Vincitorio's Restaurant — Restaurant in Tempe

Honestly, two stars is being generous. At the time I went I was craving Italian and found this place with a rating of 4.5 stars. The only thing I can think is that either the normal clientele are too drunk to know the difference, or they have paid for fake ratings. In short don't eat here. Ever. Can you say Kitchen Nightmare? Even if you are a bad cook, save your money and cook at home rather than eat here. For a more detailed review keep reading.

The service was fine, since the place was empty. There was only one other table to wait on. I don't know what it would be like with a full house. The tables are so close together that even the skinny little waitress hurt herself trying to slip between two tables while I was there.

They brought bread to the table, which was store bought hogie buns that had been cut up, and bathed in oil and some Italian seasoning. I found this odd that for a place that has price tags like the ones on this menu they would cheap out and not even bother to make their own bread. Many cheaper places make really nice fresh bread.

The recommended appetizer was the calimari, so I ordered it and was quickly dissappointed. I was told this was the best appetizer on the tattered old diner menu, so I am thankful I didn't have to try one of the worse ones. It was obviously ordered frozen, and thrown into the frier with no additional prep or seasoning. The "spicy" marinara sauce which was supposed to be made in house turned out to be store bought marinara (not even the good kind) with a pile of crushed red pepper flakes dumped on top. The kitchen staff was so lazy they could not even be bothered to stir it in.

My partner inquired if the Italian dressing was made in house, to which the reply was in the positive. The salads came with what appeared to be cheap store bought Italian dressing. I knew then that I was in for an exceptionally horrible meal, and I was delivered exactly that.

I ordered a ravioli carbonara, and my partner had ordered chicken marsala. My partners chicken was way overcooked and smothered in a greasy brown mess. It tasted about like it looked. My ravioli may have been fresh at some point, but had since seen better days. The ravioli stuffing was gross, bland, and had a grainy texture. The sauce, I cannot even describe. It was more like a soup than a sauce (Probably to mask the flavor of the ravioli) and the dish was served in a huge bowl filled to the brim.

I am convinced that had I not sent our meals back after the first taste we would have both been suffering from severe food poisoning. Thankfully we came away with just an upset stomach and a bad taste...

This was tough. Expected more. Our experience started strong...the atmosphere is inviting and quaint. For a strip center it shows well. The hard plastic floor lends itself to a bit louder ambiance than we'd prefer. The tables are packed tight so elevated voices are the norm.

The wine list is crazy big. Which while nice it's mostly bottle service making the more unique options out of reach. The food menu is not overpowering....well balanced. Sadly all that good can be overshadowed but other elements.

First up; pizza. Folks if you don't have a pizza cook on staff one evening the servers need to make that clear BEFORE they come to take the order. Afterwards its too late. It's wasted time for both your staff AND your customer. It's pretty simple to state this up front. Next up: dinner special. It's on the signboard but never offered to the customer at the table. What's up with that. If you're not going to offer it then take the signboard down.

Our Bruschetta was on point. The garlic bread nice. The side salad was portioned correctly and prepared as requested. While we took our time to place our dinner order it took a full hour to receive our meals. By way of comparison the table next to us was scraping their leftovers into a styrofoam box and they had come in every bit of 15 to 20 minutes after us. Two of the three meals were very good. Where it went wrong was the meatball sandwich. The sandwich was served at room temperature making it very easy to believe that this meal was prepared and sitting waiting for the other two meals to be completed- thus the reason why everything was running so late. Presentation and taste was on point, the chips were very good. Kitchen management is lacking.

The wines were dry and we had to request refills on two of them. Simply should not happen. An additional server came with two full glasses while walking away leaving one dirty one on the table.

Overall I look forward to coming back again and seeing if we can get this right. There seems to be a great opportunity here but the management is clearly lacking on basic procedure. As the day after Christmas your people don't want to be working I totally get that and it was a reflected a couple times on their face And they thought they were out of sight. (You're talking about two people who spent years in the restaurant business we know this feeling and what to look for)

If I could leave 3.5 star I would. Four stars a bit of a stretch for a cold meal in empty glasses. Five star possibility is still on the table but fine tuning needs to...

I found the service to be extremely SLOW. Server was nice but HARDLY ever came around. I had to ask twice for crayons for my toddler (no big deal really, had I had my purse with me I would've/should've had them on me) but then also had to ask twice for cheese to dip the bread in. Asked the boy that brought our bread, I'll call him the "bread boy" once and after he forgot and missed two flag downs, was finally able to flag down the server. I just felt like they felt so concerned asking you if there was anything you need but forgot immediately after.

I had the Gnocchi Pomodoro and for $16 the quantity was laughable! I didn't like it at ALL but ate all of it since I hadn't eaten all day in preparation for my birthday dinner. My husband had the lasagna, as he always gets wherever he goes, and also didn't care for it. He said he wasn't a fan of the sauce (I'm guessing it's the same sauce as my gnocchi since it looked the same) but I didn't try it. My mother had the special of the day and enjoyed it and our 4yo had the Penne with butter & cheese and liked it. All four of our entrees came out at different times, mine being last, happy birthday to me! 🙄 Server never came to check in on us after receiving our entrees. In fact I literally had to flag him down the 3 times we needed something (once for crayons, once for cheese and once for another wine).

I ordered a Maccheroni al Forno to go when we placed our entree orders (wouldn't have done that had I tasted my entree first) but THANKFULLY that sauce was different (I had it for lunch/dinner the next day). However, after we were all completely done with our meals it still took another 20 minutes to receive (server said he would place that order when we received our entrees).

We had planned on purchasing desserts but after not being happy with our entrees, decided against that. They then gave us a complimentary dessert for my birthday which did look super pretty and tasted good!

Server didn't bring/come to collect our check, bread boy did. I had a question since I had an electronic gift card, bread boy didn't know anything about it and had to go ask. The server finally came around and said he'd take my phone! Ummm, no thanks! So I had to go up to the desk with him to redeem it.

We won't be back.

(Pictured is my Gnocchi &...