This is our go-to and has been for years. Disappointed that they were out of their special- coconut prawns. Chose shrimp appetizer when promised no heavy breading - ummmm too much fried breading. Ordered manhattan up - no special bourbon/whiskey. $14 for Vivace Manhattan- not what I ordered.

Chicken was dry on top of salad, otherwise, good.

SURPRISED! Vivace has a great reputation among our friends and neighbors and is also a place where I never hesitated to recommend for business groups and special events. That is until last night when I decided to visit them with my family. The place was PACKED on a Tuesday evening, luckily I had made reservations and when we got there we just had to wait for the table to be set up. We sat down and here is our experience.

We looked at the menus and waited
a table next to us gets sat down and they received water and bread
we are still waiting
the server comes and asks for the drink order
we place the order: two pinot noirs and a beer
we wait...
he comes back without the drinks and asks for the food order
my husband entree the minestrone soup gets to the table BEFORE bread or appetizers
we get water, still no drinks
we ask for bread and got a few pieces because we are 6, we ask for more, the waiter says there is no more bread
the table next to us gets food served
another table gets bread
we wait
we get appetizers and some of the drinks
we ask for bread to another waiter and we get bread
we get the last of the drinks
we wait
we start asking if it was worth to keep waiting
we were sat at 7:15pm and was 8:20PM and we are still waiting
food gets delivered
we ask for some more bread, it felt that is all we could eat!
still we wonder if we could order more drinks but I guess the limit is one per person
we ask for the check
the waiter approaches the table and without saying anything he takes the bread away, not the plates nor the empty water jar, but the bread
I make a comment to the busboy as at that point it was just comical how much effort the waiter was spending for our table NOT to have bread.
to my surprise... the waiter brings back the bread basket he took to the dishwashing room!!!!!!
we paid and left
Not sure if to recommend or single out that is based on your waiter.
I am certainly very surprised.

Wonderful as usual. Warm, friendly great food and service.

Had another great dinner, Black mussels, beet salad, red snapper & firewood manicotti.
Then Warm Lava cake to finish it off :-)
All WONDERFUL!!!
Will definitely come back.

This restaurant is on of the finest restaurant on the Bay Area. We have dinner here once a month. You must try and enjoy.

Our favorite restaurant. Never have had a bad meal and the service is top notch.

Always consistent. Great red snapper. Perfectly cooked.

We were seated next to a large birthday party and it made the whole room noisy. Once they left it was much better! Although we had a reservation on Open Table we still had to wait about 20 minutes :/ and if you’re not sitting at the bar there is no other place to comfortably wait. That said, the food was excellent.

Great service, ambiance very good.
Kitchen needs training in cuisine preparation training.

The food was delicious as usual and we were placed in the fireplace room. Since we ate early, we had the room to ourselves for at least a half hour which was heavenly. Our waiter was less than great, which was unusual for this restaurant. First time ever that I was disappointed.

The arancini was great! Must order!

Vivace consistently has excellent food. It’s a bit pricey, such as the special cocktail for $14, but it’s a neighborhood gem.

Good food. Great Service. It got REALLY REALLY LOUD for a Sunday. The bar was hopping, unfortunately, we wanted something a little quieter. We sat in the room furthest away from the bar and that helped. Strangely loud for a neighborhood restaurant on a Sunday.

The quality of food was very low.
They charged us for items we had not ordered on the bill.

Overall good. Our waiter could have been more attentive and personable.

I have been patronizing the restaurant for many years, and have been pleased with the food and atmosphere. My last visit was not typical. The wait to be seated was a little protracted, even with a reservation. The noise level was so high that it was impossible to converse at dinner. I don't think I will visit on a weekend evening in the future.

Good food god service and great bar service. There is a lively bar scene on most nights.

As always, enjoyed the meal. However, even on a weeknight, Vivace's was over-crowded and my friend and I were not seated for 30 minutes after our reservation time. The management was apologetic, and we were comped the cost of opening the bottle of wine we brought for the evening. Nonetheless, we would have appreciated being seated within a few minutes of our reservation.

