Viva Restaurant

This restaurant offers one of the best values in North Beach.
The food is excellent.
Adding to your dining experience is the friendly service at this family owned eatery as well
as a wonderful mural art by the talented artist Vranas.

There once was a time when Viva was a solid dining choice. That’s just not the case anymore.
What was once a favorite spot for their meatballs, is now about stale bread & bland food.
The competition is fierce in this neighborhood. There’s about a hundred restaurants to choose from. So it’s especially a shame when a restaurant is mediocre at best. Serving less than solid fare is basically insulting, right? The zeitgeist of today is gourmet & food obsessed. We take more pics of our meals than we do of our loved ones. We Unilocal.In today’s world, a restaurant just cannot afford to serve bad food.
I’m certain that Viva is surviving on tourists.
They do deliver. But I can’t recommend this place.
One star.

Probably the best plate of pasta I’ve ever had in San Francisco. It was hot and flavorful and had that perfect «al dente» texture. Fast and friendly service but it was early for lunch and the place was practically empty. I would like to try Viva again someday soon.

The food is good and decent priced considering the location but we had a terrible experience with the male waiter. I asked him if the salmon pasta had cooked or smoked salmon and he was so rude and condescending towards me– nearly laughing at my simple question.
The food came quickly but when we asked the waiter to split our bill he responded unbelievably rudely and said ‘you should’ve told me before, this makes things really difficult.’ Aside from that he had a foul mood the entire time and acted like us being there was an inconvenience.
If this establishment wants reviews that are higher than just average I suggest they hire better help. The chef was a sweetheart though — you could tell he knew what he was doing.
The food tastes nice but I wouldn’t return given the bad service alone.

I used to worked here as a Food Deliver guy, The Boss Takis is honest man, it was happy family management.
My favorite food was, Chicken Pasta Alfredo.
and of course I miss Gyros Platter!

Their delivery service is terrible. It’s always late, the food often arrives semi cold. They also lack consistency in how they cook their food. One time it would be great, the next time barely edible. The garlic bread is often overcooked and inedible.

Disappointing. This is the first time I tried Viva since it’s new ownership, which has been a long time I guess.
I used to LOVE their pizza, but now it’s just not very good. The ingredients have changed and it was blah. The sausage isn’t what it used to be, now it looks like little pre-​frozen balls of meat. And even the pepperoni didn’t have much flavor.
I’m not sure what their other menu items are like. And we did not go inside, we ordered take-​out.
I doubt we will order from here again.
:-(

There are plenty of Italian restaurants in North Beach. If you are looking for mediocre Italian food, you should come here. If you want something more, look elsewhere.
My boyfriend and I stumbled upon this place because it was a busy Saturday night in North Beach and it was 8pm and we were famished. When we got there, we waited a few mins to be noticed by the hostess. The restaurant looked crowded and there was another couple in line in front of us. Luckily, they were nice and easy to talk to, so we decide to share a table with them to avoid waiting around anymore. After we told the hostess we were willing to share a table of four to expedite our dining process, it took another long time to get the already empty table. The servers were all nice but just a bit slow… perhaps the restaurant was understaffed.
Location: Fairly big (many tables) resturant considering the location is in SF
Food: I ordered the classic carbonara and it was fairly good. Carbonara is always pretty heavy so I didn’t finish but it tasted exactly like you would expect to taste like. My boyfriend ordered the SLT (I don’t really know what that means) but it was a spicy sausage pasta that was tomato based. It also tasted just alright. I also ordered a latte (needed caffeine) and it was a pretty bland latte.
Everyone was nice and the ceiling in this resturant was pretty and ambiance is nice too but service is too slow and food too medocire for me to come back for more.

Really disappointed the food was meh… I was concerned because of a few poor reviews but I needed to have delivered dinner and wanted Italian. Thought I would give them a try. Not good it was eatable but not at all tasty. Honestly I would have been better off going to the grocery store and getting a jar of sauce and some pasta and doing it myself. If you have no other choice then give it a try but I won’t try them again. Disappointed I have no idea how they got good reviews on the food but to each their own.

Great little place! We found ourselves in San Francisco one Sunday and were looking for a spot to eat and came across this place. The menu looked good and there was no wait. Service very efficient and the food was extremely tasty. I had the tortellini with the 3 cheese cream sauce, my boyfriend had the veal parmigiana. Plus, the bill was very reasonable. Only complaint, is that the tables are super close together which makes fora tight fit.

This restaurant probably would have gotten 5 stars if not for the waitress. She wasn’t bad, but completely uninterested in what she was doing. It made her seem rude. On another note, I have been here a few times and the food is always pretty good. Especially for the price it is definitely worth it. They also had a help coupon which made the experience better. Overall i would come back.

