La Fontanella Ristorante

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Welcome to La Fontanella!
La Fontanella Restaurant located in the Pelican Landing shopping center in
Bonita Springs prides itself in fine italian dining and excellent service.

We at La Fontanella would like to assure you of the freshness & high quality of the
ingredients that make up our gourmet dishes & excellent desserts. Our cuisine is
culminated by our selection of fine wines from our extensive wine list, warm atmosphere
& friendly professional service.

La Fontanella warmly inviting with well-executed Italian fare. L.G. Gordon, Naples Daily News. Rated ***

La Fontanella enters a club of elite restaurants. Jean LeBoeuf, The News Press.
Rated: Food& Atmosphere ***1/2 Service ****

We offer dine in, take out, or catering with the same quality that has made us successful
since our inception, July 2000.

La Fontanella's Family would love to share with you our
review from the Naples Daily News
Naples Daily News
Home › Destination Naples Dining › Destination Naples Dining News
Review: La Fontanella serves the real thing

IN A TOWN WHERE MOST SOPHISTICATED RESTAURANTS ARE OFTEN FLASHY AND
SOMETIMES KIND OF SNOOTY, IT’S REFRESHING TO FIND A COZY PLACE WHERE THE
ATMOSPHERE IS REFINED YET FRIENDLY AND THE FOOD IS SUPERB.
La Fontanella is just that: a small but upscale neighborhood restaurant and — I’m happy to say — it’s my
neighborhood restaurant. Located at the Shoppes at Pelican Landing strip mall, squeezed between the pink neon
lights of Cheeburger! Cheeburger! and a busy nail salon, La Fontanella manages to pull off a casually elegant
atmosphere, conveyed to the customer through tasteful decor and impeccable service.
Open for dinner seven days a week until 10 p.m., La Fontanella seems to be busy whether it’s Friday or a Tuesday.
The dining room is warm and inviting, the pastel-colored walls and the framed modern art giving it a chic, upscale
feel. An extensive wine list, heavily populated by Italian reds and whites, accompanies a menu that offers genuine

Its food that is straightforward and simple — in a good way. It’s the food so many people fall in love with while they
travel to Italy and that is hard to find around here.
The seafood-heavy selection of appetizers includes traditional bruschetta ($8), grilled calamari ($11) and mussels in
white wine sauce ($10). The only starter to feature meat is carpaccio ($11), one of my favorite appetizers. At La
Fontanella this classic Italian dish is flawlessly prepared. Paper-thin slices of raw beef tenderloin are served over a
bed of baby arugola, drizzled with a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, lemon and capers. Shaved parmigiano
reggiano tops it off, adding a subtle saltiness to the meat. The thin sliced filet mignon is of the melt-in-your-mouth
kind and the dressing is made just in the right quantity, moistening the beef without drowning it.
The mozzarella alla piastra ($9) is also a great appetizer, although it might fill you up more than what you think or
wish. Two thick slices of fresh mozzarella are breaded and then pan-fried until golden outside and hot and gooey
inside. Needless to say, the delicate melted cheese pairs up well with the roasted plum tomatoes that are served with
it. A drizzle of basil infused olive oil adds a little more flavor to it, bringing together one of Italy’s most loved
combinations: mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and extra virgin olive oil.
As pasta dishes go, most of the options offered at La Fontanella are authentic Italian fare ranging from the southern
favorite of fresh pasta with sausage and broccoli ($19) to the northern classic of fettuccine with Bolognese meat sauce

Unable to resist to the lure of linguini with clams, I order the linguini alle vongole ($19) with red sauce. Big enough
to feed two, my dish arrives at the table piping hot and smelling heavenly, the parsley adding a nice touch of green to
the redness of the sauce. The linguini is cooked al dente, very generously dressed with a savory tomato sauce and —
literally — a mound of tiny, unshelled clams.
All around the circumference of the plate, eight bigger clams are laying in their shells, making the dish look pretty in a
down-to-earth, simple way. It only takes one bite to realize that my pasta not only looks good, it also tastes amazing.
The baby clams might be small in size but they are huge in taste and the sheer quantity of them in the dish makes it
even more enjoyable.
The non-pasta entrees feature some seafood, chicken, veal and beef dishes, all of which are served with potatoes and a
vegetable of the day. The dentice alla puttanesca ($23) is a great dish to order when in the mood for seafood. A red
snapper fillet is pan-seared in a white wine sauce with fresh tomatoes, black olives and capers: the flavors of the
puttanesca — the briny saltiness of the olives and capers, the sweetness of the tomatoes, the tanginess of the extra
virgin olive oil — blend together smoothly, bringing out the delicate flavor of the fish fillet.
The pollo alla Contadina ($21) is also a good entrée selection. Chicken breast is sautéed with mild Italian sausage,
cherry peppers, mushrooms, onions and grape tomatoes in a basil and garlic white wine sauce.
“Contadina” is Italian for farmer and this dish, with its hearty sausage, chicken and vegetable combo, showcases the
colors and flavors of a rural, end-of-summer supper. The tenderness of the meat creates a pleasant contrast with the
crunchiness of the veggies. They are cooked just right: not too raw but not too mushy.
An Italian dinner wouldn’t be complete with one of the country’s most beloved desserts: tiramisu ($7). Cookies soaked
in coffee are smothered in a creamy and airy mascarpone cheese sauce, and topped with cocoa powder. It’s delicious:
airy and bittersweet like it’s supposed to be, but it’s also a very generous portion.
After gorging on such great fare, I suggest you do what we did. Split it and drink an ice-cold limoncello. It’s the

Service: Very professional and efficient, with a smile.
Atmosphere: Warm and refined, perfect for a romantic dinner.
Noise and light levels: Busy but not overly noisy; the lights are dim.
Prices: Appetizers $8 to $16, entrees $18 to $24
Value: Prices might be a little higher than most Italian restaurants, but the quality of the food makes spending the
extra cash worth it.
Recommended dishes: Mozzarella alla piastra ($9), linguini with clams ($19) and veal scaloppini forestiera ($23)
Verdict: Delicious Italian fare, elegant atmosphere and impeccable service make this small restaurant great.