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Vitos Ristorante Pizzeria (Italian cuisine)  $

 7.5
JaT Rating

39974 Cedar Blvd, Newark, 94560  (Directions)


510-440-8010


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Italian pizzeria that also offers a variety of Italian dishes as well.


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 738
Reviewed: 7/22/2005
Rating: 8
My photo gallery 		Vitos was a wishlist request and since it was fairly close to my destination tonight, I decided to take a look. Its a nice clean, large family run establishment it seems. Very family-friendly as well. The entrance sports a huge pizza joint counter and feels like a crowded New York City pizzeria. There is a side exit, however, to a family style Italian restaurant. It was a weird dichotomy seeing both of these in the same restaurant.

The pizza was what I had to try, but I wanted an appetizer so went for some Mozzerella sticks. They were gooey, big chunks of cheese, wider than normal, with a crispy fried outside. Very good. I think I would have preferred ranch dressing tho, to the red sauce. I'm sure I could have asked the friendly waitress for ranch, but just enjoyed them plain as well.

The pizza arrived (a large cheese) and we went to work on it. The entire thing felt kind of like a Costco pizza in heft (which is a GREAT thing for me), but of course the ingredients were a little higher quality. It wasn't exactly the thin New York style I was familiar with, but was a nice homage to NY style. I think it was a grade above my oft-visited 'New York Pizza' in Fremont, but in a nice family-friendly destination.

I could see myself returning here, and sampling the large Italian menu. I was prepared to knock them down heavily, being that your view out the window is of a car wash, and the neighbor is a liquor store. Come on, this is a nice restaurant location, but damn, their food is decent. In another location, I think they would do a lot better. In the meantime, I can just have my chair face the wall.
 
  RETURN VISIT for Terry! 9/23/2006 - 7 Rating: My wife wanted Italian and had heard great things about Vitos. I was eager to give them another try, as I had the pizza last time and it was pretty good. I figured their italian food was probably pretty decent too.

I went with the seafood pescadore this time. We also got some breadsticks for appetizer. The breadsticks arrived first. Just your basic breadsticks, nothing special. A lot of butter on them, a bit flavorless. I probably wouldn't order again. I guess they taste like your standard pizza place breadstick.

I went with clam chowder with my meal (included soup or salad). Wow, this really blew me away! This is some of the best clam chowder I have had. I guess it was your standard soup mixture, but tossed a bunch of raw clams and veggies in the mix as well (as you can see from the pileup on top of the soup. If returning here, you must try this.

The seafood pescatore was unimpressive. The noodles were tender and the sauce was good for the first few bites, but got old quick. The shrimps were very obviously frozen and I could only eat one of them before pushing them aside. The tomatoes in the mixture was a nice touch. Immitation crab was stirred in, and that just didn't go with the dish at all. I removed them. I got leftovers to take home this time as I only could eat half of the dish.

My wife finished the leftovers and thought the dish was really good, so maybe I am just completely off base here - it just didn't appeal to me. I would return again, but will probably stick to the pizza next time unless I hear any other suggestions from jatbarers.
 
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