Vivi Pizzeria — Restaurant in Woodinville

Our Italian Gem we found while staying in Woodinville for a long anniversary weekend. From the bread & Oil they give you when you sit-down to the appetizers, pasta, pizza, wine, desert, EVERTHING was just delicious! We actually have already gone back with the in-laws since our weekend stay in the area, yes it is that good! This last time we went on Sunday and we almost didn’t make it in since we did not make reservations but the waitress was kind enough to sit us. Appetizer: I 100% recommend ordering the Quattro Bruschette. They offer 4 different Brushettes here so this way you get to try 1 of each. One comes with roma tomatoes, garlic, basil and extra vergin olive oil, the second one comes with grilled chopped eggplant, garlic basil, balsamic vinaigrette, The third comes with chopped portabello mushrooms, garlic oregano, basil and balsamic cinaigrette and the last one is finely chopped Kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. Each one has its own flavor and each one is delicious. We actually ordered so much food that we took some of this home. I just popped it in the oven added a little more olive oil and it taste just as good left over that way. DINNER: Pizza: Capricola Piccante: Tomato Sauce, mozzarella, hot capicola, pepperoni, sausage, artichoke, onions and garlic. We also had pizza left over, I also popped that in the oven but added a little more cheese for left overs and OMG it was still delicious. Chicken Parmigiana: I ordered my spaghetti with pesto sauce and it was soooo good!! The servicing size on this is LARGE. If you really wanted to this is a good dish to share between two people. Spaghetti Alle Vongole was light and delicious. Gnocchi Pepirosso. This was good but it is on the heavier side for sauces and fills you up quickly. Tiramisu here is light and made perfectly!! We ordered 1 to share between 4 people and it was plenty!! AMBIANCE: The two times we have dinned here it was SUPER HOT Days, they had outside seating but it was actually cooler to sit inside. Most don’t know this but you can sit in the winery next door do wine tasting in the AC and order from Vivi’s. The ambiance itself has a simple Italian décor. The restaurant itself is kept very clean and organized. The staff amazes me. Sunday when we went in they were REALLY busy and had a lot of people working but they all seemed to be working very well together, the flow was amazing to watch and even though it was SUPER hot out and I know it was warm behind the counter they did not let that slow them down. Amazing team they...

I've reviewed Vivi at 5 stars before, and I hope to do so again, but this time was a pretty big miss. We gathered with our family for a dinner, and here is how the timeline went:

Thursday , 6:34pm: Make reservations. Mentioned that we prefer outdoor seating and we're told that reservations are only for indoor seating. OK. We make the reservation anyway for 4pm Friday.

Friday, 3:55pm: I arrive first. The reservation is for inside, but there's a large table available outside. I move us to that table. I notice, curiously, that other tables outside have a "RESERVED" sign on them (though ours does not). Did they say they take reservations only for indoors? Yes, they did.

4:05pm: My in-laws' car is rear-ended while trying to pull into the parking lot. Not Vivi's fault, of course, but it sure set the tone.

4:30pm: It's clear the staff are struggling. That's understandable. We live in a time of staff shortages, but it's taking extra time to get refills, get orders in, etc. That felt fine—my family had gathered for social time, and we were in no hurry. Italian food on Italian time... nice and slow. Great.

5pm: Pizza arrives, minus one non-pizza dish. I'd yet to have a so-so pizza here—everything has always been good—but the brie-and-fig pizza has exactly those two notes. Brie and fig. Lots of it. With more brie and fig. It's okay, but I'll skip it in the future.

5:15pm: The non-pizza dish arrives, and my sister-in-law finally digs in. We get another round of drinks to go with food.

5:28pm: Thirteen minutes into everyone having their order, the food is less than half eaten, this round of drinks is still mostly full. We are told, unceremoniously, that the table we're at is reserved for 5:30pm. (Wait, what was that about not taking reservations for outdoor seating?) Now it's our turn to take our sweet time finishing our drinks, boxing up food, etc. We could have easily spent another hour and ordered another round of drinks. After, it was a gathering time, not a business dinner.

5:42pm: We leave. Annoyed.

I'm chalking this up to staff shortages (and associated training problems), and I'm hoping this doesn't happen again, because Vivi still makes the best carbonara I've had in Washington.

Yet table time limits need to be communicated to customers, every customer, before seating. It's a huge deal for managing expectations, especially when meals cost this much.

I'm hoping for a better...

The food is great dont get me wrong but when they charge $15 for a single Jack Daniels on the rocks…….uh never again will we come back. We’ve been coming here for years and dont recall paying that for a drink. Shame cuz we really likes this place.

REPLY TO RICK:

To start, I tried calling you at your restaurant today. I was told “Rick is rarely here and when he is, we don’t know when he will be, so just keep calling back and maybe he will be here.” Hmm.

So…in response to your rash and inaccurate reply to me in which you obviously did not do enough research or speak to the waitress who served us, I did NOT order doubles. Even though you graciously enlightened me on current alcohol prices in our community, I would have never written a negative review for being charged $15 for a double Jack on the rocks. But again, I did not order doubles. In fact, when we received our bill, I said to my wife “wow, they really increased their drink prices!” but just to make sure it was not a mistake, she had me ask our waitress. I walked to the counter and very politely asked the waitress if the price of $15 was correct for a SINGLE Jack on the rocks. With a big smile on her face she replied “Sure is!” I smiled back, said “thank you”, and paid our bill. So Rick, that is why I wrote this review. You can see that I dont ever write reviews but this one time, I felt it would be necessary to let people know what price to expect to pay for drinks at your place. That is what reviews are for right? So please next time, before you decide to call out customers on a review board, maybe speak to your employees or get the facts of what happened first.

Regarding the thumbs down on your payment system, I didnt realize I was grading the system. I thought I was giving the thumbs down to my experience at your restaurant. Oh and now, “thumbs down” to your response.

On a final note….looks like you owe me $15. Should I call...