Via Nove

I have been to Via Nove many times, and always sit upstairs. Ryan is a consummate bartender, and has perfect timing. The food is always a pleasure. My favorite is the seared duck with lentil «pancake’s»…what a surprise don’t like lentils. Except the way Via Nove does it. Keep up the perfectly prepared fresh and healthy cuisine… and the great service.

We will definitely not go back — we ordered the seafood risotto and it tasted like a rice mix out of a bag. I can’t begin to describe what flavor they were going for. It was topped with a lobster tail that was tough from overcooking. The rice was grainy for risotto, and as I said the flavor — not sure what that was.
The staff was polite and helpful, but when we sent the meal back a lady came over who we were told was the owner, asking about our reasons for sending it back. She argued that the chef had tried the food and he said it was fine, then asked if we wanted to take the rice (that the chef had eaten from) as a doggy bag! We declined and were told the item would «discounted» rather than removed from the bill. That experience was just in bad taste and handled poorly by whoever it was that came to our table. We were clearly upset and our poor waitress tried to handle it well.
Our other item was scallops wrapped in salmon and was nothing to write home about, the scallops were large but we have prepared more delicate scallops using frozen scallops from the local grocery. It was also a small serving.

My husband and I have been here several times (probably five or so) in the past year and have always had pretty positive experiences. Here’s the lowdown:
The food: I’ve had the spaghetti, the pasta assortment, and the carbonara, among others. All were very good. I’ve found their food to be of very consistent quality. Don’t know for sure, but most of the items we’ve had appear homemade. The bread that they bring you at the beginning of your meal is yummy. We’ve also had their Caesar and Poached Pear salads and enjoyed both.
The service: Other people have mentioned that the service has been slow, but we’ve never experienced this. Our server last time (we sat upstairs in the bar area) was very attentive and knowledgable. Can’t remember a time we had crappy service, even when we had Groupons or other certificates.
The atmosphere: Others have mentioned the atmosphere as being creepy or weird. Not sure if this is because of the large, dark expanse behind the bar area upstairs, or what. It appears this joint, at one time, was a club, or something of that nature. It’s actually a very large space, and only the front portion and a small part of the upstairs are being used for dining. The back upper floor is multi-​tiered with small staircases (think 1980s dance club). I think it can be rented out, but I’ve never seen anyone back there. Other than that little anomaly, there’s nothing extraordinarily weird or amazing about the rest of the décor — it’s a dark-​ish, romantic atmosphere.
Based on my experiences, I honestly can’t figure out why this place isn’t busier. I’m especially perplexed when I walk by Assaggi Bistro next door, and it’s packed. Been there a few times, and didn’t think the food, service, or atmosphere were any better or worse than Via Nove. I would recommend giving this place a try.

Went with the groupon. it was good. Sat on the patio. Had resis for 7 and we were by far the youngest (I’m 29) there for the next hour.
Started with their version of Mac. Homemade noodles were good, and I liked the sauce… But felt I coulda used something else to be awesome. Pancetta, prosciutto, jalepeno, or something.
Main was homemade tortellini stuffed with what was supposed to be braised beef loin… But it was def some sort of ground meat without much flavor. The pasta and vodka sauce were awesome!
Dessert was chocolate cake with a honeymilk froth. Pretty good with my expresso. Though the expresso was poured by a rook, cause my cup and saucer were a mess.
Over all, good stuff… But their prices on the a la carte were a little pricey. If I’m paying that much, id prolly rather go to the D.
3.5 Stars total

As for the ambiance… Can you say romantic? She will love this place…
Ok so the food, can you say GREAT!
The servers… some are a little outta place, my server didn’t look the part and looked like he should have been working on either a car or in a pizzeria lol– whats funny is that I’m serious! But that was just a side note, my food was great so I don’t care.
Great great great– and the owner is soooo nice, shes sweet I go back all the time!

