Sweet Basilico Italian Cuisine

As I’m looking for a restaurant in the middle of January in Estes Park at 8:30pm, I find one place. As I’m walking into Sweet Basilico I notice an older Italian man who greets me. I gently ask if they’re closing soon as I’m courteous of trying to get a meal right when a place is closing. He proceeds to tell me that he will serve me dinner anytime whether it be 8:30pm or 9pm. (exactly when they were closing) We share a laugh and I offer a multitude of thanks! He then tells me that he will be there until midnight and that I have 3 hours to enjoy my dinner. I ordered the tortellini alla panna. ($ 16) Quite possibly my favorite meal to date in Estes Park. After finishing my meal I check the time and notice it’s 8:55pm. I cash out, walk to the counter and shake the mans hand and thank him again for serving me such a delicious meal. I can’t say enough about this fine establishment. And as I sat quietly, enjoying my meal, I noticed Alanis Morissette playing in the background. #Perfection

Delicious comfort food and warm service! We’re visiting and were delighted to find comfort Italian food. This restaurant serves classics that don’t disappoint especially when coming in from the cold. We will certainly come back.

The pizza crust was perfectly moist inside with that perfect crisp on the outside and then the pasta sauce… yummmm. My wife, mom and I were impressed with the ambiance and service. I was planning my perfect review before we left and then our car didn’t start in their parking lot. The owner noticed and then demanded we keep our car in his lot, gave us a ride back to our resort and plans to pick us up in the morning. Wow! A true class meal, and staff.

Great atmosphere, lots of options on the menu, very cute and warm family-​style Italian restaurant with fantastic food!

Great service, great pizza! We always get the Pesto artichoke pizza and have never been disappointed. But I had to take one star off for their bathrooms… The last few times we’ve been there, The ladies room has been stinky and the soap dispenser is broken or something.

It’s been hard finding a really good Italian pizza in Estes park. (My family is from NY) I know good pizza! This was the best cheese pizza I’ve had yet! I highly recommend this place for a good cheese pizza

Good food. Nice waitress. Small portions.
Value not great. Not bad for this tourist trap of a town.

We recently dined here on our vacation. My husband wanted Italian and this is what came up. The wait time we were quoted was accurate and our server was very nice. The food was flavorful, but not the best ever and the portions were a bit small. Also, the interior of the restaurant seemed a bit dirty.
Would probably go back, but not first choice

Don’t really have anything bad to say. The food was okay. Not out of this world but okay. The service was really slow and the staff seemed almost disinterested. Maybe the problem was that we had received 2 referrals for here with statements of how great it was. Guess it raised our expectations too high as it was just okay. Will not personally return on future visits but it is worth a visit to determine on your own.

Great food! Service was also great. We got our salads super fast and the rolls were nice and warm!

Wanted to love this place, as I love an old style Italian joint but it didn’t really make the cut. Wine was good a Col di Sasso blend and reasonably priced. Homemade rolls were very good. The meatballs were just ok, the red sauce mediocre and had a ring of water under the angel hair pasta from not being drained well. The pasta was way overcooked on both dishes, basically mush. The red sauce with Bay Shrimp was decent but couldn’t save the experience. Overall it was ehh…

Our service was great. The food was great and quick. The atmosphere is not great, but ok. Reminded me of a Pizza Hut.
I would recommend for anyone wanting good food at a good price.

Atmosphere is nice inside, but we sat outside — beautiful setting at night with river running next to patio. Staff was especially nice and our meal was made with fresh sauce. The prices were reasonable. We really enjoyed it.

This little Italian place in Estes is highly recommended! Everyone loved their meal and you receive perfect sized portions. Here’s what we all got with our own personal ratings:
Risotto Melanese– ¹⁰⁄₁₀. I was the only one not to finish my meal since my portion was a little bit bigger. Leftovers!
Lasagna Bolognaise– ⁸⁄₁₀. Delicious sweet red sauce and covered in melted cheese.
Shrimp Divolo– ⁷⁄₁₀ and ⁸⁄₁₀. One person felt it wasn’t spicy enough.
Especially Katlynn– ¹⁰⁄₁₀ and ⁹⁄₁₀. Fantastic lemon wine sauce.
Salads and minestrone soup were both excellent. We also had fried raviolis, which were good, but nothing special. Calamari was great!
Our waitress had no problem giving us separate checks! I originally rated this with 5 stars because I liked it so much, however the service was EXTREMELY slow.

Fabulous food, friendly staff and an owner that cared enough to make sure we got seated immediately… Wouldn’t hesitate recommending this place!

Probably one of the best tasting seafood diavolo dishes I’ve had in a very long time. It was very flavorful and spicy; just how I like it. If you’re afraid of garlic, then order something else. The fried calamari was good too. The side salad was blah. The house Italian dressing was homemade and was okay — a little blah too, but heavier on the red wine vinegar side, which I personally liked. The restaurant is kind of old and countrified on the inside but the service was very fast and very friendly. The prices are a tad too high for the portion size and presentation. However, everything tasted very good.

Eggplant and pizza was great, wait staff were good, Pinot noir was surprisingly good, the prices are an excellent value… just stay out of the restrooms, OMG gas station bathrooms are cleaner, yikes. Skip the cannoli

The food was pretty good. The pizza we got was soggy but not terrible. It was the service and atmosphere that ruined it for is. We sat in the covered patio, which was really a gross tent with storage that they added a few tables to. The waitress was flighty and didn’t give us water until we asked for times. She left the room three times in the middle of our order. She kept messing things up, and instead of apologizing, she was passive aggressive about it. The food wasn’t good enough for me to want to go back.

Very cute and cozy Italian Restaurant in Estes Park.
We ordered one meal to split and very happy we did since the Chicken Parmesan portion was large and came with salad or soup, homemade bread, and spaghetti. Splitting a meal is the way to go.
Good Service, family environment, friendly staff and excellent Homemade Cannoli.

I was up in Estes Park for a retreat and used Sweet Basilico’s group take out to accommodate our 14 ladies. We ordered a full salad and a full pan of the Chicken Pomodori. The website indicates that a full pan feeds 15 – 20 but we were all women and had almost no leftovers of the chicken. We had tons of salad left so that probably feeds 15 – 20 more realistically. Everything was delicious! The salad was full of vegetables– not just a boring typical salad. The chicken pomodori is a wine and olive oil based dish (not marinara) but it also comes with a ton of fantastic and colorful vegetables– asparagus, broccoli, artichokes, etc. It was wonderful. There are only 3 choices for salad dressing and I asked for all 3 since I didn’t know what the ladies would prefer. The dressing cups were pretty small for a large salad, so I’d recommend asking for extra.
The staff was super helpful and carried all of the containers out to my car for me and made sure they were properly situated to avoid spills.
It’s definitely a terrific option if you don’t feel like going out but don’t want to cook for a large group.