Mastello Ristorante

Service was very good and I really like the owner being present and greeting patrons. The was food ok. I would have given a better review, but it is completely unacceptable for an Italian Resturant to make terrible meet balls. One very positive note, the wine pour portion is very good. Makes up for the bad meet balls. Jersey Italians; bread is terrible, but what’s new in Florida.

We were visiting from Miami. We were at the beach, and started raining at 7, so we decided to go for dinner at that time. We wanted pasta, so we looked in Unilocal for an Italian Restaurant near Fort Myers beach. We found Mastello’s, had 3 ½ stars, so we decided to give it a try. Wrong decision…
The Restaurant ambience looked fine, tablecloth tables, good décor, so we thought, nice!
Then the waitress came in, the only one in the dining room as there were only 3 – 4 tables occupied this Wednesday night. She came in and ask for our drinks and offered us if we wanted to see the wine menu. We didn’t feel to drink wine tonight so we just asked her for 3 waters with lemon. Then she gave us the first weird look… She came back and wanted to give us the specials, but we had already decided what we wanted to order from the menu, so we passed. Then my husband told her our order for the whole table. Very simple: Mussels Marinara as an appetizer, a fettuccine bolognese, a fettuccine Alfredo and a spaghetti alla Vongole. Then the problems started… Our native tongue is Spanish, but we have been living in South Florida for 26 years. So, yes, we have an accent, but we both work with people and we conduct our business in English, with no problems of people not understanding us whatsoever. But for some reason, she seem to have a problem with his accent, and did not understand his order, which he had to repeat. First, she corrected him about the pronunciation of bolognese, which he pronounced as it supposed, like in Italian, boloñese, with the last e pronounced as it is not silent, and the «gn» in the middle pronounced like an «ñ» in Spanish. She corrected him saying: oh, you mean «bologneis»… Enough said… Then she didn’t understand the spaghetti alla vongole with white sauce. He had to repeat himself again. Fortunately, with the Alfredo she didn’t have a problem… Then the menu said that the entrees came with a side salad, but the waitress said that it was only for the meat, chicken or shrimp entrees, not the pastas, even though the pasta dishes ranged from $ 15 for a simple fettuccine with red sauce or Alfredo to $ 22 for a pescatore, or a seafood pasta. At those prices, we didn’t really see the difference why the pastas don’t come with a salad, but said ok, no problem. In Italy, the pastas are served as an appetizer, primi piatti, in small portions. But here in the States, are served as main entrees everywhere. So go figure…
Enter the food. The cozze Marinara (mussels in marinara sauce which my husband said in English, so there were no problems) came in first. Very small portion for almost $ 11, I would say maybe a ¼ pound, about 12 – 14 small mussels in a small soup plate. Nicely plated, but a small portion anyway. Now the problem: the sauce. Marinara sauce is a simple tomato sauce that might take oregano, but not red pepper or any other spice. This sauce was extremely spicy, more like an arabiatta sauce. We were hungry, so we ate it.
Then the pastas. The bolognese was fine and tasted really good. Good portion. My husband’s Alfredo was served in a big soup bowl like the others, but his portion looked like a kid’s size portion. He looked at me in disappointment, but said he was not going to complain. Then, my vongole. I started eating, good clams and the pasta tasted a little strange, but did not pay too much attention. Gave a little bit to my husband to try and he said they were bitter, that there was a spice that was not supposed to be there. He took another bite and told me: this has thyme, a lot of thyme. Vongole does not take thyme, only garlic, white wine, butter, red pepper (not for me though) and fresh parsley. That’s it. Disappointing as well…
Finally, we ordered a ricotta cheesecake. Expected a big slice? Of course not! And hear this: big plate for presentation, a little bit of strawberry sauce as decoration which should have been enough, but not, it also came with a square piece of watermelon and a small square piece of cantaloupe as decoration??? What do watermelon and cantaloupe have to do with ricotta cheese cake? Nothing at all! The taste? Fine, but tasted like a regular cheesecake, not ricotta cake. Did I say the slice was tiny?
I apologize if my review has been too long, but I wanted to give you a good account of our experience tonight at this Restaurant. We don’t live in the area so we won’t return anyway, but we wouldn’t return if we were locals anyway… Sorry Mastello. 2 stars, only because the Alfredo and the bolognese tasted good…

People are writing about the restaurant but I actually want to write about the market. At Christmas they had Zappollis and Bacalau and all kinds of delicious traditional Christmas dishes in the deli, they have pizza dough, and many many great authentic Italian grocery items. I got the meat for bracciole and gnocchi, made it tonight, so delicious. I love this market,

I treated the family of seven to a Christmas Eve dinner.
My wife and I have dined at Mastello previously and were confident that all would be satisfied.
Bryan, our waiter, was well-​versed with the menu and the dinner specials.
Needless to say all entrees and the desserts were delicious.
My lobster ravioli in a sage saffron sauce was excellent and included the salad and dessert.
Definitely a worthwhile visit and highly recommend Mastello to all locals and seasonal visitors.

