Ponte Vecchio Restaurant — Restaurant in Danvers

When i think of the Ponte Vecchio, the word "Genuine" comes to mind. The service, atmosphere and food here are what you would expect at a premium restaurant.  One of the tell tale signs of a great formula is familiar staff faces. I have been dining at Ponte Vecchio for about 25 years and the amount of turnover in this establishment is hardly noticeable.  Luigi, the owner, has operated this place with a level of expertise and consistency that is rarely observed in this business, and it's success is evident. He takes an active role nearly every night they are open.  Don't be surprised to see him visit your table or a neighboring table to debone and plate a fish right in front of you.

As for the food, i've never been disappointed.  They make some of the pasta in house, procure some of the finest cuts of meat, and always cook it to perfection.  Although i am not a wine aficionado, i have heard that the selection is excellent. Sadly, no draft beer (but not surprising for an Italian restaurant).

This is authentic Italian cuisine and represents a great value for a special occasion. If you haven't visited before, you really deserve to try it and treat yourself.

Expect entree prices range from...

Visited Wednesday for lunch, party of 5. On the positive side, the food was very good to excellent - everyone enjoyed their meal. Also, the interior is much nicer than the outside would suggest. Many things left us scratching our collective heads. There were only a few people seated ahead of us for lunch, but nobody was at the front door to greet us. Eventually the bartender (I think??) came out from wherever she was and sat us. Did not introduce herself, took our food order, but we had to get her attention again to take our drink order. She seemed put off that we had a vegetarian in our group. Delivered some bread and olive oil, but no cheese or red pepper flakes. I'd like to say that our experience was due to a staffing issue, but the owner and another staff member were seen after we were seated. I would like to go back again at a busier time and see if this was a one-off service/staffing issue, because the food was that good. There are so many other dining options in the area...they really can't afford to have...

Ordered a pepper, onion, and mushroom pizza and a margherita pizza.

First, the Margherita pizza: literally just a normal pizza with 5 small tomato chunks on top. It actually gave us a good laugh so thank you for that, but cmon you're supposed to be an Italian restaurant, just Google a picture of margherita pizza for me.

Pepper onion and mushroom pizza: When I got there I found out they thought I had said pepperoni and onion which I accepted because I should really order it at onion and green pepper and mushroom because I can totally see how pepper and onion could have sounded like pepperoni. But when I got home and opened the box, there was just onions. Which still is kinda fine I can deal, but the pizza itself wasn't even good.

And I wasn't even gonna mention it but no one's gonna read this far anyway, the woman who answered the phone and helped me when I got to the restaurant seemed pretty drunk, speaking slow and slurring some words so that absolutely could have...