Savio’s Restaurant

The food is delicious down too the last bite
Low dim lite slow Italian music perfect setting
You think your really in Italy

Providing a review to a restaurant that is inconsistent is difficult. On one hand, consistency is something you expect at any higher-​end establishment. Savio’s has definite problems in this regard. When they hit all of their targets, their food is excellent and would warrant a 5 star review. Their Veal Piccata, at its best, is melt-​in-​your-​mouth tender, pounded thin but not too thin, with a lemon sauce that complements and doesn’t overwhelm. That same dish, a few days later, may come out at tough-​as-​nails, thick veal with a sauce that is more fat than flavor. If I put the two side-​by-​side, you would swear they were from different restaurants.
The same issue occurs across the board — the bruschetta can be refreshing, with bright, flavorful tomato-​centric toppings. The next day, the bread is blackened cardboard with a mushy sludge of what used to be tomatoes on top. Similarly, something as simple as the pasta side dish ranges from clumped-​together noodles with a dash of random sauce to perfectly cooked, al-​dente pasta with the appropriate pairing. Don’t even get me started on the minestrone, which ranges from full bodied and proportioned properly to having more greens than the salad and being bland.
I would like to be able to recommend this restaurant, because when they hit the mark they are in line with some of the best Italian restaurants in Northern Virginia. Unfortunately, they seem to be hitting the mark less-​and-​less now, and I’m not willing to gamble my money (and my expectations) against them having a «good night».

This place is AMAZING! Bids regard the negative comments as some people obviously don’t know good food! The fact that it was in a strip mall had me skeptical I cannot lie. However once Uluru enter the premises you are blown away! The ambiance is elegant and feels like home. Servers were attentive and we didn’t have to ask for anything! Very nice servers as absolutely high class. Great for kids as well as I have two kids and so did others. Portions were just right as I can eat and I couldn’t even finish it all. We will definitely be back!!! Never judge a book by its cover or the few negative comments!

This was our first time there and was pleasantly surprised. Very nice atmosphere and didn’t have to wait for table. The menu selection had something for everyone and prices were reasonable. The only downside was service, waiting for a 2^nd drink was little frustrating. Over all, this was an enjoyable night.

Nice neighborhood Italian restaurant. Food is ok, service is ok. parking is a problem as the available parking spaces are few as there are many restaurants and very narrow.

What a mistake we made dining here tonight. The service was absolutely terrible and to be honest the food didn’t turn out to be much. Out waitress took 10 minutes to show up to our table initially and never returned. The food was subpar and took about 45 minutes to arrive at the table and the restaurant was hardly busy. We had to flag someone down to grab our check. Needless to say we won’t be returning.

First off, if I could do a separate star rating for the quality of the food vs the service, things could be a little more accurate, but, the two have to go hand in hand in this review.
Reservation process — quick and easy… they are on OpenTable, no problems with making a reservation.
We had reservations for a Wednesday night and it was pretty sparsely populated in the restaurant. Our group had 9 people.
I would like to point out that our server, Marina, was very good, and very attentive, but I believe there were a few moments were there was a language barrier and certain areas where her customer service skills could be improved. You could call it teachable moments, as it were.
Marina took everyone’s drink order and promptly went to the bar to make all nine drinks herself. Where the bartender was that evening, I don’t know. Drink orders came out fine, no problems there.
Appetizer orders. This is where the first mistake was made. There is a mushroom appetizer on the main menu that is paired with escargot. There is another mushroom appetizer on the «specials» section of the menu that is mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat. When I ordered two of those with Marina, I specifically pointed to the specials page and said we wanted the stuffed mushrooms with crabmeat, along with a Calimari order. Well, Calimari came out fine, but along with that, came two orders of mushrooms with escargot. Now, I almost sent them back, but we kept them, and they were actually quite good, but let’s not forget, a mistake was made that could have easily been verified by our server prior to putting in the order to the kitchen.
Dinner orders. If you want pizza here with specific toppings, you need to specify. For example. There’s a pizza on the menu that has pepperoni and sausage on it. You would think, however, that if you ordered a «pepperoni pizza» that this would mean that you want pepperoni ONLY on the pizza. Not here. If you order this, your pizza will come with sausage as well. Again, this was probably the server being to literal with the menu, knowing it well, and assuming that is what we wanted. However, if you listen to your customer and when they say a pepperoni pizza, it’d be a good idea to confirm that the pizza should come with pepperoni only, especially since they were being ordered for kids, who as all of us who have kids know, are extremely picky with pizza toppings. When Marina was challenged on this, she was quick to point out that the menu specified pepperoni and sausage came on the pizza, which was totally beside the point. Again, you need to listen to your customer. Bottom line was, that even with this frustrating error, the pizzas we’re delicious, and the sausages I picked off my son’s pizza were very, very good.
I will say, that the rest of the orders that people made were all over the italian spectrum, and with the exception of ONE person not really liking their meal, everyone’s meal was exceptional. I took it safe and ordered the chicken Parmesan, and I will say that it was probably the tastiest chicken parm I’ve had, and that includes the several I’ve gotten in Little Italy in New York. The only issue is that we walked into this restaurant at 6:30pm, and our entrees didn’t appear until 8pm. That’s a bit long to wait, but given the quality, I didn’t get too irritated.
Savios has an awesome italian dessert selection and I went with the Tiramisu cake, which again, was fantastic.
So to summarize, the food is AWESOME. There service is very good, don’t get me wrong, but my advice to Savio’s is to ensure your wait staff is listening to the needs of the customer and not making assumptions on their orders. All in all, I thought Marina was attentive, but she needs a little coaching in this area.