Ouch… so sorry for the people who had bad experiences here but I can’t say the same. I’ve been here several times the last of which was for the Groupon prix fixe menu. I had brought my special lady friend and we shared a little off eachother’s plates as she had ordered off the regular menu.
I don’t honestly recall what we ordered but it was very good. I remember scallops which were perfectly cooked and a saffron risotto cake that I’ve been trying to recreate at home. Entrees were also very good and the chocolate cake dessert was very enjoyable. Drinks were adequate while not outstanding but all in all I seem to always enjoy Via Nove. As a side note, I always choose to sit at the hi-​tops across from the upstairs bar-​the drinks come quick and you have a better view of the entire restaurant.

Like a lot of fellow Unilocalers, My boyfriend and I had our groupon in hand when we optimistically entered Via Nove. Having been here once before about four years ago, I had pretty high hopes. They were soon dashed by the awful service and the awful food. After the waiter finally came over to take our drink orders (I ordered a lemon drop martini, because I wasn’t in a wine mood. It was super watered down.), a swarm of fruit flies followed the drinks to the table, and remained for our entire meal. SO annoying. About five minutes after we were seated, a group of two ladies were seated next to us. They ordered off the groupon menu as well, and they were entirely finished with their entrees BEFORE we were even brought ours. Same food, same menu, and somehow we were overlooked.
Backtrack to when we ordered our food: I wanted to get the tortelloni, but our waiter basically told me it sucked and that I should get the whitefish or chicken… okay, then why is it on the menu if it sucks? Putting some stock in what he said, I reluctantly ordered the whitefish. Big mistake. It came complete with a huge, nasty, greasy piece of skin on the back-​it completely disgusted me to the point of me almost becoming nauseous. The best part of the dish were the roasted vegetables that were under the fillet. The best part of the meal was the dessert (a small chocolate cake topped with mousse) It tasted good, but the texture of the mousse was kind of grainy.
Overall, this place was super disappointing. The service was shitty (except for the man who refilled our waters, he was awesome!), the food was disgusting, and the fruit flies were the topper. Via Nove, if you want to attract new customers with a groupon, you should try a little harder, because at this point, you are scaring them away.

Awful service and awful food. They have to work extra hard to be this terrible. It’s sad because its a great location and attractive joint. But our host/​server was so snide and the food was so horrible that its pluses are mooted. I loathe giving bad reviews but this place pissed me off.
Bad points:
Waited 5 minutes at table before anyone brought water or drinks. This is minor in a busy place, but at the time there were exactly 2 other people in the whole restaurant.
My martini was mostly water.
After I reminded the waiter that I had asked for cheese-​stuffed olives for my drink, he returned holding the missing skewer and dropped it unceremoniously in my glass.
The waiter could not answer even the most basic questions about a calamari appetizer
After taking our orders, the waiter recommended more expensive entrees. This doesn’t usually faze me, but this guy was so snide, it really got on my nerves.
My entrée was tough. The pasta was hard to chew. It reminded me of
Beefaroni from Chef Boyardee.
Good points:
The bread served with dinner was good.
It is very attractive inside.

My wife and I ate at Via Nove on Saturday evening, March 19, 2010. Our waiter left a lot to be desired – didn’t know if they served Pepsi or Coke, said the lemonade was «from the gun,» and floundered on explaining the potato flan. Prior to ordering my meal, I asked how the salmon was prepared – he leaned over to take a look at the menu to see if it described the process (had it, I wouldn’t have asked him). He then recommended the sea bass since the chef hadn’t listened to his suggestion to zip up the salmon and had instead used bbq sauce.
We only heard about the specials for the night from the waiter at the table next to ours – our waiter made no mention of specials. It felt like he was a bartender filling in as a waiter – not at all what I expect when spending $ 70+ for a dinner for two.
Once the food did arrive were weren’t especially impressed – the red dipping sauce could be improved by warming it (at least to room temperature) and both my wife’s carbonara and my sea bass were dry.

