Review: Mia’s Italian Kitchen Orlando with “Bottomless Dining” Menu

Hi everyone!

We were invited to Mia’s Italian Kitchen Orlando to try their new “Bottomless Dining” menu option, which is something pretty unique in that it offers all-you-care-to-eat meals with house made items that are delivered freshly prepared to order. I don’t know if I’ve been to a restaurant where I could order almost anything off the menu for one set price (as opposed to a restaurant with family-style dining where almost everyone is ordering the same thing on a platter). And Mia’s has a pretty extensive menu, it would be hard to not find a variety of items to enjoy. Mia’s Italian Kitchen is located at 8717 International Drive in Orlando and there is free parking (a big plus for me on I-Drive). The reviews for Mia’s Italian Kitchen are also mostly excellent online, the restaurant currently has between 4 and 4.5 out of 5 stars on various sites including Open Table, Yelp and Google. Read below for our review.

There is a press release below our review that gives more information about Mia’s Italian Kitchen Orlando.

First, I want to say that Mia’s did invite us, our group only paid for the gratuity. That said, I would go back to try the food on our own in a different way, as the items that were brought were often not the ones I’d first order. Mia’s wanted us to try some of their more popular dishes. Every item can be ordered individually if you don’t want the all-you-can eat option – but everyone in the group needs to be on it if anyone is. I wouldn’t recommend the Bottomless Dining option for just two guests, I think it would be best with 6+ in a group to allow for trying a wider variety of dishes.

Here are some photos of the restaurant itself. We had an early dinner, Mia’s was pretty busy when we left.

The decor is fun, including this bottle chandelier.

Artwork lines the walls.

Wine bottles are on display.

There is also an outdoor patio, it does include a parking lot view but would be nice on a cooler day.

This is the menu, which is online – as are the Happy Hour, Bottomless Brunch, drink and dessert menus. There are also special events and holiday menus – the Thanksgiving 2019 menu is up as of this writing.

Drinks are reasonably priced here, like $7.00 for Sangria (and drinks are 2-4-1 during Happy Hour). The sangria is a very nice option for an Italian meal.

Warm Italian Olives includes orange zest, calabrese peppers, fried rosemary, grilled rustic bread. I don’t eat olives, Jeff enjoyed these. The grilled bread was delicious.

The Pane Al Formaggio is a rustic semolina loaf, roasted garlic butter, rosemary, thyme, with mozzarella. This has quite a lot of cheese on it, it’s a very tasty bread option but it is also very filling (much more than regular bread). This is where that 6+ guests is helpful, to try a smaller slice. We were 4 and couldn’t finish it.

A closer look at the bread.

I mentioned this was my favorite item. We were able to order anything we wanted as well as the server brought out house specialties. We didn’t order much individually since we were getting so much food to the table already. Mia’s Minestrone has chicken broth, zucchini, tomatoes, cannellini beans, pasta, basil, and parmesan. I debated ordering a second one. It will be even better when the weather cools down a little.

Gnocchi Al Quattro Formaggi includes potato dumplings, gorgonzola, fontina, taleggio, pecorino romano and cream. I don’t ever eat gnocci, I tried one bite – a friend at the table said it was the best she’d ever had (and she has dined on her own at Mia’s before).

Baby Argula – there are numerous dishes that are gluten free or vegan, this is both. It includes shaved fennel, orange segments, squeezed lemon, extra virgin olive oil, shaved grana padano. I would go with the caesar salad option since I don’t eat argula, but the salad looked very fresh.

The brick oven pizza is very good here. I could eat mushrooms every day, and the Funghi pizza includes roasted cremini mushrooms, roasted garlic, mozzarella, truffle oil, mixed herbs.

Nonna’s pizza includes mozzarella, hand crushed san marzano tomatoes, garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano.

The Fettucini Al Fungi includes roasted cremini, black trumpet, and porcini, mascarpone and herbs. It is an extremely filling dish, as is the next pasta I will show. I mentioned I like mushrooms, this is delicous but if I wanted to try a lot of items, this is one I would only have a few bites of. The pasta was al dente.

The Rigatoni Alla Bolognese includes slow braised beef bolognese, san marzano tomatoes, ricotta. Again, a little heavier of a pasta dish than I am used to and I don’t eat ricotta cheese except in lasagne. But I love pasta and this is a good dish to split with friends if trying a variety of items.

The Giant Meatball includes a 12oz. house made all beef meatball, marinara, fresh mozzarella, grilled rustic bread. It’s a solid appetizer and we shared everything (including this) among four in our group.

The Braciole Di Manzo was a favorite at the table – stuffed and braised flank steak, sautéed broccolini, creamy parmesan polenta with tomato gravy. But by the time we received it, I could not take more than a very small bite. The meat was very tender and I would say to order this early if doing the Bottomless Dining.

The Bottomless Dining option does not include desserts or drinks. We tried two items.