Fantastic restaurant and very cozy. Do not get turned off by the surrounding plaza. The food is great and staff is wonderful.

We’ve
many times and are never disappointed. It’s one of our favorite spots for Italian in the DMV. Our favorite dish is the gorgonzola garlic bread! Delicious!!! The calamari us just ok but a of the pasta dishes we’ve had have been good. Fettuccine Alfredo is great as well as the lasagna. And we always get tiramisu to go.

We had Savio’s cater our holiday party. Everything was fantastic — I ordered for 30 people and had enough food to feed at least 45. Chicken Marsala, pasta, two types of salad, grilled vegetables and plenty of fresh bread. Just amazing. This place never disappoints me.

Sorry to say but the food was pretty disappointing. At $ 17 for chicken piccata, I expected more (subbed chicken for veal and was charged the price for veal). Chicken (plain skinless chicken breast) was way over cooked w no seasoning, luke warm, and served with a very watery sauce lacking any lemon or flavor. Was expecting side of spaghetti and got fettuccine instead, again w bland, watery sauce. The veggies were straight from freezer to steamer to plate, which probably explains where the water came from. My cousin ordered the alfredo which tasted like it came from a jar and also just luke warm.
I hope the chef takes note of these comments, as it’s such a cute place with huge potential. The staff is all very friendly, too. I will try again another time in hopes of improvement.

I wasn’t too excited about this restaurant. In my opinion it’s very difficult for an Italian restaurant to really stand out and this restaurant definitely blended in with the rest of them. The rigatoni pasta I ordered was okay, but it was not a memorable dish. My friends at the table felt the same about their food as well. The food was definitely overpriced for what I ordered.
The hostesses weren’t too helpful when I walked in looking for my friends. I wasn’t greeted nicely when I came into the restaurant and was told to go find them myself. In terms of the table service, I felt I was very rushed. The restaurant was quite empty when we were dining, however, it felt as if our waiter was watching our table waiting for us to finish to grab our plates. There were several instances where he came by and picked up our plates while we still had food on them, trying to take them away.
I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to come to Savio’s, but sure, if you’re in the area and want something Italian this would be an alright place to go.

Some of the best Italian food I’ve had in the D.C. area. Rigatoni Carbonara is superb. Had a duck dish once that was amazing. Just had a shrimp salad that was delicious. And for the price!!!
It’s really, really good.

A neighbor whose palate I respect told me about Savio’s Restaurant. I’m glad she did.
The restaurant, located in one of the shopping centers along Van Dorn Street, is unprepossessing from the outside, but inside it’s spacious and comfortable in a red plush sort of way. My husband and I (plus my service dog) arrived early (6:30) on a weeknight and were greeted warmly.
My husband and I ordered from the Sunday-​Thursday special menu ($ 35 for two entrees and a bottle of red or white wine); he had the grilled tilapia with capers and shallots, and I had the pollo alla Siciliana. The very friendly and helpful server brought bread with butter and a wonderful garlicky olive oil, and we ordered the mussels in garlic butter and tomato sauce for an appetizer. The bread was decent, but it was the olive oil that impressed. The mussels were very good; we used the bread to sop up the savory tomato sauce after we finished off the mussels – yum. We also ordered salads, which, thankfully, were fresh and lightly dressed. The entrees were fine, and the mixed vegetables (cauliflower, green beans, carrots) that accompanied them were steamed just enough – perfect!
Although we were quite happy with our dishes from the weeknight special menu, I’ll order from the far more extensive regular menu the next time we visit. There are a lot of dishes I want to sample.

