Il Vicolo

Great place. Little hard to find because it’s off the main road and in the back of the parking lot but overall it’s a good place to go. When you first get there, they give you Italian bread and garlic bread and a plate of cheese and olives… nice touch. We started with the stuffed artichoke hearts appetizer… very good! My husband had the lamb shanks. Portion was huge but good. I had the crabmeat and shrimp ravioli. It was excellent. My son enjoyed his kids chicken fingers and fries. They honored our Groupon coupon and even gave us a free slice of chocolate mousse cake for dessert! It was delicious! Definitely some place I would dine at again.

I think I made a mistake when going to this restaurant by telling them I had a Groupon. From there on out, our service was terrible. Although come to think of it, the bad service started when we arrived for a table and had to wait around awkwardly.
Groupon users beware — you can’t use the Groupon on the price fixed menu. Also, expect to see specials crossed out on their menu in pen — very unprofessional.
Anyway, we waited forever to have our orders taken. I wanted tap water and that took a ridiculous amount of time. The other diners (2) at my table got their drinks while I waited. Eventually, our order was taken. Our appetizer did come out fast, and was good, but then we sat there awkwardly for a long time waiting for our entrees.
At some point, I referenced wanting more bread to one of the people at the table, in front of the server, who conveniently didn’t comment about it or offer any more bread.
Our entrees came out and mine was absolutely not worth the price I paid. For around $ 25, I should have gotten a piece of fish that took me more than a few bites to eat. The side dish was delicious, but there wasn’t much of it.
Here’s where the worst part happened — my meal was supposed to have a sauce on it. It did not. I questioned this and the server apologized and said they’d just run out. He offered an alternate sauce which I accepted. Here’s the thing though — he never mentioned my meal missing the sauce until after I said it. Did he think I wouldn’t notice? Was I just going to be like, oh, cool, this isn’t what I ordered and is totally dry, but that’s cool! The alternate sauce didn’t come until I was halfway done with my meal.
I let the server know I was disappointed and to his credit, he brought us a dessert. I believe it was soaked in some kind of alcohol which is fine except one of the people at the table is a recovering alcoholic who took a bite and was less than thrilled. Not the restaurant’s fault but not great judgment either.
Would I go back? Absolutely not. The food was okay but the service was awful.

The restaurant needs an upgrade. The façade definitely makes it look like a dump, although the food was surprisingly good.
Definitely for the older crowd.
The food was good. We got some bread to start and a small plate that had one pickle and about 5 pieces of cheese that looked like it came from someone elses table or meal first. That was kind of gross.
We had the pasta arrabbiata and the vicolo salad. Both were good, although dont be expecting many toppings on the salad, its mainly just
Lettuce and dressing. The zucchini fries appetizer was very good. The menu was spelled horribly wrong, you would think that they would use spell check.
Its nice that its BYOB, but I doubt we will go back to this restaurant.

VERY busy Sat night, BYOB, all tables full!
For a busy sat night (7:45PM reservations I had) the place was full, after 8PM, it seemed that no new people came in, however considering how busy it was, the staff gave pretty decent service.
My guest & I had a ceasar salad (a little too much dressing) and the ‘almond’ salad (didn’t see any almonds, but looked ok!) decent portion, we then had a crab cake appetizer (delicious) and the fried calamari (I would not order again, I prefer the smaller xalamari’s rings, these were larger and just ok), we then shared a delicious penne vodka.
Crowd is older, with some families, bustling atmosphere, and the prices were VERY reasonable so I can see why the popularity, I’d rate 3.5 stars, and perhaps return another time.

Great restaurant. Never disapointed. We have all our family celebrations there. Great Food. Great Service.

We went here for dinner last night using a
deal. It’s definitely a restaurant for the senior citizen set. We are in our forties and were far and away the youngest patrons there for dinner on a Saturday night
I ordered the coconut snapper. It was well cooked with a bit of sweetness. The veggies on the side were quite bland and over cooked. My partner ordered the chicken vicolo. It was very plain and had little taste. The sauce was watery and veggies were overcooked too
On the positive side, they brought out plates of garlic bread that was excellent along with pickles, cheese and peppers/​onions for the bread. This was all excellent. We asked for more bread and instead they brought a basket of regular Italian bread. I’m sure it was excellent but we didn’t eat it once we discovered the napkin in the basket was covered with lipstick. In addition, both our knives had finger prints on the blades. Eww …
All in all … It’s an Italian restaurant, there’s much better here in NJ. We won’t be back.

