Vincenzo Ristorante

Great find in Santa Monica. Thank you to the other Unilocalers for helping us find this gem. Small setting with only about 10 tables but we were able to get an 8:00 reservation on Saturday night.
Wonderful ambiance and the owner is very attentive to each and every guest.
Must try the owner’s grandmothers meat balls. Very tasty and the pasta is thick and the sauce is sublime. The desert of Cherry pie was just ok. Not a lot of flavor.
The bread is made in house and very good.
The scampi appetizer was yummy. The short tube pasta with eggplant wasn’t to my liking but my partner in crime liked it.
We will be back. And you should try it also.
The only drawback is even though they say they are open until 10:30, they decided to close the kitchen early on Saturday night at 9 and kind of pissed off a couple that arrived about 9:15 and were turned away. So beware, the hours of operation are kind of a moving target.
The clientele is older and they looked like they came to this place often. Little old ladies at one table and a table of 4 guys that were older doing business deals late in the night. Just sayin!!!

The food and service were for the most part excellent (except for the apple and cherry pie desserts, which were not made with fresh fruit). The prices, however, were ridiculously high – $ 23 for a plate of pasta!

Quaint little Italian restaurant. Made me feel like I was back in Italy. I felt like I was eating a homemade meal. It’s a cozy restaurant run by the charming owner. Everything was delicious & I really enjoyed his homemade meatballs & pasta. It’s a super casual restaurant great for a relaxing meal. We had homemade limoncello after dinner. Haven’t had that since my last visit to Italy. If you are looking for a truly Italian restaurant similar to what you would find in Italy, then this place is a must!

Oh baby! I love a little place where the Chef comes over to the table to share his specials takes your order and go into the kitchen to cook for you. This is true food love! That why I got in the business to begin with spread the joy with food and drink.
So I enjoyed: House made bread sent from the heavens, Insalata Mista di Stagione, Prosciutto di Parma e Mozzarella, scampi alla Mediterranean, Insalata del Marinalo, Pappardelle alla Bologness, Scaloppine di Vitello alla Moda Delao Chef.
Now this is where I generally break everything down. Not today. I worked with many Italian Chefs over the years and Chef Nicoletta is real deal.
Beautiful balanced northern Italian ingredients and preparations with a rustic village flair. The finishing touch was Nicoletta stopping by the table one more time to check in his masterpieces and say goodnight.
Until next time, Chow!

loved everything. My favorite italian place ever

I loved this place so much I reviewed it in The Argonaut

Vincenzo’s is great! Very personal service, excellent food and atmosphere. Great wine selection. This is truly a hidden gem. We had the specials, pasta Fagioli soup, and the fish entrée. Great spaghetti pescatore too.

Absolutely the best Italian food you’ll find in LA. The owner is from the Amalfi Coast and eating the fare here, it was like I was transported back to Positano or Sorrento. The owner is lovely, and as other people have written, will walk around and engage with everyone. Hands down this will be some of the most authentic, delicious food you’ll eat in LA or anywhere else for that matter!

1. I recommend making reservations.
2. Excellent ambience, world-​class food and wine. I mean. Really. If Unilocal allows 5 stars the food would need 10 stars to give it justice.
3. Friendly and efficient staff, family feel.
4. It’s a small place, I witnessed guests actually destroying the LA stranger-​danger vibe and instead making friends, talking to one another. I was stunned.
5. Got that «wow really good food» feeling after the meal aka the glow.
6. Total for a 2 person culinary experience is probably $ 90 — $ 180 depending on what you choose.
7. Quality control is handled directly by the owner/​chef on site.
Romantic, classy but friendly, reasonable prices for the level of food and attention to detail, would win one of my highest recommendations for a special night out on the town.
Overall, it’s the taste and fresh ingredients and care that’s given to the actual FOOD that makes this place worth every penny.
Bön appetit.

Amazing food. Owner (I’m assuming Vincenzo) recommended fresh tomato mozzarella basil cucumber salad and an amazing entrée of black pasta with crabmeat and mushrooms. Incredible. Great ambience, wine selection, and value for a top notch meal. Definitely will return. Great date night spot!

Vincenzo really has a special thing going here at his restaurant… Beautiful food in a quaint atmosphere! He walks around and talks to everyone and is such a charmer! His wife picks fresh tomatoes from their garden for the meals and they are so delicious.
I took my parents here and he liked us so much he treated us to his home made basil liqueur as an after dinner drink!
The buratta with prosciutto was unreal, as was the tiramisu– WOW!
Will definitely be back :)

Good food. They ran out of the fish special and only had the one fish dish. I thought it was a bit overpriced but the service was excellent.

