La Vecchia Napoli

I’ve been to La Vacchia Napolia 2 times now, and both times I will say the food was very enjoyable for both myself and my husband. That being said, I am only giving 3 stars in this case because of the service. Keep in mind, both times I was here it was on a holiday, so I can understand a delay in seating and service, but what we experienced was truly disappointing. Both times reservations were made and we showed up early for seating, but reservations don’t really matter in this restaurant because seating is treated as first come first served. Both times, it took about an hour to get us seated, which I think is a bit ridiculous since 1) we had reservations and 2) the reservations were for later in the evening, not during normal dining hours.
After we finally were seated, it took about 20 minutes for someone to come and take our drink order, and 10 minutes later we finally got some bread (we were ravenous at that point). The only saving grace for this restaurant is the food (which is good, not great), but honestly it’s not worth that long of a wait.
Other than the above, atmosphere is so-​so, could use an update as it’s a little dated. Don’t think I’ll be going back because of the service though, which is a shame.

I am Italian, and my mother is a professional chef in NY. Whenever she visits this is the restaurant she prefers. La Vecchia is –hands down– the best Italian restaurant in New Jersey. I have been eating there with my family going on 5 years. We love it, the atmosphere is relaxed yet elegant and the roasted artichokes are the best I have ever had.

It pains me to update my post but the service here is horrible. My first experience was on a busy Saturday night, where they were getting through tables quickly. However when I came on an empty Wednesday night, they could care less you are there, especially if family arrives. The greet family with bread, wine and a smile. The waitstaff ignored us the entire night. We were not pleasantly greeted, waited 15 minutes for menus and then another 20 minutes just to order our food. Seriously, the waiter/​host made it seem like he was bothered we were even there and charged us a $ 10 fee bringing a bottle. When the food arrived the Mozzarella appetizer was cold and soggy. My boyfriend enjoyed his food (fettuccine with meat sauce and cheese) however my spaghetti with shrimp and scallops was not good. The sauce was tasty but two of four scallops were raw– not acceptable for a $ 32 dish! I’m sorry but they’ve lost my business indefinitely. The only highlight was the free dessert if you check in on Unilocal,but don’t order the cheesecake because its over cooked.

Tasty, delicious foods and reasonable prices! Definitely will be back! :)
I like that they have more authentic plates than very generic Italian foods. They do take a little time to prepare ur dish but I think it was worth it.

Old school authentic Italian eatery… Mimo and Tina (owners) add to the charm. Nothing bad. Yummy toasted bread and yes they give you whole wheat. Sauce is out of this world.

It’s too bad that the excellent food choices are ruined by the arrogance of the management and wait staff. It was as if it was our privilege (the three of us) to be in their presence. We understood coming in that it would take 30 minutes or so to cook our dishes however we did not anticipate having to wait longer than that for our waiter to notice we were there.

I had high hopes for this cute looking place, with valet parking no less. But I found out that if you aren’t a personal friend of the owner it will be a long night. While we sat waiting for a menu, people all around us were being greeted by the owner and given drinks. After 20 minutes we finally got menus, after we asked for them. The food was good, but by the time the salads came I was so annoyed at being ignored, it hardly mattered.

My boyfriend and I celebrated our one year anniversary here in 2007, and returned this year for our 9 years together. It had the same romantic ambiance as we remembered. We were served warm, toasty bread with sundried tomato spread. We both ordered the pasta specials. I had the potato gnocchi in a bolognese sauce. He had spaghetti with pancetta in tomato sauce. Both were delicious! We polished off our plates, which is unusual for me considering gnocchi is so filling but I came hungry. I had a glass of the house pinot noir and he had peroni, Italian beer. We checked in on the Unilocal app and received a complimentary dessert of strawberry tiramisu to share. Yum!

One of my favorite restaurants, I will always go here regardless!
During my high school years, I came here and still go here till this day. I made so many memories at la vecchia napoli and hope it stays around for a long time! (:

This place is amazing. Menu special’s are great. I had the figs with gorgonzola and it was delicious.