We had a rather large gathering here, and they were very well prepared for it. In brief, other than an occasional water glass needing attention, they were right on point. The atmosphere was mostly quiet enough for us to all hear each other, and we had a nice corner of the restaurant. I’ll briefly walk through the food that gave this an overall 4-​star review. It’s very good food, and you’d probably have to spend more to get better. That said, there were high points and low points:
* Bread: Decidedly meh. Not really warm or soft or tasty. The olive oil is infused with rosemary, garlic, and sun-​dried tomatoes but doesn’t taste like much.
* Garlic bread: Much better. The bland bread is a vessel for other flavors.
* Fried calamari: Very good. Not perfect (a bit rubbery), but a very nice, light fried crust on them. Probably my favorite appetizer.
* Balsamic calamari: Interesting idea. Did not try. Many people loved it, though.
* Tomato/​mozzarella: Disappointed in the supermarket-​quality cheese on this one. Expected something softer and more flavorful.
* Baked Brie: This is more of a French dish and tasted like Italians trying to cook something French. Instead of being delicate, it was rather plodding and heavy. The Brie melted and then reformed into clumps. The cranberry sauce was a bit overpowering. The phyllo dough was not doughy enough to withstand the onslaught.
After that came the main course. I ordered the shrimp/​scallop fra diavolo. The menu is written very poorly. Many of the descriptions read like someone wrote it without a firm grasp of English punctuation, word order, or sentence structure. We laughed at many items, and a few were quite confusing. My dish came with three very large shrimp and four moderately sized scallops. Three of the scallops were cooked perfectly. One of the shrimp was a bit fishy tasting, the other two were fine. The sauce was very nice, though underwhelming in the spice department, and the whole dish wanted for a bit more than just seafood, pasta, and sauce. (Herbs? If not some other green accompaniment.) I got a potato croquette on the side, and THAT, let me tell you, is worth the entire experience here. It’s like a crab cake for vegetarians. I could eat an entire meal of just croquettes. I would have them for appetizer and dessert if I came back.
My girlfriend got the tilapia with some sort of breading. I can’t comment too much — she wasn’t impressed, but come on, tilapia is a soulless fish and has as much going for it as Taylor Swift fronting Green Day.
Dessert definitely saved this from any possibility of heading toward 3 stars. I ended up with two because I am savvy and plan these things. The Oreo mousse cake is too sweet and not Oreoey enough, and the caramel sauce tastes like fake caramel. I have no way to know, but if there’s anything artificial about the caramel, that would ruin me on this place. I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I really, really, really hope they’re not squirting Smuckers on stuff in the back.
But the chocolate mousse cake. Oh, the best decision of the night (besides the croquette. Oh, the croquette). Decadent, rich, thick, nice sized slice. It was really the best. Not deep dark chocolate, but very solid and probably the best choice for the chocoholic. (They also have a lava cake, which they were out of, and a chocolate bomb, which is filled with white chocolate. Chocolate purists would be horrified.) I also tried a tira misu, and that was actually enjoyable. I don’t like tira misu as a rule (the rum-​soaked flavor and texture), but this dessert I could actually have made my way through.
A weak four stars, but it made it. I would order specific dishes here. Calamari app, absolutely. I heard raves about the mushroom soup, so maybe try one of the soups. The pasta was good, so I might explore a few more of those entrees. Anything that comes with a croquette, really. If I do go back, it’s gotta be that croquette. #croquette #croquettelife #yelpcroquette

Tried this place tonight. The service is good. The food is better than average.
The place is a bit small, but still ok.

Went here for the first time tonight with my Dad, and while there was nothing to complain about, there is also nothing to recommend. I’ve had much better Chicken Murphy… who ever heard of using thin potato chips in the dish?! My Dad said his Cavatelli and Broccoli Rabe was good, and the desserts were decent, but again nothing special. I did enjoy the guitar player during dinner, which was unexpected at 6:30 on a Friday, and it’s BYO, which is a plus. Overall you can get an acceptable meal here for a fair price, but with so many better Italian restaurants in the surrounding area, I won’t be returning.

Came here after seeing a Groupon ($ 15 for $ 30) and was very pleased. It’s BYOB as well, so grab some nice wine. They started us with complimentary bread, a couple garlic breadsticks and a plate of peppers and onions. We then got the Zuppa di Clams. The clams were very large and the broth had a very good flavor. For entrees we ordered the Penne Milano and the Coconut Snapper. The penne with the roasted peppers and fresh mozzarella was a perfect combination and wasn’t too heavy. The snapper was cooked well but the sauce was too sweet for our tastes. To close, they gave us a complimentary fruit plate (some bananas and melon) and physically brought out a tray to show us desserts (a great selling tactic IMO).
Overall, service was excellent and the atmosphere promoted conversation. Will be going back to try there prix fixe menu at just $ 21/​pp.

