Join me in welcoming back guest author Aaron Crum with a review of Epcot’s Tutto Italia! Grazie Aaron!
This classic Italian restaurant is tucked back behind the tower in Epcot’s Italy, and as soon as you see the sign out front and enter the lobby you know you are in for a special treat.
We had reservations at lunch, and while I stayed outside to snap a couple of photos, the rest of our party went ahead into the lobby.
By the time I headed in, our party was already seated at our table. We were promptly greeted by our waitress and a welcoming basket of bread and olive oil.
Tutto Italia Sign
Lobby
Atmosphere
The restaurant itself has a quaint feel to it, and the walls are lined with “replica” Italian paintings.
Seating Area
If you happen to be at the restaurant when it isn’t busy, it can be very romantic and relaxing. However, with such a large and open room, when Tutto Italia gets busy, it can be very loud and feel quite crowded.
Dining Room
Eats
As stated before, we had an assortment of bread waiting on our table for us, accompanied by a plate of olive oil and a small dish of assorted olives. This is complimentary for all guests.
Bread Service
Olive Oil
Olives
Our party of four proceeded to order, and we ended up with 3 different dishes: The Lasagne “al forne”, Rigatoni Bolognese, and Saltimbocca alla Romana.
The lasagna was layered beautifully and presented just as well. The dish was full of flavor and very filling.
We happened to be eating with an Italian, and he ordered the dish and gave it his seal of approval. The only criticism was that the dish could have used a little more sauce, mainly because the sauce was so good!
Lasagna
The Rigatoni Bolognese was a huge portion of food. The balance between the meat in the dish and the sauce was fantastic. The flavor came out and punched you in the mouth (in good way!).
Rigatoni
Lastly, was my dish, the Saltimbocca alla Romana. I like to play a little game occasionally when we eat at restaurants in the World Showcase, so I asked our waitress to bring me out her favorite dish. I told her not to tell me what it was, just let it be a surprise.
Upon setting it on the table, she said this was the best dish the restaurant served and it came highly recommended. It didn’t disappoint! The veal burst with flavor from both the prosciutto and white wine sauce. The potatoes and Swiss chard were a very nice compliment to the dish. Although I was a little hesitant about both sides because they didn’t look very appetizing, they both ended up being quite delicious.
Veal
The best part of being on the Disney Dining Plan is, of course, dessert! And Tutto Italia has some of the best desserts around.
We had Raspberry Sorbetti, which was fresh and had chunks of real raspberries. It was a nice treat on a hot Orlando day.
We also ordered a cannoli — the sweet ricotta was magnificent and the pastry had just the perfect amount of crunch to compliment the filling. (According to our resident Italian, this was the second best cannoli he had ever had — the first of course is made by his Italian grandmother!)
And last, but the real gem, was the Coppetta Sottobosco. It was a glass full of berries and biscotti, topped with a creamy gelato, and crowned with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. As far as desserts are concerned, this easily has entered the upper echelon of desserts in the World Showcase.
Dessert
The mix of fresh fruit, creamy gelato, and chocolate is unmatched and can’t be beat. Trust me on this one, or better yet, try it for yourself!
Overall
While this restaurant can be easily overlooked (or not even seen!) by the casual passerby, it truly is a great place to get a meal. However, it can get pricey, so I would suggest eating here while you are taking advantage of the Disney Dining Plan.
It can get a little crowded at times, and perhaps a little noisy occasionally, but all that can be easily overlooked with a fantastic meal and an even better dessert!
Don’t miss out on this great little place!
What’s your favorite dish at Tutto Italia? Will you be trying out this restaurant on your next Disney World visit?
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I love to have the waitstaff bring me their favorite dish, but I always ask a few questions first to try and figure out if they have actually eaten the food. If you are not a picky eater you can try some of the best dishes by asking the people who know the food.
Once I even said to have the chef pick his favorite dish.
Great review! Tutto Italia is one of our favorite restaurants. We ate here on our trip a couple of weeks ago (my son chose it as the lunch destination for his birthday).
He turned 10 and so is now officially a Disney adult, but the portions on the adult menu are so big, so he suggested we split the lasagna al forno. It was phenomenal! And while I was glad to have the built-in portion control of splitting an entree, I seriously wanted to eat the whole thing! I’m glad to know your Italian friend gave it his seal of approval.
After that review I can’t wait to try Tutto Italia!
We go to Disney often twice a year and I have never been there. That will change now.
Thanks Aaron.
What a fabulous review. I am definitely going to suggest this for our trip in August!
We love this place. It’s not all red sauces, with some great, interesting dishes. Try the lamb if it’s on the menu. In my opinion, the best thing about it are the waiters. They are friendly and can be so much fun!
I just wanted to say I had the worst customer service experience ever when I went to this restaurant. We walked in around 3PM or so and it was not busy. There was not a wait. We just wanted somewhere cool to sit for a while and have a nice dessert. They brought us bread and the menus and we looked over them and each ordered a ten or twelve dollar dessert. The waiter told us we weren’t allowed to only order dessert. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I’ve been to plenty of restaurants and just ordered dessert and never been told that. We had already been munching on the bread so I asked him if he would rather we just leave because we were only hungry for dessert. Then he went and got the manager who said you can’t just go to a restaurant and only order dessert. I said we’re not ordering entrees would you like us to leave then? So, he said fine just order the dessert. So, we got the dessert. It was good. When the bill came, they charged us five dollars for the “complimentary bread” because we didn’t order entrees. So, our total came out to be a little over thirty dollars for two people to eat two desserts. They did not tell us they would charge us for the bread. It really pissed me off. I don’t think they have any right to be so snobby about how much money you spend there considering they are located in a theme park and you are eating dinner wearing flip flops and tank tops in a noisy location surrounded by a bunch of children. They really need to get over themselves. I will never go back.