Pleasantly surprised. Im glad we decided to check them out. Took the entire family out. All the pasta dishes were authentically good. Finally a good Italian restaurant in New Jersey. I would recommend.

5 stars only bc it’s not your everyday Italian restaurant. Excellent home made Italian food. I literally saw grandma coming out of the kitchen. I would eat here again. Felt like I was in Italy. Small quiet and calming

It’s like going straight to Italy without the air fare!
Sorry for those who don’t understand the authenticity of this place and real ‘al dente’. This is not Applebees!
Ciao

La Vecchia Napoli is a real Italian place with outstanding food and a great atmosphere. I have been coming to this place for my whole life (13 years) and it has only gotten better. For appetizers, I usually steal my parents pasta and eat the little bread and tomato dishes they always give us. As a entrée, I get the broccoli rabe and sausage pasta and its unbeatable. My parents always get the branzino fish that gets wheeled out on a cart and is prepared right before our eyes and it is always delicious. I definitely recommend this place to everyone that is in the area.
please dont look at the negative reviews-​this place is great.
–Gaby L.

Sadly, one of my favorite dining spots has now been firmly nixed off my list for good. Unsure what happened over the years to this place, but the food, ambience and service went from very good to barely acceptable. Couple that with an owner/​waiter that seems like he has ZERO interest in your dining experience… no sense of humor, not a single smile, no interest in presenting specials or anything else on the menu with any degree of enthusiasm.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to like this place ALOT, but now the atmosphere is beyond depressing and the food was barely edible.

Good food
Majority of reviews are spot on, the good and the bad.
Food is great at times. The other aspects can play in on varying degrees. If it’s a chance willing to take for good food so far my chances have been in my favor.

…and we’re done with La Vechhia Napoli. After going there for almost 4 years, once every month or so, finding amusement with Mimmo’s ‘personality’ and the fact that he literally just cracked a smile with us two weeks ago, but always going back for the food, this last experience just irritated us enough to be done.
The food is generally great, ambiance is cozy, the busboys/​waiters are always friendly and remember us, and the sole female waitress/​bartender (?) is also great and always friendly and remembers us. Then there is Mimmo, the owner. He has greeted us with the menus and told us that «the specials are on the last page» at least 30 times at this point. We spend money there every single time — appetizer, entrees, dessert, and a bottle of wine.
Perhaps this is a long intro and review and may not ultimately make sense to everyone but I just wanted to preface it with the fact that we are regulars, everyone knows us there, we love the food, and we get that Mimmo is not warm and fuzzy. What finally got us to be «done» with the place is that Mimmo is apparently also a word that begins with an ‘a’ and ends with an ‘e.‘
So our last night at Vecchia Napoli… restaurant wasn’t full. After we ordered, another couple sat next to us. Eventually we saw that they got their appetizers before we did. No problem, our bottle of wine came promptly and we waited… when an hour had passed of us sitting drinking the wine (restaurant is still not 100% full and everyone is at different stages of their meal) we asked about the artichokes. Another 10 minutes went by sans artichokes and then we asked a different waiter. It is a little ridiculous at this point as we are sitting in the middle aisle for at least an hour with no food (ok bread) which is obvious and all the waiters keep looking at the empty table as they pass. Certainly Mimmo who sits at the helm/​throne all night noticed. Then the artichokes finally came and mid-​first bite, the entrees were there too (our neighbors were already eating their entrees btw). The waiters seemed perplexed that we were perplexed, and we were like, ok you see these artichokes and how they’re not eaten at all? well they JUST arrived and we’d like to pretend that there is some order to this meal and not eat everything at once.
They took the entrees back (a pasta and the ribeye special) and then brought them back reheated. The pasta was boiling hot in the middle and cold outside. But it was still good, if not a bit chewy (and I don’t mean al dente). So ok, this stuff happens from time to time, no problem, and we ordered dessert and it came.
This is the clincher (finally, sorry) that really irritated us… the check came and the dessert wasn’t on it. Our first thought was, oh how nice, perhaps like most other restaurants that acknowledge their error and give you a little something, Mimmo who took our order, who sits at the helm/​throne and sees all and controls the cash register (literally there is one in the dining room) did us a solid in exchange for the misstep which in and of itself was really no big deal. BUT we really wanted to be sure, and yes as a test of Mimmo. I thought it was intentional since I saw him look up at us while doing the bill and I know he knew about the delay but we didn’t want to just assume and just walk out without paying for it. So we told a waiter the dessert was not on the bill and I saw Mimmo look up at us again, and then re-​do the bill which came back with the dessert added, not classy. So yes of course we should pay for what we had, that is not the point. It is that he, Mimmo knew that we sat their for at least an hour while everyone around us ate dinner, that we ate reheated food and that we didn’t simply take what could’ve been a free dessert, and knowing all of that he couldn’t just leave it as is and say hey, sorry about that you guys are here ALL the time, the dessert’s on us. Seriously? I really think that he did initially want to give us the dessert but that when we pointed out the ‘error,’ he thought well if they’re not going to just take it, screw them; if they want to pay for it they’ll pay for it. This may sound stupid and crazy and will certainly not make sense to everyone but it was just really a bit of a (blank) move –the word will not be accepted here — it just showed his true character. I think he has a bit of that hostility, arrogance and distaste for «Americans» just beneath the surface that is characteristic of some, yes some, Europeans, who think Americans are overly polite and and smiley and solicitous. That’s just the vibe we’ve always gotten from him but until now we didn’t care and we’ve been to Italy and experienced the same vibe. But this small gesture not taken made us decide to spend our money elsewhere. Harvest in Closter once gave us a bottle of wine when something we ordered was no longer available (good sign everything is fresh).

