Vincenza’s Italian Bakery & Deli

Restaurant needs a deep cleaning, and entrees – although reasonably priced were just average in flavor. Did not want to buy pizza slices from a pizza just sitting out in the open on the counter. Not a germaphobe, but it’s cold and flu season and it’s right by the cash register – where people walk by. Also saw black mold in the reach in freezer in front where I almost bought gelato!

I wanted to love this place because, coincidentally, my name is Vincenza too. My husband brought me up to Wheat Ridge from Colorado Springs specifically to have lunch at this restaurant for my birthday. I grew up with full-​blooded Italian parents who cooked from scratch (and I do too) so I know my way around a kitchen and Italian food. I was sorely disappointed.
My husband ordered chicken parmesan that came with penne pasta and I got the eggplant parmesan subbing out the pasta for broccoli. The chicken was dry and overcooked on the bottom. The eggplant didn’t have a lot of flavor other than the «ragu» sauce. Both entrees were steaming hot (good) but my broccoli was barely warm so the butter I put on it didn’t melt at all. Not sure if bread was supposed to be served because we didn’t get any but the table next to us did.
The interior was dated and not very clean — even our plastic table cloth was sticky. There was an odd smell (not food — kinda like burnt metal) wafting thru the restaurant when we walked in and sat down. Looking up at the exposed ducting above the tables, it was covered with dust. The décor could use some serious updating and the food could use some help as well. (I kept thinking of Robert Irvine and Restaurant: Impossible.) I also had a view of the pizza oven from our booth and, at one point, saw the waitress putting pieces of (frozen?) bread in it with her bare hands (cleanliness?). I have no idea if she’d washed her hands before doing so as she also was taking money at the cash register. She had been pleasant but I don’t think there had been much, if any, training. Also, when a patron says «thank you», it’s nice to hear «you’re welcome» rather than «no problem». Maybe I’m too picky though.
For dessert, a favorite is sfogliatelle and we asked the waitress if they offered it. She said she was new said would go to the kitchen to ask. She returned stating that they didn’t have any that day but the cook/​chef did make it at times. She suggested I go to the bakery counter to see what was available. I did so and found there was a plate full of the sfogliatelle. So, did the waitress just humor us when she said she’d ask about it? Anyway, we ate our dessert and it was pretty good but on the high end of what we’ve paid for sfogliatelle considering the small size.
Overall, my opinion is that the entrée offerings we sampled in this restaurant are not a good representation of authentic Italian food. For tea, coffee, two entrees and four sfogliatelle, the bill was over $ 50 not including tip which is pretty steep for a lackluster lunch. Sadly, we will not be returning.

I’m not sure why this place is rated at 3 stars right now, we enjoyed our meal at Vincenza’s! They serve you bread with your meal and it’s their fresh bread that they make in house.
We ordered a dish of meatball sandwich and a dish of tortellini pasta with rage and pesto sauce. Both dishes tasted great and were fairly priced. The kids menu had a balance of pasta and other typical kids foods. The staff and friendly and attentive.
They also offered a deal on Unilocal for a free macaroon if you check in. Also, there was a deal for $ 35 credit for $ 20, so you can’t lose with that!
The front counter displays a large of amount of sweets, including canoli’s and gelato.

This place came highly recommended, but we were slightly dissappointed. The atmosphere isn’t the best. We went on a Saturday around 2, there were more dirty tables than tables with customers at them.
We got the grilled garlic cheese bread, which was very good. The red sauce was good, it had a nice tang to it. My wife ordered the meatball sub and I got the Fettuccine Alfredo. The meatballs were hard and really not very edible. The Alfredo was alright, it was a bit bland and would have benefited from a dash of salt.
The server took the sub off the bill and offered us some pastries to make up for it. The cookies and cannolis were good.
We will probably be back, but the food wasn’t as great as we had heard this time.

I have been here at least 5 times. The food is pretty good but the place is bland and the wait staff is untrained and ignorant. If you plan to use a coupon be sure to explain it slowly to the waitress. While eating noticed the kitchen staff grabbing several beers to drink. don’t want to leave when they do. Never ever have I seen pizza. they are always out. The bakery is good but really overpriced. Go to the German bakery in old town Arvada.

Had the unfortunate happenstance to stumble in here for lunch. The most ridiculous menu I have ever seen, serves meatballs but NO spaghetti??? Very pricey and disjointed menu. Waitress was absolutely terrible couldn’t figure out how to bring a glass of water… seriously. The owner is an obese, smelly and crude little fellow with dubious hygiene. Noticed the place was filthy and smelled bad. Left without ordering… STAY AWAY!!!

