Viva Pizzeria & Pasta House — Restaurant in Toronto

Having been to many hundreds of fine restaurants in my life.... this is my review

Ultimately I was happy but there's definitely room for improvement because this is a new restaurant

Rice balls great but way too salty

Calamari good but not nearly enough, and though I like shrimp, they come with 2 shrimp... which would keep a lot of people from ordering these calimari... because a lot of people don't eat bottom feeder shellfish. Easy solution, skip the 2 shrimp, put the proper amount of calamari on the plate, which is double of what they offer, and just charge the appropriate price to do so. The sauce that comes with the calamari is acceptable, but since they are selling at calamari and shrimp together call Mom sold as a calamari dish, then it should come with seafood sauce instead of a cream sauce.

The Caesar salad was good but was definitely lacking in the salad dressing department,... a dry salad. Either put more dressing on it or offer some side dressing at order.

The beef ravioli was undiscernible as containing beef, they tasted great but are so small that you can't say that they taste of beef. And they were Sauced before they were plated.... so, visually, it looks like something that came pre-prepared out of a bag.... therefore every bite tastes the same, whereas if it was sauced afterwards, either on the plate or bowl, then visually it would look better "more natural" and every bite wouldn't taste identical to the previous bite. The serving size was good but ultimately it was just 40 bites of the exact same taste and gelatinous texture

The mixed drinks come with a fair amount of alcohol. They were made 100% properly

Price wise everything was okay it came in at about $100 for two people. I definitely would have rather spent 20 or $30 more before them to put a bit of extra effort in the kitchen to correct the things noted above

next time I would get pizza from this place instead of going the pasta and side dish route.... and I'm curious to see how their Pizza comes out but ultimately I don't think I should have to order simpler dishes like pizza to correct the fact that they don't quite have the Italian assorted Foods quite correct yet.

Maybe they need to hire an Italian grandmother or grandfather to work in that kitchen for a week. The food is a little too juvenile

Serving sizes were good enough for every item but as I said the calamari is definitely too small of a portion for anybody

The place was clean enough, the temperature was correct for dining, the decor was just acceptable, the lighting was acceptable, the bar is acceptable, the servers were trying hard and moving quickly and dressed appropriately and their attitude was what you wanted to see. The menu size was what it should be, in that it is limited to two pages, as soon as a restaurant starts having four-page menus, Things become too complicated for them

They will get it right but you can tell that this place needs another year of refinement, if they want to start to see that dining room at capacity

Showing up at the table with a large bottle of cold water, immediately on customer arrival, is definitely a big plus, add to all the haters out there, no this does not keep people from eating and drinking more, this is actually the opposite, and encourages you to eat and drink more.

Overall 6-7 out of 10 I will say, but if they want to stay in business and get way more customers they should kick it up a notch to 8 out of 10, by fixing those minor kitchen concerns.

There is parking on the street right out front and other parking spots on side streets, especially...

I was craving pasta so I decided to check this place out. It’s clean. Nice atmosphere. Good music. The service didn’t leave an impression good or bad.

As for the food. I ordered fettuccine Alfredo and substituted the chicken for shrimp. It was supposed to come with a mix of mushrooms, which usually excites me, but in this case I only counted one kind. If there was more, they were small and non-descript. The shrimp was cooked to perfection. No complaints there. The noodles I could tell were not of the dried variety. But I’m not gonna say they were fresh because I don’t believe that they were made that day or even anytime soon. There was a consistency issue that I couldn’t identify as either under or overcooked. It was more of a handling issue. If they do make it in house, they might make it in big batches and freeze it until the day of and if they buy it they might buy it in bulk and keep it in the refrigerator for too long. In doing this it creates a gluey texture, Which is what I experienced. I got them to add rapini… I thought an Italian restaurant would do it well But the stocks were tough and I got some leaves that were dry. To make matters worse, although the consistency of the sauce was a little in thick side but still good, I had to add table salt to give it some flavour. If They want to under salt then at least provide some sea salt at the table. They did provide Parmesan cheese, which should add salt, but even with that I still had to add table salt and pepper for that matter, which wasn’t fresh ground either. Most Italian restaurants will offer some sort of bread, basket or olives while you wait for your food. This place does not and as a single diner, I couldn’t enjoy any appetizer as they were designed for two people. Even the Caesar salad.

I paid $50 with tax and tip mind you but I feel like everything together for what I got, a glass of house wine and a bowl of not so great pasta, should’ve been 35. Perhaps if it was I wouldn’t be complaining. Will I be back. Maybe… but not for pasta .. I’ll try a pizza because I like their toppings. If they fail there I won’t...

We are a family that has lived in this community for over 15 years and have seen this location change hands many times with a lot of sketchy businesses come and go (I have absolutely no affiliation to the business owners and am writing this review as an Old East York community member). We were very hopeful that this new restaurant would be a new local hangout and in all honesty - the experience was everything we could have hoped for. We walked in as 2 families with a group of children and were warmly welcomed the moment we walked in. The space is clean and spacious. The menu options are plentiful and we were very happy with the food we ordered. We ordered an array of pizza and pasta dishes as well as a delicious appetizer and loved everything. The food was fresh, traditional home Italian cooking and definitely felt like it was prepared with care and attention. The young ones had options to order from a kids menu as well and they were able to enjoy their chicken fingers and fries! The wine and alcohol selection was plentiful. In all honesty, the service went above and beyond. They were so warm and welcoming. Don't hesitate to go and experience this place yourself. We are so happy to have this restaurant...