Vittoria Trattoria

Came here for my boyfriends birthday last weekend, and we had phenomenal food and service! The interior of this place is beautiful, white table cloths, brick walls and tasteful décor (paintings on the walls, plants, candle lighting). Our waiter was friendly, attentive, and gave great wine pairings for the entrees. BF got the steak which was cooked to perfection, and came with these great mashed potatoes that he was raving about throughout the meal! I got the veal marsala which was delicious– a very generous portion of meat plus potatoes and zuchinni! We loved it here and are reccomending to everyone.

Amazing Cacciatore Pizza! Loved the preparation, taste and overall experience at the place.
Our attendant too was very courteous and warm.
Good job!

After a tiring day setting up for a trade show this past weekend myself and 4 others trotted over to Vittoria Trattoria for a night out!
We had made reservations and had to wait 5 minutes upon arrival (we were early) to be seated.
Our table was upstairs and it was lovely. Our server, Nick was great, very attentive and patient.
We made our selections, 3 apps, a bottle of white a glass of red, 5 beautifully presented mains, 3 desserts and 4 coffees.
Nick recommended a red to pair with my veal — excellent choice.
The appetizers were fantastic! BF and I ordered the spinach and artichocke dip, and it was wonderful, served with pita chips and crispy baguette slices, Mum had the Caprese sales, which was beautifully plated! It was a tomato, cut into slices and put back together with bocconcini, arugula and a balsamic dressing in between each layer of tomato! Super cute :)
Friend had the bruschetta and holy moly was it ever fantastic! Baguette it was served on was soft yet thick, and the falvour of the bruschetta was amazing — like I’ve never had before!
I had the Veal Chop — a 12oz chop of veal with a pesto rub — cooked medium with a gnocchi in a chipotle cream sauce — it was to die for! Cooked perfectly and absolutely fantastic! My BF had the Fenghi e Pancetta — penne, pancetta and mushrooms in a brandy rose sauce — he loved it (so did I, ahha)! Friend had the Alla Nonna — penne with grilled chicken and veg in a sherry parm sauce, she really enjoyed it (and I had a taste too, it was delicious!) and my aunt and mother both order the same dish — can’t find it on the menu to save my life, but it was veal with linguini in a white sauce — they weren’t so keen on the veal itself, said it was very chewy.
A few of us split dessert, the raspberry gellato was excellent and the crème brûlée was fantastic. Coffee for many of us, also lovely.
Nick, our server was very kind when it came to bill time, and adjusted accordingly given mum and aunt’s distaste for their meals.
All in all, fantastic experience, service was absolutely wonderful, and most of the meals were superb!

Food tasted good. I wanted the sausage burger but it was no longer available. I settled instead for penne with eggplant and cherry tomatoes. It was a good choice. Had some wine with it. It was really good and the service was fast and friendly. Good option when you want to eat something else than pub food in the byward market.

Decent food, but our pizza was kind of burnt. Overall though, the salmon pasta was a good meal and a decent size proportion
Service however was really spotty. We got a cloudy dish of olive oil, and the waiter looked bothered when we asked for a new dish. Granted, it was busy, but it never felt like our waitress paid much attention to our table, by this end of it leaving the debit machine at our table for us to pay and not picking it up for another five minutes. Overall only decent.

Went due to previous high reviews. The whole restaurant was really crowded on a Wednesday night. We had made a reservation, but due to the table ahead of us taking longer than expected, we ended up sitting at the bar for 20 minutes or so. We didn’t mind, and the bartender was attentive (the bar was also very well stocked, and the wine list is quite extensive). When we got seated, we were on the upper level, right under a big sky light. It would be a nice place for a date, and there were a lot of bigger family groups as well (5+ people). We ordered the Vittoria pizza (nice thin crust, goat cheese and red onion, and lots of prosciutto), the smoked salmon pasta (rave reviews for the sauce and the quantity of salmon), and the pescatore pasta. We also split the curry mussels as a starter (delicious sauce, but very messy!) and one of my party had the garden salad (simple, but the dressing was delicious). The food was all quite good, maybe not the most adventurous, but probably bound to please most people. We also had a round of drinks to start (beer and a couple glasses of wine) then ordered a bottle of wine, which was unfortunately a bit warm and had to chill in an ice bucket before drinking. Still, we had a great time– the only reason I’m giving 4 stars is because I felt that the whole experience wasn’t quiiiite worth the price. If you’re going, make a reservation (even midweek!)