Nice place to eat
Wait staff: Nice enough, but in my opinion they don’t seem to check up on your table that often.
Ambiance: Meh. Could be better, but still cozy. BEWARE OF FLIES! People have complained about the flies and I agree! Nothing worse than a fly on my bread!
Food: Tasty! Big portions, so you may want to split an entrée. The minestrone soup is a little bit salty!
Dessert food: I find that the chocolate dipped cheesecake is as dry as the Sahara! The gelato is pretty much frozen to the point you can barely eat it, but it has a nice flavor. Go with the lobster tail cream puff when the have it! A bit soggy on the bottom, however, it is fluffy and sweet!
All in all, you could do better but if you don’t want to order delivery or drive to Cinzettis this is the middle ground.

What a great place! Greg, the owner gave us a tour since it was our first time in. what a nice guy. Great food, bread to die for. I took a loaf home. Great prices. I am always looking for my favorite restaurant, and when it comes to Italian, this is it.

Amazing food as always! By far the best Italian restaurant in Colorado and I’ve tried them all. Great neighborhood place and family friendly.

Had a reservation for 18 people on October 15, 2015, Celebrating a new adoption to our family. Was told we would have our own room. Great! When we went in they took us through 2 seating areas, through a bakery, into a back STORAGE room. What a disgrace! They should never have seated us here. It was a dirty, dusty, old bar, storage room. Our reservation was for 11 am and they were not crowded at all — they could have seated us at a few tables in the dining room. I guess we should have spoke up, our mistake. But the food was very good and the service was excellent.
One other problem was we had ordered a cake. When we wanted to take it home, they had no box — Really, it is a bakery. We did cut it in half and it fit into two smaller boxes.
If you are planning a party don’t go to this restaurant you will be embarrassed if you are hosting

I’ve heard good things about this place so I was excited to give it a try. My first impression was that it need a lot of TLC but I was here to eat, not judge the state of the place.
My friend and I both ordered the special of the night which was Rigatoni in a spicy cream sauce with sausage. The food itself was ok but I couldn’t enjoy my food because I was too busy swatting flies and gnats off my food, it got to the point that I finally had to push my plate away because flies had landed on my food so many times that I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.
But on a positive note, our server was very attentive and friendly.
Sad to say but I don’t see myself ever going back there.

My parents love this place but frankly I don’t see the appeal. The dining area is small and cramped. The little old man crooning big band hits was kind of cute, but the music was so loud that I couldn’t carry on a conversation with anyone else at the table. I ordered the house special eggplant parmigiana. It was edible, but pretty bland and boring. This is what they consider one of their best dishes? Also, it was served luke warm on a cold plate and they way they were blasting the air conditioner that night, it was stone cold after the first couple bites. Service was okay but not particularly friendly or prompt.
On the upside, there was a Unilocal check-​in deal for a free macaroon with any purchase and I must say that macaroon was pretty darned good. I think this place should stick to being a bakery and forget about the restaurant part of things.

I love their tortellini Genovese and all of their pasta dishes look amazing. My husband enjoyed his lasagna, and I got manicotti on my second trip, which was also very tasty. This is a great family-​run restaurant.
I will say that I prefer the sweet baked goods at another close-​by Italian bakery much better. The pasta dishes here are most excellent for takeout!

Food was great — Service was atrocious! Our waiter, young man, tall with glasses was horrible, hence why he received a tip that reflected his level of service.
After flagging him down after we placed our order, to add a cup of soup, his question us with an abrupt «Do you want something?» He never checked on us after our entrees were served. I tried to get his attention in hopes of ordering another glass of wine but, he was too busy texting on his phone and making himself a root beer float to pay attention to us. We had to eat our dinner surrounded by empty bread and oil plates, empty water bottle, empty soup bowl, and all other dishes that had accumulated pre-​entrée. We never did get anymore water and were unable to ask for more as he never came back.
When we went to the counter to pay our bill and select some pastries to take home for desert, he was too busy talking to the other staff about who was going to take the large party that walked in, to even focus on his customer that was standing in front of him. When I finally got his attention to get my last pastry, a Raspberry Twist (one of my favs), I asked him to select one that was not too burnt on the bottom. He quickly told me «I can’t taste the burnt part so they’re fine.»
Needless to say, he received a $ 2 cash tip on our table. To top of the evening, as we were walking to our car, he hit the window at us. Yes, there were customers inside just feet away from him.
All in all, we have enjoyed the food here for many years but the service is going downhill. Might be time to find a new local Italian place…
Oh yeah, as we tried to call in to speak with a manager or owner, the phone range busy for a long time after.

Great bread & Italian pastries
Ordered Lasagna but they were out — wot Italian restaurant runs out of lasagna by 3pm — not good. Some pizzas were also not available because «one of the cooks didn’t show up». Not good.
Manicotti was ok, sauce was ok.
Warm & cozy dining area.
Good, friendly service.
I’ll return for the pastries, cookies & bread but not so sure about eating there.

