This place was absolutely horrible. I ordered the meat lasagna and they were frozen cold in the middle. Apparently, whoever is in charge of the 'microwaving' didn't estimate properly the amount of time needed to heat them up well. Also the flavor of the meat was like it came out of a can. My significant other was also very disappointed. She order the lamb shank and besides being overpriced for that little shank, it was lacking flavor.
The service was a whole other issue. Our server was an older woman that was extremely rude and was not happy that we ordered water to drink. After our water order we got ignored. It took us about 15 minutes to order our food. Try getting a water refill... you will be scared by the time you leave this place.
I visited this place with a Groupon and I would not go back even if you paid me. Hands down the worse restaurant I have ever been to in my life. I have been to Italy...the food is nowhere near authentic Italian.
I do not usually do reviews but wanted to warn people based on my experience. This place was very disappointing both from a service and food quality perspective. The following things really turned of my wife and I off:
1-better bread can be found at the local Publix-tasted like wonder bread
2-we order two $12 glasses of wine and were short-poured on both
3-I am sure that the mashed potatoes were instant (I am not joking here)
4-water was never refilled after asking 3 times
5-the veal tasted like a Kenmore freezer
6-did not see the waiter for 30 minutes after finishing or meal and were waiting for the check-when the check came, it was not itemized so I am not sure if the amount was even correct. We decided to pay and not complain so we could leave as soon as possible
7-most disappointing- the person who waited on us said he was the manager
If you are stuck here with friends and have to eat something, get the pasta bolognese-it was at least edible.
Nothing special. Busy night full of people with groupons. Didn't have two dishes we wanted to order but failed to mention the second dish was unavailable and just brought out a meat lasagna when my gf ordered a veggie lasagna. Good thing my girlfriend isn't a vegetarian.
Wouldn't go back with a groupon...so that's saying something.
My review is 50/50. I've been here twice and the first time I got spaghetti and meatballs and was sorely disappointed. The sauce tasted like it was from a jar and the meatballs were dry and nothing close to appealing. I couldn't believe a staple like this could be so bad at an Italian restaurant. I tried it again and ordered the ravioli bolognese and it was mouthwatering and dreamy. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the meat sauce extremely flavorful. Since I've only had two dishes I can't attest to the whole menu but the service was pretty decent and I'd definitely go back for the ravioli.
Review Source:In my opinion, this place is 3star. Â Since my husband loved the food, I am giving a 4 star. Â I thought they were just okay...nohing special about the food. Â To me, their meals are really heavy...especially the pastas filled with too mcuh cheese. Â Their service is great. Â The water is always filled and dirty plates are taken away promptly. Â I also liked the live piano play!
Review Source:One of my go to restaurants in downtown St Pete for a couple of years now. Â I like it because it is unpretentious, on the small side (cozy with approx seating for 40-45), has good service, is priced right and some nights they have a piano player. Â
One of my favorite dishes the gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce fell flat last night. Â Instead of tasting like tiny air pillows they were dense - I am hopeful it was just an off night. Â The other dish we had was the cannelloni - if you love cheese and sauce this is your dish. Â The bread was a foccacia style and simply ok, they could have warmed it in the oven at least. Â
They have a varied wine list and a good selection of beers, no liquor. Â
Because I've always enjoyed it in the past I will go again and fingers crossed they are back on track that night.
Found this place today for a quick bite to eat for lunch and it turned out to be INCREDIBLE. Â All the food was very reasonably priced, staff was wonderfully accommodating, and the food was out of this world. We cannot wait to go back to try their home made pasta and other dinner items. This is a definite must try. Located directly across from the Down Town Saint Pete post office.
Review Source:When it opened a few years ago, Primi Urban Café was a wonderful little restaurant with a cool South African take on Italian cuisine.  A local newspaper even called it Tampa Bay's "best new restaurant".
Fast forward 5 years and a new owner.
Now Primi is just a standard, little Italian restaurant devoid of anything special including much flavor. Â The food is OK to good, but much of it is a little bland and forgettable.
The highlight of the meal was the prosciutto and mozzarella appetizer.  The veal saltimbocca entrée was pleasant, except for the terribly bland mashed potato accompaniment.  The lasagna entrée was surprisingly tasteless and needed a lot of salt and pepper added to create any flavor.  The tiramisu dessert was, again, light on flavor.
Unfortunately, Primi doesn't have the location or vibe necessary to make it that fun, little neighborhood Italian restaurant serving comfort food that makes you want to return again and again. Â Nor it is good enough to really be a destination or night-out restaurant.
Food and service was "al dente!" We were really satisfied with everything. Â My 7 year old found something for him, and as anyone who has a kid knows what I am talking about. Â Me, the vegetarian, and my husband, not at all a vegetarian, both had pasta for dinner. Â Excellent flavors! Â At to finish it all, tiramisu. Â Perfect, perfect!
