by Beth Keating
Review
DisneyBizJournal.com
March 29, 2024
Flamingo Crossing is a still under-construction shopping and hotel complex in Winter Garden, Florida, but it is probably better known to locals as the home of Disney’s College Program dorms. Anchored by a quartet of hotels and an abbreviated-size Target store, the recently built store fronts are beginning to fill up with a variety of small retailers and quite a few eateries, including a Skyline Chili on one side of the roadway, and an interesting dessert-only café called White Rabbit Dessert Experience and a scratch-made BBQ place called Ellie Lou’s Brews & BBQ on the other.
Opened in November, one of the pristine new restaurants in the complex might just be one of the best hidden gems adjacent to the Disney Bubble. Located at Disney World’s western gate around the corner from the Magic Kingdom, and a mere five miles from Animal Kingdom, Simply Capri is a remarkable restaurant that serves up the cuisine of Southern Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Wood-fired pizza, house-made pastas, lots of tantalizing seafood dishes, and creative cocktails are on order, made from specially imported ingredients. The restaurant is also known for its Negroni bar, and there’s a Spritz bar as well.
Its Disney-adjacent location isn’t its only Disney connection, however. Simply Capri’s Nick Valenti is the gentleman who brought you the restaurants in the Italy pavilion at EPCOT, Space 220, The Edison, Morimoto Asia and other Disney locales. He is the CEO of the Patina Restaurant Group, and has served as Chairman Emeritus at the Culinary Institute of America. General Manager Benito Sevarin was the Head of Operations in the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT. He was also Director of Operations for Le Cirque in New York. (That’s high praise, indeed, to those of us from the north!) Executive Chef Giovanni Aletto was born and raised in Italy, where he also owned his own restaurant, and his previous role as Executive Chef in the Italy pavilion at EPCOT makes him no stranger to restaurants in the tourist corridor.
And while Simply Capri’s executive team may have Disney connections, there’s a bit of a familiar feel with the staff as well – a good number of them are cultural exchange program participants from Italy, just like many of the cast members at EPCOT, giving the restaurant an even greater feel of authenticity. (Check their nametags for their hometowns!)
While the people plating up your lunch and dinner and shaking up your drinks no doubt give the room its Italian flair, the décor does its part as well. Hand-painted Italian fixtures and an imported pizza oven pull it all together in this light and airy space. The only drawback to the beautiful room? Its high ceilings allow the atmosphere to be a little loud during certain times of the night as the tables pack out. If the weather is nice, though, there’s also an outside patio that is a bit quieter.
Now, on to the food…
Our waitress dropped off a plate of sliced bread that had a lightly seasoned olive oil topping. Resist the urge to scarf it all down while waiting for your meal, because this soft, fluffy bread might better serve you when your meal arrives, especially if you’ve ordered one of the entrées with a sauce or broth. (We’ll explain later.) The only thing that would have made this bread better would have been if it had been served warm.
For our appetizers, we chose the Fior Di Latte Mozzarella ($15) and the Polpette Capresi ($14). Both were delicious, but the Polpette Capresi is something we would return for again and again. The Fior Di Latte Mozzarella was plated with a smattering of multi-colored cherry tomatoes, drizzled with a light olive oil and Italian seasonings. The trio of mozzarella balls was extremely fresh, but in hindsight, it wasn’t anything particularly creative. We should have tried one of the many other appetizers that were a bit more inspired (and also delicious looking as they passed by to other folks’ tables.) Next time, we might opt for the Fritto Sorrentino ($12), a combination of fried pizza dough, stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, salami, and marinara. Or maybe the Parmigiana Di Melanzane ($14), a dish of thin-sliced fried eggplant, marinara sauce, mozzarella, and Parmigiano Reggiano. If you are more of a seafood fan, the Carpaccio Di Tonno Agli Agrumi ($22) might be more your style, with its fresh tuna marinated with Valencia orange, lemon, black pepper, olive oil and arugula. That was also intriguing.
The clear winner for our appetizer choices, though, was the Polpette Capresi, the homemade meatballs smothered in a bright tomato sauce and topped with fresh ricotta, mozzarella, basil, and Parmigiano Reggiano. The sauce was perfectly made, not too sweet, but also lacking in any acidic notes. There was just a hint of a garlic undertone. The fresh made ricotta, which added so much flavor, melted right into the sauce, and we wanted to scoop up every last drop in the dish. (This is what you needed to save some of that bread for!) The meatballs had a slight, but very welcome, firmness to them - we don’t like mushy meatballs! This appetizer was a definite “get this again.”
