Dining Options Near Aquatica Orlando

You Have Better Options Than Fast Food

The stretch of road around Aquatica Orlando is lined with chain restaurants and fast food joints. You already know what you're getting at those places. The same menu you can find in any city, the same frozen-to-microwave routine, the same experience you could have had without flying to Florida.

Ciao Italia is something different. The Navarra family opened this restaurant in 1991 and they still run it today. The pasta is made fresh in-house. The sauces are made from scratch. The bread comes out warm. It's the kind of restaurant where the owner might stop by your table to make sure everything is right.

After a full day of water slides and wave pools, sitting down at a real restaurant with real food changes the whole evening. It turns a tired, cranky group into people actually enjoying their vacation.

On the Menu

Fresh Pasta and Italian Classics

Lasagna built with layers of fresh pasta, meat sauce, and ricotta. Fettuccine alfredo made to order. Spaghetti and meatballs the way it should taste. Penne alla vodka with a creamy tomato sauce. Every pasta dish starts with dough made that day.

Seafood, Steaks, and Grilled Meats

Seafood risotto loaded with shrimp, mussels, clams, and calamari. Veal piccata in a lemon-caper sauce. Grilled lamb chops with rosemary. Chicken parmigiana hand-breaded and pan-fried, then buried under marinara and melted mozzarella. There is real range here.

Desserts Worth Saving Room For

Homemade gelato, tiramisu, and cannoli. The gelato is made in-house and the kids menu includes it automatically. Adults should try the tiramisu.

Better Than the International Drive Scene

A lot of tourists default to International Drive after the parks. That means traffic, parking fees, long waits, and restaurants designed for volume over quality. Ciao Italia is off that beaten path. You pull into a free parking lot, walk inside, and sit down. No line out the door, no hour-long wait for a table.

The restaurant is on Westwood Blvd, minutes from Aquatica. It is an easy drive after a park day, especially when everyone in the car is tired and nobody wants to deal with I-Drive congestion.