Vincenza’s has the setting to be a trusted neighborhood ethic eatery: it’s in the Italian part of town, nestled in a residential neighborhood, and it’s old. The painting, décor, bathrooms, tables and chairs, silverware… all indicate it’s been in business for a long time. So that’s promising! Plus they’re rolling out deals every which way (hopefully this indicates business is good, not the other way around).
We stepped foot in the restaurant at 2 on a Saturday afternoon, there were still quite a few diners. Going towards the baked goods counter, we were immediately attracted to the Pizza Grossa in its entirety, it’s so huge it almost looked fake! As soon as we were seated (it’s open seating which I liked) I said I wanted to try a slice of that pizza! As if she knew we were so hungry we couldn’t possibly even wait for them to reheat a slice of pizza, the lady server said she’ll bring us some bread, sweet! The basket of sliced ciabatta was brought out warm with a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I was in bread heaven! It’s one of the best ciabatta I’ve had in years! Was it just because I was super hungry? Read on!
My plan was for hubby to order the Italian Sausage Sandwich which was voted Westword’s best in its category. And on top of my pizza, I’ll add an order of 3 meatballs. But why would he listen to my plan, right? He said he wanted the Half and Half pasta dish. At the same time my pizza was ready and in my face. We were shocked again! A single slice is probably twice as big as a New York style slice and those are usually big slices! So forget about 3 meatballs, we just ordered the pasta with one added meatball.
The pizza was a nice vegetarian option, but I think they overcooked the spinach. I see it now, dough is their specialty. I would just ask for more marinara sauce, twist off parts of the crust so I can dip it. Their marinara sauce is different than what I’m used to from Americanized Italian restaurants (think Olive Garden). It’s not quite as red and sweet, more on the orange and savory side. The Half and Half pasta consisted of half linguini and half cheese filled ravioli. Nothing too special. But the meatball is! Again, it’s different from a typical western meatball, definitely denser.
Everything was hunky dory until I went to pay for the food. I did mention when I ordered that I’d like to take some baked goods home. The lady server kept asking what I wanted, but you see, I wanted to use my Living Social voucher to pay for lunch and ask hubby to pay for take-​outs with his Unilocal check-​in offer which is a free macaroon with any purchase! Our food came to a perfect $ 20 before tax and tip, yet I was told in order to use the $ 20 Living Social voucher, it has to be over $ 20 with tax. You see where the conflict is? It’s as simple as just paying the $ 1.34 tax out of pocket and I was prepared to do that! But no, she did something to the register and I was charged $ 3.70 which includes tax and a drink that I never got! I insisted she was wrong, she insisted I don’t understand. After a while, the guy that seems to be the owner came in and solved everything. Turned out I was right! Of course she gave me unfriendly looks but that’s OK, that’ll be the reason to keep me from coming back.
Hubby dropped another $ 20 on baked goods, we’re not cheap people, just playing by the rules! I didn’t see any cannolis (probably all sold out, bummers) but I knew I wanted the pignolis, they’re so good! The elephant ear is one big pastry but not with a lot of flavor. The short bread like ricotta cookie dipped in chocolate and the macaroon are both OK. The 3 colored rainbow cookies are soft and almond-​y, my new favorite! Of course I got a loaf of ciabatta too, even after 2 days at home, it’s still good, so it wasn’t just because I was hungry! ;-)

Looks like a hole-​in-​the-​wall, but the inside is cute and cozy. We arrived for an early dinner (so early that we were the only ones there), and the waiter was so friendly he bordered on being officious. We enjoyed the lasagna with Italian sausage and the linguine with a homemade meatball. The flavors were simple but delicious, with the linguine yielding enough for two full meals. We picked up some raspberry twists (not sure what they’re really called) on the way out and weren’t disappointed! Worth a shot if you’re in the neighborhood.

It all started on a Sunday afternoon when we decided to have ravioli for dinner at home.
Called Vincenza’s and asked: «Do you sell frozen ravioli?» and was told: «Yes.» Good. Off we went.
Bought a baguette. It is very tasty. Happy.
Bought a raspberry twist for tomorrow’s breakfast. (Slightly burnt on the bottom. OK.)
Got a free macaroon for checking in with Unilocal.Yea!
Friendly people.
But, the pound of frozen (not made there) ravioli was $ 15.
They ripped us off and that will discourage us from ever going there again.
By comparison, Tony’s charges $ 6 for John’s Ravioli and St Kilian’s has fancy ravioli for $ 11.

I stopped in for macaroons for a dinner party. I’d had them once before and remembered them being moist and delicious.
This time was no different. They were really fresh and totally hit the spot. I did try the rainbow cookie and it was so dry, it fell apart. I’ll stick with the macaroons even though they are not gluten free.

In my life-​long quest for good Italian Subs, I stopped in and had the Meatball.
It was tasty and filling. Bread was on the modest size… I would rather have sauce on the sandwich– rather than on the side, but it was a good one, nonetheless.
The mandatory chips on the side is something I have a hard time with…“If I want em’ I will buy em” is my philosophy on chips.
Very nice people, overall!