il vecchio

If you don’t 5 star this place then you are wrong. We sat down, ate their bread and fell in love. Everything we ate afterwards was somehow better than the item before. Their ambiance and staff was as good as the food.

Amazing! What a treat! Recommended by hotel staff in Big Sur and we were delighted. Great staff and attentive service! Big portions!

This place never ever disappoints. We have been coming here over the years every time we are in the area. Our first dinner here was in 2012 and we were wowed then by the authentic taste of our dishes, particularly the gnocchi in pesto sauce. The salumi plate is always great as is their veggie sides like the broccoli and brussels sprouts. You can’t really go wrong with their entrees. We love the ribeye and fish. The only disappointment during our recent visit was that they stopped serving out fave dessert, the bombolo. Please bring that back! We’ll be coming here again nonetheless.

One of our favorite places in Pacific Grove. Honest food with local ingredients that’s well executed at a very reasonable cost… unicorn. Been there several times and we’ve been happy with nearly everything we’ve ordered from all sections of the menu from the charcuterie plate to the cabbage salad to the steak and especially the tremendous pasta dishes. I’d indecent proposal me some carbonara.
All that being said I nearly docked a star due to my last entrée — The wild rock cod in pesto sauce which was recommended to me by the waiter was bland, not all that fresh and prepared haphazardly like the chef was caught off guard that someone ordered it and made it up on the fly. The side veggies weren’t sautéed very well and on top of the tasteless pieces of the brittle fish was a thick layer of pesto globbed on. I still ate all of it but thought about giving you a 4 star review the entire time.
BUT il vecchio, you still get 5 stars from me because I got to eat most of my wife’s pasta and your cheesecake was off the hinges. I went away satisfied despite the fish and can honestly say I’m still excited to come back

CHARLIE was amazing!!! He knew the menu in and out, suggested all the right items for our party and wine! This is a great cozy place if you want to get authentic Italian! I’ve been to every «Italian» restaurant on the peninsula and This is by far my favorite! Can’t go wrong with the pasta carbonara or the cannelloni!!!

Nice ambience, not too loud, can be romantic or casual. The pappardelle was amazing. And the pesto spaghetti was solid. I wish the noodles had more bite to it though, more al dente. It was on the mushy side. But the pesto was light and refreshing. The Brussel sprouts were okay, nothing inspiring. And the salad… it was nice. I loved the bright red color. I forgot what it was called but it had goat cheese and nuts. I think that was the star of my dinner here. Wish the portion for the salad was larger even though it was a side.
A nice place for dinner, but not somewhere you HAVE to go if you’re stopping through the city.

Looking for an authentic Italian restaurant that has the Monterey/​Pacific Grove charm? Il Vecchio is the place! I have been here multiple times and have always enjoyed my experience. Their wine list features both Italian and California vineyards and they also serve traditional Italian cocktails. I highly recommend their spaghetti and meatballs dish as well as their new skillet pizzas on Wednesday nights. The staff and owner are very friendly and love to make sure guests have a memorable experience. I’ve been also wanting to try their Worker’s Lunch which is a great price for a lot of food!

We were looking for a tasty meal in the Monterey area after having a nice (but expensive) drink on Cannery Row — and thanks to Unilocal we stumbled up on Il Vecchio. It was a Friday night, so we had to wait 25 or 30 min for a table, but it was well worth the wait.
The restaurant’s table win was delicious and awesomely priced, the entrees looked so good that my husband and I decided to be indulgent and split 3 (pesto, ragout and fish) — something we’ve never done before. It was SO GOOD!
Pesto and Ragout were just incredible.
The ambience and service we just perfect as well.
We’ll definitely go there again the next time we’re in town.

Decent Italian joint with solid food for reasonable prices for Italian. We didn’t have a reservation as we just looked something up on Unilocal on our way back north from Carmel. They didn’t have any available tables for an hour, so the 5 of us just opted to sit in a line at the bar.
I’m not sure if we were all just really hungry or if the bread was just that good. But we quickly devoured the whole loaf of complementary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Three of us split the meatballs Italian style (red sauce) appetizer which came with 3 balls so worked out well. I ordered the rigatoni, which is my favorite type of pasta. It’s served with a pork/​beef ragu; a solid comfort food type dish.
Would definitely look into reservations here as it seemed like the place was packed especially during prime dinner hours. Service was decent, although the seating situation was not ideal as later on the in the meal they squeezed in an extra chair at the bar for another woman so it was a bit cramped.

