Vivolo Restaurant

We have been here numerous times and the food is always excellent. The best deal is the lunch prixe fixe. You get an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. We have had holiday luncheons here and I come with my significant other for romantic meals. There is a dark and welcoming atmosphere to this place that I love.
The décor is lovely and there is an upstairs as well which is a bit more posh.
The salad, chicken and lemon dessert are always my favorite. The staff is nice and laid back so you never feel rushed and certainly not ignored. You do not have to dress up but a casual elegance is preferred as in most UES restaurants.

Fantastic food, really pleasant environment. A great place to come with friends and family.

I don’t normally write bad reviews (this is my first) but I was treated horribly as a guest at this restaurant and they deserve all the bad press.
The first offense occured when I ordered the cappellini with clams, mussels, and shrimp. The food came and the waiter asked if anyone wanted cheese. I naturally said yes, and the waiter proceeded to tell me that I should never ask for cheese with my dish because it would change the aromatics and blah blah blah. Then, thinking that would be it, he turned to the rest of the table and began to lecture THEM about asking for cheese with this dish. He explained this about 4 times.
Dude, a) no one else cares or has a fish pasta and b) thanks for embarrassing me in front of my friends! So extremely rude– I’ve never been treated this way!
Another thing about this restaurant is that they are lazy and unaccomodating. They only take 1 credit card per group and everyone else had to pay cash. That would probably have been nice to know in the beginning, since I didn’t bring any cash-​figured most restaurants are accommodating to their customers and not in the stone age.
Then my friend ordered the lamb chops medium rare and got them medium well. Naturally he said something. The waiter proceeded to argue with him that be ordered it medium well instead of rare. This went back and forth a few times until the waiter finally took it back. Get off your freakin high horse, admit your mistake and accommodate your customers! Seriously?
Another instance-​my friend ordered a pasta dish with chicken and it was served without chicken. Rather than taking it back, they gave her a side of chopped chicken. What the heck?
My friend ordered branzino and asked for it with no tail and completely ignored that and served it with a tail. (To no surprise at this point)
The finale was when I was leaving and waiting for the bathroom in the hallway after we paid our bill. They were closing up the restaurant and started throwing out trash and cleaning up. They were throwing trash out around me, one guy barely said excuse me as he reached around to the door behind me to throw something out, and then, the door behind me was slammed into my shoulder as someone from down stairs was coming up! Wtf! Barely looked sorry. I have NEVER been treated like this in my whole entire life. If I’m in the way tell me too stand somewhere else!
Never going back. Should have barely tipped them anything. There’s plenty of BETTER restaurants with better food and ACTUAL customer service. If you want to eat with a bunch of pretentious, rude waiters, this restaurant is for you.

The food was okay, but not really commensurate with the price point. Décor upstairs was a bit shabby. Toothpick on my bread plate when we were seated, and my cocktail wasn’t great. We’ll probably skip it next time.

Would not return. After seeing the great reviews on Unilocal,I decided to try this place out. I went around 3:30 on a Monday and it was empty. Good for me right? I’ll get great service, I thought. Upon entering I saw one of the cooks standing by the bar and he gestured to me that the manager was behind me and he would seat me. I thanked him and waited, as the manager was on a phone call. The manager clearly looked at me, but didn’t even bother to greet me or say one moment for him to finish his phone call. Instead he continued to ignore me for another five minutes as he spoke on the phone. The cook glanced at me, in an I’m sorry sort of way, so I decided to wait another 2 – 3 minutes, at which time the manager continued to disregard my presence. At that point I left and went to another restaurant. The «service» from that one manager was appalling. I cannot speak for other members of their staff or the food, but I will not be returning.
Kind of makes you wonder why the restaurant was so empty.

All of the waiters are so nice! My fiancé loved his old fashioned drinks and duck main dish. We split the gnocchi as an appetizer and it was a generous portion but I didnt love that it was in a cream sauce. The lemon sole was just ok as it seemed a bit fishy.

