Vici Ristobar — Restaurant in Durham

This is a solid Italian place. They're relatively new, so they have some kinks to work out in their set up and service, but the food was good and we'll probably visit again.

We got a salad, the arancini, meatballs, and calamari to start. The salad was good, the meatball and arancini were okay, and the calamari was REALLY good. I loved the spicy marinara it came with and it was one of the best calamari dishes I've had in a while. Would definitely recommend this.

For my main dish I got the margarita and added sausage, pepperoni, and onions. The server said the medium was a personal pie size, but it's not and definitely shareable. We all had to take ours home. The pizza was alright, but actually a lot better when I heated my leftovers up in the oven at home. My partner felt the same way about her gluten-free pizza, although she really enjoyed it at the restaurant as well. While I'm probably gonna try the pasta next time, my partner said her gluten free pizza, she got the margarita as well, was the best she's had in recent memory by far and wants to go back just for this.

Everything was reasonably priced, the calamari was $14 for a huge portion. Pizza was a little on the high side if you want to add toppings, but not bad considering the size. The service from our waitress was great. The only complaint, as I've mentioned, is that they have a few kinks to work out. We received two different menus at a table of three, we had to repeat requests several times to different people, and our table wasn't wiped off when we were seated. But other than these minor things, it was a good experience and I'd recommend...

The first time I dined in at this restaurant I was pleased with their service and food. However, this second time the service we were met with at the door was abrupt and rude. The hostess snapped at me for requesting a table outdoors and told us we could go stand outside by a table without the umbrella if we wanted to (which we had no problem with). Her tone was rude and conveyed her obvious annoyance. Then, once we were ordering, I requested the vodka rigatoni pasta without the pork (it was the same thing I ordered the previous time I visited) and I was told that there were no modifications to the meals. Given, there was a note at the bottom of the menu that said “no modifications”, however, the last time I had come the menu was the same but that time they had no issue making the dish without the pork. I was very disappointed because the whole reason I came was for this specific pasta. Without the allowance of modifications there are no red sauce pastas on the menu that don’t have meat. There is only an alfredo pasta and a mushroom pasta with white sauce. I instead ordered their bianca pizza which was decent. The crust was good and had a good amount of fresh garlic which was nice .My fiancé is not vegetarian so he ordered a pasta that had beef. He thought the dish was pretty good. He said the meat was tender. Overall, just feel like the experience did not meet our expectations and their service has gone down since last visiting a couple months ago. I will not be returning due to their strict menu restrictions that leave very few...

We were a party of six. The restaurant was empty. We all had starters and a a Main. The pasta e fagiole was delicious and hot. Three of us had the eggplant Parm , also excellent, crispy fried eggplant in succulent Marinara. I used the men's room and discovered it was not clean. The floor was full of trash and the bowl and seat were not clean. After our lunch we ordered coffee. The brew was strong and very tasty. We asked for cream and were told they had no milk of any kind. This restaurant is located in a shopping center with a Harris Teeter. We were the only table occupied. I was shocked that not one of the employees was directed to go buy milk and cream. It would have taken a few minutes to do so and it would have been a very smart customer service example. After all, it is an Italian restaurant. I'm sure the chef uses milk and cream. When the check was presented, we noticed that a "large party" automatic gratuity of 20% was added to our check. In reality, we had planned to leave an additional amount for the tip, but considering the management and server felt it was acceptable to just say, "sorry, no cream for your coffee, drink it black." And the foul state of the restroom in an empty restaurant, we decided to stay with the automatic tip amount. I must say again that the food was delicious and served well. However, there are many fabulous Italian restaurants in the capital area. The thing that separates the great ones is customer service. Vici Ristobar dropped the ball tragically on...