Vieste ... Simply Italian — Restaurant in Newport

If I could give it a zero I would. Came here with my two children and husband for mother’s day weekend. We made a 5pm reservation, anyone with little ones knows 5pm reservations are the way to go. Our son, 21 months, was a bit fussy i was holding him while the older women (hostess or GM) came with the highchair. To entertain him I was showing him the plastic lamp that was on the table, she arrived, TOOK it from my hand and said “don’t let him play with that, it’s expensive and poorly made” - he hadn’t touched it - however she has no problem taking something out of my hand. The high chair was broken (no belt and no piece to hold him from simply falling through) My husband went to tell the women where he caught them clearly talking about us. After about 10 mins I told our waiter that we were still waiting for a new chair, the older women never came back. He told us it was the ONLY highchair they had, I had him repeat himself because I was shocked (there was no one else in the restaurant) no apologies, no need to let us know when we asked for another one or update us, the entire time we felt unwanted and unwelcome, and on Mothers Day weekend. We got up and left, I actually walked right by the hostess / GM / older women, she said nothing to me, but made it a point to comment on a newly sat 9 year olds “good behavior” - loud enough for me to hear.

I wasn’t able to rate the food but I’ll say this, if the food is anything like the service then I’m sure it’s TRASH too.

Very disappointing.

Luckily we ended up at the Reef and it was bright, lively and delicious! Plus, we were met with multiple people complementing and interacting with our children, unlike this...

11/20/23: We came to Newport for a mini birthday getaway for my partner and this restaurant was where we chose to celebrate his birthday.

The Good:

Food was amazing, I had the homemade lobster pasta special of the day & my partner had the penne con rabe w/sausage. The chef is definitely on point! We also had a nice bottle of 2016 Italian wine. The restaurant has nice lighting and the adjacent wine bar looks nice.

The NOT so good:

We weren’t even asked if we wanted dessert and coffee even though I made it known that it was my partners birthday and we were there to celebrate! Sadly everything felt rushed. I know folks are tired and want to go home but customers also want to feel appreciated! Not even a thanks for coming! I ended up asking for dessert to go so my partner could at least have something sweet to eat back at the Inn. The waiter looked quite annoyed when I asked. He came back with 1 small slice of cheesecake 🤷🏻‍♀️ He jetted the second we paid our bill, no one was in sight when we left! It sounds like I’m complaining and I definitely am! It was my partners birthday and we spent almost $200 so I was expecting a bit more. The waiter did however bring dessert and sing happy birthday to some other people.

11/21/23: I was quite surprised to receive a call from this restaurant. They apologized for the experience and offered to make it right. For this reason I will increase rating to 4 stars. Thank you for...

I hosted a family farewell dinner here for 9 guests. I only see my cousins once a year so the event mattered. Let me start by saying the food was very good, fresh and homemade, and the owner personally intervened to correct the several issues we had. But the challenges impacted the evening. 1) wrong wine was opened and presented. I wanted to be kind so i accepted it and added a third bottle of the one i really wanted. Then I wasn't asked to taste it first - the server asked “who wants to try it?” down at the other side of the table. Sparkling water was forgotten, then we never received bread for the table, then one of our entrees was wrong. My cousin who intervened back and forth (even for napkins) should really get a paycheck from the owner. Bottom line: Mgmt put a second day on the job young lady new to serving on a busy evening shift for a table of 9 - that’s poor planning and not the customer’s problem to figure out. Side note, could also help to use the AC or circulate the air inside. it was stuffy and naturally worse when imbibing. Sadly, the sum of the issues above detracted from a...