Not bad. I was a little leery after reading all of the groupon reviews, and they may be legit, but after going with the intention of a straight-​forward transaction, it was fun. Not much for vegetarians, and make sure you specify you’re vegetarian, but the one pasta dish they could prepare veggie was good: an assortment of their pastas, sans meat. The staff were kind, the atmosphere was smart, and it made for a nice night out. I’d definitely go back.

This place really impressed me. The waiter was really helpful and friendly. The ambiance is perfect for date night. And the food… ohhhh…the food was soooooo good. Not a cheap place by any means, but for the service and quality of food, I felt it was worth it.

Love this place. Never had anything less than great food and service. I am sorry to read some of the posts below…
I think I’ve had nearly everything on the menu, but I always go back for the gnocchi… you can tell they are fresh and hand made, and not something that was dumped out of a 20lb bag.
The bar area is Ferndale’s best kept secret… stop in for a few here before you go over to Rosie’s/Post, or wherever. They serve a Manhattan or Martini that will knock your socks off.
We’d especially like to mention the great attention we’ve always gotten from Michael (manager/​host). He’s always gone the extra mile to make sure we left happy.

This review is based on my Groupon experience.
Best I can recall the food is good but I wouldn’t know.
Bought my Groupon. Spent my money. What do I have to show for it? Nothing. It’s crappy weather today and I thought I would stop in and just get take out. We spend quite a lot of money on takeout when we get it so they would have made out like bandits.
Called the restaurant and was told that the Groupon is dine in only. They did offer to extend the Groupon a day as they are closed for a private party tomorrow but I already have plans for Thursday so that doesn’t work. I wanted take out anyway.
Ok, and it says this where on the Groupon? It doesn’t. In addition, I had checked this BEFORE I bought the Groupon and was told that carry out was acceptable.
Like some other reviews here, I think anyone that buys a Groupon for Via Nove needs to be very, very careful about it. I am very POd about this.
I was also flabbergasted that the OWNER told me that he has no control over me using this ticket for takeout over this and my beef is with Groupon. He also told me that if I was able to use the Groupon for takeout it would say that. Funny, I would have expected that to be an exclusion.
As a follow-​up, I did go back to Groupon on this and they stated that their understanding was the offer included carry out. They happily issued a refund.
Like it says in my tag line — I’m easy until I’m not. Once the line is crossed I am just over it and I will most likely never go to Via Nove again.

We finally got around to using our groupon at Via Nove, and now I really wish we’d gotten ten or fifteen of them! It was our very first visit but definitely won’t be our last.
It was pretty quiet on a Tuesday night, plus we showed up fairly early, so it was just us and a few other couples. We got a very nice bottle of pinot noir and an appetizer that involved a few slabs of fresh mozzarella, breaded and cooked in some kind of delicious sauce. A basket of incredibly good Italian bread with oil & spicy tomato sauce for dipping also showed up on the table, and we ate every single bite!
I ordered the Tagliatelle Gabriella, which was scallops, «shrimp,» and fettucine in a lobster-​tomato sauce. I LOVE seafood and get it pretty much everywhere possible, and these were the most perfectly cooked scallops I’ve ever eaten! The «shrimp» were absolutely huge and the shells looked like partial lobster claws, I’ve never seen anything like them — if I saw a prawn like that coming toward me in the water, I would be terrified! They too were cooked to perfection, melted in my mouth!
My husband ordered a filet mignon, cooked medium, and it too was perfect — the outside was nicely grilled and seasoned and the inside was like butter. I don’t even like red meat and I wanted to make out with it! It came with yummy grilled vegetables and a potato flan that was something magical from outer space. How they ever get the inside so light and fluffy and the outside so crispy and good has to be some kind of alchemy.
It’s not a budget meal by any stretch of the imagination, but for the quality of food it was an excellent value.