Went here for lunch during the week and was pleasantly surprised. The food was delicious and the service impeccable!

This is another one of your cliched eateries that tries to portray an upscale & authentic environment. The place normally runs pretty empty and out of convenience, my wife an I decided to stop in for a dinner. I will mention again, we are vegetarians and so we ordered a custom dinner.(which by the way was pretty simple). My wife ordered a penne pasta with Arrabiata sauce and I ordered a cheese ravioli. Now to give you an Idea, their most expensive items were about $ 28+…All of those have some form of meat or seafood which is normally more expensive than just veggies. My wife had 2 glasses of the house wine. When the order arrived, the quantity was mediocre… I laughed it out giving them the benefit of doubt of being an upscale eatery where quantities are normally smaller. My 1^st bite of the ravioli and to my surprise… NO CHEESE !!@#$#??? I split up a couple of raviolis and again the same thing. I politely inquired about the absence of cheese upon which someone from the inside showed up with a bag of ready to boil ravioli. He tells me that those were specially imported from Italy and that the cheese is very light… Now im even more confused. I thought that an upscale place should normally make their own pasta… I might as well take that packet, and boil it at home and get the same item for a fraction of the price. after noticing that I was totally disappointed in my food, the server/​manager said absolutely nothing and walked away as if I had made a mistake. From that moment on, THUMBS DOWN…
Here comes the bill $ 115 for 2 pastas and 2 glasses of house wine…
Are they out of their F!@##^ minds???
our pastas were charged at the highest amount listed for their most expensive pasta. I didnt question it… I left the server a customary tip and swore never to return…

This is a really lovely date place, particularly if you enjoy a good glass of wine and are in no rush.
The food overall was just okay. We loved the mini artichokes sauteed simply in olive oil, but the app was better than the entrees. We both ordered pastas — one a special and one from the menu. The pasta did not taste as if it were homemade, but it was cooked nicely. Nothing special. The ragu on the bf’s dish was decent if a bit lackluster. The seafood on mine — shrimp and scallops — was very well done. However, everything really needed seasoning, and we should have been offered fresh black pepper and parmesan with our dishes.
Service was very nice but spotty. We had long wait times and had to flag down waiters for drink refills on more than one occasion.
The restaurant was beautiful and prices were decent. They have valet, but you can park about a block away for free (if you’re cheap with stuff like that like we are).