Rivera Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in North Little Rock

Very very small place. Not nearly enough tables for the volume they trying to serve. Table of 6 and thats half of the restaurant's tables and chairs! We waited 35 mins by bery gusty windy entry door then got seated at the table about a foot away further into place. Still by the door and wind gusts and people milling about waiting for a table. They should be reservations only. They basically dont have dining area worth mentioning. 8 tables total maybe. And on my visit 2 larger doubled up and tripled tables so it really was already maxed out the whole time. Good enough food. And meh on prices. Bread good, my chicken i cant remember name with shrooms was very large and tasty. My son got the ziti. It was not so good and much smaller sized portion, too. Service really good. Got to be in such a cramped place. You move one arm and you bound to make contact with anoter person close by. Atmosphere is the reason i probably wont return. Food aint all that to make me wait in cramped spot while watching all the too close by eaters feeling like they must hurry it up to free up a table. They are well liked...take the leap to a bigger place. You will get alot more business. People aint eating there for the ambiance of that shobox room. Theres only about 3 good italian places in central arkansas. Get a better place and you can be one of them. (No, Olive garden isnt on the list! & would pick fazolis before OG any day!) Sadly, Arkansas doesnt attract many good Italian restauranters. Yall are pretty good. Tenderest chicken I have EVER ate. But would be better in a better suited environment that could give customers time to enjoy the meal. No restaurants are know for their inability to seat and serve eaters properly. Infamy aint what you want known for having....alot of family dollar stores in area have closed recently, large sized spaces to work with one of those. Alot of space to make it what you want, pretty much blank canvas. Could you imagine all the tables you could fill? Just sayin'... They gotta get someone in there to pay the rent on those empty buildings, why not you?! Thinkin out loud,...

We have wanted to try this place and finally had time to do so for our 13 year anniversary. Being Saturday 2 weeks before Christmas they were packed. We had a 30 minute wait but that was fine. Once seated our waiter brought our drinks and we placed our order. I had the chicken piccata which was delicious, hubs had the Italian sampler which was manicotti, lasagna and cannolini. The waiter brought fresh hot rolls which seemed to be a type of pretzel roll, very hot and fresh. The piccata was delicious , 2 chicken breast on top of spaghetti in a light lemon sauce and capers , the sampler was served in a single dish together and was rich tomato sauce with cheese throughout. I had the garden salad which was chilled , crisp and very fresh, he had the tomato basil soup which was delicious , rich tomato flavor and creamy. Even though we were stuffed we tried the chocolate mousse cake It was decadent and chocolaty. The portions are enough. Not to much but enough to fill you up. The ambience is very nice , relaxing and romantic. There was a lady playing Christmas music on the piano near the bar. From the outside it doesn’t look like much but once inside you see it is very nicely decorated, not the run of the mill Italian decor. White table cloths nicely lit with small lighted trees throughout. Our waiter was attentive but not over bearing. Cost with tip very reasonable for 2. You can’t get this at OG!! Why go there when for the price you get a nice experience with great food. Our new...

For the past year I had given them 5 stars but during our last visit this past week things considerably went downhill. My salmon was frozen and oh so dried out. The capers were entirely overcooked and had that light green, out of the can look and texture, My husband's White wine sauce had absolutely no flavor whatsoever and our pasta was waaay overcooked. On top of that we had to pay to get the Olive oil sauce to dip our bread in. That should come with the meal. When we were ordering from our waitress she would repeat the order while writing it down but would say something completely different. She didn't seem to be "there" at all and the whole time sat her dirty butt on the table next to us while taking our order. I'm sorry, that is just disgusting. We felt bad for the next couple who had to sit at that table and wondered if she did the same to ours.😳 Something happened to this place and its not good at all. We even noticed for a Friday night that we got a front place to park. That should have been our first red flag. We have never been a fan of Olive Garden, but would now choose it if that were our only 2 choices. We will not be returning to Rivera restaurant anymore. Oh, and $9 for the smallest glass of house wine was absolutely ridiculous.🙄 Go to ROMA'S in Jacksonville. They feed you REAL WELL over there and the food is AWESOME! The prices are great too!!😃 Oh and you get your Olive oil dipping sauce with your fresh rolls...