Avano Bistro

A somewhat hidden gem. Look for the sign then head up the drive. Super friendly and great service (including a well poured Guinness) and some excellent wines. Their traditional pizza is truly great – thin crust with just the right amount of charring on the crust – and a sauce that has layers of flavors. Spinach salad was also excellent.

This is the greatest dining experience we’ve had in a long time!
First off, the second we walked in the door my Girlfriend and I were made to feel so welcome! It was as if seeing us had already made their night. This is not a common feeling for us especially considering that I walk into restaurants in a Harley T-​shirt with lots of tattoos exposed.
The food, oh my god the food was absolutely incredible! I had the pan seared halibut and was stunned at how perfectly prepared it was. My girlfriend had a pasta dish (sweet pea agnolotti) the likes of which neither of us had ever experienced before!
Their attention to detail and their helpfulness is unmatched. When it came time for desert we had the chocolate lava cake which was of couse amazing. We decided we’d like to have a red wine with it and asked for a suggestion. At this point any normal waiter would have thrown us a wine list and dissapeared, not here! Our waiter put some real thought into it and came back with two suggestions. The one we chose paired beutifully with our desert.
We will absolutely be dining here EVERY time we visit Sedona!

It’s a little hard to find… tucked back behind the UPS store on Hwy 89… but definitely worth the effort. I dined there last night with 3 friends and my husband and certainly the dish that got rave reviews was the Lump Crab and Herb Mascarpone Ravioli! It’s served with a delicious and unusual sauce called Cantaloupe fra Diablo! They also serve fresh focaccia bread and have a decent wine selection including some local varieties.

Absolutely incredible. If you need an amazing place to eat in Sedona this is THE place to go. The owner is the sweetest and the chef is one of a kind! From the wine to the salads to the main dish it is so good. I recommend this place 100%.

If I could give it a 3.5 I would. It’s really better than a 3. We came here upon Unilocal recommendations. It was one of the places that wasn’t booked last minute on. Friday night. The restaurant is a bit back from the street so you have to keep an eye out for it. One of my party was really off put by the fact that there was only one car in the driveway and didn’t want to go in, but don’t let that put you off. This is a restaurant that is just getting started do not a lot of people know about it. Very nice, intimate setting with a really nice outdoor patio bar. We ordered the calamari, shrimp, and crab cakes as appetizers. The calamari was fried with corn meal– I’ve never had it that way, and I have to say I didn’t care for it, but others in my party liked it. The shrimp was also fried in corn meal, but the sauce was really good. The crab cakes were delicious.
I ordered the Ono and it was «ok» but lacked flavor and seemed overcooked. I wouldn’t order it again. My husband ordered the lamb and that was good. Friends ordered the pork chops and they said they were delicious.
The service was excellent and the atmosphere was terrific. Very intimate.
Overall, this is a promising restaurant and I hope they can use this feedback to improve. More flavor and salt is needed and this will be a class A restaurant.

We live in Sedona and have yet to find that go-​to place where you can get reliable food and service. This is it. Service (Ethan) was terrific. We each had a salad to start and they were fresh and well-​done, and also each had a pizza (took some home) which were thin crust and delicious. I would recommend the Italian Pizza. If more people knew about this place there would be no cars in the Picazzo’s parking lot.
A great find.

Excellent service, great food. Loved the Arugula Salad and the Clam Carbonara. Chef was able to make the shrimp wrapped in pancetta gluten-​free. Crab cakes were gigantic and filled with lumps of crab. Don’t get me started on the lava cake with sweet cream ice cream! Give it a try, excellent new place with a staff that strives to please!