Very friendly service!
TIP: Ask if you can be seated deeper inside the restaurant, if possible. We had a party of 4 and were seated right by the window, which was in an alcove at the front of the restaurant that didn’t have the greatest ambiance. The interior of the restaurant was quite nice and romantic, however.
Loved the baked clams appetizer and the linguine with clams entrée. Will definitely come again!

Absolutely outstanding! Service and food were excellent. My wife and I had had the 4 course special. Delicious. Both had fish. White flaky fish and the salmon. Love this place.

By far my favorite restaurant in the city! Vivolo is my go-​to spot for a guaranteed good meal. Each time I eat at Vivolo, I always think there is no way it can be as good as the last time, but it just gets better and better with each meal! I have tried several pasta dishes (the gnocchi being my favorite) and none have disappointed. I’m not a fan of eggplant, but their eggplant appetizer is to die for! Not only is just the food absolutely delicious (and affordable), the staff is amazing! The staff goes above and beyond from the second you walk in the door to the second you walk out.
If you like delicious food, great service, and a nice atmosphere, then I highly recommend you try Vivolo! You will not be disappointed!

I went for lunch here and was blown away by the quality of food and service. It’s an elegantly dark dining room with old world charm that reads more like a private supper club than a public restaurant. It’s a perfect spot for that romantic dinner or hush-​hush lunch date that no one needs to find out about, especially when tucked away in the back by the old fireplace. The biggest star of the restaurant in my opinion is the prix fixe lunch menu, where for $ 30 p/​p you get an app, entrée and desert. I enjoyed a fresh salad, a perfectly cooked and seasoned pork chop and a torte that finished off the meal just perfectly. The wines are delicious and priced reasonably by the bottle or glass. I will be back soon.

Good ambiance, good food, good service.
The place has an intimate feeling — small, with nice wooden panels on the walls. Service was good and attentive throughout. Portions were good in size; wife had meatball rigatoni (I liked them, although the sauce was a bit bland) while I had the stuffed breast of chicken (it was delicate and flavorful at the same time).
But total bill including tips was $ 75 for two entrees, one glass of wine, one coffee, and one chamomile. Definitely too much for the quality of the food and worth taking off two stars.

We went with our family, and they were super nice to three very tired kids who had been in the car half the day. It did not help that a couple of them were a bit under the weather. We just arrived in NYC, and my cousin wanted to meet up. When we got there, there was some confusion about the seating, but the manager immediately took care of it.
The food was absolutely delicious. We had the trout, meatloaf, meatball rigatoni, and linguine with clam sauce. And the service was wonderful. We definitely were the youngest people in the place (by far), and they were super patient with us. It was not inexpensive, but it was a great experience. Thanks for a great meal!

went there over our anniversary trip to NYC.
A table near us was having problems with service but only because the queen of the family was changing her mind. She wanted dishes that don’t usually have anchovies to have them and vice versa. I don’t understand that, like something out of a bad French movie.
we had good food and very adequate service and yes, I recommend it.

Vivolo is excellent. It’s an upscale Italian restaurant catered to an older crowd, but my group of 8 was able to snag a reservation through OpenTable for dinner on Saturday — just a few hours in advance.
Atmosphere-​wise, it’s a little on the fancier side (a lot of men in suits). Our servers were extremely attentive and patient.
The food was simply amazing! I would recommend any of the pastas. I had the pappardelle with mushrooms and truffle ($ 19), and it was fantastic and flavorful. My friend’s meatball pasta was delicious as well. I also loved the free bread with olive oil and complimentary olives. Really solid all around.

I came here for a late lunch with my sisters and my bff after wedding dress shopping. We were looking for a comfortable and roomy restaurant so we could eat to our heart’s desire and celebrate with some bubbly. We wound up staying for more than two hours! The service was wonderful as well as the food. The waiter was cracking us up and wound up getting us a round of wine on the house (which we definitely didn’t need but gladly accepted). This place put the cherry on top of a really great day I’ll remember. Highly recommend if you’re on the Upper East with a group!

