Vaiano Trattoria — Restaurant in California

I ate at "Vaianos" last night in Granite Bay. Of course I forgot to take pictures, but I did download these three from Yelp, and they all look exactly like the dishes I saw presented, so I believe they are accurate. The freshly baked bread that came with my meal was lightly browned and piping hot, and after pulling apart a thick slab from the rest of the roll, I dipped it into the garlic balsamic olive oil that was provided. For a first course I had the Caesar salad; it was one of the best I ever ate. The anchovies were incredible; I believe they were imported from Italy (which doesn’t necessarily mean that that makes them good) and were unctuous, thick, meaty and flavorful, but not overly salty. The croutons were lightly sautéed in olive oil, and the dressing, although creamy, was clearly made from scratch as it didn’t have that mayonnaise store-bought quality. It was strewn with Parmesan cheese that danced on top of the leaves. Next I had the cinghiale/ wild boar pappardelle. I didn’t need a big portion because the sauce was so rich. However it was not cloying; rather, it was hearty and satiating. The chocolate lava cake for dessert was dense but not overly sweet, and wrapped up the meal nicely. What really stuck out to me at this restaurant was its charm. The decor is not modern; rather, it has the feel of some of the small neighborhood restaurants that I frequented when staying in the countryside in northern Italy. There is also no music, which allows for the natural flow of conversation that emerges among family and friends. There are a few paintings hanging inconspicuously on the walls depicting the farms and towns near Florence, where the owner (Patricia) is from. Patricia was humble and kind, spoke to me in Italian, and discussed where she got her fresh seafood and meat from. She also told me that "All the recipes come from family tradition." The waitresses were very pleasant, and seem to embody the positive spirit of the owner. In fact, they were having a good time, smiling and treating each other with kindness and as friends, which put the patrons at ease (unlike the cold/competitiveness seen among servers in some restaurants.) In the modern epicurean world, we are inundated with chefs promoting "authenticity," fancy foams, and one restaurant outdoing another, racing to earn that title “the best in Sacramento,” etc. At Vaiano's, there is no ego, which is why I wanted to write this review. I wish I lived in Granite Bay, so that I could take my family to a place to relax after a long day, with a reasonably priced bottle of good Italian wine. Selfishly, I want Vaiano's restaurant to remain relatively unknown. But I know that if anyone deserves to be...

Went here on a Monday evening to celebrate a birthday. I had high hopes of this place after reading so many stellar reviews. Our Antipasta plate was mediocre at best with packaged meats placed on the plate. The small triangles of cheese tasted more like domestic Romana and not Parmigiano as stated. Caprese had Roma tomatoes, which I suppose are the most colorful they could obtain in December. Caesar had good taste of anchovies, but was very dry and needed more olive oil. My veal piccata arrived smothered in lemon gravy. Piccata is a lightly floured veal, sauteed in a pan and finished with butter, lemon, wine and capers. It appeared that the cooked had made a corn starch slurry and added to make what resembled country gravy. It looked nothing like the image on the website. I had 3 bites and left the rest. Surprisingly, the waitress never even questioned if I liked it. Perhaps the cook was off on this Monday night and they let the dishwasher prepare the meals. Our meatballs tasted as if they were a processed frozen product. Linguine clams was essentially a soup with noodles and small clams. At least 25 % of the clams were shell only, telling me they overcooked it. Service was good, but not once did the waitress come by and pour any of the 2 bottles of wine we purchased. It was as if we brought our own and paid the corkage. I really wanted to like this place because I love Italian food. I cannot recommend, nor will I...

Fritti di Mare .I thought the sauce was very watery no solid anything in it whatsoever . couldn’t find any tomato anything on it just watery tomato sauce . I was very very disappointed .I would never order it again nor will I ever go there again. the bread was hard as a rock I almost broke my tooth on it trying to bite into it. My husband drove really far to get it for my birthday .We saw it online . He also ordered a child portion of spaghetti and they added a meatball which was very nice of them but there was hardly any spaghetti sauce on the spaghetti I thought it was too dry I like sauce and there was hardly any on it. Sorry to say I can only give it a two. I wish I had taken a picture but I didn’t think of it because I didn’t think I was going to give a review. I decided to look it up today to see if there were reviews and apparently other people like it better than I do. The restaurant had lots of people in it when my husband went there so it must be popular. Maybe I ordered...