After passing Via Nove for years and thinking it looks like a great place to blow a bunch of money, I was excited when they offered a Groupon. And after months of carrying it around, my hubby and I finally were able to use it for our first night out after having a baby.
The place was empty for a Friday night, which kind of set off a red flag for us, considering Ferndale is generally bumpin’ on Fridays. Regardless, we glanced over the wine list and determined our money would be best spent on a bottle. The kind we wanted was $ 28, not too bad. We could tell our waiter’s eyes lit up… he knew he’d get a bigger tip because of it. He loosened up and starting chatting away with us.
We ordered our food, DH got the Rigatoni al porcellino (Italian sausage tossed with tomatoes, arugula in a creamy saffron sauce — $ 18) and I got the sea scallops wrapped in salmon with a wild mushroom flan and roasted lobster sauce ($ 24). Both were pretty tasty, but not the largest portions for the money. I was glad we had the Groupon.
Our waiter was going to get the check when I handed him the Groupon. He immediately frowned and copped an attitude and gave a quick «Have a good night.» We were stunned. Excuse me? We were having fun and joking with you 5 minutes ago and now you’re copping a ‘tude because we’re using a coupon?
I was turned off. Regardless, we still tipped him based off our original bill ($ 72). With half a bottle of wine in me, I wanted to run up to him and say «We are NOT a-​holes — we left you a full tip,» but figured it wasn’t worth it.
Next time, lose the ‘tude, buddy. You may have gotten screwed in the past by Groupon users, but don’t take out that anger on us. Treat every customer with respect and maybe you’ll start getting more customers on Friday nights.

Beautiful restaurant, comfortable chairs, delicious food.

This place can best be described as creepy. I seriously felt like I walked into some Adams family set. Our hostess had a lisp when she talked with black glaring eyes — she doubled as our server. Another guy limped around the entire time pouring water for everyone with food stained clothing. Despite some weirdness with the awkward serving staff and the pretentious atmosphere, the service was superb, so we felt it was still a pretty good deal.
Like everyone else on Unilocal,we got the couples date special. My boyfriend got gnocchi with chicken parm, which wasn’t bad, and I got salmon, which was incredibly bland, but typical of many restaurants who try to do Italian without having actually been to Italy.
The problem came when we tried to pay with our Groupon we bought for there — they told us we couldn’t use the Groupon on the specials. WTF? They then stretched the fine print on the groupon to say that the couples specials were actually part of a «promotional deal» which the groupon cannot be combined with.
It was bad enough the creepy unsmiling staff glared at us the entire meal, and the meal was mediocre at best — but now you want to bend rules because you got cheap? If the groupon couldn’t be used with specials, that should be specified on the groupon or the specials menu — not to mention nightly specials are NOT a promotion — they clearly have the couples special all the time!
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem paying $ 50-​$ 60 for a meal, I just found the place incredibly unprofessional. Anyways, as soon as we started to raise our voice and ask for the manager, the server was like: «ok, we can take it.»
By the way, the salad was complete crap — how do you start an Italian restaurant and not know that SPRING MIX with arugula goes in salads with vinegar and olive oil dressing? Not romaine lettuce! I don’t expect this to be common knowledge, but at least do some research before calling yourself italian. Oh and the foccacia was greasy and ordinary — it tasted like it was from Krogers with extra butter brushed over it when they reheated it.

Sad to admit that I have lived in Ferndale for a few years, but only recently made my first visit to Via Nove. I was not disappointed.
We went on a Friday evening in late summer 2009 for their Friday night date night. We sat in the main dining area– with a view towards the street. The restaurant was opened to the outside, and on a warm summer evening– the breeze was wonderful.
The Friday night date night special is fantastic — There is a special menu offering an appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert for each person. The price? $ 50 for a couple. For the mal I had, this price was fantastic. Every course was delicious– as was the bottle of wine we ordered. Our service was great– even the server waiting on the table next to us was very attentive. I had a fantastic time and would not hesitate recommending Via Nove to a friend.

The energetic atmosphere enhances the rather good contemporary Italian cuisine at this popular restaurant in the heart of hip Ferndale. A large, vibrant bar area serves up bangin martinis. A large streetside patio opens during warmer weather. I’ve had goo