BEST RESTAURANTS IN BRANSON

Florentina’s Italian Restaurant

Florentina’s Italian restaurant is located off the main strip in Branson, Missouri. I am reluctant to try Italian food when traveling. When I heard that our #BloggingBranson group was visiting an Italian restaurant for lunch, I was apprehensive. You see, I love, love, love, love Italian food. BUT, it is rare to find excellent authentic Italian food in most restaurants. Would Florentina’s Ristorante Italiano prove to be one of the Best Restaurants in Branson?

Disclaimer: I was invited to a media event as part of #BloggingBranson sponsored by The Stone Castle Hotel & Conference Center. My meal was provided for me. All thoughts, opinions, and ideas are my own!

Italians Make the Best Italian Food:

I am always leary about Italian restaurants when traveling. In our area, we have a large concentration of Italians and some great restaurants, but when we get in other parts of the country, many restaurants we find lack the know how to pull off great pasta.

Let me give you some background. While I am not Italian, my husband is. Every Sunday he grew up having homemade spaghetti and meatballs. On the other hand, not being Italian, my mom made Ragu from a jar and really bad meatballs. Knowing how important pasta and meatballs were to my husband, I tried to continue the tradition of making my mother-in-law’s recipe of spaghetti and meatballs from scratch. After years of practice, I now consider myself to be an expert when it comes to making Italian foods.

I make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce from scratch that cooks all day long. There was nothing better than dipping a little bit of soft Italian bread in the sauce to taste test before serving it to my family. But all that changed 5 years ago when I was forced to give up gluten.

I still occasionally make meatballs and sauce, but serve it with gluten-free pasta. However, it is rare that I find a fantastic Italian restaurant that can also serve up a great gluten-free meal. Before arriving at Florentina’s I expected to find that the only things I could eat were a normal head lettuce salad with a tomato and cucumber and a dry chicken breast with a side of broccoli.

Gluten-Free at Florentina’s Italian Restaurant

To say I was pleasantly surprised with my meal would be an understatement. Our group was served Florentina’s Italian Nachos, which I could not eat. These nachos start with crispy chips, layered with Alfredo sauce, cheese blend, chicken, Kalamata olives, pepperoncini, diced tomato, red onion, and drizzled with balsamic reduction. Sadly they are not gluten-free, but everyone in my party loved these. My husband said they were bad (which he says when he knows that I want to eat something I am not allowed to). However, they certainly looked and smelled super yummy, and he ate his body weight in nachos.

Because of our party size, we were given our choice of lunch items from a limited menu. I selected the Chicken Alfredo with gluten-free pasta. This Alfredo sauce was probably the best that I have had for a long time. But the most shocking thing is the gluten-free pasta was cooked to perfection. Unlike regular pasta, gluten-free pasta falls apart when it is overcooked, and it tastes funny when it is undercooked.

After lunch, we were served dessert. The cake looked fantastic. They did bring me a bowl of spumoni ice cream. For those who do not know, spumoni is Italian ice cream – chocolate, cherry, and pistachio. I have had bad spumoni in the past, but this was fantastic.

Florentina’s Italian Restaurant is a fantastic dining choice while visiting Branson. In fact, it is definitely on my must-do list the next time we are in Branson. Make sure to check it out. FYI: They have an authentic brick pizza oven – YUMMY, and the foods they serve are chef-created recipes for an authentic Italian experience.