We had been walking around all day and were so hungry to the point of getting sick that we saw in the distance the words gnocchi and we made a dash for this place not knowing anything about it. The place was pretty empty compared to The Stinking Rose which I heard a lot about across the way, but that didn’t deter us. We ordered gnocchi and ravioli and it was excellent. It’s not going to blow you away or anything, but if you want good, honest, down home Italian than this is your place. Our waitress was super friendly and I would go back next time I was in town.

Unilocal is such Bullshit… Obviously people were paid to write positive reviews for this place… I wandered into North Beach on a sunny Sunday, right at dinner rush hour, all the usual tourist traps were jam packed. I strolled past almost everyone of them, down the hill to something Pelligrini, maybe a bus tour from Napa had just pulled up, place was packed. Walked back up the hill then onto Grant street, until I reached Viva. Completely empty except for a couple wayward tourist with children who probably didn’t want to wait in line at any place better.
I knew it would be bad, part of me wanted to see how bad and I wasn’t disappointed. The waiter was fine, he cant be held accountable for the food. Spaghetti with tomato sauce and a 5 dollar salad, literally just mixed greens and olive oil. Far from remarkable, I recommend anywhere else, unless everywhere else is busy.

I highly recommend Viva Restaurant, especially if you’re vegan!
I was at The Stinking Rose (across the street) with my sister, the garlic lover. After questioning the waitress, I found there was literally nothing vegan on their menu except a dry salad. Even their bread has dairy in it. I was really HUNGRY and grumpy. I hopped on Unilocal.
I found Viva. I left my sister in the booth, ran across the street, and talked to the hostess. She was sweet and super helpful. I had a delicious flatbread pizza in NO TIME. I generally don’t even like the IDEA of flatbread pizza (thick crust, PLEASE!) but these people did it right. I walked back to The Stinking Rose with my pizza and ate it out of the box at the table. Nom nom!

Service sucked at first, Then got better. Pizza is good!

This pizza place is like a ghost town. We seated ourselves since the server was on her cellphone talking and We waited 10 minutes for the server to come out because she disappeared. She was very rude and said,” Are you ready to order” and didn’t even ask if we wanted anything to drink. Her attitude was very disrespectful. The garlic bread was good, just a little burnt. The Cesar salad was okay, the dressing didn’t taste so good. The pizza was good. There was a lot of oregano in the sauce and the crust was pretty thick. There are other pizza places that are better and not as expensive as this one.
We ordered Garlic bread, a large pizza, a small pizza, and a Cesar salad for $ 74.00, definitely not with it.

Is it wrong for me to review it again? It seems to keep getting better. They have a new menu, and had some great, inexpensive wine. I had the Penne PBS (pesto, spinach and broccoli). My wife had the one with seafood (I forgot what it’s called). Both were excellent.
The caprese now comes with a prosciutto upgrade, and it was fantastic!
The owner’s daughter was there and was charming and attentive.
I’ll be back soon!

Great food for the price! I got the bolognese, which was good… but my wife’s Vodka (with penne) was pretty awesome! Some of the best pasta that I’ve ever had.
That being said, I can only give four stars because the bread wasn’t that great.

This was a delicious pizza! We had the one called The Favorite which had prosciutto, tomatoes, onion, and artichoke hearts. The bread was crispy, still yet soft inside. The sauce was very delicious, and zangy. We had a glass of cabernet which was pretty decent actually. Parking is very challenging in this neighborhood for the most part, so good luck to you. The waiter was slightly pushy about taking our order; he came back to take our order like twice in 5 minutes while we studied the menu. I think our bill was about $ 25.00. Great pizza!

I have tried a bunch of Viva’s pizzas and pastas and I now understand why this place has a solid three star ranking on Unilocal — it’s just smack in the middle of the spectrum of mediocrity. None of their items are particularly great, and yet, none are truly terrible to justify anything other than 3 stars.
The pizzas are all super bready and are more like a Pizza Hut style of pizza than a Pizzeria Delfina one. A number of their pizzas have avocado on them which is the oddest topping for pizza. The avocado is more mushy than anything else. Plus, it turns a disconcerting shade of brown by the time you eat the pizza and while I know that’s not a big deal, it’s just not fun to look at. And for god’s sake, do not order chicken on your pizza. It’s the world’s oddest looking chicken with a grey tinge.
The pasta is hit or miss. For example, the pesto is actually quite creamy and good but the Pomodoro is something you’d made at home, with the «fresh» sauce tasting like it’s straight out of a jar.
So, I’d eat this food when it’s for a free work lunch but by no means would I ever pay any money for food this mediocre.