Avano Bistro in Sedona was nice, but a bit lacking in a few areas. We had eaten there in the past when it was APizza Heaven. It is now under new ownership with a new name and menu. They are attempting to move away from the pizza as a draw and recreating menu options. However, pizzas are still on the menu, which was still our initial draw.
The highlight of the dinner was Thea, our server. She did a good job of explaining their transition effort and the new menu items prepared by the chef. Outside of the pizzas it’s a somewhat limited menu, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and sometimes results in the limited items being very good.
There was only one other party in the restaurant at the time and they were seated right next to us. While we were reviewing the menu, the chef came out with what we perceived as being «free» samples for them (based on their comments when he presented the dishes.) This seemed like a pretty good idea to us and something we’ve seen before with new restaurants that are starting up. Unfortunately, the chef didn’t even acknowledge us at that time (even though we were the only other party in the restaurant) and we never received any samples. As we were finishing up our dinner the chef came out again to talk to the other party again (maybe they were regular customers) and then came over to us and asked us how the dinner was. I felt it was kind of an afterthought on his part, but at least he made the attempt.
I ordered the Vegetable Ratatouille En Croute, which was very good and I would order again. My husband ordered the Ono Fish Special. He also liked it, but thought the fish was a little on the dry side and commented that he should have just ordered a pizza instead (based on the price difference).
Overall it was a nice dinner. The restaurant atmosphere is very nice and even though we didn’t have any drinks, it looked like they had a good wine selection and there was a $ 10 off Sunday night special on a bottle of wine. We would go back for a second visit because I really liked the Ratatouille, but my husband would probably stick with a pizza.

An undiscovered gem! I give them 5 stars because the Pizza was great, the Caprese salad was also good, and we had tried to get in to two other Pizza places along the same stretch of road, but were told it would be an hour wait on a Sunday night. SHEEZE!
I had a Margherita Pizza and salad. My brother had an Everything (Meat)and my sister-​in-​law ordered the spinach with white sauce. Easy parking and attentive & accommodating waitress.

It was our first time and we were delighted, the menu was interesting, and the food was really good, they make their own pasta, We had the calamari and it was perfect. Antipasto salad and fruit of the sea pasta. All delicious not to costly… Service was excellent. Mmmmmmmm

Four stars, because this «new» restaurant is only going to get better and better. My wife and I eat out a lot and are fortunate to be able to afford to eat wherever we want without fear of what the fine wine and food (plus a good tip — tip your servers well, folks!) may add up to. Make no mistake, we are not food or restaurant critics, but we travel extensively and know when a restaurant deserves serious attention. We had a wonderful time last night at Avano. The service was excellent, and the staff very outgoing and friendly. My wife (vegetarian) and I (non-​vegetarian) enjoyed very satisfying and creative appetizers and main courses, and very reasonably priced fine wine. The portions were very generous, and in fact, try as I might, I could not finish my grilled lamb. At the conclusion of the evening, the chef stopped by our table and we learned a little about the history of the restaurant and what creative inspirations are driving the changes observed in this new incarnation of the restaurant. If you love good food and wine, and if you appreciate the hard work and creativity and talent that goes into giving birth to a restaurant you will want to return to time and again, then get into Avano and be a part of something very special in Sedona.

I had a great experience at Avano Bistro in West Sedona. The pizza was amazing and our big salad was so good. I loved the white balsamic dressing so much I ask for more so I could take some home. Really friendly staff and great prices! Love the new menu and would love to take friends there when they come to visit.

Apizza Heaven now under new management as the Avano Bistro is a refreshing «new» restaurant still maintaining some of the dishes we enjoyed before. We tried it just a few days ago and were not disappointed. They’ve moved mostly away from Italian (there is now a glut of Italian/​Pizza places in Sedona) and have gone toward more continental cuisine. We started with the antipasto salad with a great creamy dressing. Our entrees were the crab and shrimp ravioli and the pastry crusted ratatouille. We saw the Tutamari pass by and it looked great. They still have a good wine list and the bar. Fabulous!

This was a disappointment. This is the restaurant that took Pizza heavens place. They kept the pizzas although changed there sausage. It had bones in it and too much fennel. Gross! The service was a bit strange. We were told we were going to get bread and she never brought it. We asked where it was and she laughed a little and said something like he didn’t heat it up. We said forget it.
The atmosphere is really drab. They could not have picked a worse color for the walls. Boring beige. All washed out. It would be much more cozy a nice rich red. Too bad.
Anyway I don’t think we’ll go back.

Food was okay, but pizza was a little burnt on bottom. I believe Roundtable is better. Noodles with Alfredo again was okay. The best was the two salads. The place needs more wait staff. One waiter for the number of patrons was too much. He was friendly, just needed help. Pricey too!