Used to go there a lot in the “old days” of Alfredo’s. Food was great at first, then seemed to really taper as the years passed. Stopped going there for about 5 years.
Went to Epcot a few months ago with friends. Left the dining choice to them and of course he picks Tutto Italia. …. Dinner was absolutely marvelous!!! I loved it!!!
Scanned the review.. sorry, if I missed this but:
Tutto Italia Ristorante in Epcot’s Italy pavilion will be undergoing refurbishment in 2012. Expect the restaurant to be closed from January 8 – April 1, 2012.
>>The waiter told us we weren’t allowed to only order dessert. <<
That's ridiculous. We go to restaurants around WDW all the time for their desserts. I could name 4 that pop to my head right off. Granted, they have bar areas where we do this but the fact remains, all we order is coffee and dessert. They've ALL asked if we wanted some bread but we decline saying we just want dessert. If you paid with AMEX, you can contest it. We've done that w restaurants that provided horrible food and or service. Now we go out a lot and I've done it maybe 3x. So it's not an every week event. But AMEX really stood behind us.
As an aside, I was actually at a restaurant in LaJolla a few years ago that wanted to know if we wanted "an order of bread!!!" No kidding. Had to "order" to see if my thinking was correct that we'd be charged for it. We were. It was nothing special either. Only time I've ever been charged for bread.
Frank
We dined here for dinner last October (during the F&W fest) It was out first time so other than reading the menu online in advance, and reviews here on the food blog we had never heard of it (because it really is kind of hidden).
My daughters (4 and 6) both ordered cheese pizzas but they each chose a different appetizer. One had the strawberry salad (which she and mom 😉 liked) the my other daughter had the fried mozzarella, which were 6 little bocconcini lightly breaded and served on a plate of sauce. Our whole family LOVED those! I really enjoyed the complimentary breads and our server brought us another basket of our favorites (the foccatia and rustic white) when we polished off the first one 😉 My husband whet with our servers recommendation and ordered the lobster risotto (he loved it and I stole a taste too, it was fabulous) I had the lamb chops served on creamy garlic mashed potatoes. The lamb was good (my first time ever having lamb chops) but those potatoes were amazing! Of course the best part was dessert. Since we are a sharing family we all shared a taste of each others – I may have tasted more than my share and been a little stingy with mine. I had the Chocolate Torta with raspberry sauce – so amazingly good! My husband had the Mocha Tiramisu and it was THE BEST tiramisu I have EVER eaten – seriously! My girls had sorbet and gelati – they were so full from dinner that mom had to help them with their desserts 😉
We would definitely recommend this restaurant to others, especially those with children who may be apprehensive that their kids won’t find something they like at a fancy restaurant. It is very pricy, but we had the dining plan so that makes it a VERY good deal for your dining credit.
If you’d like to see some photos of our meal here I have them posted on Flickr – http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxRaDJk
Renovating in 2012? Isn’t the place less than 10 years old?
I’ve skipped this place because after a series of poor experinces with Italian food at WDW. The best experience I had was at Alfredos, where me and my then girlfriend closed the restaurant and were escorted out of the park to a waiting taxi (thats how late it was) by the nicest cast member I’ve ever met. He even let us walk around and take pictures at night in the empty WS. This was before digital cameras unfortunately.
I digress, as usual. So WDW has bad Italian food, then this place took over for the only place that had a good memory. Now with this review I’ll have to try it.
I’m glad most of you liked the review. I love doing this, so it makes it that much more enjoyable when others share the same passion. That isn’t to say you will never have a bad experience dining at WDW, but my personal experience here was great, and if you get the chance to dine here again, I hope you get the same experience as I did!
We enjoyed dinner at Tutto Italia last month. Waitstaff was friendly. Food was very good. Our only complaint was the temperature in the restaurant. It had to be over 75 in the main dining room. We complained to staff but it took a long time for the space to cool down even a little.
Tutto Italia is one of our favorite places to dine while at WDW. When we were there in July of 2011 they had a stuffed pork chop ( with precutto and cheese) with a Porttelbello mushroom cap. See my photo on Disney Food Blog on Facebook. We have tried to make reservation in March but were told it will be closed for renovations. This will be the first time we havent eaten there. Gonna try the new place next door.
Please stop giving this restaurant rave reviews! Why? Because it will get too crowded and I will not be able to get in! 🙂 As an Italian I am very worried about eating out ‘italian’ , well the food at Tutto Italia is the best restaurant italian food one can get. This is coming from someone who has eaten in restaurants in NYC, San Francisco and Europe. Just as a side note, as an italian I have tried many Cannoli’s – I don’t particularly like them, WELL – this is truly the best Cannoli I have ever had. But you MUST have them IN the restaurant do not buy them at the Wine Cellar next door, they are NOT the same ones. It truly is the best restaurant in EPCOT and one of the best in Disneyworld (Victoria and Albert’s, Narcoosie’s & California Grill in the list). We have made it our plan to try/eat at every restaurant in Disneyworld and we always make it a point to eat at Tutto Italia when we want a good meal IN Epcot. DON’T MISS IT!