Avoid Mastello Ristorante like the plague if you like authentic Italian food.
Where’s the Alfredo!
Off to dinner we went, the advertisement looked good, the lasagna looked
favoloso.
We were quickly greeted and seated, nice hostess.
The waiter came over and proceeded to read us the specials and halfway thru he realized that that was for 2 days ago! No worries he restarts and stumbles his way thru today’s! Informed us that the tilapia has been removed due to a nation wide recall, no worries for me as seafood is the spawn of satan in my eyes! Asks us if we’re ready to order and gives us some time, leaving with out asking about drinks or an appetizer, The waiter seems to be on a slippery slope now.
The menu seems to offer a nice selection, albeit pricey for this kind of place to be honest.
We decided on lasagna and fettuccine Alfredo with two salads.
The waiter returns with bread and a garlic spread, later we heard the other waiter tell someone it was a pâté, Very dry and unappealing stuff on mediocre bread,
Oh but he does get the drink order now at least.
Salads arrive one Caesar and one tomatoes and mozzarella, Both were quite good and the tomatoes were excellent, some of the best I’ve had in years. But remember they didn’t have to cook them, just bought them and cut them.
By the time out Salads are about done my drink arrived and then the food.
The Alfredo was a tiny portion served in an enormous bowl and the lasagna served traditionally in the bowel it was oven warmed in.
Now here is where things go quite pear shaped.
The waiter disappears from our table and area for 20 minutes.
The Alfredo was quite put the worst I have ever had. It tasted like something out of a can or jar with butter added to it to cover the taste. It hadn’t even been simmered to reduce it. The lasagna had carrots in it, Although I must say I have seen carrots in spaghetti sauce once in my life, added by a British man who though he could cook. And it wasn’t Gordon Ramsay.
I would have happily sent this absolutely nasty food back to the kitchen and ordered a Pizza, which I just overheard the other waiter tell the table next to us that the had a pizza menu too. News to me.
After about 20 minutes the waiter returned and then the food was a congealed mess of which I had 3 small bites and the lasagna I was told rated about 4 stars out of 10.
I informed the waiter that the food was awful and if he had bothered to ask me or return the table earlier I would have told him so.
No offers of concession were made we paid the highly over priced bill and left never, ever to return here.
Money well paid to purge this place from my memory.

Disappointed with our dinner tonight. Chicken parmigian was below average.
Looked and tasted like they needed to push it from their store instead of being freshly prepared.
The chicken arrived in a plate with the pasta and we paid over $ 21. $ 24 dollars for spaghetti and meatballs. Really? Give me a break! It should of been great pasta for that price. But it was dry and full of chunks of meat with chunky carrots.
The brushcetta was on top of what seemed like soggy wheat hoagie bread.
Should of went to carrabbas! We would of got a better meal for half the price.

Thank you Unilocal.We found our place for authentic Italian. Cool murals and great place to have a nice dinner at a nice place we felt very comfortable at. The Lasagna with fresh homemade pasta can not be be beat. And the salads are fresh, big and good.

Nice atmosphere, excellent service. The appetizers and meals were marginal. My wife had carpaccio. Too much for one person and it was served too thick. The pasta was over-​cooked and the salsa was almost tasteless.
To top it all off the gin and tonic was the worst ever. Flat tonic and only one kind of medium quality gin.
To top it off we asked for lamb which they said they never made. Indignant actually. Then when I showed a picture from you guys, they suddenly remove red it was offer as special near Christmas.
Three stars is being nice.

OK is the best I can say The lasagna and chickem parmagana was nothing special. Not worth almost 20 bucks. Calamari was a small portion for 11. Caesar salad was good but they upcharged for anchovies. My coworker got an appertizer that ended being rare roast beef. He said that was not authentic italian as the restaurant claims. Egg noodles cmon!

Host who appeared to be the owner seemed to have issue with us as we walked in with no reservation, there were numerous empty tables as it was past senior rush hour. After we waited 10 min to be recognized server finally took our drink order. Food was basic, nothing to write home about. I guess once it’s season here you don’t need to treat people like they are paying you. I’ll never understand why it’s so difficult to just be friendly and treat people how you would want to be treated yourself!

Fabulous food! Go to this restaurant to have a wonderful meal! We have been visiting Fort. Myers for too many years and going to the same old chains. Recently my husband & I have started to seek out the local places to experience real food. Mastellos is the real deal! Good, good food. Great service. No waiting at this point. Based on clientele, the locals know it but the snow birds remain oblivious so enjoy while you still can! I tried an Italian stand-​by, lasagna. It was not heavy but still full of cheese. Husband had special pasta with shrimp & salmon — great! It came with rum cake dessert that was very good. Highest recommendation.

I love Florida in the early Fall because there is not a soul down there. The same goes for our dinner at Mastello — we were the only ones in the dining room! Loved that! It was nice to have a quiet dinner and also an attentive waiter. He was very gracious when I sent the glass of Pinot Gris back as it tasted like sour apple juice and brought me a glass of Pinot Noir. Dinner was delightful! I loved the rigatoni ragout which is a house specialty. A cup of decaf and some gelato later we needed to be rolled out of there! I would definitely make a reservation during the winter/​spring months when the snow birds fly back for the winter.

Really good fresh food. My husband loves this place, he’s been coming here when it was called Mamma Pasta! The place has been updated and has a nice atmosphere. I was surprised that there wasn’t a wait. We will be coming back.

Happy hour has very limited drink and appetizer specials. I found the food I tried on the bland side. The service was slow for not being that busy. There is much better Italian food and happy hour specials in town. I’ll pass.

I’ve been going to this place for years. It used to be called Mama Pasta, but changed names several years back. It’s the same owner and the food is excellent. I consider this my #1 go to Italian restaurant in Fort Myers. All the pasta is made fresh as well as the sauces. Instead of the usual bread and herbed oil, they have a wonderful eggplant concoction in the olive oil. They’re happy hour has the best apps. around. This is a first class place that never ceases to amaze. The muscles are the best around and their margarita pizza is excellent. One of my wife’s favorites is the spinach ravioli with the spicy tomato sauce. Excellent!
Also, I just wanted to say Mastello’s is a great place for a quite dinner and the service is 2^nd to none.