Kissimmee Restaurant Guide

Owner tried to intimidate us to move from a handicapped space in front of his restaurant even though we were driving a handicapped lift van and had a handicapped person in the van. He claims that the spot is just for his restaurant. Wrong! His screaming and ranting only raised his B/P because we did not move. Ironic thing was that he had been parked in the space and had just backed out when we parked and he does not have a handicapped plate or hangtag. So who is in violation? He threatened to call Police and have us towed - didn't happen. He tries to be a bully but it didn't work this time.

While vacationing in Kissimmee, Florida over 4th of July week, we decided to stop at Ponderosa, which is adjacent to L'Italianos in a strip mall. The entire parking lot was quite full, but my husband is handicapped and we found a handicapped parking place in front of L'Italianos. We properly displayed the handicapped placard on the rear-view mirror, and proceeded to get out of the car. No sooner had we opened the car door, than the owner of L'Italianos, who was actually standing on the sidewalk in front of his restaurant when we pulled up, started screaming at us that we couldn't park in that spot unless we were eating at his place, and that he would have us towed if we didn't move the car. My husband tried to tell him that it was a handicapped spot and he couldn't deny us access to it since it didn't specifically state that parking there was for his restaurant only. The owner continued to yell at us and threatened to call the police. So to not cause any further trouble, we moved the car. The only spots available were at the rear of the strip mall, with no handicap spaces. As we were walking to Ponderosa, we overheard another family talking about the same thing happening to them, although they were not in a handicap spot, but a parking place in front of L'Italianos. Once we were inside Ponderosa, we spoke with several more people who had encountered the same rude, disrespectful, and discriminatory attitude from the owner of L'Italianos. Based on this experience, we will never, ever eat there, and will not recommend L'Italianos to anyone!