Elizabeth S.
Yelp
We went to visit recently for my birthday and had high hopes. The restaurant itself is lovely with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. There's art on the walls and the chairs are very comfortable. So far, so good.
Our server was so sweet and was doing a fine job. A gentleman, who I can only assume is the owner, came over and chatted with us briefly and answered questions about wine and the menu.
We were enjoying our night and were not in a rush to order our entire meal. We ordered the appetizer and a very nice wine.
After a lot of discussion about what were were all getting, we decided on our mains. One pain point, the owner seemed genuinely frustrated it was taking us so long to order our mains. He came over repeatedly and also asked our server if we'd ordered yet. There were a good two hours before they closed still. What was the rush?!
All of that was an irritation I would accept if the food was wonderful, and most of it was wonderful. To begin, the antipasti were fantastic! We got burrata and prosciutto and a prosciutto Pinza. A pizza-like dish made from a variety of grains. Absolutely delicious! If you go, definitely get one of those. We also ordered the carbonara and the Al fuoco. It comes with linguine, but we asked to sub rigatoni. They had absolutely no problem with that, which is nice.
My disappointment? The pasta. As an Italian who has lived all over Italy, I've tried food from a multitude of locations. I enjoy an al dente pasta, but their pasta was not al dente, it was undercooked. If I go back, I will definitely ask for the pasta to be cooked a bit longer.
We did order dessert and the owner graciously gave me his signature Limoncello tiramisù. They also make their own gelato. That also was delicious.
I feel I should warn you, the most unsettling part of the trip was something the owner can do nothing about, the Scientology "police" posted on every corner of the downtown area. On every corner was one or two people in what can only be described as a mock uniform just standing there. What is up with that? What are they doing? I was also thrown by how dead the downtown area was for a Friday. There was barely anyone out at 8 pm. A similar area of Tampa or St. Pete would be jumping! In fact, we came from Safety Harbor, and couldn't get parking because so many people were out. Conversely, we found a spot very close to the restaurant in Clearwater just 20 minutes later.
If you decide to try Soul Sicilian Fusion, and you should, be forewarned that the area is a ghost town.