Our waitress was pleasant, and full of information.
Why 4 stars? Â Because it's one of my favorite Italian restaurants.
 ---  ---  ---
Not only is it great Italian food, but it's a rare find for me to discover a place that I like in St. Pete. Â I don't know why the area is so dry with quality restaurants, but Primi Urban is an exception.
I went months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I couldn't remember my experience with enough detail to Yelp about it. Â So I returned tonight and I was not let down.
During my first visit, I had a steak and my girlfriend had blue cheese gnocchi. Â Our bellies were both smiling up at us.
This time around, the girlfriend wasn't hungry but I dragged her to come eat with me because I couldn't think of a better place to conduct my 80th review on.
I had the Penne Pasta Primavera. Â It AWESOME and surprisingly heavy/filling. Â I would suggest 86'ing the tomato if you are anti-tomato like myself. Â I assumed there would be a light dusting of tomato, not two pounds of it smothering my pasta.
Overall, Primi is a great choice for an Italian dinner, and is one of the best restaurants of any type in St. Pete.
Not quite sure where the raves are coming from. Â My friend and I were in St Pete for a half marathon and were looking for a good place to have a nice pasta dish. Â We chose Primi based on the raves on Yelp. Â
Not being from the area we had no idea this place was less than a block away from a park many homeless people appear to call home. Â We only realized it when we were half way through the park (yikes) on our way to dinner. Â When we arrived at the restaurant, we found that it was also a couple doors from a convenience store that the homeless people like to socialize in front of. Â
Once we arrived we were seated promptly at an outside table we had agreed to when we made our reservation. Â We may have thought twice about that had we known about the homeless peoples gathering place two doors down...So we sit down and remain optimistic. Â We decided to share the spinach salad (the highlight) and an entree Angry pasta with chicken at our servers recommendation. We were very clear that we were going to share and assumed the server would understand we wanted the salad first. Â Well you know what they say about assuming. Â After waiting about a half an hour with no server coming by we were finally able to get the hostesses attention and asked her to check on our salad. Â Moments later...our server arrived with both the salad and the entree. Â I mentioned to her we thought we would get our salad first. Â She happily agreed to take our entree and tell them to "send it later". Â She also asked us at if we wanted bread something everyone else was getting after sitting down. Â Â The salad was really good. Â Our entree came shortly after and it was ok...one of those dishes that grows on you a bit...but all and all just ok. Â Neither one of us will go back.
Has a great atmosphere like a NYC restaurant. Piano player is fun. Â Unfortunately for the third time food was under par. Â First time steak overcooked. Second time had to send the dish back to have some of the sauce removed. Third time, spagetti with white clam sauce was way to salty.
Our server was nice and accommodating at the table, once he walked away he forgot everything including our Cesar salad.
Great food, service and atmosphere all rolled into one excellent dining experience. Â
The owner is a gracious native Italian from Sicily who brings previous restaurant ownership expertise from Rome.  It doesn't' t get  much better than Primi Urban Café.  The staff appears to work very together very well.  I had the baked manicotti which was the best I've had ever.  The pasta stuffing was made with sausage and ricotta cheese.  The cream sauce was a nice change from the typical tomato sauces you see in most Italian restaurants.   My wife had a fish dish that was just as good.
As someone who grew-up in New Jersey and had my share of Italian food, I found Primi Urban Café to be one the  best Italian restaurants I have dined at in the Tampa Bay area in my 20 years of living here.
Very good meal! Wait staff was attentive, however, piano man was aggressive ...fine if it had been not as we just sat down and didnt even know what to order as a meal or drinks before, we were told to "pick a song" "now"'.....that was not rock, classical, jazz or blues?? really? Okay 1 person knew "Danny Boy" , sadly it was my date:(.....anyhow, back to the food. I had Veal Marsalis very good portion of food and veal tasted fresh! I guess my small complaint was it lacked some seasoning......cream sauce and mushrooms, yum! Overall, I wou
D eat here again......AND would recommend it! Appertizer was OUTSTANDING!!!!! Mushrooms stuffed with gorgonzola and walnuts on crostini.......nom,nom..........two thumbs up overall!!!! Thank you!
After discovering that Buona Vita is apparently out of business (we had a gift certificate we were trying to use), my husband and I, with our heads still focused on an italian dinner, went to nearby Primi Urban Cafe instead.
It was a Friday night and while it looked empty from the outside, at least half if not more of the tables were full, including four tables with large groups. Despite this there was only one waiter on duty. There was a runner who was also filling waters, but when the waiter, Simon I think his name was, stopped to greet us he was visibly rushed and there were long waits between his visits. He sped through the specials, disappeared for ten minutes, returned and sped through our orders. To his credit, he did seem to be getting everyone what they needed, and since we are currently on a tight budget, we did not order drinks or appetizers so there wasn't a whole lot to screw up in our order.
