Antica Forma — Restaurant in Vernal

Went here last night after a day at the Dinosaur Monument. Our family loves pizza and we don't care for the chains. We were referred this place by a family member who came when they opened a few months back. They said the food was stellar, they weren't lying. When we walked in we were immediately greeted by a very welcoming staff. We were taken to our table and within seconds another staff member brought our children fresh pizza dough to play with to keep them occupied while we looked over the menu. While talking to the owners we found out that their chef studied under a famous pizza chef in New York, who acquired his skills in Naples Italy. All their meats are imported and their mozzarella is made fresh in house. We started with the Cabrese appetizer. Loaded with big pieces of the fresh mozzarella fresh basil and tomatoes and drizzled with top grade EVOO and thick and rich in flavor Balsamic vinegar. We also selected their cheese breadsticks. They were also covered in the cheese but had a delicious creme base sauce underneath. Our next course was a couple of amazing salads. The first had salami, capers, tomatoes and a really yummy cheese and very delicious dressing. The other was mixed greens, green apple slices, candied pecans and a velvety dressing. We followed the salads with three amazing pizzas which unfortunately I can't pick a favorite but they were the best pizzas I have ever eaten. We had their special which had Italian sliced meatballs, caramelized onions, calamata olives and fresh crumbled mozzarella. The others were off the menu. The Volcano and the Pistachio. We finished our evening with Batchi(spelling?) a fried pizza dough drizzled with Nutella. That's enough about the food. The owners are a sweet local couple who just wanted to bring something unique to the area. You definitely need to give this place a try, you...

Very weird experience. We're tourists in town and hit Antica Forma Wednesday evening and had a truly spectacular experience. Great food, friendly and engaging server. She asked if it was our first visit and gave us impeccable service. A gentlemen we took to be the owner even stopped at the table to make sure everything was well when my wife made a funny face at her plate. (She was just surprised at how big the portion was!) We ended up chatting with the owner and server about coming back in a couple days to try a different meal. We felt like part of the family. Now it's Friday afternoon and we stop in at 2:30ish. Wait behind a group of 3 at the front desk for 10 minutes to get seated. The restaurant was virtually empty. Finally get seated and the server was just very odd. Seemed shocked that we were ready to order by the time she brought our drinks. Then she seemed either stunned or found it humorous that I wanted an appetizer. Then she had the same weird giggle-with-no-words response when we said we may want desert later. All very off-putting. Then the appetizer came with no plates. No big deal, we ate of the main plate. Then while my wife was in the restroom, our pizza came and was dropped off and the server was gone before I had time to register we still had no plates. Waited forever for her to reappear, at which point my wife walked up to ask for plates, got no attention from anyone, and literally walked into the kitchen and grabbed two plates! The rest of it was more being ignored to the point that we had to actually make a show of getting up and heading for the door. Overall, an atrocious experience. I highly recommend the Antica Forma we got Wednesday night. I'd run away fast from the one we found Friday afternoon. Roll of the...

OK, I'm going to attempt an actual foodie review for this one. This place is a bit too fancy for Vernal. I mean that as a compliment to both the restaurant and the town. The place is pretty nice. Atmosphere is a little cold, but sort of authentic to a lot of walk in pizzerias in Italy, wood fired oven, white tile floor, random Gelato cooler near the front door, TVs tuned to sports channels... The pizza is a 9 out of 10. I got one of the specialities with house mozzarella and prosciutto. My only problem with the pizza is that they were a little heavy-handed with the olive oil. The crust was perfect, tomatoes perfect, could have had more garlic and basil to my taste, but I can't complain too bad about that. I asked for "whatever house red they had, a cabernet sauvignon, and ended up with a Ravenswood, which probably wasn't the best pairing for pizza. The Gelato is top notch. I think this place looks like a 4 from the road, cooks food like a 9, and has to charge too much for this small town market just to keep their staff. Granted, I went on a Monday and it was kinda dead, but for take out orders. The staff hustled but they were spread too thin. I hope this place takes off because it should be more trafficked than this. More customers would mean better prices and that would fix a lot. I like seeing places like...