Came in a party of four Saturday night. Place was packed. They seated us immediately (unlike another party whose reservation they did not honor and left for another restaurant after waiting 45 minutes). The service was painfully slow, perhaps because of a birthday party of 40 in the other section of the restaurant. 30 min wait for an order of rubbery, pale fried calamari. An additional 40 minutes for our main courses.
The sirloin steak ($ 29) was thin, fatty, and tough. French fries were soggy and cold (they brought me a fresh batch after I’d finished my meal), «seasonal vegetables» were overcooked and soggy. The grilled snapper one of our party ordered was a slab of rubbery, white fish. Other meals were drowning in sauce. Dessert (lemon cake) was tasty but significantly smaller than the «sample» they brought out on a dessert tray. My partner liked the caesar salad; I thought it thrown together with a pile of parmesan cheese on top.
The two owners purportedly give personal, attentive service. I found them brusque and stressed. For example, when we had questions for one of them, the taller of the two, he said, «I think you need more time with the menu,» and disappeared.
The décor is tired and shabby.
Why is this place so popular?

Found this place today while working in Livingston. Went there with my 2 coworkers one who is Italian and is very picky when it comes to Italian food.
We had the ginger calamari and the portobello mushroom, both were quite delicious! Followed by mushroom soup for me and the pasta fa… (However it’s spelled) for my coworker. She loved it as did I. The main courses, pasta for my coworkers, panini for me, were great as well and very filling.
Dessert and cappuccino followed, even though we didn’t know how we could finish it off, we did!
Definitely will come back to this great find. I know my coworkers won’t forget this restaurant and next time they are back in my area I’ll definitely bring them back.
The service was great and the prices are reasonable.
For someone that made a comment that the owners aren’t Italian, I don’t really get why that matters? They truly have great food, Italian or not!

A Hidden Gem!
A friend who lives in the area recommended this place. I really enjoyed the food and service. I have been back a few times and each time everything was perfect. Keep up the good work to the gang at Ilivicolos.

The food is fantastic. The service is fantastic. The prices are fantastic.
This is a neighborhood joint. But, if you are not too far away, you should make the drive.
The crowd is generally older. But, having been here a number of times and always having a good meal, who cares how old others are in the restaurant.
Grilled shrimp, gnocchi bolognaise, tilapia, are just some of the dishes I have had here. All I can say is the price is excellent and the food tastes great.
Recently, we went with 2 other couples. Every single person really liked their food.
When I think of going out to dinner for Italian, without the kids, I always think of Il Vicolo.

We had the filet mignon ravioli which was horrible! The «filet mignon» looked and tasted like ground beef. On top of that, we found multiple hard pieces of what seem to be shells of a clam or some type of shellfish inside of the ravioli. We also had the chicken caprese– which was bland, & not cooked thoroughly in the middle. Not worth my money even with my groupon discount!

I’m pretty surprised at the low ratings — I’ve grown up in Livingston and have been to Il Vicolo numerous times. It’s a great local Italian restaurant — family owned and operated. The location is a bit hidden in a small retail building off of S. Livingston Ave — there is parking but the space is tiny.
The food here is really good. The fresh bread basket and herb olive oil is amazing — but don’t get suckered into eating all the bread — I know from experience — you’ll regret it later.
The pastas are delicious — I’ve gotten the linguine and clams, the linguine frutti de mare (red sauce), the pollo il vicolo (kind of like chicken parm) — all of them were good. The ingredients have always been fresh every time I’ve been there. The seafood pasta comes in both white or red sauce — I love tomato based sauces so I’m skewed to the red sauce. They also have occasionally daily specials for lunch and dinner. The dessert menu is great — try the tiramisu — absolutely amazing.
The interior has a rustic villa feel with peach toned walls and dark wooden tables and accents. There are family pictures adorning the walls and entrance which I feel gives it a nice local/​home-​like vibe. The service is good and the owner is always present checking in on guests and pitching in to help servers and the kitchen. Great neighborhood restaurant and I definitely recommend it for lunch or dinner if you’re in Livingston.

Food is consistently good. Water glass is never empty. It is a byo which i like. They are willing to make substitutions.

I have been going here for years not only have I eaten at the restaurant but have also had food catered for events at my home. I’ve had my son’s baptismal party their as well as my rehearsal dinner. The food has been quite delicious and the prices are very reasonable. They can invest in changing their décor a bit but otherwise a place that I have often recommended to others. The service has always been friendly.
They have a variety of appetizer, main, dessert selections as well! A place definitely worth trying.

I’m only giving this 3 stars but the dessert menu deserves 5 stars.
I no longer eat dinner there because I’m not crazy about the food overall.
However, having said that, the desserts are a reason to go there after dinner and pluck down very few dollars for some outstanding sweets.
A killer light, not overly sweet, tiramisu and the Lemon ricotta cheesecake also light leaves me talking about them at the end.

Went to a rehearsal dinner of a family member here. Horrible service. Promised the bride she would have a space twice as large as they gave her. They double booked the space. Resulting in an incredibly cramped space, that was too loud for the speeches given by bridesmaids and the groom’s father. Food took forever to arrive. They offered chicken fingers for our toddler, instead it was a fried chicken filet that tasted horrible, even the toddler wouldn’t eat it.