian options, so I was able to choose a meal I had never tried before. The one aspect I didn't like about the place is that the tables are kind of close together, but it honestly didn't affect my overall experience that much.

We are regular clients, this place never disappoints. Great food, great environment, it is really a place you feel like home. The manager, Tato, always tries everything to make you feel good, and the staff is always super friendly and polite.

I haven't been for years as my family were regulars when the original owners opened the place two decades ago. Portions are generous We had fried calamari to start. Good but not superb. Fried provolone starter wasn't presented very well and wasn't great. Grouper special was very good. Osso bucco main was very good. It was described as having saffron risotto with it but for some reason mine didn't. Linguine vongele was above average. Wine list is very reasonable. We had a gavi for 42.00. Good value. Riccotta cheesecake was very dry. Filter coffee was undrinkable. Service was very sketchy. They wouldn't allow us to order starters while we choose our main course. Owner/ manager was hostile to customers and made us feel uncomfortable. I awarded fourstars because I always review fairly but I won't go back because of service issues. 75 dollars a head with tip is fair for this level of restaurant. 18 pct tip is automatically added to the bill.

This place has very good Pasta (at least that's what I always get when I go).   My favorite is the Linguini Carbonara.  It is so creamy and has big chunks of bacon.  I usually add some grill chicken to it as well to compliment the pasta.  The service could be better.  The last time I went, my friend and I were the only ones coming in to a totally empty restaurant (we went on a Sunday between 2p-3p) and one of the waiters looked at us, not even said hi and turned around as if we didn't exist.  We almost turned around and left... Luckily, another waiter came by and attended us.  The sangria is also pretty good so we ordered it as well.  The plates are pretty big so we didn't order any appetizers but I do remember the fried calamaries being good.  Although we were full, my friend decided to order the 3 layer Flan for dessert.  I didn't want any dessert but ended up eating half of it  jaja It was good    Overall, the place is good, service could improve a bit, the restaurant itself is nice and don't be surprised if you bump into celebrities.  Afterall, I believe the owner of the restaurant is Ricardo Montaner, a popular Latin Singer.  One time, while having dinner, we saw him come in with his sons and had dinner next to our table.  This time, we saw Pitbull and his family come in for a late lunch as well. For a while, his table and ours were the only one being served.  It was funny and so random! So, you never know!

Great place. Very quiet, though. It would be better if it were a little bit noisier. It's owned by the singer Ricardo Montaner, and all his photos and awards are hanging on the walls. The pasta and meat are very good.

Both times I have gone, the staff has been so friendly and accommodating. Waiter was incredibly knowledgeable about the wine and food menu. Pizza and pasta is as good as I remember in Italy. We all ate way too much because it was just delicious.

Discovered this spot New years day and it was delightful. Good Vibe great menu to satisfy every Italian craving, Meatballs were a little burned,but was forgiven because everything else was so yummy

Been several years since I've dined here. We had a big party for Valentine's Day. Being late was not held in the highest regard. After finally having a waiter assigned to us. The service was good. The appetizers were very good. The dinners. Not so much. One out of 8 liked their dish. Chicken parmigiana dried out. Grouper. Also dry. I had the lasagna. Eh!!!! It's probably a decent lunch place coming off the beach.

Amazing! Had reservations. Arrived on time and got seated right away. Our table was right by the glass wall. Looked over the wine menu which is ok but not too extensive. Chose a Ferrari Carano merlot which was really very nice. Received our dinner menus and some warm bread and butter. Shared a salad which was ok, kind if basic but good. Our table ordered the lasagna, a risotto pescatore , the crab ravioli special and the gnocchis. They were all spectacular especially the gnocchis which were extremely tender! Mmmmm portions were perfect as well. Desserts were the chocolate mousse, tiramisu and an apple tart. They were all ok with the mousse being the best one I thought. See all the photos I added. Cortaditos with our desserts were Lavazza and very good. Did not give it 5 stars because it is a little cramped in there, wine menu too small and desserts too basic. With that said, this is not my first or last time here because the entrees are so worth it! This was my 4th visit.

I always used to come here when I lived in the area, always great loved the capellini pasta !! Very fresh and al dente. Today it was not the case... despite being thankful for an outdoors place to eat good pasta due to covid restrictions the boloñesa I ordered was over cooked. The pasta was not al dente and this is very disappointing. Taste was normal but come on...... o body likes to eat pasta like fideos! :/

I had the chicken parmigiana. Very tasty. Very thin piece of chicken. The broccoli and spinach were tasty but little salty. The chocolate mousse was rich and creamy. Very chocolatey. It was delicious. Restaurant ambience nice, waiters attentive but hardly any other diners. Oh and the gnocchi four cheese spectacular