We were going back and forth between a 3 or a 4. We settled on the 3, barely.
The greeting at the front desk was fun and seemingly set the mood for a great evening. We found them engaging and personal. Overall our waiter was ‘pretty’ good. He had his great moments of superb customer service going above and beyond with recommendations and guidance, and then there were the times that we were so engaged in conversation, that it seemed we were inconveniencing him but not being ready to order.
Nothing fancy this evening. A couple of bowls of minestrone. It was tasty but at first it did not taste like a true minestrone, more of tomato soup; however, it did leave a nice little kick of heat though.
The Arrabiata penne was superb. A wonderful zesty sauce that left a wonderful ‘buzz’. To kick it up the Habanero infused oil was a great addition.
WE also had the Sophie pizza. Nothing special here. Crust was okay, toppings were a little sparse
Overall an enjoyable outing but I have to say I would not rush back for a second visit.

Based on the recommendation of a family member, I tried the escargot with the corn bread as an appetizer. Delicious. Garlicky, but not too garlicky. For my main, I went with the chicken parm, a true test to the quality of any Italian restaurant. Serving the chicken parm topped with the traditional marinara atop a bed of linguine with pesto was a power play. Not at all what I was expecting, but pleasantly surprised. The color clashing also made for a nice presentation. I didn’t get dessert, but the two people I went with were respectively enthralled with their gelato and tiramisu.
The service was spot on, to the point where our water glasses were almost never empty. Same goes for the second experience. (I had to go back to try the wood fired pizza.) On that go-​around, we started with the anitipasta salad, shared two different pizzas and all left impressed.
Prices are a little steep, but the quality of the food make them worthwhile. The complimentary bread, however, didn’t wow me.

I’ll start by saying that upscale Italian restaurants aren’t exactly my thing, especially ones that have been around for a while. Usually I find them fairly overpriced and pretentious, and the ones that have been around for a while have a habit of relying on reputation to the detriment of quality and imagination but some gift certificates convinced me to give Vittoria Trattoria a try and it ended up being very nice.
We arrived on time for our reservation and received a very nice reception, despite not exactly looking the part of a Vittoria Trattoria customer. We got the menus and my girlfriend perused the appetizers while I pretended to know what I was doing with the wine list, as it turns out the servers actually know about wine, so that helped. I ended up ordering a very nice and perfectly affordable bottle of Pinot Grigio (I sorta know my wine types) while team appetizer picked a very nice mix board of cheese, cured meats and vegetables.
For main course I had a very nice herd salmon with vegetables. It was cooked to a perfection with an almost creamy/​smooth texture with very nice vegetables. My girlfriend had a seafood pasta dish that she said was amazing, the scallops (something that are really easy to screw up) were cooked to perfection while the shrimp were juicy and flavourful, they certainly don’t rest on their laurels when it comes to quality.
The waitress was very attentive and very helpful, quick to answer any questions we had while we never waited too long for the next course or any extra service. I was very impressed with everything, although I am not sure I could justify spending full price on the meal compared to other fancy restaurants in the city.

Overview:
Service 3.5÷5
Atmosphere ⁴⁄₅
Food 4.5÷5
Came here for Valentine’s day with my date and I was quite satisfied but not blown away.
So I made a reservation for two (obviously) and it was kinda weird because they took us to this isolated room filled with at least ten other parties of two, all on Valentine’s Day dates. Wasn’t sure if I enjoyed that atmosphere, but my date did.
The service was ok, for a place like this. It’s much better than other places I’ve been to, but I had high expectations for an Italian restaurant. Our server was somewhat friendly, but didn’t impress me one bit. I feel pretty neutral about the service.
The food was very good though. I had a pesto pasta (sorry I can’t remember the exact name) which was very good. My date had a different pasta with chicken (sorry can’t remember the name either) that was amazing. The chicken was so moist and cooked to perfection. Overall very satisfied by the food.
Price was not cheap, not expensive for this kind of restaurant.

Fantastic group dinner! We had a party of 10 so we were able to reserve their wine Cellar private room. Great space for the group to have fun without disturbing others.
The whole group enjoyed their dinner and one persons said the Penne with Prosciutto was one of the best things she’s ever had! Strong wine list that was not outrageously priced. It was a long meal. While we were not in a rush it still took a little too long at 3 hours.
You’ll enjoy this place!

Very delicious food, quite romantic atmosphere, a bit pricy but worth it, they were kind enough to provide a birthday cake on the house

3.5 out of 5.
I came here with a group of 7, and they put us in the wine room, which was pretty cool.
Overall the service was great, atmosphere was good and food was good (not great, not bad). I ordered their special which was bay scallops with a cream based chipotle sauce. It was good.
I wasn’t blown away by anything and I’d have to go back and try some new stuff to see if anything does blow my mind.
It is solid Italian food, and I’d come back again.

