The Bodhi Tree Café - South Sarasota

This was a great find on our first night in Sarasota. We typically look for good Italian first, and with many restaurants with Mediterranean cuisine to chose from in the area this was the one that stood out.The restaurant is on a little side street where the buildings reminded me a Old Town Key West. Sit outside and enjoy your meal even more. The staff couldn’t have been more welcoming and attentive. My Chicken Cacciatore was top-notch with fall off the bone meat melted in my mouth. The pasta was cooked perfectly and ragu reminded me of grandma’s. Enjoy a relaxing evening at the Bodhi Tree Cafe and you won’t be disappointed. Grazie mille!

I couldn't say enough amazing things about this restaurant! There were 6 of us at dinner and all together we tried 4 different dishes for dinner and 4 for desserts. Our entire group of foodies all agreed that everyone's dish was superb. You know when you don't want to give up your own dish, but also want someone else's, that it is good food. As someone that rates Italian food lowest on my food preference list, I would gladly have dinner here anytime! The food was flavorful, well cooked, and good overall portion sizes. I laughed at the 1 star review that mentioned Publix sauce and Betty crocker because I can easily name at least 10 other restaurants in Sarasota that meet that description but Bodhi Tree is not one of them! ? The only thing to mention is to know where to park when you go, which is across the street in the pay lot unless there is open street parking, because you don't want accidentally park in neighbor's spots. The owner was very quick to recogniz any errors made and alerted us so cars could be moved though.

This is our favorite restaurant in Sarasota. The service is impeccable and the chef goes out of his way to accommodate my dietary needs. We are always bringing different friends along with us to dine here and they always leave impressed. As a tansplanted New Yorker we have eaten at many fine restaurants and Bohdi Tree foods ranks right up there with them. An extra bonus is the beautiful setting when dining outdoors .

We came because of the high reviews but food, atmosphere service we would have been disappointed at at half the price. $26 for pasta with marinara sauce that wasn’t as good as jars from Publix. The chicken Marsala was pretty good but the $12 chocolate cake wasn’t even Betty Crocker on a bad day. The limited Wine list didn’t even identify the vintners rather gave generic varietals so after it arrived I looked it up and was $12 retail bottle of wine we paid $48 in a cheap glass without even a stem. The decor would have been appropriate for a Indian restaurant rather than Italian so perhaps they took over a failed Indian business? Very few people in restaurant in height of season so I’m glad to see others weren’t hoodwinked like we were. To top it off the waitress gave quite a speech and to the diners at the the nearby table and asked them to provide a 5 star review so explains why the reviews were so high. $150 for 2 without even a tablecloth so fine dine dining prices for diner food and ambiance. I rarely ever write reviews but felt compelled to after our poor experience.

We had the bolognese, pesto, chicken with artichokes and pasta with clams… each dish was better than the next!!!! We loved the ambiance and atmosphere at the restaurant we felt like we were eating a home cooked meal! We brought our 4 month son and he also had an amazing time :)Isabella and Robert were so attentive and gave us excellent service they made sure we had everything we needed!!! We are definitely coming back again!!