The main entrées for the night were where Simply Capri really shined. Both of our picks were spectacular, and worth the drive to Winter Garden.
The first selection, the Scialatielli Dei Faraglioni ($30), was a large bowl of house made egg ribbon pasta, tossed with shrimp, clams, mussels, calamari, and cherry tomatoes, seasoned with parsley and Italian herbs, and drizzled with olive oil. With the thick, fettucine-like egg pasta, you’d expect this to be a heavy dish, one that you’d avoid in the Central Florida heat, but you’d be wrong. This dish was put together with a broth that was light and tasty, and didn’t detract from the various shellfish piled into the pasta. The entrée was the kind of dish that you’d imagine eating if you were sitting in Italy, staring out at the Mediterranean. The dish also works in a place like Florida, though, simply because of its seafood-laced broth, rather than a sauce that is heavy with cheeses. The broth was strongly flavored of the ocean, and the dish was teeming with plenty of fresh seafood. No complaints there! The various kinds of seafood were perfectly cooked, not overdone in the least, and we thoroughly enjoyed this dish. Our suggestion to you as the diner? This is the other place for which you might want to save your fresh bread, because it would be a great vessel for sopping up the rest of that delicious broth. We left too much of that goodness behind, even after trying to scoop it up with a spoon.
Entrée #2 was also a delight…. And only available on Wednesdays! We opted for the baked Ogni Mercoledi Lasagna Bolognese ($28). The multiple, uber-thin and truly delicate sheets of pasta were filled with plenty of tender meat sauce, Parmigiano Reggiano, and beschamel, and served in a perfect red sauce. This was, perhaps, the best lasagna we’d ever had, and we make a pretty good homemade lasagna ourselves!
If our two choices aren’t what you are looking for on your visit, there’s also a series of salads ($14-$20), soups ($10-$12), and woodfired pizzas ($18-$26) that looked great. Linguine with clams ($28); more traditional spaghetti and meatballs ($24); Pennette Al Salmone (Smoked Salmon in white cream, $26); house made Ravioli Caprese ($27); Filet of Florida Red Snapper ($38); and Seabass ($36) are among some of the other choices.
We almost skipped dessert because we were reaching capacity at that point, but since it was our first time at Simply Capri, we threw caution to the wind and ordered two to share.
The Coppa Tricolore ($15) was an enormously tall glass of high-quality gelato, served with a spoon so long it stretched from our hand to our elbow (no lie!). There are several different gelato combinations on menu, but we chose the vanilla, chocolate, and cookies and cream gelato, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. There are also pieces of chocolate cannoli crumble sprinkled in, and while some folks might like the added texture, we’d have left them out and just enjoyed the super creamy gelato.
Our additional dessert was the Tiramisu ($11), because if you are in an Italian restaurant, you have to get the tiramisu. (There’s also a cannoli available for $12 if you are so inclined.). The tiramisu was good, but not great. Served in a small glass canning jar, it had a layer of dark cocoa powder over the creamy custard. Unfortunately, the custard was a bit on the watery side, and not as sweet as we’d expected. The Lady Fingers were light, and almost disappeared into the custard. The coffee soak was also a light touch, so even those who aren’t as big of a coffee aficionado won’t be overwhelmed.
There are lots of adult beverages on the menu, from the Negroni bar, to the imported Italian wines, and some designer cocktails. We opted for one of the mocktails, though. It’s springtime, and as former northeasterners, we thought the Cherry Blossom ($8) would be fun. Made from fresh lemonade, cherry juice, and vanilla syrup, this drink was just as tasty as it was pretty. It was refreshing, without being too sweet, and though it was made from a lemonade base, it wasn’t overwhelmingly tart.
Service at Simply Capri was well-paced, and the food came out consistently (and correctly!). Our wait staff was cheerful and friendly, offering explanations (and pronunciations) of the menu details. We also got an unexpected follow-up text from Simply Capri the next day, inquiring about our visit and providing a chance for feedback. Our response? We’ll definitely be back. Our meals were much appreciated.
Simply Capri is located at 114 Ruby Red Place in Winter Garden, Florida. They are open seven days a week, serving lunch from noon to 3:30 p.m., and dinner from 4:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Sunday Brunch is available from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at
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