The Cannoli is pretty standard, I think it is a good value for $6.00. We also ordered the Apple-Ricotta Donuts because they are so popular. I forgot to take a photo of them, but they are smaller donuts and by this time I wasn’t eating too much.

Thank you to Mia’s Italian Kitchen Orlando for having us out! While Mia’s wanted us to try the Bottomless Dining so we could talk about that, there are many ways you can do Mia’s Italian Kitchen including the all-you-can-eat option. Happy Hour, Bottomless Brunch and an à la carte meal all are also great choices. The restaurant is very close to the Orlando Convention Center, making it a terrific dinner out after a convention. I think we may stop by after an IAAPA day for drinks and appetizers next month.

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Here is a press release from this month that offers more information – including pricing and how the restaurant was founded.

ORLANDO, Fla. (Oct. TK, 2019) — Mia’s Italian Kitchen Orlando, located on International Drive, is pleased to roll out their “Bottomless Dining” menu option, which allows guests to order as many dishes as they like from the All-Day Dining menu or Brunch menu during their meal for one set price.

Mia’s Italian Kitchen is rooted in family and born from the memory of Alexandria Restaurant Partners’ founding partner Dave Nicholas’s great-grandmother Filomena Galeazzo Masucci, who arrived in the United States in 1904 from Naples, Italy. Dave’s unique relationship with his great-grandmother was nurtured by cooking. Filomena didn’t speak a word of English, so they communicated through food. The restaurant’s menu is designed to capture the essence of Filomena’s homestyle cooking, communicating love and comfort through a selection of house-made pastas, panini, charcuterie and Neapolitan-style pizza.

The Bottomless Dining menus at Mia’s Italian Kitchen allow guests to taste as many of these authentic, scratch-made dishes made with love, every day, direct from Corporate Executive Chef Santiago Lopez and Orlando-based Executive Chef Brandon Whitestone.

For the Brunch menu, adults can enjoy Bottomless Dining for $26 per person. Kids can brunch for $13. For the All-Day menu, adults enjoy unlimited selections for $34 per person, and children dine for $17.

Start your weekend with Bottomless Brunch, and choose any of more than 20 salads, pizzas, brunch specialties, house-made pastas and shareable starters. Don’t miss the Brunch Pizza from the restaurant’s wood-fired oven, topped with scrambled eggs, Italian sausage, crispy bacon, mozzarella and provolone cheeses. The freshly fried apple-ricotta House-Made Donuts come dusted with cinnamon-sugar and drizzled with crème Anglaise. Indulge your sweet tooth with Cinnamon-Raisin Italian Toast, featuring amaretto praline, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. The Bolognese Baked Eggs are the definition of comfort, with slow-braised beef Bolognese sauce topped with Grana Padano cheese and fresh basil, plus some crusty bread for sopping up that lovingly made sauce. Continue the “Bottomless” trend in your beverage choice, too, and opt for the Mimosa Bar ($15) where you can help yourself to a selection of juices and add-ins to top off your flute of Prosecco.

In the afternoon and evenings, sit down with family and friends to enjoy as many of the restaurant’s specialties as you wish (excluding the Bistecca and Raviolo dishes). The Sunday Gravy is a must-try. The dish evolved from Dave Nicholas’s great-grandmother’s labor of love: collecting meats and vegetables left from the week’s meals and combining them with tomatoes, garlic and herbs, and often cooking overnight to serve on Sunday. Mia’s chefs source artisan sausages, all-natural chicken, and their handmade beef meatball, combined with the best San Marzano tomatoes, to recreate this beloved tradition.

Other required eating includes the all-beef Giant Meatball, which is 12 ounces of ground beef simmered for hours in San Marzano tomato sauce infused with garlic, onions and oregano. It comes stuffed with mozzarella cheese and served in a cast iron skillet with crusty bread slices and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Don’t pass up the opportunity to try one of the unique Sicilian-style square pizzas, like the Spicy Salami topped with tomatoes, fennel, mozzarella, Calabrese chilies and hot honey, or the Formaggi pizza featuring five different Italian cheeses as well as mixed olives and shaved red onions.

No Sicilian table would be complete without Braciole, and every family has their own twist on tradition. The Mia’s version is made with certified Angus beef flank steak, pounded thin and stuffed with breadcrumbs, and four cheeses — fontina, asiago, mozzarella and provolone. Then, it’s rolled, seared and braised in tomato sauce for four hours. It’s served with creamy polenta and grilled broccolini.

Mia’s Italian Kitchen has space for up to 500 guests, so extra-large parties of family and friends are welcome to sit a while, enjoy delicious food, cocktails and wine, and take in the ambiance, including the custom-printed murals on the ceiling.

Mia’s Italian Kitchen Orlando is located at 8717 International Drive in Orlando. For more information about Mia’s Italian Kitchen, please visit MiasItalian.com, or follow on Instagram at @Mias_Italian_Kitchen_Orlando.