The restaurant was so packed you couldn’t hear any one and the waiters seemed frazzled. I think the owner understaffed the restaurant. Don’t think I will go again.

My wife and I love Vivace's. It's our go to place when we want a good meal in a comfortable setting. The wait staff is always great and the food is generally delicious. We always enjoy a nice bottle of Italian red They have a solid selection which is very reasonably priced.

Haven't been there for a while but was happy to see the quality of the food hasn't changed. We were the first ones for lunch, yet it took the staff a while to decide to present us with a menu and wine list. They appear to have trouble getting organized early in the day. When the waiter came around to take our drink order, he then proceeded to wait until we made our lunch order--this process I detest. Why can't they get us a glass of wine and a beer while we look at the menu? Then they put in the lunch order before going to the bar to prepare a drink order. I don't understand the logic of the sequencing of the tasks, but I guess they are smarter than I am. The food was prepared very well. One of the "weekly" specials was a tagliatelle alla bolognese, which was done very well. The bolognese sauce was tasty and had a pleasing texture, unlike many bolognese sauces which are usually mealy. Wife had a salad with shrimp, well prepared, with six large shrimp in it - good value. Vivace always pleases.

Have been coming here for 10+ years and have yet to have a bad meal. Every dish is delicious. Wide variety- our faves are osso buco, squid ink seafood pasta, the pizzas and risotto specials. All the desserts are exceptional and the wine list is solid. Bartenders make great cocktails. Service is always flawless.

As usual, food and service outstanding...I love this restaurant

Vivace again was awesome, however we had a waiter we had never seen before. Younger man from Italy, totally blew us off over and over. Straighten him out vivace.! There’s nothing worse than a waiter that looks over the top of your booth and walks by!

Great setting, good professional service. Pizza was slightly underbaked.

What a total disappointment.
We have been going to Vivace's a few times a year for many years and last night was the first bad experience. We had reservations for 6:10, we arrived 5 minutes late and were informed we need to wait and directed to the bar. The tables by the bar had not been bussed, first bad sign. The bartender although trying was somewhat overwhelmed We had to wait and hour and ten minutes to get a table. Now here is the weird part, once in the dining room there were 20 to 30 percent of the tables empty and many had not been bussed. We later noticed the hostess bussing tables. Once we were seated thing moved along pretty well, we did have to ask for more water etc but once we asked delivery was fairly rapid. The Bruschetta was delicious and the Cesar salad was also quite good. My guests all had pasta dishes and they looked good. I had a pizza and it was inedible. It was dry and very salty. I ordered a Margarete with sausage and the sausage was so finely chopped at first I thought they forgot to add it. The was little to no sauce or cheese on this pizza. I won’t order that ever again. The really sad part is there are so many very good restaurants between Belmont and Redwood City that it's going to be at least another year before we give it one more chance.

It's been too long since I dined at Vivace. But the good news is it still delivers. The place was packed but not too noisy, and it was nice to see so many families. We had a lovely meal in a warm, welcoming room.

We had a dinner reservation for 6:45pm but were not seated until 7:10pm. It could have been just a bad night for them!

My reservation for four was at 6:30. WE all stood in the door way for 40 minutes with no explanation. No one came and apologize or offered a cocktail for us. There is no way I could ever go back there and have that chance of standing in cold doorway! Sorry Vivace, your people need to do a better job with the customers who pay plenty of money to be in your restaurant.

They were able yo accommodate a party of 8 for a last minute reservation.

Had a great time. The lighting where we were seated was a little too dark but other than that everything was great

service was lovely but got very slow when it got crowded. took forever to get our check

Love the food. The atmosphere. And the staff. Have been there many times and each time was a great exprience.

Always pleased

Seated 30 minutes after our reservation time.
Waiter was good however, after being seated.

We always love Vivace and go often, although it’s a bit expensive, the food and service are impeccable!

We received very prompt service on Valentine's day. Food came out faster than expected. My girlfriend loved the linguine con vongole (it's one of her favorite Italian dishes).

Perfect window seat. Ambiance just right for Valentines Dinner date. The food was delicious and not a long wait to be served on what was a very busy evening.

Service was great! Food we want ran out.
Will come back for another dinner