Sicilian Oven

Sicilian Oven: 2761 E Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306

Sicilian Oven is a small restaurant chain in South Florida.  Four of the locations are in Broward County, one in Aventura, and one in Boca Raton.  The South Florida Eats team had passed the one in Fort Lauderdale several times as we drove along Oakland Park Blvd.  Jerry had gones with some other friends a few weeks before, and then decided to take me to try it out since he liked it so much.

The Restaurant:

Sicilian Oven is located in a strip mall off of East Oakland Park Blvd.  There is plenty of parking out front and also in back of the building, but don’t forget to feed the meter if you park directly in front of the restaurant.  Upon entering the building, you will notice an outdoor eating area on the right.  Once inside, the bar area is on the right and plenty of tables and booths are on the left.  A fully stocked bar with a complete selection of liquors and wines is ready for your order.  We chose to sit at the bar since Jerry loves to sit there.

The place was pretty busy for a Sunday evening, even in the off season.

The Food:

The menu is full of Italian dishes and even includes wood fired pizza.  I really wanted to try almost everything that was on the menu and had a hard time deciding what to try.  The first time that Jerry was there he had Mussels “Mario”.  This dish has mussels sauteéd with garlic, diced tomatoes and white wine topped with fire roasted bread crumbs.  The garlic infused into the mussels giving them an truly amazing flavor.  It’s one of their specialities and he highly recommends it.

This time he opted to go for the Eggplant Parmigiana Reggiano, thin sliced w/ pomodoro sauce & mozzarella.  The presentation was very nice and the taste matched the presentation.  Normally I am the one who finished first, but with this dish, Jerry was done well before I had even finished my first few bites.  Cheese is melted perfectly over the eggplant and was cooked perfectly to his linking.

I finally landed on the Pollo Parmigiana Reggiano, breaded chicken w/ pomodoro sauce & mozzarella.  Served with four nice size chicken cutlets arranged in a pinwheel fashion.  The breading they use adds a good flavor to it, but I do think they overcooked them just a bit.  I like a nice crisp breading on the chicken and well done mozzarella, but the chicken was a little dry due to the overcooking.  I still enjoyed the dish very much and would recommend it to anyone.

One thing to be aware of is that both dishes are not served with any pasta.  So if you want to have some with your meal, you will need to order it as a side item.  We ordered a side of rigatoni pasta with pomodoro sauce.  Jerry really didn’t touch the pasta as he had enough food from his meal, but I ate about half of the order.  The sauce has a very sweet taste to it which is not my preference, but it was still very good.  It’s just my personal preference on the sauce.

We will definitely go back and try some of the other dishes, and maybe even one of their pizzas since I love pizza.

Pricing: $$-$$$ depending on what you order and drinks.