Best Italian Restaurants in Jacksonville

This has to be Jax’s best kept secret. If I could give more stars I would. The service, food, and ambiance was amazing, something that you would expect to find in NYC. Top this off with a Violinist playing modern music, and walking around. Plus, it was very reasonably priced as well.

The food and service was outstanding they made my birthday feel so special!!

The food was great. The hostess was awesome very personable. She made the experience more enjoyable. We had food allergies at the table and the chef took the time to come out to help with selecting a dish. One of my party stated "the best experience eating, truly enjoyed my meal it was so delicious and the atmosphere is awesome"; they had the chicken piccata. We ordered crab cakes appetizer, Ceaser salad, chicken piccata, Rigatoni alla Vodka, Branzino Crab Imperial and Warm Apple Crostada. The crab cakes comes with a salad and lobster cream it was a great accompaniment. The salad was delicious I could have eaten a plate of the salad by itself and the lobster cream sauce added another level of flavor to the crab cakes. My alla vodka was a little too salty other than that it was tasty. The Warm Apple Crostada was unbelievable, sweet and flakey with the right balance from the pastry then you get ice cream and carmel sauce to top off the dessert. The atmosphere was perfect, the noise level was not overwhelming. The restaurant was full but maintained a nice calming presence. This was a superb dining experience.

Best authentic Italian in Jacksonville. Excellent cocktails, beautiful dinner. And the vanilla ice cream dessert is anything but “vanilla”. I would go again just for it.

My wife and I arrived a few minutes prior to our reservation and were immediately seated. The wait staff was very attentive to helping us settle in for our anniversary dinner! Our waiter was very pleasant and answered all of our questions regarding our dining plans. We selected the six course dining adventure and added an order of escargot that was perfectly inserted as “course 2B” of our delicious dining experience! The remainder of our meal was a wide bar of chef’s choices that were all very tasty and, at the end of our meal, quite filling! Since we had mentioned that this was indeed a special celebration for us each member of the staff took the time to wish us a happy anniversary as they reliably attended to our being guided through our dining adventure. At the end of our meal, we were surprised by a special desert prepared noting our special day along with an autographed copy of our personalized menu signed by everyone who had assisted us throughout our two and one-half hour leisurely meal! All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our most recent time at Mathew’s Restaurant and will certainly be making plans to return again!