And the food was wonderful. I ordered the Pasta el Limone with fettucini and it was heavenly! Indulgently creamy and rich with parmesan flavor, cut with a nice lemon and white wine tang. Decadent was the word I thought as I was eating it and wondering how much was going to go straight to my hips. Oh but it was worth it! The pasta itself was as perfect as pasta gets. Soft and clean, with just the right firmness and clearly made either onsite or nearby. My husband ordered the Angry Pasta - which is just your choice of pasta in red sauce that is supposed to contain some chili for heat. Brian's sauce was definitely not spicy, which is the whole reason he ordered it, but the sauce was still so yummy that he was not disappointed enough to send it back... or to stop groaning from pleasure with every bite. Truly it was some of the best pasta I have ever had. We did get the creme brule dessert to share and it was good, however cold. Including the burnt sugar on the top, which is a clear sign that they premake their desserts and keep them refrigerated. Besides that, the biggest downside was that I was hoping I would come home with some leftovers for lunch the next day, but despite the portion size I just couldn't stop eating and pretty much cleaned my plates.
The atmosphere was very warm, with a live piano player, a heavily perfumed manager/owner (?) standing at attention at all time ensuring good service (and honestly, we did wait a little but we really had nothing pressing to do that evening, and he was visibly rushed, but having waited tables before I can only give kudos to Simon for his cool, speed and proficiency with such a huge work load), there are several tvs above the bar which gave it a casual touch that didn't really match the quality of the food, but being a child of the media age I didn't mind this as much as some others might.
We will definitely be returning to this place, especially considering that I can't get that amazing Lemon pasta out of my mind!
And please be sure to tip well your hardworking server!!
Yum!!! Â We had visited the Dali museum and were looking for a cute little place to eat lunch and we couldn't have found a better place (thanks to the yelp app!) Â
The menu was tiny, but it was still hard to pick one thing! Â I went on the recommendation of the server - pasta with red sauce with curry (I forget the name)...it was SO delicious. Â My bf had the tuscan steak sandwich that was also yummy. Â That plus one juice was under $20. Â The atmosphere is nice and had the weather been nicer, I would like to sit outside. Â The service was friendly, prices right and food delicious - definitely recommend!
AMAZING!!! Â My family was in town to celebrate my birthday and we chose Primi based on other reviews. Â The ambiance is almost that of a family-run diner, with an extra "kick". Â We enjoyed live piano music and the pianist frequented the tables to engage in casual conversation. Â While service was somewhat typical, our food was unbelievable. Â We started with calamari and bread. Â I had the caprese salad, my husband ordered the chicken piccata. Â My in-laws ordered the steak special and the ravioli. Â The presentation was amazing, and we were quite impressed as the chef wandered around to check the quality of the food. Â (Dessert was also to die for!) Â I HIGHLY recommend Primi. Â We will definitely be visiting again in the near future!
Review Source:I've had 3 lovely lunches here recently; 2 work lunches and 1 romantic date lunch. Every time the service was pleasant and knowledgeable about the menu, the food better than average, and the place has over all good ambiance yet is on the cozy side. We once seated a table of 7 with timeliness and comfort. They had a sandwich special one day and I was very impressed with the sandwiches. Usually I choose a pasta dish and take half to go. I recommend as a great downtown lunch spot.
Review Source:My wife and I had a very enjoyable Saturday night dinner at Primi this past weekend. I was looking forward to trying the restaurant due to the other positive reviews on Yelp as well as its recent inclusion on Creative Loafings Best of the Bay list as the "Best Restaurant You Might Forget About".
The restaurant is located on Fourth Street right in between 1st Ave North and Central. So there is ample street parking available on 4th across from Williams Park or up and down Central Ave.
We started off with the 2 piece bruschetta topped with grilled eggplant, which was also available with the more traditional chopped tomato. The two pieces of Italian peasant style bread were cut thick and crisply toasted then topped by the well grilled eggplant and paired with ample amounts of raw garlic and a thick balsamic drizzle. It was definitely a fork and knife affair and a very tasty start to the meal that had me looking forward to the rest of our food. Â
For an entree my wife had the Gnocchi two sauce combination which features a plate split in half with gorgonzola cream sauce one side and a napolitana tomato on the other. The gnocchis were light and airy and it was a good idea to split the dish between both sauces as the cream/cheese sauces was on the heavier side. Don't get me wrong it was absolutely delicious in taste but a whole plates worth of the cream sauce together with the potato/starchy gnocchi may be a bit to filling. Overall, it was great and a good price too at only $13 for a very large serving. We both love gnocchi in general and eat a lot of pre-packaged varieties at home and the homemade ones at Primi were way better.
