Grappa Italian Bistro

Never again!!!
Went here last Valentine’s day. When I made reservation no one told me there was a Valentine’s menu that could only be used. Got there 15 mins early. People came in after us that were catered to while we were pinned in a corner. Got sat 20 mins after our reservation. Per their set menu we received a glass of mimosa. They must have used the cheapest champagne they could find cause it was bitter and undrinkable. We received one salad to share which I found interesting since we were paying $ 60 a person. My dates dinner was average at best. Mine was stone cold and overcooked. For the dessert course again we had to share a dessert… Did I mention $ 60 per person… This dessert was basically a cookie smothered under two sauces. This cookie for lack of a better word had the taste and consistency of Styrofoam. The sauces were sickeningly sweet. When it came time to pay they were having issues with their credit card machine. Their answer was to keep swiping my card… SIX charges to my account later locked up my card. Trying to get it sorted out took months as they tried to hold firm to stance we had SIX dinners for two all on same night.
What a nightmare and it wasn’t even softened by a decent dinner

I started off with a caprese salad and it was absolutely AMAZING!
Second was the bread with their signature dipping sauce. It was so much more flavorful than any other oil I’ve ever had. Absolutely delicious.
Third was the grilled portobello cannelloni and WOW! The goat cheese they served with it complimented the whole dish in an outstanding way. It was perfectly paired!
For my main dish I had the spinach fettuccini primavera and although it wasn’t something I would usually choose I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this dish and the flavors were light yet satisfying. A great dish to end an absolutely great meal.
My husband and I have never been so impressed with an Italian bistro before and you can truly see the passion these people have for the food they serve. We will be regulars at this place.
I am completely baffled that this place doesn’t have 5 stars. Even the service was fast, no mistakes, and everything came out in a timely manner. I highly suggest you give this place a try for yourself.

I had the pleasure of having a couple appetizers here over the weekend. My friend had been telling me about Grappa and I was so thankful I was able to finally try it.
I ordered a glass of the red blend. It was delicious. I really like red blend wines because they are so flavorful. You can’t go wrong with red wine in an Italian restaurant.
The first thing we ordered was the mussels. They were cooked so well and the sauce they had them prepared in was so delicious. It had a cream base but it was red so I assume there was some tomato in it. Mussels are one of my favorite seafood options so I was happy to have some delicious ones. I also drank that broth up. I could literally take that broth home and just eat that.
We ordered the calamari second. I really liked the batter they used. It was different than typical calamari. The marinara sauce was ok. I thought it could’ve had a little more flavor. The calamari was a little greasy too. It’s not hard to mess up calamari because it is already chewy. The batter was good, but the actual squid was just ok.
I really enjoyed the live music they had there. It makes the atmosphere more romantic and authentic. Our server, host, and bartender were all very sweet and accommodating. I can’t wait to go back. Maybe I’ll try the original location in Golden.

Wanted so much to like this place because there are not many nice Italian restaurants in the area. Stopped by for lunch and right away things got off on the wrong foot. The hostess took us to the back room and asked if we wanted to sit at a TINY two-​top located (literally) six-​inches from a group of about eight loudly enjoying their meal. Why would she offer us this table?! There were plenty of open tables that were larger and not so close to another group — it was almost 1pm, so no need to worry about the lunch rush. Enjoyed the bread with pesto that was brought to the table. At first the prices seemed reasonable, until the food came. My husband had the pumpkin ravioli, and he had four or five ravioli, with nothing on the side. Mine looked more promising. I had the gnocchi and it was a decent sized bowl. Unfortunately, the gnocchi was extremely tough, and it was a «wild mushroom gnocchi», but I had about two mushrooms on my plate. My husband’s ravioli was swimming in oil, very unappetizing. The flavors themselves were good, but it was hard to overlook the small portion sizes, tough gnocchi, lack of a key ingredient, and deluge of oil. Our waitress was friendly and attentive, but that was about the only plus.

If there is any other option available, take it. It seems so easy and convenient to grab a bite here after a movie at the theater next door. But I don’t have a lot of trust for this place after they attempt to charge $ 14 for burrata then arrive at the table with a ramekin of microwaved ricotta cheesy water. When we asked if maybe they’d brought us the wrong dish, they insisted that that was burrata – which it patently was not. If they’re calling that burrata, it makes me suspicious of what else is coming out of the kitchen… as a customer, it seems like they’re trying to pull a fast one. At least they allowed us to send it back untouched and they removed the charge. The rest of the food was passable at best.

Service is bar none. My mom and I came in on a Sunday afternoon and it happened to be during happy hour– doesn’t get better than that! Vanessa was our bartender and waitress– she was informative, gracious, and made ridiculously tasty drinks– the BEST sangria I’ve ever had. (Sangria is my go-​to)
We had the antipasto, I was hoping for something more than «deli» slices of cheese, but was decent considering that. Also had the pomme frites. Yummy.
Since we live in the area I’ll DEFINITELY be back for the drinks + service. can’t get over that sangria! We’ll try something more than just appetizers next time around: stay tuned for an update!

