Archestratus, the first food critic, praised Italian cuisine's "top-quality and seasonal" ingredients and "fair to middling" ability to tranquilize rampaging baboons. Today's Groupon similarly monkey-stuns, and rightfully so: you get $25 worth of authentic Italian cuisine and drinks for $12 at V's Italiano Ristorante, an elegant Independence restaurant that serves fresh, flavorful South Italian dishes and desserts.
V's dinner menu features pasta, veal, seafood, and steak entrees made from fresh ingredients with homemade sauces. Traditional pastas such as baked lasagna ($15.95), spaghetti with two meatballs ($13.50), and fettuccini alfredo ($16.50) let you ascend to celestial peaks of skillfully cooked and superbly seasoned tomato, noodle, and cheese mountains that thankfully don't have a wizened old wise man sitting on top. Steak options include prime rib (slow roasted and served with horseradish sauce, $19.95 for 8 ounces) and steak Dominico (14 oz. broiled Kansas City strip stuffed with a blend of spinach, shrimp, crab, and garlic, $32.50). V's also serves thin-crust pizza ($10.95 for a single-topping 10-inch pie) and, during lunch, hot and cold sandwiches ($8.50 for an Italian meatball sandwich and $8.95 for a turkey Reuben). You can use your Groupon during V's lunch buffet ($10.95 per person) or Sunday brunch ($17.50 for an adult).
V's is a comfortable, family-owned hotspot with upscale décor, attentive service, and sweet Italian desserts, including cannoli ($4.50) and tiramisu (4.95). It's famous for its romantic atmosphere (hundreds of couples get engaged in the restaurant and are immortalized with a plaque in its proposal booth), so follow up on Valentine's Day's delights. Otherwise, save your Groupon for the summer and enjoy a glass of wine on V's garden patio, while the sound of the nearby stone waterfall whisks you away on a schooner made of daydreams and manned by gruff-but-lovable seadogs of idle thoughts. Reservations are recommended, so call ahead.
Reviews
The Pitch featured V's Italiano Ristorante:
- Unlike newer, trendier trattorias, V’s has never stopped serving toasted ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs, prime rib and Southern fried chicken. Foodies might find the menu unsophisticated, but devotees of this grapevine-covered restaurant wouldn’t have it any other way. Standout dishes include a slow-cooked osso bucco, great steaks, five different versions of fettuccine Alfredo and, yes, traditional spaghetti and meatballs. – Charles Ferruzza, The Pitch
Insider Pages users give four stars, Citysearchers and OpenTable users give 4.5, TripAdvisors give 3.5 owl eyes, and 84% of Urbanspooners like it:
- The atmosphere is romantic and the food is phenomenal. My personal recommendations [sic] is the linguine with clam sauce. – cheekymonkey, Insider Pages
- The food was delicious and the ambiance great! – OpenTable user who dined on 11/20/2009
V's Italiano Ristorante
In 1963, Vita and Jay Totta opened up their cozy café with a small counter, three tables, and four booths. Within three years, the couple’s following of loyal diners had overgrown their modest space, and they expanded to a larger location with more than twice the seating capacity of the original café. Another steady increase in popularity led the Tottas to create V's Italiano Ristorante as it stands today, which includes a spacious dining room, three private banquet rooms, a lounge, and an outdoor patio. When designing and building the restaurant in 1971, Jay—a professional architect—focused on creating an Old-World atmosphere where guests could enjoy everything from Sunday brunch to romantic candlelight dinners with their tax auditors. Patrons may also venture out to the restaurant's garden patio, where they'll eat by a stone waterfall and under the vines of a grape arbor originally planted by Vita's father.
Customer Reviews
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