armando's cucina italiana & pizzeria

enjoyable experience!. ate dinner here with a good friend on may 10, 2012 at around 6:45 p.m. i love the seating area outside - it was extended into the adjacent street (hannibal square east) that is blocked off. we sat out there on a beautiful night. there was live music and the restaurant was fairly busy for a thursday.

i ordered the insalata di spinaci ($6.95) as a starter, the orecchiette pulcinella ($16.95) for my entree, and a side of two homemade meatballs ($4.95). my friend ordered the gnocchi alla sorrentina ($13.95) for her entree.

the salad was a nice size and served with fresh spinach leaves, tomatoes, and diced red onions tossed in a homemade italian vinaigrette. it was delicious. my pasta dish was a nice size and delicious as well. it was full of thick coin-shaped sausage, peppers, and smoked mozzarella in a fresh plum tomato sauce. the two homemade meatballs were large and without a doubt, the best meatballs i have ever eaten - and i come from a big italian family! my friend also enjoyed her pasta dish. she also ordered two chimay and commented that the $5.00 price was a good deal (not sure if that was a happy hour price). the one thing i do not like is that they do not have any whole wheat pasta options.

our server according to our receipt (george) was a nice fella. he was friendly and prompt with our drinks and bringing us our checks. we were also surprised how fast our meals came out. overall, good job armando's. i will be back. next time i want to try the pizza though!

armando's cucina italiana & pizzeria is located in hannibal square, at the ne corner of west new england avenue and hannibal square east in downtown winter park.

love it!!!!!. this is an amazing restaurant with attentive staff and top quality food! the wine list is extensive and ownership is regularly on site to ensure the quality is never compromised.

dont bother. went here for a nice night out waiter was too concerned with himself and "accidentally" threw out our boxed food to go never had the smarts to offer us another or half off done with this place first teach your"waiters" how to treat overpaying customers


-----27 may, 2013-----

dinner. average at best (in most cases) although some of the dishes are quite good. service is unmanaged and borderline rude. owners should get a handle on what guests are seeing - they should be soliciting feedback...but when you take yourself too seriously, i guess that isn't necessary. you are just not that good for the location you occupy and the pricing of your menu. can't believe i'm saying this but for the basics (lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs/sausage) and certainly service - you would probably be better off at olive garden.

pizza was pretty good, service was not. we went to armando's for dinner after we received a gift card from a friend. when we arrived, we were greeted and seated....but then we waited, and waited, and waited. finally a server came and apologized and said our server was visiting with an old friend and that is why we had not received any water. she did not tell us specials, welcome us or anything....however, we immediately ordered. rarely did the server return to fill our water glasses or even check on us. the pizza was pretty good, but part of dining experice is the service and armando's misses the mark. with so many choices in winter park, one would be better "served" by forgoing armando's and trying another local eatery that has good food and good service.

great pizza found here. after years of living in orlando i had given up on eating good pizza. then i came here. if you are from the new england area and miss what pizza should taste like, then come here.
the staff was great and the food was even better, plus the location is superb. definitely a must go.

...after many failed attempts throughout the years at finding a decent pizza, i found armando’s cucina italiana & pizzeria in winter park. granted they are no new york style pizza, but they are quite good, in fact better than most places in orlando. when ordering at a restaurant, i do not argue with waiters, it is bad karma, and waiters usually know what tastes on the menu. our waiter was great. he took the time to explain the pizzas and made some suggestions, like the fact that the peroni beer was extra cold and we should have some asap. i accepted his beer suggestion right away, after all, who has heard of pizza without beer? they were cold, and they were

eleven of us went here for a birthday party on saturday night. the pro i can give for this place is the food was really good. i will say that portion size was smaller than similar italian restaurants i've eaten at. i know that has been a common complaint with other reviewer. i found it was just right, portion wise, but if you are a big eater or like to take home leftovers this place may not be for you.
 another complaint i had was we we're seated outside on the sidewalk. the table was at least 15 degrees off level. it was a little aggravating to deal with everything off kilter and dealing with the outside tempature in august in orlando. even though we had a reservation, it seemed like they threw this table together at the last second.
 our biggest complaint was one of our servers, he was just bad! he started out rude in my opinion and he had a i'm getting my tip anyway mentality. one of our group had a food allergy that was told to this server prior to serving, he brought out her meal without leaving off the what causes her food allergy. he offered to replate instead of having it re done but it was touching everything else on the plate so she could not eat it. we had to get the manager to take care of this and fortunately we didn't have to deal with this waiter for the rest of the meal.
 it's a shame to get good food but have eleven people's meals ruined by lack of planning and bad service. we will not eat here again.