The service is average. The environment is bland. The food is not bad but it has no flavor. For some reason we gave this place a second chance. But there won’t be a third.

The food here is nothing to write home about. The menu sounds tasty, but nothing is very flavorful. Whenever Lobster Ravioli is on the menu, I’ll be ordering that. The dish that came out to me seemed to be one pile of ravioli with some lobster scattered around it.
The server was nice, but pretty slow given the low occupancy of the restaurant.

I have come to Grappa several times as it is close to my house and in the middle of Belmar, which I love coming to. Anyway, I love it! The food is delicious and the wait staff friendly and attentive. Special bonus is the sweet owner Ricardo — I lived in Europe for a while and he always reminds me of the restaurants there! 5 stars

Been to Grappa many times. Love the ambiance and the food is on point nine times out of ten. We have always received excellent service and the owner Ricardo is sweet and personable. Prices (especially for lunch) are super reasonable. The only thing… Would love to see more CA wines by the glass.

I’ve been here twice and both times it was the same story. Terrible service, with over priced average food. Do yourself a favor and save your money.

Buonisimo! We had the gnocchi and polenta for lunch. Just like Nana used to make. Nice atmosphere and delicious food.

Crab cakes were just ok nothing to rave about, they don’t do any fresh pastas and the owner was pretty rude and wasted my time. Not to happy about this place and it’s a shame they don’t seem to fix anything, knowing their reviews aren’t the best and they have prime location outside of the Denver area.

This place is just awful slow service, cold food and rude waitstaff! Don’t come here ever!

People be trippin… this place is not bad at all. Food is good, service is solid. Yeah, it is a bit older, but older people can afford to eat real food.

Good service but everything else was underwhelming or outright bad. The food is inauthentic, bland, and not special at all. I’m wondering why Belmar can’t attract a good restaurant to save its life? This restaurant falls right into line with all the others: banal and way too expensive for what you get.

Came in with a meetup group. Won’t do that again. The owner Ricardo is so busy hugging women at the bar that he is not paying attention to the customers. The waitress had lots of problems. Asked for parmesan cheese and she brought some other kind of cheese. Ordered drinks they say at the bar. We had to ask for them. Food was good but I expect service if I’m paying this much.

This place is pretty good. You should know, it’s more of a 50’s+ date restaurant, though. I felt a little out of place being in my mid-20’s, even though I was with my mom and boyfriend.
We went on a Friday night to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Little did we know, they had live music that night. Live music is usually great, but because the restaurant is so small, it was incredibly loud. Not only did we have the normal atmospheric noise that occurs in all restaurants, but the band was playing pretty loudly. You literally had to yell at the person across the table from you in order to be heard.
The service was very good. Our waitress was really helpful with any questions that we had, and recommended a really good martini for me to try.
The food was pretty good. They do have gluten free pasta options. I had spaghetti and meatballs, which was decent. They use your standard gluten free rice noodles (meh), but overall good. My mom had mussels and said they were decent; of course, we’ve had better on the East and West coasts (seafood just isn’t the same when it’s frozen).
Overall, it’s ok, but I’d rather eat elsewhere.

Well we came here hoping for a new alternative Italian restaurant that was close to home. Unfortunately it doesn’t hit the mark.
It started out good with their fresh bread and pesto oil as a starter. We ordered the linguini in white clam sauce, French onion soup, their version of caesar salad and veal in limone sauce. Here is what went wrong.
Linguini in white clam sauce — clams tasted off so stopped eating them. The sauce had a floury taste like it hadn’t been reduced long enough and needed more garlic and basil
French onion soup — on the sweet side. Can’t figure that one out as this type of soup is supposed to be savory not sweet. Plus the Swiss cheese on top was not melted at all.
Their version of Caesar salad came with a balsamic vinaigrette not Caesar dressing. You can’t call it Caesar unless it has the correct dressing. Otherwise it’s romain lettuce with balsamic dressing
The veal was tender but it was not in a limone (lemon) sauce. Instead it was in a tomato sauce that had a taste of lemon. Although my parents are it they said it was not what they were expecting.
They need to understand that when you want Italian it needs to be right Italian and not over priced bad Italian.
On a positive note, our waitress was great and very good at being there when we needed anything. When we informed her that the meal was not good she said she would speak to the manager.
The manager came over (he sounded more French than Italian)!and did listen to our complaints and took off the soup and salad as well as the linguini with clams from our ticket. Which was very nice.
I am giving this review 2 stars only because of the waitress, bread and the manager. I will have to really think hard about even trying this place again.

We decided to stop in Grappa prior to our movie and we sat at the bar and ordered antipasto off the happy hour menu. The menu stated four types of meat, assorted cheeses, artichokes, olives and bruschetta. What we received was deli meat from Subway that consisted of bologna, salami, two slices of cheese (cut into triangles to make it look assorted) and mixed greens?! And they were so kind to offer us the first slice of the day off the hardened bologna log’s nub. It was curling discreetly beneath the salami.
We also ordered fried polenta that tasted like it came from their freezer, topped with canned tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella from a bag. It’s a disappointment because this establishment has the potential in Belmar.
We would have been better off ordering combo meal #3 at the movies.