To say that the Italian restaurant market in Palm Beach County is a crowded field is an understatement. Seems like every time you turn around, another Italian eatery opens its doors somewhere in Boca or in a rare vacant storefront on Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue.
But if time is a true test of a restaurant’s quality, then Josephine’s is a winner.
Josephine’s has been around for nine years, although a fire in an adjoining store in 2001 meant the owners took an 18-month break while they shopped for a new location. Josephine and Nino Tribunella also own Nino’s pizzerias on Palmetto and Powerline (open 18 years) and on Lake Ida and Jog (open about a year). They like to be busy.
Josephine’s is a traditional Italian restaurant — not the kind of place you come looking for the latest trends to cross the Atlantic. But on most every count, Josephine’s is solid, especially when it comes to old-fashioned hospitality. Service is attentive and professional. The wine list is small but efficient. (The bartender makes an excellent espresso martini, by the way.) And the kitchen produces satisfying versions of dishes we’re all familiar with.
We start with a selection of appetizers although dinner is served with a choice of soup or salad. On this night, the soup was a good stracciatella with spinach.
Eggplant rollatini ($7) is wonderful, made with good quality cheese and a nice hearty tomato sauce. Fried calamari ($8) was just a bit too chewy for our tastes. Same goes for the escargot champignon ($9). Stuffed mushrooms ($8) could have just as easily come from a good sports bar menu, but there was something intriguing about them just the same.
You’d never know that hurricanes had wreaked havoc on the Florida tomato crop by the slices served on the tomato and gorgonzola salad ($8). Splashed with balsamic this is a true taste of late fall in South Florida. Josephine’s also does an excellent Caesar salad ($7), made with ice-cold greens, fresh croutons and just the right amounts of lemon and garlic.
The entree menu is quite big and there are daily specials. The menu is divided into pasta, chicken, veal, seafood and grilled items. And the four of us are drawn to seafood and veal.
Saltimbocca all Romano ($24) is a good take on the traditional dish: tender veal, just the right amount of proscuitto and sage and a not-too-subtle butter and marsala sauce. In another veal dish — Costeletta di Vitello alla Bruschetta ($28) — a prime chop is pounded thin, breaded and pan fried and then topped with roma tomato and onion; I know it as veal Milanese. It’s a great version of one my favorite classics, although it wasn’t as hot as the other entrees.
While our waiter was ultimately excellent, we were a little put off when he started telling us about the specials by dividing them into dishes for men (osso bucco) and dishes for women (seafood.) One of the seafood specials was yellowtail stuffed with crabmeat and served with lobster sauce ($29). It was superb. Shrimp is served several different ways here. My guest chose the Italiana ($26) preparation, where jumbo shrimp are broiled with garlic, topped with breadcrumbs and flamed with brandy. Again, the result was delicious.
As you can see, there were very high points food-wise and some low points. But added all together, Josephine’s is a good, solid restaurant. We ended our meal by moving out to the lovely covered patio for Italian cheesecake ($7), tartufo ($6) and cannolli ($7), each of them as good as the next.
Please phone in advance to confirm information on hours, prices, menu items and facilities. For review consideration, please fax a current menu that includes name and address of restaurant to 954-356-4386 or send to Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-2293.
John Tanasychuk can be reached at or 954-356-4632 or by writing to him at the Sun-Sentinel.
*** (OUT OF FOUR)
Cuisine: Italian
5751 N. Federal Highway, just north of Yamato Road, Boca Raton
561-988-0668
Cost: moderate-expensive
Credit cards: AE, MC, V
Hours: dinner daily
Reservations: recommended
Sound level: moderate
Bar: full service
Smoking: outdoors only
Wheelchair accessible: yes
Children’s facilities: boosters, high chairs