On Tuesday the 14^th, I had a near Heaven experience.
Our family of five made a reservation for Vincenzo Ristorante in Santa Monica, and it is safe to say this is some of the best Italian I’ve had anywhere around the world.
Vincenzo and his team introduce themselves at your arrival, making you feel welcome and relaxed. This is not some snooty high dining experience where the waiter looks down at you. Here the owner asks where you are from, talks about his food, and what inspires him. What becomes clear very quickly is that you should trust and respect his recommendations, as the appetisers our family shared were nothing short of spectacular.
We ordered the grilled octopus, which was utterly wonderful. Also delicious was the fried calamari and shrimp, as was the caprese salad. Vincenzo’s Caprese was made from organically grown tomatoes in his own garden, and the buffalo mozzarella sourced from Italy. All of these well portioned appetiser dishes would have made superb meals in their own right, and in fact, we would have been just as thrilled if we simply had another helping of each of these dishes.
But we also had entrees. Our boys had salmon pasta and meatballs on parpadelle pasta. Now, these meatballs are evidently made from a recipe concocted by Vincenzo’s grandmother. She was clearly a good woman with some skill, as my boy thought the meatballs were «amazing». Our other boys loved their salmon pasta too.
For my main, I had the Steak Tagliata. It was terrific, expertly cooked to medium-​rare, drizzled with gorgeous olive oil and aceto balsamico, and heaped with arugula rocket salad and parmesan.
My wife had the «Spaghetti Dello chef Vincenzo», or the grilled shrimp spaghetti in a caper and pink sauce, which she described as «divine». She’s not particularly big on shrimp, but it was recommended to her by Chef Vincenzo, and she was glad she listened.
For dessert, my wife had the home made tiramisu, which she also said was wonderful. I passed on dessert but had some limoncello liqueur, which was a strong, syrupy concoction that widened my eyeballs as I drank it — yes, it’s powerful stuff.
Vincenzo Ristorante is a completely charming family run place on Montana Ave, with superb food, wonderful service and hospitality. I will absolutely be back the next time I am in Los Angeles.

Food is delicious ! Wine selection is excellent. Most Authentic Italian cuisine in Los Angeles. My boyfriend and I just got back from ROME and the food at Vincenzo is just as good as the best restaurants in ROME if not better. Owner is italian, he is friendly and very knowledgable about italian food. He gets his ingredients from Italy because they do not compromise on authenticity or flavor here. My friends and I ordered 3 appetizers and 3 entrees and we were so impressed by all the dishes.
Highly recommended ! (Dessert is home made and delicious!)

Enjoyed the authentic Italian food and owner. We are originally from NY and appreciate good Italian food.

Quaint and authentic with excellent food and a racist owner, Vincenzo, himself, greeted me at the entrance. Or to be more accurate, he blocked the entryway and confronted me. He didn’t say welcome or ask how he could help me. He wanted to know why I was there. The fact it is a restaurant open to the public never occurred to him. Perhaps my black skin was the problem? I was well dressed and actually had a reservation. I informed him of such and he seemed taken aback and went to verify. Only once he’d checked as I went to the restroom did he relent. And guess where he sat me in a relatively empty restaurant? In the back by the kitchen. I asked Vincenzo why I was at this table and he mentioned other reservations coming. When my dinner partner, a white male arrived, his first observation was to wonder why we were at a lousy table in the back while countless other tables were empty. My friend insisted and Vincenzo relented, seating us at a decent table. The food was all very lovely. The owner, however, is an old school racist. I was so unprepared for this kind of overt racism. I felt I was Sidney Poitier in a Guess Who’s Coming to My Whites-​Only Restaurant 1960’s revival. Clearly that’s the time and place the owner lives in. So imagine the surprise when an urbane and urban (i.e. African-​American) foodie crashed his pre-​Civil Rights Era segregationist establishment. If I had arrived with my White friend, I am sure my treatment at the outset would have been decidedly different. Arriving first and alone, this old Italian man was belligerent and subtly hostile. I would never eat here again. It’s 2015, not 1964.

Such a cute authentic Italian. Super nice owner. Love this place! Definitely recommend it.

Excellent — bread is delicious! Definitely recommend for great Italian food!

Came here for dinner with a friend. I hadn’t heard of this place before but apparently a lot of celebrities like coming here? It’s a nice quiet restaurant, small but warm. He owner seems very involved with the front of the house and has many regulars who were coming in throughout our meal. The food is fresh and good quality — we ordered the buratta salad with prosciutto and arugula, as well as the porcini pasta. The tomato sauce is the freshest I’ve ever had. Our friend got the rolled chicken special of the night and it looked delicious as well. Portions here are a bit small and pricey but the quality of the produce definitely shows itself.

It’s impossible to have a bad meal at Vincenzo’s Ristorante.
As a native NYer, lamenting the lack of decent Italian food here in Los Angeles to the point where I was actually annoying myself, I can finally put my whining to rest. And speaking of wining, you’ll find plenty of fine selections to go along with the sumptuous pastas, perfectly seasoned seafood and meatballs better than your grandma’s.
I’m a bit loathe to shout Vincenzo’s praises from the rooftops, however, as I fear this best-​kept-​Santa Monica-​secret getting out to the masses, thus precluding me from getting a table in the intimate dining room. But my conscience just won’t let me keep the deliciousness all to myself. So go, and go often, but if I’m stuck waiting for a table, the least you can do is offer me a forkful of your orecchiette.
Buon appetito!