L'italiano's Chicago Pizzeria And Italian

While vacationing in Kissimmee, Florida over 4th of July week, we decided to stop at Ponderosa, which is adjacent to L'Italianos in a strip mall. The entire parking lot was quite full, but my husband is handicapped and we found a handicapped parking place in front of L'Italianos. We properly displayed the handicapped placard on the rear-view mirror, and proceeded to get out of the car. No sooner had we opened the car door, than the owner of L'Italianos, who was actually standing on the sidewalk in front of his restaurant when we pulled up, started screaming at us that we couldn't park in that spot unless we were eating at his place, and that he would have us towed if we didn't move the car. My husband tried to tell him that it was a handicapped spot and he couldn't deny us access to it since it didn't specifically state that parking there was for his restaurant only. The owner continued to yell at us and threatened to call the police. So to not cause any further trouble, we moved the car. The only spots available were at the rear of the strip mall, with no handicap spaces. As we were walking to Ponderosa, we overheard another family talking about the same thing happening to them, although they were not in a handicap spot, but a parking place in front of L'Italianos. Once we were inside Ponderosa, we spoke with several more people who had encountered the same rude, disrespectful, and discriminatory attitude from the owner of L'Italianos. Based on this experience, we will never, ever eat there, and will not recommend L'Italianos to anyone!

I wouldn't even give this place a single star if I could. The food was absolutely terrible, like something you'd feed a dog, and the prices were ridiculously high as if they were serving real meals. It felt like a scam. Before we placed our order, someone tried to stop my husband and me, and we should have taken that as a warning, but we learned our lesson the hard way. I strongly advise you to avoid this dreadful restaurant and the awful people who run it.

When the delivery finally arrived an hour later, we paid in cash but received no receipt. Upon checking our order, we found that it was wrong; instead of chicken wings, we received French fries. We requested the chicken wings and were told they would bring them right over. Another hour passed, and still no chicken wings. I called again, and the order taker asked us to wait another 5 minutes. Instead, it turned into another 30 minutes of waiting. Eventually, we decided to cancel the order and request a refund. By that point, the pizza was cold because we had been waiting for the wings. After a long conversation and being put on hold multiple times, the order taker finally said I could get a refund the following day at 11 am. I explained that wouldn’t work since we were checking out of the hotel at 7 am. Her response was essentially that I couldn’t get my refund. I insisted on receiving the refund because the wings were never delivered, and since we had paid in cash, they should be able to process it immediately. This feels like a huge scam! As first-time tourists, we are thoroughly disgusted by this experience. Additionally, the pizza box and flyer did not show the actual name or address of the restaurant, so I had to do some research just to figure out who was behind this terrible pizza delivery service.

This is a lovely restaurant with beautiful decor. The food is delicious, especially the deep dish pizza and the lasagna, which were both amazing!