I had the Shrimp Recco which had very large gulf shrimp in a garlicky tomato based sauce with a strong flavor of curry and chili topped off with some freshly chopped parsley sprinkled on top. The pasta options were standard or wheat penne and linguine. I opted for the wheat penne, which the waiter said was his favorite as well with this dish as it blended well with the sauce. I think i agree as it was definitely very good. The shrimp were jumbo in size and very meaty, but the star of the dish was the curry tinged tomato sauce which had an intriguing flavor to it. It was different than what you come to expect from Italian red sauce. I akin it to an even more flavorful and spiced up arrabiata sauce.
With our dinner we had a bottle of a South African Chenin Blanc. As I had read that the owners come to St Petersburg via South African I figured they would pick a good quality wine from their home country. Indeed it was a good pick and possessed a very clean and crisp taste with notes of apple. It was a steal at only $22 for a bottle.
To finish off the evening the waiter recommended a Malva Pudding. He stated it was a traditional South African desert, and it sounded good from the description so we went ahead and ordered one to split.  It was amazing and I am glad we ordered it. I liken it to a British bread pudding as it was a  sweat bread served warm that had been soaked/ infused with a cream sauce and fruits. I couldn't quite place the flavors we were eating at the time, besides that they were delightful, but after researching at home-- Malva is sweet pudding of Dutch origin made with apricots and ginger. The desert bread has a spongy caramelized texture with a rich taste that almost tasted like a liqueur. It was very enjoyable.
Service was excellent throughout the evening as our waiter had an obvious knowledge of not only the menu but of food in general and a very pleasant demeanor. Throughout the evening I was able to catch glimpses of the husband and wife owners talking to other patrons which is a good sign that they remain actively engaged in the restaurant. On the whole I found the restaurant to be unpretentious, great food right in the middle of downtown St. Petersburg and definitely deserving to be remembered when one is in the mood for Italian. I think that  Primi is a fantastic local place that I will frequent again,and it is very reasonably priced with our check only being $65 pre-tip for a meal consisting of one app, two entrees, desert and wine. You could easily spend something comparable or more at a cookie cutter chain like Carabbas, Macaroni Grill, Olive Garden -- but in the end someplace like Primi is much more rewarding experience.
Three out of five stars is my way of saying average.
The place was very clean, and had a great look.  The server was professional, and helpful without being pushy.  We started off with sangria.  The drink was below average.  I'll give them a pass on that,  I should have known not to order a Sangria at an Italian restaurant.  I was hopeful though.  We ordered the calamari next.  This appetizer was also below average.  The red sauce that came with the calamari was excellent, but the octopus itself was rubbery, and had clearly come from a box, frozen somewhere.  The bread and oil was average.  The shining star of the dinner was the entree.  I ordered a gnocchi dish that came with half red sauce and half  a gorgonzola based sauce, it was excellent.  My friend ordered a pasta dish with red sauce.  The pasta was prepared al dente and the red sauce (the same I had with my dish) accompanying it was again very good.
The exceptional entrees and great setting would have gotten four stars, but the appetizer and bread, not to mention the drinks, left something to be desired.
The thing that sets Primi apart from the rest is their personal attention to the customers. Â Irene and Arno are two of the most personable restauranteurs I have ever met. Â The nightly specials are always just that, Special. Â The regular menu is outstanding with many different items to choose from. Â When they dropped the most exquisite dessert in town the Pana Cotta from the menu, my wife and I were devastated. Â Through relentless lobbying, the Pana Cotta is back on the menu, to great relief.
Review Source:Between two of us we ordered the sweet potato fries, recco pasta, gnocchi,and tiramisu. All were delicious. Service was friendly and prompt, and the restaurant itself was very nice. And really, they served one of the best gorgonzola sauces I've tried and the recco sauce with its curry zing was really, really nice.
Review Source:I tried the peppered beef medalians and they rocked! Good wine list. Â You can definitely tell the South African flair with some couscous on the menu. Â There should definitely be more hype about this place but probably overshadowed by Bella Brava being so close by (also excellent Itialian).
Review Source:It's such a joy when you find a restaurant that you want to go to every day, and especially when that restaurant is located in your zip code.
Primi Urban Cafe has Italian food with a South African flair. It truly is as intriguing as that sounds. The owners ended up in St. Pete on a whim like so many of the rest of us (which is why St. Pete rocks) and thankfully, they are staying. Â So far I have only had the hot beef salad, which is a huge salad of mixed greens topped with slices of spiced beef and a spoonful of homemade yogurt. Â But I smelled the other dishes around me and had an impulse to run around and try everyone's food.
The prices are reasonable and the owners are friendly. Â Why there is not the buzz about this place that there is about other area restaurants I don't know...but it is unpretentious, great food right in the middle of downtown.
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