awful! i'll never go back!. had a date night tonight with my husband and we figured we'd finally try armando's. to start, the drink menu was not great. pricey and not much to choose other than bottles of over priced wine. then we ordered a pizza which was $18 and it sounded great. well out came a soggy, tasteless pizza with a raw egg on top. it was so raw and runny that i actually gagged. the waiter asked how it was and we admitted it wasn't too good and the egg was raw. he suggested we let the pizza sit awhile and cook. we didn't want a cold pizza and besides that it had zero taste! we let the manager know and he said since we had each eaten a slice he wouldn't do a thing. he actually made us pay for the uneaten pizza in full and we left. we told him that was horrible business practice and we'd never be back. we said we'd tell all our friends about the terrible food and service and he could have cared less. we'll never be back! awful food and absolutely horrible service and management!

delicious. the quality and freshness of the food never disappoints. the food is outstanding.

horrible service. food was mediocre at best. could not get the waiters attention. waited forever to order, request parmesan cheese, pay bill, etc. waiter didn't seem to care less.

great location/atmosphere, food is just "meh". i work on park ave in winter park. occasionally the whole office will go out to lunch. this last week we decided on armando's. i had never been, so i was open to the idea.

walking in, the place looks great. lots of windows and light. decent atmosphere. then the food came.

it wasn't the worst i've ever had, but certainly not worthy of the prices. the caprese was sorry looking. just no presentation whatsoever. it looked like a caprese i'd make it in my apartment when i've only got a handful of ingredients to work with. taste-wise, it tasted okay. kind of hard to mess up pouring vinegar on a tomato and putting a slice of cheese on it. but again, you're gonna pay a few bucks for 4 sorry-looking slices of tomato and moz.

for my entree, i got a panini with tuna and artichoke hearts. for the price of the sandwich, i was expecting thick slices of "mediterranean tuna" as the menu described. i've made enough tuna sandwiches to know this was probably out of a can and the flavor was just "meh." nothing too exciting. it tasted like a tuna sandwich. my coworkers got the chicken parm (he didn't finish it--didn't like it) and the other got the meatball panini (he liked his).

despite the fact i didn't enjoy the food, the staff was very friendly and armando himself brought my plate to the table.

unfortunately, that's not enough for me to come back here... i'll definitely vote "no" on armandos the next time we go to lunch at my office.

nice atmosphere, but too pricey for the menu options offered

meh.. we received a gift card here for christmas and decided to grab an early dinner this past friday. the food was a good quality and everything was delicious. however, the sizes were extraordinarily small (my ravioli dish came with 5 ravioli). my 8-year-old son easily handled the lasagna portion, ate the entire basket of bread, and half the appetizer before eyeing his younger sister's entree... and he was still hungry after dinner. in addition, the server was nice but the service was terrible. we ordered an appetizer -- it came out after the entrees (really?). in addition, the bread was served at the same time as the entrees (again, really?). no one refilled our waters -- not once, even though i had drank my entire glass in the first five minutes of being at the table and started on my husband's. there was also a problem with the bill and it took forever to flag down the waiter. i wanted to like it, i really did, but the poor service and the small amount of food left us disappointed (honestly, not one member of our family was left even moderately full, except the preschooler because she wasn't hungry, and that's after eating an appetizer, bread, and her entree). sorry, armando's, we won't be back.

great for lunch. never tried their dinner service, however i have ordered from them several times for lunch (usually carry out) and the food is good quality for the price. the only thing i can say is that the quantity sometimes seems like it is lacking.

yet another restaurant that focuses on alcohol and not the quality of food. they served the pizza lukewarm, not sure why when we sat at their kitchen island in front of the line of cooks and oven. their lasagna is very, very meaty, so unless you like extra meat then don't order it- it too was served lukewarm.