A Review of Fio Rito's Ristorante

Hello everyone! Both Johnny and Nicole here with a review of one of our favorite restaurants in the Los Alamitos-Seal Beach area: Fio Rito’s Ristorante. This is a small, comfortable, yet elegant Italian eatery that is extremely popular amongst the locals in the area. Both of us have been going to Fio Rito’s since infancy, and we could not imagine living in Los Al-Seal Beach without this truly fantastic and authentic Italian restaurant. Johnny’s family has been taking him to Fio Rito’s since birth as it was the only Italian restaurant that his Italian mother deemed authentic enough. If she wasn’t cooking, it was Fio Rito’s for the Newnes family. Nicole’s family has been eating at Fio Rito’s for as long as she can remember. They would always sit in a corner booth and get the spaghetti dinner and take in all the flavors of Italy. As you can tell, we both have fond and long lasting memories of this wonderful, neighborhood favorite.

The Newnes family always goes to Fio Rito’s the day before Thanksgiving, don’t ask why, that’s just how it is. So this past Thanksgiving Eve, the Newnes family continued the tradition and brought Nicole and Johnny’s best friend Alec along for the ride.

Now to the good stuff, the food! In any good Italian restaurant, there is always a basket of breadsticks waiting for you to munch on before the rest of your meal. Fio Rito’s is well known for their cigar shaped, crunchy breadsticks. Though they are very simple, it is just a great way to start off a great Italian meal.

One of the great things about Fio Rito’s menu is that when you order one of their entrees, you can choose to make it a full meal for just a few dollars more. If you choose this option, along with your delicious main course, you get your choice of soup or salad, and a dessert, but we will get to that later. To start out the meal, after the breadsticks of course, we each had a salad or soup.

Nicole here! I had the house salad with their famous homemade blue cheese dressing. The salad is basic and fresh, but it’s the blue cheese dressing that makes this a greater starter. The dressing is creamy and tangy and makes this simple salad a true treat. 

Johnny here! My parents and I had traditional Caesar salads. Pretty much every restaurant has a Caesar salad, but Fio Rito’s definitely has one of the best tasting and most authentic Caesar salads you will ever have. It is probably just how Julius Caesar had his salad made, and it doesn’t get more real than that.

Alec ordered the minestrone soup to start. It was warm and comforting with just a touch of spice. It was perfect on a cold fall evening, but not too filling as to ruin his appetite for the rest of the meal.

Now, the main course!

This is where we get some truly authentic dishes straight from the old country.

Johnny here! I ordered my favorite thing at Fio Rito’s, the Manicotti. Manicotti is two large pasta shells stuffed with ricotta and Romano cheeses, covered in a rich meat sauce, and topped with shredded mozzarella. The dish is then baked until the stuffed pasta shells are warmed through and the cheeses are melted and gooey. The meat sauce at Fio Rito’s is superb (almost as good as my family’s meat sauce). Every bite is filled with delicate balances of bold and subtle flavors. It is truly heaven. I make Manicotti at home, but sometimes it is nice to have it made for me. And no one can do that as well as Fio Rito’s!

Fio Rito’s is flexible with their menu in the sense that they will let you split several dishes so that you get a taste of a couple different things. My parents like to take advantage of this and split the Cannelloni and the Shrimp Scampi with Linguine like they did on this trip to Fio Rito’s. Both of them got one Cannelloni, which is similar to the Manicotti. However, instead of being stuffed with cheese, it is stuffed with a tender and delicious veal meat mixture, covered in more meat sauce and a white béchamel sauce. In a word: divine! The Shrimp Scampi at Fio Rito’s is some of the best around. When you split, each person gets a few shrimp and a tong full of linguine. The shrimp is cooked with simple but perfectly balanced flavors of lemon and garlic and served with a side of linguine in a light cream sauce. You can’t find better scampi anywhere else. And it’s great that you can try a couple different things on the menu when you share. Needless to say, both my parents were very happy campers.

Alec ordered the baked rigatoni. Again, this is something that I make at my house all the time. It’s just rigatoni pasta (a shape of pasta that actually comes from my home town in Italy), mixed with Fio Rito’s meat sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, and baked till every mouthful is perfect to the bite. This is actually what Mr. Mynott orders as well. He loves it, and Alec loved it too!

Nicole here! So, if you didn't know, Fio Rito's actually has two entrances. One in the back parking lot, and one in the front facing Los Alamitos Blvd. Either way, make sure not to miss the specials menu in the front (It's right near the front entrance by the pizza ovens). This fall and winter they have been featuring Butternut Squash Ravioli. I love this dish because it is the perfect balance between savory and sweet. The ravioli is naturally very sweet, but the garlic butter sauce cuts through it to make it one delicious dinner. They are only going to have this dish until the end of winter, so I highly recommend trying it!

Now that we have had our incredible, decadent, and satisfying meals, it is time for dessert! Remember how we said that you get dessert if you choose the whole meal, well, we weren’t kidding. You get your choice of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, rainbow sherbet, chocolate pudding, or tapioca. The great thing is, they give you just a small amount, which is just right after a giant and filling Italian feast. The desserts are simple, yet perfect after such a delicious meal.

Johnny and his parents had the chocolate pudding. It is silky and rich and quickly satisfies that chocolate-sweet tooth all 3 of them get after a full meal.

Nicole had the rainbow sherbet. She always ordered it as a child because she has never been the biggest fan of pudding. And she has grown to love the sherbet, which is creamy like ice cream, but tart and light.

Alec had the vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Just a scoop with a little drizzle of ice cream, what more do you need after a hot Italian dinner?

We all left full and extremely happy. We always enjoy visiting a place that represents tradition and great memories like Fio Rito’s Ristorante. Fio Rito’s has a lot to offer in the way of a beautiful and warm atmosphere, good people, and delicious, authentic, Italian food. If you are looking for a good Italian meal, look no further than our favorite Italian restaurant Fio Rito’s.