Don Vito's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

A lot of pizza restaurants advertise their pizza as "New York Style". I'm from NJ, the "tri-state" area, where, since many Italian immigrants settled there, they have some of the best pizza in the USA. That being said, the quality of pizza in New York, NJ and Philly varies. There are some great pizza places, average pizza places and mediocre pizza places. Since a large proportion of pizza places in NYC are no longer even run by Italians or Italian Americans, New York Style Pizza is a meaningless appellation. Don Vito's in Daytona Beach pizza rivals the best pizza I've had in NJ, NY and Boston. I have sampled the pizza from the Daytona Area pizza places that are rated excellent on Tripadvisor and Yelp. None come near to the quality of Don Vito's. First of all, I will address balance. A great pizza needs to have the proper balance between crust, sauce and cheese. None of these flavors should overwhelm the others. Don Vito's pizza has the perfect balance between the three. Now to the crust, the crust has a good flavor and has appropriate thickness. The outer edge of a pizza crust should be somewhat chewy and a bit crispy. The edge of Don Vito's pizza crust is the perfect combination of just the right amount of chewiness and crispiness. I don't believe I have ever had a pizza with the edges this perfect, not too chewy, not too crisp. The degree of crust thickness in the central part of a pizza is a matter of preference. I prefer mine very thin. When you have a very good thin crust, it won't be soggy, but it usually not crispy. Don Vito's pizza is thin and even slightly crispy on the bottom, making it a great pizza crust. A piece of pizza should also be foldable, as is Don Vito's. On to the sauce, it has a very good flavor and is in perfect proportion to the crust and cheese. Last but not least is the cheese. The cheese on Don Vito's pizza is a good quality and, importantly, not excessive. Although a pizza crust should be a bit chewy, the cheese should definitely not be chewy. Too much cheese makes the cheese chewy, almost like chewing gum. The amount of cheese on Don Vito's pizza is just right, never too little, never too much. We order a pizza from Don Vito's on a weekly basis. Every pizza has met the same standard of quality. Don Vito's has the best pizza in the...

TLDR: Average

Huge foodie who doesn’t always take the time to write reviews but after being asked by our server (who I also believe was the owner) to write one, I feel compelled to not only act upon the request but to also be honest about my experience.

To start, we walked in expecting it to be extremely busy due to our peak weekend dinner arrival time and the place having a lot of reviews. The inside wasn’t anything fancy but it felt homey and like a family establishment. As stated above, I believe our server was the owner and must get a lot of tourists because she immediately assumed we were from out of town.

Overall experience wasn’t bad but nothing stood out and not necessarily a place I would run back to. For food I had the chicken parm which was recommended as the most popular dish and substituted the marinara for vodka sauce. The dish was also covered in a good amount of cheese which was definitely the highlight of the dish. My lovely girlfriend had the eggplant parm which I honestly enjoyed more than the chicken (if you added the vodka sauce lol) and I was debating on including this or not but was a bit put off by the server when we also asked to order a smaller pizza to share. I don’t think what we ordered was an unreasonable amount especially given we were going to take some of the pizza home for leftovers but as someone who has struggled with disordered eating and going out to eat can often be stressful, so multiple comments such as “wow you guys are so hungry” , “dang he’s still eating the pizza” and telling stories about other customers who have come in and finished large amounts of food just rubbed me the wrong way. I must add that I don’t think it was meant with an ill intent and you can tell they know/care about their visitors but nonetheless still an honest feeling to note. The pizza itself was alright, but similar to the food just lacked any unique flavor. I enjoy more doughy pizza and this had a lot more crunch so my girlfriend enjoyed it more than I did. We skipped out on desert (probably out of fear of hearing another hunger joke) but the cannoli looked good. Bill was $85 for us two and would say that it’s a decent place to take your kids for pizza but if looking for a nice date night or more fancy Italian I’d...

We picked Don Vito's based on TripAdvisor reviews and couldn't have been more delighted. The owner greeted us at the door and directed us to take our pick for the best seat in the house. It wasn't long before he brought us a basket of piping hot bread for us to enjoy. Everyone was friendly and it turned out that our waitress was his daughter-in-law. She was very attentive, keeping us well supplied with water and coffee, and checking in several times to make sure we were enjoying dinner. You sure won't get that type of service at the typical restaurant chains. The house salad was a simple blend of romaine lettuce with diced tomatoes and cucumber mixed in which was pretty bland. But then again it was only a dollar. They had just run out of clam chowder, so if we had been just a little earlier I wouldn't have opted for the salad and this might have been a 5 star review. And the rest of our meal made up for that disappointing start. The golden brown calzone, which was huge and chock full of sausage and mushrooms, was oozing cheese and served with a side of sauce. The shrimp and calimari with penne pasta was a generous portion on a platter overflowing with large gulf shrimp and calimari in every bite. All in all a tasty home made meal featuring fresh ingredients. The restaurant was visually appealing and offered a very cozy family atmosphere. My one complaint was the edges of the sheets of glass protecting the table cloth had not been sanded and the sharp edge dug into my arms. But it did promote good manners, prompting me to sit up straight and keep my elbows off the table. Personally, I appreciated the well behaved, albeit doted on grandchildren, and thought it was refreshing to have multiple generations under one roof. It has been a long time since I felt more appreciated by an establishment. The prices were very reasonable and the huge portions made it an even better value. We will be back in the future for another home made...