This is a warm, cosy restaurant in a lovely Upper East Side neighborhood and the atmosphere is perfect for those who want a very good meal, served by an attentive and friendly staff. In contrast to so many restaurants in this neighborhood, it’s a place where you can converse easily as a couple or as a small party.
The prix fixe menu was an excellent value and everyone liked their choices which ranged from seafood to traditional Italian dishes.

Went there for an early dinner today, and the service was spectacular. The waiters were extremely friendly and really took the time to take care of me and my friend.
The prix fixe menu is a great deal. Appetizer, main course, and dessert for $ 30. Just to further emphasize how accommodating the staff was, we asked that the two main dishes we ordered be split so that we could have the two different meals on one plate, and Tony got us new plates and used a combination of a fork and spoon to carefully halve them. The pasta was cooked perfectly — chewy — for the rigatoni and linguine. The Chicken Fiorentina was wonderfully soft and flavorful. The strawberry shortcake and tortoni were delicious — not super sweet at all.
We sat inside but in the glass dome area, so we enjoyed the sun and fresh air.

E-​Scale: ⁸⁄₁₀
I went here last night with a friend for dinner. Overall it was a positive experience.
She ordered 2 appetizers (Burrata and Rolled Eggplant) and I ordered the Pappardelle.
The burrata was very fresh and I could taste the milk in it.
The rolled eggplant tasted greasy and very fried. The cheese stuffing was good but I couldn’t get past the deep fried taste.
My pappardelle was fantastic. Noodles were cooked just right, I love the variety of mushrooms they used and the dish overall was not too salty.
We looked at the desserts menu but nothing jumped out as being particularly special at the $ 9 price. The first two things were a pound cake and chocolate cake and the second two were tiramisu and cannoli (neither of which I liked).
The service was exceptional and the ambiance was romantic and intimate, great for a date. We sat on the second floor where they had group seating and towards the end of our meal it got to be quite loud and crowded.
I would love to come back here to try some
more items on their menu!

The first time I came here was April 2014. It was for dinner, the food was good and service was excellent. I loved their Frutti Di Mare and actually dreamed about it 2 weeks ago, so I came back on Valentine’s Day and the experience was terrible.
First, they gave us two glasses of water, with a bug in one of them. Then, they made us get the set dinner. It doesn’t matter if we pay extra, our waiter said «No, it’s going to take to long to make» …really? Okay whatever, we got our food. It was still good, nothing too spectacular. Got a bottle of wine (we can’t drink the water anyway). The waiter came around with fresh pepper to put on our salad and (of course) the pepper got in the wine. (!!!) No apologies whatsoever. It was just that one waiter that performed terribly, everyone else seemed friendly enough. There are so many good Italian places in NYC though, so no thanks, I won’t be back again.

Excellent place! A true gem in the Upper East Side! The first thing I loved was the ambiance. The place is small but very cozy and romantic. The service was excellent, from the host at the door who had us seated right away to the waiters who are very attentive.
The food and wine are excellent, and the prices are very reasonable given the upscale nature of the restaurant and the neighborhood it is in. My boyfriend and I both got wine which was delicious! The salads were excellent, fresh and well seasoned. We had one regular salad and one seafood salad. Their bread is delicious, freshly baked and delivered hot out of the oven. Both of our meals were EXCELLENT! I had pasta with veggies and a dollop of ricotta on top and it was incredible, from perfectly cooked vegetables to the delicious homemade tomato sauce. My boyfriend had a ravioli with duck that he also said was excellent!
Most of the people in the restaurant were older (mid 50’s and up), so we were the youngest in there by quite a bit, but we didn’t mind. All in all, this is a great date restaurant with amazing food at a price that is reasonable for 20-​somethings.