They’re not serving mussels. This used to be my favorite place to dine for the past 2 years, but after the subtle changes made, the food is no longer what it used to be. Service was terrible for the first time ever, and that’s due to both FOH and BOH. It took 35 minutes for our food to come out as we watched the tables that got there after us finish half their meal. Our broccoli was cold, the rigatoni was watery, but at least the chicken marsala was the saving point of the night.
Il Vecchio has become another tourist trap and it’s quite disappointing.
Management was nowhere to be found.

My sister and I were excited to have great Italian food after a long drive from Los Angeles. We chose this restaurant after seeing a number of great reviews. We were greeted positively by the hostess and that was the only highlight of this dining experience.
Our server was CHARLIE and yeah he was terrible. Not even sure if I should say he was our server as he did no serving and provided no service. Yet, all the tables around us he attended to well and our table was completely ignored. On top of that, the food was terrible.
We spoke to the «second in command» whatever regarding our disappointing dining experience and she was absolutely unapologetic and defensive.
18 or 20% tip listed on the receipt? Ha, lets leave the jokes until April Fools.

Wonderful food, wonderful service. Definitely get one of the homemade pasta options — they are all delicious!
Everything was great — we left very full and very happy!

Wow I am truly impressed with this little italian restaurant. Everything was tasty, a little salty for my taste however everything including their bread was tasty.

Husband and I came to Monterey for our babymoon after Thanksgiving and was excited to try this place out based off the great reviews. However, we are a bit disappointed with our experience there.
Disclaimer: I didn’t try any of the home-​made pasta options because it all included something raw or with alcohol (which I’m trying to cut out for the sake of my unborn baby). BUT the highlight of my time there was the rigatoni I ordered with the pork and beef ragu. The pasta was al dente and the dish was delicious and flavorful. Sadly, the same could not be said of husband’s order of the pesce pizzaiola (wild rock cod, tomatoes, etc.). The fish did not seem very fresh and the taste was rather bland.
We also ordered the lemon tart — which was highly recommended. But it didn’t taste like anything special to us. The crust was rather hard (seemed refrigerated).
The service was fine — but our server did not seem to be very present. There were several times when we had to ask another server for more water or something that we needed. Also, our table was uneven, so I spent the whole time with my foot on one end to keep things slightly even.
There are not a ton of great non-​chain options in the Monterey area, so this would be worth trying out for sure if you’re in the area. But I would probably stick with the pasta options if I were you.
PROS: great pasta, nice welcoming décor, family friendly
CONS: iffy non-​pasta entrees and dessert, service could be better

They need to move this restaurant to my hometown. I want to eat here every night.
Service was great. The meal was filling, delicious, and reasonably priced.
I want more ragout. Now. Go there and get for me.

So… I am not quite sure why people seem to like this place. There are TONS of better choices for good Italian food
We tried this only because one of our favorite places was closed tonight and we had read good things
Very, very average

For our anniversary, my wife and I decided on Italian. Little did I know that when we went to eat, I would dine in one of the top three restaurants I have ever had the honor of eating at.
We called ahead for reservations, 7:15, we got there at 7:10 and at 7:15 were promptly seated. The service was phenomenal, the server was attentive and the standard bread with vinegar/​olive oil had roasted sweet red peppers as an added twist.
My wife had the chicken Marsala and myself the polenta con pollo. Looking around, the place was packed but with Italian casual atmosphere.
The food came out in fifteen minutes. Oh. My. God…
The polenta was soft but not mush, the Ragu was a perfect mix of pork and beef.
In short, the best Italian I ever had.
My wife’s Marsala was in a skillet with two breasts, cremini mushrooms with sauce and mashed potatoes on the side. I have been known for making the best Marsala by a lot of people.
They were wrong, this one beat me soundly.
The chocolate ganache cake with hand made cream was the perfect end to a great meal.
The pros: handmade pasta, authentic Italian, the best you’ll have
The cons: it’s not In Denver. :(
The tag line of this place said: «every meal is made by original authentic Italian recipe. Each meal is perfect»
Never truer words spoken. Thank you for making our anniversary perfect.