Let me first say that I’m usually leery of Italian because it’s usually to heavy and rich for me, but wow… Savio’s is amazing!
The atmosphere is wonderful and relaxing.
The food is out of this world! Paula is wonderful!
Our first visit and we asked Paula for suggestions.
She was spot on! Seafood pasta with a house made lobster sauce. Just simply amazing! Great portion, pasta cooked perfectly, and sauce not to rich but flavorful and a perfect balance!
The spicy Italian ravioli was really good as well, but the seafood pasta was just so yummy and perfect!
The fresh bread and soft butter (THANK YOU! for understanding that the butter needs to be soft) then Paula set us up with some EVOO and parm dip for the bread. YUMMMMMmmmm
This little spot will be a regular date night for us!

I’m not big on Italian cuisine, only because I never really know what to order, and it’s hard to find good authentic italian. I was very impressed with savio’s. My mom recommended it… passed it it plenty of times, but never went in because of reasons stated above. It was good even down to the warm, fresh bread and butter they served before the meal. We had the stuffed lobster tail, a caeser salad, the fried cheese and fillo dough appitizer, and lemoncello cake. Everything was sooo good. And the wait staff, I believe her name is Pamela, she was really friendly. The décor was nice, as well!

Absolutely delicious! The best is to come Sun-​Thursday night. They have a great deal where you get 2 entrees and a bottle of wine for 34.95. The chicken parm and lasagna are both out of this world. Staff is very friendly as well.

The food here was solid, and the atmosphere was slightly upscale, but not at all stuffy. I was pretty surprised that it was only half full on a Saturday evening at 6 PM.
I came here with a large group of about 15. About half were participating in the Army 10 Miler on Sunday and this restaurant is the annual pre-​race carb load destination for the Ft. Eustis squad. The warm complimentary bread was appreciated, especially the free refills :-) I enjoyed a glass of Pinot Noir, as did several others. The food all came out as ordered, and everyone seemed to enjoy what they had. In fact I don’t know that there was a single empty plate once the meal was done!
I was a tad annoyed when the server came out with a cart full of prepared desserts. At first I thought they were complimentary, but soon realized they were trying to lure us to buy some. Sneaky! I was further annoyed when splitting the checks seemed to be a big issue. I think this is something that should have been anticipated and accounted for in the beginning. In the end, our server was able to split as desired, but not without a bit of a fuss and an attempt to avoid having to do it.
The prices were ok. Given the relative small portions (plus a salad is not included) I didn’t feel that it was a particularly good deal. But the quality of the food combined with the atmosphere and decent wine list make it a good spot for a formal sit down meal.

We are vegans. We are also big time foodies. I only give five star ratings and one star. Savio’s is a clear five star. I rate on food only. I’d eat at the Soup Nazi place if it was as good as advertised.
First off the bread and infused olive oil are going to be tough to put down so bring your appetite. The flour used is probably italian imported. Flavorful, soft and chewy.
We had penne pasta with olives capers and marinara. We also had olive caper veggie pizza. No cheese or meat.
The marinara sauce on the pasta was fresh and full of August tomato goodness. The pizza dough is the best in the area. Best no cheese veggie pizza I have ever tasted.
We used to eat meat and the calamari looked and smelled great.
Highly recommended for foodies and anyone who wants better food than top area Italian restaurants. I am prepared to rate this better than Teatro Goldini for half the price. No local Italian restaurants have food and sauces as good as this.
Talked to manager and they make their own bread and pizza crust. This restaurant delivers where others don’t. You are assured of a great value and food made with love.
Five stars!

Tucked in a plaza off of Van Dorn, you wouldn’t think to find a decent Italian place here. The hot toasty bread with the butter was great. The chicken alfredo was pretty good, and at half the cost compared to other Italian places. The portions were a good size, the service was fine, and it was an overall a nice and a cozy dining experience. I dug their melted blue cheese with the french bread appetizer — salty, creamy, and just hits that spot of something cheesy. Cute local restaurant to check out.
+chicken alfredo
+blue cheese french bread appetizer
+located in the Van Dorn plaza