Vetta - Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Lee's Summit

Overall a 4 Star Experience, better than Olive Garden, but La Nonna in Belton is my high bar now, which is hard to match or beat.

We dined on the invited early invitation. Got the fried ravioli, free if you join their mailing list. Took our server's suggestion and went with the cheese instead of the sausage filled. The breading was great! Unfortunately the cheese filling left a bit to be desired, it was just plain cheese, it would be better enhanced if it had a crack of black pepper in it, or parsley inside instead of garnished on top. The marinara (Sugo) was delicious though! Not too tangy and potent.

At some point between our appetizer and when our food came we got a bread basket. The bread was incredibly soft! We were expecting rolls and were surprised they were slices of a sesame bread.

Side note - it would be helpful if the Italian sauce names were listed and what they were. Even if it was in one small box on the back of the menu (or next to the sauces on the front) but for the 90% of the people that find it that will stop the server from answering "What's the difference between Sugo and Amogio" 50x a shift.

Person #1 got the Vetta Pilsner to drink. He commented on how it didn't necessarily taste like a pilsner (and this man is a beer snob, so do with that information what you will). I tried it and it didn't have any special flavor to it, it tasted like someone walked into a bar and ordered a beer just plain and no special taste. He got the Cannelloni, absolutely loved it. Said it had the perfect amount of meat filling, and commented how he wished we had ordered the meat ravioli so he could've had more.

Person #2 Ordered the Mimosa. She isn't one for alcohol too often, so she didn't have much to say about OJ and Prosecco. She ordered the chicken Parmesan, which was very flavorful, and the chicken was absolutely massive. She really enjoyed the sauce, but mentioned that angel hair is a bit too light for marinara and chicken. She talked about the sauce for a minute or two, I tried some and it was flavor packed, absolutely phenomenal.

Person #3 ordered an Italian 75. It was good, hit the spot for the warm day we were having. It could have had a bit more lemon to it, maybe in a full lemon slice or something like that. I ordered the Chicken Spiedini with Alfredo and was immediately disappointed to find 6 (basically) chicken tenders on my plate compared to what the menu said- "Marinated Chicken Breast" It was the same listing as what was on the Chicken Parmesan but somehow I didn't get the large piece. Yes, traditionally a Spiedini is a grilled chicken skewer, but we all assumed if it was going to be fried it would just be another chicken breast patty (like the description said). That being said the chicken was delicious, breading was crunchy, meat juicy. The Alfredo left me wanting though, it didn't seem to have a lot of flavor. It was extremely fatting, which is fantastic in an Alfredo, but it needed something more. Maybe extra pepper? Some chopped basil throughout the sauce (compared to a single leaf on top). I have to agree with Person #2 as well that the angel hair just didn't go well with the chicken, it was just too small. My pasta also seemed to be extremely short, like it was broken a few times before boiling. I would likely order a different entree next time.

We had tiramisu for dessert. It was unfortunately frozen still so I can't comment too much on how it was. It was, however, nice to see it was not coated in a thick layer of chocolate syrup which I've been seeing some of the other places do. Please don't ever add that, keep it as is.

When we left we made a comment (to each other, not the staff) about how they still have the skulls on the outside, an homage left to Calavaras I'm sure. But if they ever decide to change them, brass "Italian hands" would...

Josh, Rude to a very dear friend of mine. Seriously? You're going to act a fool over some mints and then blatantly lie about it in a small town? We all know each other. I'll never darken your door again. Ridiculous. This is not the media response you want, but the one you've earned by your poor behavior.

In case you missed it:

Edited /updated …. I’m just gonna respond here Josh, since you decided to go in and respond to each of my people individually.  Let me paint this picture for everyone as you state how disrespectful we were an escorted out of your restaurant which was a bold face lie and you know it!!!  If we had been so disrespectful as you say, we would not have been in your restaurant for three hours plus having a good time visiting with people that we had not seen for a while, you would have absolutely came to the table and approached us at that point or your server would’ve said something to us which never happened either we were having a good time with him!!  If we were escorted out and been such bad patrons as you are trying to make it sound …How would you have known that we all liked the food and the service was good and that we were restaurant owners ourselves, etc….. if you were indeed escorting us out you really think we would have had that nice conversation with you leaving??? Let’s all think about that, I’m gonna guess the answer to that is NO!!!! All of us involved knows exactly what happened and I will leave it at that. I’m not gonna get into a back-and-forth with you because you know you were in the wrong. You just will not admit it.!! 

PSA…. Vetta Italian Eatery in Downtown Lees Summit !!! 😢😡😠 Just left the place had a party of 14 celebrating my Son‘s 32nd Birthday. Had a great meal. Everything was going good until we went to leave. My son took some mints out of the bowl upfront, and the manager yelled at him for taking them. We thought nothing of it & went outside . The manager continued to taunt him by walking up to the window with the mint bowl shaking it at us and turned around and walked down the bar as to go into the kitchen with it like he was removing it from us. Keep in mind we had just spent well over $600 in his establishment!!! He came over to the front door where we all outside talking among ourselves and said we “ stole from him” ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!! Taking mints by the front door is now stealing!!!! One of the most unprofessional things I have ever experienced in a restaurant in my life. If you do not want people to take the mints do not put a bowl of them by the door as you are leaving !!! It doesn’t matter if they take 1 or 10 we just ate at your restaurant!!!!! I will NEVER go back nor would I recommend you go ( unless you like to be treated rudely by management)!!!! VERY SAD!!!!! Lost a lot of business tonight acting that way...

If you want a more accurate set of reviews, set the filter from “low” to “high.” Those are the unpaid reviews, not left by a marketing agency, employees or friends of family.

This used to be “Calavera’s,” a “Mexican” restaurant that was owned, designed and had a menu curated all by a Caucasian American couple. Weirdly the reviews were fantastic, but when I’d tried personally or had any real conversations with anyone it was very easy to tell that their reviews were not legitimate. I did not know anyone that enjoyed any of the food on their menu.

When I saw that “Vetta” was going in, I was excited to see something new come to town. Turns out, Calavera’s wasn’t doing as great as they’d touted left and right— and they just decided to reskin that Caucasian Mexican cuisine with Caucasian Italian cuisine.

In a town with Bella’s, Olive Garden and unfortunately a recently closed Fazoli’s, this would take #4 on the list of the town’s Italian Cuisine options.

Their cooks are dirty, staff isn’t knowledgeable, food tastes like overpriced and microwaved mush— just very disappointing.

I know that I’m being quite harsh, but I’m leaving a review for a “small business” owned by a millionaire couple that does these little restaurants as a “pet project,” which drives up the rent for the REAL mom & pop restaurants, shops and other businesses that struggle to thrive pursuing their legitimate passion projects. They have a large network of friends, employees and an SEO company all conveniently at their fingertips to make it appear that they can get almost 300 reviews with an average of over 4.5 stars. Corporate business with extra steps.

There’s amazing Italian food in not only Lee’s Summit but the entire Kansas City area, and this falls short of any of those places.

Yes I’ve only left 1 review on this account, this is my real name but when I know that retaliatory measures are commonplace for a business or owner then I prefer to shield by identity to some degree.

I gave both Calavera’s and Vetta fair chances. 3 each, as a matter of fact. I didn’t realize who owned Vetta until my second visit concluded, but still gave it one final try to be completely fair in my overall opinions. Both restaurants, I got “we have money and got bored, so we opened businesses” rather than any kind of legitimately good experience.

I will say their cocktails are very good, but it’s pretty difficult to find any that are “bad.”

I hope a more deserving business winds up in this space one day, because this is not...