WOW is all I have to say for this place! We came here after a long day in Carmel/​Monterey and I’m so glad we stopped by. Although we didn’t have a reservation, we luckily got seated right away. I think they strategically seated us next to the little dessert station. Every time someone would order dessert, I could smell the amazingness across the little glass window. At one point, one of the servers noticed my eyes staring at the dessert and she told me what it was: strawberry rhubarb pie with fresh cream.
We ordered the house red wine, which was delicious. I really liked the bread they give while you wait for the food and it came with a nice balsamic vinegar/​olive oil with peppers and onions– very yummy. For dinner, we ordered the gnocchi with tomato sauce/​basil and the cannelloni ricotta e spinaci. It felt like the food was taking forever to come out, but that’s probably because we were starving! But when it finally came out– omg it smelled and looked so good! Check out my pictures that go along with this review :)
The gnocchi was seriously the fluffiest and meltiest I’ve ever had in my life. We both were shocked at how amazing it was. I can never go back to other kinds of gnocchi after this. And the cannelloni… just wow! I had never had cannelloni before, and it was like an Italian enchilada. I loved how soft and tasty the mixture inside the pasta was, and we both loved the sauce it was drenched in. We literally finished everything on our plates.
And then the waitress came around and asked about dessert. Weirdly, she didn’t mention the pie… but I brought it up and she brought us a fat piece of pie. It was also amazing! My first time having rhubarb, and it was so yummy.
Would I come back? Oh yes! Just thinking about that gnocchi makes me feel a little dreamy like I’m eating a cloud. haha overall, this place was great. And I left feeling very stuffed and content :)

Based on super enthusiastic recs from various folks in town and our concierge, we settled on il vecchio for dinner during our stay in Monterey. We had patroned Bistro Moulin the night before and LOVED it, and several people hyped up il vecchio similarly to the way Bistro Moulin was hyped, so we figured it was probably super good. Our concierge made our reservation and we walked from the Clement to il vecchio, probably a 8 minute walk.
We were immediately seated in the window of the restaurant. While it was nice to see outside and to see the whole restaurant, people walked by us on their way out and constantly run into me with their purses. Bummer. I would recommend sitting a little further down or elsewhere along the wall, although the awesome whisk lights above were super interesting. il vecchio is clearly a neighborhood place; tons of folks were there on a Monday night; it was jam packed. It also seemed like everyone knew everyone so its clearly a locals spot. This place was really built up as a special, romantic place, but for me, it didn’t meet that. It was really good, but not the romantic place I was expecting. Based on the ambience alone, I wouldn’t recommend this spot as a place for a romantic anniversary dinner, especially with Bistro Moulin just a few blocks away.
Our waitress, who I believe may have also been an owner, was super pleasant and friendly. We got some bread with dipping oils and ordered some vino and perused the menu. We decided to order the Piedmontese meatballs since I adore meatballs and they had a fun description. They came with brown gravy and were slightly sweet to me, almost like a Swedish meatball as opposed to a spicy Italian meatball. Still good, just not what I was expecting at all. I wish I had ordered the Roman style…
I ordered the rigatoni with ragu and a side of broccoli while hubby got the lamb tagliatelle. Both were tasty, large portions that we didn’t come close to finishing. We quickly realized that splitting a pasta after having the meatballs would have been the way to go, especially since we weren’t staying somewhere with a fridge or microwave. If you’re in the same boat, take warning and save $ 20 bucks by splitting your entrée.
We had a complimentary dessert back at the hotel so skipped dessert and walked home. Overall, I thought il vecchio was really good, but not great. I liked feeling like I was let in on a Monterey secret, but thanks to the hype, I really expected to be wowed by the food that was just pretty good. If you’re looking for a non-​chain less-​crazy-​than-​Cannery-​Row Monterey dinner spot with family and friends, I think this might actually be a perfect place for you (hint: I’d call ahead to make a reservation to ensure your spot).

3.5 Stars
Piatti Night on Monday — 5 star, great concept, love that its basically a tapas style menu of all their dishes so you can try a lot without spending too much or getting too full
Polenta — the cheese helped to add much need flavor to the polenta (otherwise a little bland) texture was done well
Potato dish — your average run of the mill roasted potatoes, PASS
Meatball — portion is a little small, only 2 per dish, was well seasoned and moist
Rigatoni — pasta was unevenly cooked, ragu was great (meaty, packed with flavor, balanced well)
Rock fish — flavor of fish was delicate and cooked well but the olives felt like it overpowered the dish
Gnocchi — too dense but seasoned well and thought the sauce was very pure in flavor
Service — felt that if you are regular the waitress is a lot more attentive
Overall Thoughts
I will be back for another Piatti night for sure!