IL Bistro Italiano

This is one of the best restaurants in town. We have eaten here many times and not been disappointed. The tiramisu is to die for!

I can always trust that my guests will have a good experience and good food when I bring them here.

Fabulous Italian. Pasta great. Tiramisu to die for. Service is outstanding. Get one of the specials. They are always delicious.

Il Bistro is our best restaurant find in GJ. We really enjoy the food, service and the spirited Italian ambiance. Not to mention the gluten-​free options. Great varied wine list, from reasonable by-​the-​glass to pricey bottles. Already planning our next meal there!

Food ok, if pricey, but chef is pretentiously unaccomodating: 1) I asked for red sauce rather than the oil-​based one on my dish and the waitstaff told me, «the chef won’t do that.» 2) My wife asked for a different kind of potatoes with her dish and the waitstaff said, «I’ll have to check if the chef will do that.» The chef said yes to #2, but really: Who needs a restaurant where the chef is pretentiously judgmental about simple substitutions? I hate to break it to you, but you are a B-​level cook in Grand Junction, not the sous chef at Chanterelle in Manhattan; get over yourself.

Great Italian food! We enjoyed all of our food, stuffed… This will be a be back for us every visit. Justin, our server was excellent, friendly and helpful, hope you get an awesome server too.

My husband and I are frequent diners. He loves the Osso Buco. I enjoy their pastas. For dessert try the Tiramisu it is superb! On occasion they will do a special dinner cost runs $ 60 per person. Very reasonable considering it includes absolutely everything even all the different wines for each course. They are very generous with the wine, one must take care if you are driving. The wines served pair with the course perfectly. We have attended the Tapas dinners which are so tasty as well. They offer refills of anything you enjoy for no additional cost. The Tapas dinners are also, only done occasionally. Too bad as it is a favorite of ours and our friends that we dine with. We highly recommend IL Bistro Italiano. They do take reservations which I recommend particularly if you are dining on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening.

I like IL bistro. I’ve never liked going out to eat Italian food because it’s usually something I can easily replicate in my own kitchen. However, bistro has good, homemade pasta at reasonable prices. The ricotta spread for the bread at the beginning is good, lacks seasoning but that can be easily remedied.
I’ve had the shrimp and prociutto avocado pasta which is pretty good but heavy. I’ve had a special with chicken and a white cream sauce which was good. The eggplant parm is tasty as is the gnocchi with pesto. The pasta calabrese was underwelhming and the typical item I can make at home.
Outdoor seating is nice. They even have a heater so you can eat outside into the cooler nights. Also homemade, uncooked pasta for sale that’s probably the only place you can get real pasta in town.

Excellent little Italian restaurant in downtown Grand Junction.
Passing through Grand Junction we were looking for a good restaurant and we were not disappointed.
On a whim, we decided to try this place as it was one of the few restaurants that wasn’t empty — to the contrary. It was packed and obviously also frequented by locals (always a good sign).
The food was excellent:
Appetizer: black mussels in a spicy tomato sauce (shared)
Mains: veal with a lemon/​caper sauce, oxtail and a pizza.
Food was paired with a lovely local Sauvignon Blanc that was excellent after airing out a little bit.
We would have loved to also try their self made pasta.
The ambience was great and the wait staff very nice.
TL;DR: good food, good ambience, definitely recommended!

One of my favorite restaurants in the entire state. I try and come every time I’m in Grand Junction because the food is amazing and the wine selection above average. Last night was no exception. Osso Buco was so tender and juicy and the marrow bone a total surprise. Beet and burrata salad was divine as well. Finished it off with tiramisu. Thanks for having such a wonderful selection of local wines as well. Never have been disappointed here!

Best atmosphere and wait staff in town! Love the intimate setting, and the fresh, hot entrée’s are homemade and delicious! The wait staff are courteous and fully able to explain all of the authentic Italian selections so that I know what I’m getting when the plate arrives. Awesome wine selection as well!
Best dinner I’ve had in Grand Junction or anywhere else come to think of it!

This is the best Italian restaurant in town. There are always new and fresh dishes along with the great favorites. They are very accommodating with patrons with food allergies and preferences. This is one of our go to places when we have visitors to Grand Junction. Keep up the great work we have enjoyed for many years!

