Vivace Restaurant — Restaurant in Oro Valley

What a shame I’m limited to 5 stars. Marco and his team should be given every star in the nights sky.

With a one night layover before a long haul flight in the morning we chose to stay at Regala SkyCity for its convenient location to the airport. I would honestly come back again and again just for the food experience we had in the evening.

I was keen for something my body would appreciate and I found the 4 course Wellness set menu with a detox juice for $350HKD plus 10% service charge.

The menu was

Detox juice

Cucumber, apple, mint, lime and ginger beer

Such a refreshing blend of ingredients, so enjoyable that a glass of wine afterwards would just spoil any evening. If all non alcoholic juices tasted as wonderful the wineries and breweries would be feeling nervous.

Appetiser

Beetroot, chickpea, orange, walnut and rocket salad.

This was without a doubt the prettiest salad I have ever seen never mind tasted. The freshness of ingredients was only exceeded by the lightness and tantalising dance of flavours. Each segment of orange identical in size, carefully peeled to enhance the sweeetness and artistically positioned within the generous cubes of soft yet firm beetroot. The chickpeas were plentiful though not too much and their nuttiness complemented the generous smattering of walnut pieces. As an appetiser the portion could have been mistaken for a main meal - more than I needed / should have had but too delicious to leave unfinished.

Soup

Andalusian Gazpacho

I’ve never eaten gazpacho previously, aways expecting that a cold soup would be unpalatable and simply off. How incredibly wrong I have been my entire life. If all gazpachos are half the medley of flavours of Chef Marco’s then sign me up for a lifetime of this liquid gold.

The striking balance of tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic and whatever other magical ingredients were added along the way, this surprising dish boasts benefits of weight loss. I see a new diet trend emerging and it might just be one to live by.

Entree

Grilled tuna fish with tomato, cucumber, green pepper and red onion salad with tzatziki sauce

What the menu fails to mention (aside from the stunning presentation) is that unlike most restaurants that charge additional fees for any sides at all - think protein only and you pay ++ for anything else, this cooked to a pink-so-blush tuna steak invites a baby carrot, a piece of char grilled zucchini and eggplant and a baby corn spear to share the plate.

The salad is reminiscent of a salsa verde and rests under the carefully sliced pieces of Tuna, allowing it to sit as proud as it rightly should while the elegant smear of just the right amount of tzatziki ties all of the flavours together.

Dessert

Low fat Greek yogurt with honey, lychees, raspberry and dark chocolate

By now I was certain I had read the price incorrectly and despite being sober as a judge I had advised our waitresses that this was, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest meal I had ever had in my 43 years of life.

As a foodie and having tasted some amazing things I do not make this call lightly or haphazardly and dessert hit the home run of four from four perfect courses. I couldn’t want for anything.

The lightness of the yogurt and fruit cut through the dark chocolate bitterness with ease and it was almost too pretty to eat.

We couldn’t help but applaud Chef Marco when we came personally to our table. A far cry from the cantankerous nature chefs are often known for, Marco’s friendliness, personality and warmth mirrors his food.

His passion to bring exquisite flavour to food for wellness is to be admired and please, please let chefs around the world copy the brilliance...

Decent Italian restaurant trying to be high end but failing in the small details.

We recently celebrated our anniversary dinner here. Upon first glance, the restaurant is very nice. It is well lit, has nice decor, and your general soft background music. We were greeted at the reservation stand and walked to our table. The dining room layout is nice, however it seemed to be a few too many tables, making getting to our table a slalom of weaving between guests who were already seated.

We arrived at our table in the middle of the dining room. There was an amazing view of Tucson in a section we were not seated in. We asked to be moved to a window seat since it was our anniversary but was told those were already reserved. I made our reservation on the Open Table app, which was linked on the website, and it did not have a seating preference box to check, so I assume those folks reserved by calling the restaurant.

Our server was nice, however her aura was very rushed. In fact, the entire staff was rushing around like they needed to turn the tables as fast as possible. It was not a leisurely atmosphere like you would expect at an upscale Italian restaurant.

Orders were taken, drinks were delivered. The appetizers were good, however I could not identify by taste what was in the seafood stuffed mushrooms. They were good, if a bit oily.

Main course was brought to the table and this is where the high end impression fell apart. Our server didn't follow the rule of serving the lady first, nor did she present the plates from the left side of the diner. Instead, she reached across the table to plop my plate down then plopped my wife's down next. She offered cheese toppings for our meals, which we agreed to. She took the bowl of mozzarella cheese and dumped a couple spoonfuls on each of our meals. It was literally dumped, not sprinkled like you would expect from a high end restaurant, and a good portion of it missed the food altogether and just landed on the plate.

My wife ordered the eggplant lasagna which she said tasted very good. She was also served some grilled vegetables on the side that came in a bowl. She said they were unseasoned and tasted bland.

I ordered the seafood lasagnette. I do not recommend that dish. The meal was very oily and soupy, which isn't what you would expect for a lasagnette. On top of that, the seafood was unrecognizable by taste, just like the mushroom appetizer. I ate it, but for a $40 plate I expected better.

Last was dessert where again they just missed the mark. I ordered the sorbet and it was very good. My wife ordered the bread pudding and said it should be served warm but came out at room temperature. She said the flavor was good though.

My final impression is the restaurant wants to charge high dollars for meals, but falls short of what you would expect...

We make 4 or 5 trips to San Diego every year. On our trips back home, we always stay in Tucson just to eat at this lovely restaurant. I recommend the Walnut Pear Salad and the fabulous appetizer escargot. If you like snails you would be hard pressed to find them prepared better than Vivace's. The prices are very reasonable. The reason we spend quite a bit more is bc we usually order an expensive bottle of wine, sometimes we have a cocktail as well. The wine list is pretty extensive and wines are available in a wide range of prices. There is valet parking that takes you right up to the door. There's a large parking lot if you don't want to tip the valet and you don't mind a little bit of a walk.

I hate to amend this review, but after our last dinner (July 2025) here I would not give it a 5-star review. I am in hopes of returning to a 5-star review in the near future. This last visit was not as great due to the food not being as excellent as in the past (ex: wilted salad). The service, while taking care of our needs, was more like a drive-by service. It was not personal like it has been in the past. Any server we've had before, no matter how busy, was calm and always had time to chat just a bit making the whole experience so much more personal. Servers have always been so generous with our leftovers and made sure we had a little extra bread and pesto sauce to take home with us. This time a young man we had not seen at any time during our meal sort of shoved the bread at us and acted as though we shouldn't be bringing anything extra home with us, like we had some nerve. We've even been given, on occasion, a complimentary dessert to share, not this last time! I am not complaining about the dessert, we certainly did not need that. I am only mentioning it to point out how very different our experience was compared to the many, many other times we've visited this establishment. We had a drink at the bar before dining and the bartender was great, much like the past. In passing he mentioned the owner had purchased a property and was involved with turning it into an event center. I really hope this doesn't mean that the owner won't be at the restaurant any more to oversee how things are run. I truly believe this was the reason things were just not up to the usual standard for this restaurant. We've always considered it one of our favorite places and have heartedly recommended it to anyone we know who was planning on visiting Tuscon. We haven't given up on Vivace! We will be back in hopes it will be back to its excellent...