Best Restaurant Experience (If You Can Get a Table)


Important: This article was last updated on September 21, 2005. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.

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Readers' picks

Best Breakfast
 The Original Pancake House, various locations

Best Cheap Eats
 Taco Bell, various locations

Best Chain Restaurant (Tie)
 The Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden, various locations

Best Barbecue
 Tom Jenkins B-B-Q, Fort Lauderdale

Best Mexican
 La Bamba, various locations

Best Chinese
 Toa Toa, Sunrise

Best Thai
 Siam House, Fort Lauderdale

Best Mall Food Court
 Aventura Mall

Best Pizza
 Downtown Pizza, Fort Lauderdale

Best Hamburger
 Cheeburger Cheeburger, various locations

Best Diner
 Lester's Diner, Fort Lauderdale

Best Romantic Restaurant
 The Melting Pot, various locations

Best Italian
 Il Mulino, Fort Lauderdale
 
Café Martorano
3343 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954/561-2554, www.cafemartorano.com

 Café Martorano is legendary for serving celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Joe Pesci and James Gandolfini, and notorious for not being accessible to people who aren't so well-connected. But those who do get a table at chef-owner Steve Martorano's Italian restaurant are in for an experience they're not likely to forget. The dining room has seven plasma televisions that show films such as The Godfather, GoodFellas and Scarface, meaning you could be seated just as a certain Hollywood executive wakes up with a severed horse's head on his bed. There is no menu, so servers sit at your table accompanied by a basket filled with a variety of dried pastas and Martorano's own jarred marinara sauce. The server recites, without a crib sheet, that night's list of more than a dozen items, describing how each of the individual pastas and other recipes are served. Wine is poured in hearty eight-ounce servings, the bar scene is happening, and electronic music pumps through the room. Most memorable is the South Philly-style food, extravagantly prepared and served in portions large enough for three meals. Martorano spares no expense in creating one of the most unique restaurants in South Florida, but he does pass the cost on to the customer. It's worth it, providing you know someone who knows someone who can get you a table. Failing that, try one of the three sauces he sells for $10 a jar at Publix.