Our favorite restaurant in the Grand Valley of Colorado. We have had almost everything on the menu; ALL is Great; Osso Bucco, Veal de Limon, the Rossetta is out of this world.
But don’t forget about the fantastic nightly specials.
Then the Italian Lavassa Coffee and heavy cream is out of this world.

Wonderful option for lunch! Best Italian food and lunch entrees are all around $ 10, very reasonable!

Yum.
Wait you need more? I promise you don’t. Very good Italian. I had the handmade pinwheel ham pasta that is their signature and it was delicious. I am going back the next chance I get. Forgot to snap a photo of my food.

Had an excellent lunch at Bistro with four others. Very attentive wait staff and good food.
Had the lunch/​sanwich special which was very good. Really like the ambiance of the restaurant too.

Affordable wine, great food. I had the Rosetta and it was awesome. My girlfriend had the prosciutto avocado pasta and it was good as well. But the winner was the Rosetta. Also the caprice salad was very good. Service was excellent to top it off.
Highly recommend and would return.

I enjoy this place for their side salads and soups. Most of the time their soups sound a little foreign to me, but are always tasty. I did try an entrée months ago (my first visit) and I wasn’t a fan. I was a little apprehensive about returning, but the side dishes I’ve ordered on a couple different occasions have never failed. The service is good enough and they have a nice building. I wouldn’t mind returning if someone in my party insisted.

Really great. We were taken here for lunch on Friday and my husband is still talking about it– he had the Rosetta and said something in the sauce was just so good. Mine was good too– some sort of angel hair with roasted tomatoes. Much spicier than expected but a good heat. We want to go back and try the dessert menu! they look so good in the displays!

Wow, I enjoyed my lunch here so much! I will tell you all the great things and then I will give you my little nit picks.
We sat down and ordered one of their «close out» wines. A nice red at a great price. We were served a veggie spread with some (seemingly) house made bread. The whole grain bread was amazing — lots of grain bites in it and good chew. The white bread seemed to be a sourdough type with caraway seeds in it. Good, but couldn’t hold a candle to the whole grain bread. The veggie spread — let me tell you that they should sell it. I asked what was in it — ricotta, cream cheese, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, olive oil… So amazingly delicious.
We shared a caprese salad. The heirloom tomatoes (from Blaine??) were huge and flavorful. The house made mozzarella was fine — and they were liberal with basil, balsamic and good olive oil. A success.
I ordered the Rosetta — seems to be a signature dish. It is house made pasta sheets rolled with rosemary ham and provolone cheese. Slices are baked and served with spicy tomato cream sauce. I didn’t expect much out of it as I am not a fan of baked pasta dishes. But, I read so many good reviews that I had to taste it. I was very happy. Pasta was definitely al dente. Honestly, I didn’t taste the ham or cheese particularly — but the pasta and the sauce were wonderful! The tomato cream sauce tasted tomato-​y and rich with a not-​overly spicy (but well seasoned) edge.
My husband ordered the filetto — a pork tenderloin butterflied, marinated and cooked
with rosemary, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. The meat serving was very large! It was tender and the sauce over it was just yummy. It was served with asparagus (tender pencil thin spears) and roasted potatoes and tomatoes. Those potatoes — wow. They were a yukon gold type cut in cubes and lightly roasted. There was some creamy stuff on them along with the roasted grape tomatoes. I had to ask if it was butter or cream. The waitress explained it was a wine cream sauce. I’d eat that on styrofoam — it was really a great addition to the nicely roasted potato/​tomato mix.
So 5 stars for the food.
Nitpicks? We got there after the lunch rush and though there were not many people there, most of the tables were waiting to be cleared (I think they should consider a bussing staff). The wait staff was still a little overwhelmed from lunch service — though our waitress was very helpful and pleasant in spite of that fact that she was kept running.
They close at 2 PM for lunch on weekdays. Which makes you feel a little rushed if you get there after 1 PM. I think the 2 PM closing is really early. And no weekend lunch? Eating out on weekends is a favorite past time for me!
Why no pizza on the lunch menu? Why not more appetizers? I know they use local veggies — why not give credit to the farm/​farmers that are their source?
The interior is oddly sterile in spite of a lot of art, undulating ceiling and modern Italian lighting. Not a big thing — but maybe doing something with the carpet and table tops would make it seem more «fine dining» — as the food derserves.
So — I will be back and I will work my way through the menu!