My wife and I dropped in without a reservation early Saturday evening. We were seated after been asked if it was OK if they had the table back in a couple of hours. We accepted and I’m glad I did. I had the special of pea soup followed by lamb with bell peppers and fettuccine. My wife had the Caprese salad and cannelloni. Its been a long time since we’ve enjoyed Italian food as much as this. Service was polite prompt and unobtrusive which in my book is exactly how it should be. Recommended.

Could be five stars but it needs to be slightly larger space-​wise and service could be a little more timely. That aside, what a delicious meal. One of the best spinach artichoke dips I’ve had in my years, and I’ve had tons. Plus, I’m a huge fan of pesto and having fettuccine in pesto sauce with my chicken parm was just excellent. Wish Zi had still had room for dessert. Easy walk from Westin/​convention center in the Byway market area. Good choice but call ahead for reservation

We have eaten here three times and the service and the food has always been the best.

I went for dinner here on Sunday after friends of mine raved about this place. So I came in with high hopes. I started off my meal with a glass of wine (the waitress brought me the wrong one I found out when I got my bill), and the curry mussels. The mussels were really under cooked and not all of them had opened. The sauce was good, but I was super disappointed and kinda grossed out. It was sent back to the kitchen and removed from my bill. My boyfriend had the escargots, and those were really good! The portion size was great too. It came with cornbread, which was not gluten free, so I couldn’t taste that. I had gluten free buns/​biscuits which were more like rock hard hockey pucks. Next came the entrees. My bf and our 2 friends all ordered the Funghi e Pancetta pasta dish. They said it was good, not phenomenal, but good and the portion looked a little small but was actually filling. I had the veal marsala which the kitchen said they could make gluten free. It was really good. The sauce was well seasoned, the potatoes well cooked and the veal tender. Good portion size as well.
Now for the service. Our waitress was slow, quiet and meek, and barely came around to see how we were doing. Another waiter came around to fill our water glasses and seemed quite nice.
Overall, I was a little disappointed, but that’s because of the mussels and the service. Otherwise the escargots and veal marsala were really good. I will go back and give this place another try, but might avoid mussels next time. Also
this place offers gf options like gluten free penne so for a celiac like me this is a great find.

Came here completely out of the blue, and I had a great time! I had the chicken breast and my girlfriend had the veal Marsala.
Both our dinners were very delicious.
The service was half decent. Our waitress didn’t say much, she never even introduced herself. Besides that, the experience was nice, and the wine list was half decently priced.
Would definitely come back here, but will make sure to make a reservation next time.

Fabulous. Expensive. Thank goodness for gift certificates!
The staff was very knowledgeable and attentive (we had at least 3 servers come by our table). Great ambiance and atmosphere, as previous reviewers state.
For our experience, we were finally cashing in a gift certificate, which was great. The waiter provided that he was a somelier, but didn’t make any suggestions so he wasn’t pushy — but he should have said something! He was willing to change things on the menu for mysatisfaction, and then didn’t say that he’d be charging extra for this privilege. I tried the veal marsala, and my husband had pasta with chicken. The veal was tasty and tender, but my husband’s chicken was slightly spicy, which surprised him. It would have been nice to know that his meal would be prepared with paprika before he ordered it… I won’t be in a hurry to go back, mostly for the cost, so for these reasons, only a 4 star.

This is an exceptionally goot Italian restaurant in the Byward Market, one I will go to even though I have a hard time getting excited about Italian food (because, for most of my life, it was represented more-​or-​less exclusively by mediocre pizza/​pasta dishes).
The food at Vittoria Trattoria is worth getting excited about. Everything we’ve tried here has been just delicious. The service is courteous and professional and the wine has always been good enough to match the food.
We’ve also been here with a group of about 20 people and they were perfectly able to accomodate us, giving us a private room on the second floor and offering a set of menu choices that didn’t make us feel like we were being punished for being in a big group.
The biggest thing Vittoria Trattoria has going against it is its slightly higher prices — when we’re looking to spend that much we’re typically heading to Murray Street because it’s our favourite. On the other hand if you’re not looking for multiple courses or you share an appetizer you can easily keep it under $ 30/​person here.
With a pickier eater or with a bigger group, though, this is a very solid choice for a nice lunch or dinner in the Byward Market. We’ll have to try their brunch sometime soon.