Sempre Vivolo

I was so impressed with this restaurant. Yes, it is old fashioned in that jackets are required on Saturday night, the waiters wear suits, they don’t rush you and the menu and food are exceptional, but never pretentious. We regularly go to trendy restaurants that we love too, but I didn’t realize just how much I missed this kind of restaurant until we went. There are so few left.
Most importantly, our waiter Carlo (from Naples Italy) was the highlight of our dinner. He was so professional and warm. I felt like we were having dinner in Rome. Fantastico!

This restaurant is the best in the area. The food is consistently great and the service is top notch. It is the only restaurant in this small area that I would consider taking clients to for lunch or dinner.

This restaurant may be the best restaurant on Long Island. I’ve never had better food or drink anywhere. And the atmosphere and service are second to none. These people are simply the best.

Imagine it’s 1966 and your taking out clients and their wives for an expensive Eye Talian dinner. You want to impress them with a cozy place with impeccable over the top service, strong cocktails, fancy Italian food and waiters with Italian accents. Maybe a table side Caesar salad or a drum roll delivery of a flaming baked Alaska. Close your eyes, your in this joint. If that’s your gig you’ll love the attentive service and the overpriced menu.
There are so many Italian places on LI, that do better food for half the price and a quarter of the pretense.
What I can’t be sure of is do they think they are as good as the they think they were in 1966?

Went here a while back. Veal melted in my mouth. Best I’ve ever had. Men need to wear sport jacket.

As you walk in your greeted by the staff/​owner… .that is where it begins… impeccable service… very quaint dining room… the menu has a nice compliment of fish, meat and chicken… they will prepare your meal to your liking. …the wine selection is very nice as well… always a well prepared meal… reservations are recommended on the weekends…

To say that I knew good italian food before trying Sempre Vivolo is a joke. What an OUTRAGEOUS restaurant… The décor, staff and food are out of this world. Wine list was on point and every dish that we ordered was heavenly. They create such a wonderful environment at this place and i was thoroughly impressed. I feel confident taking any of my friends/​family to dinner here. I cannot convey quite how fabulous my experience was and there is no doubt that I will be back!!!

I thought no Italian restaurant on LI could beat Casa Rustica, but I was wrong. This is # 1. The staff is all men, dressed in suits which is very nice to see. The food is excellent, and you can buy decent wines for 30 – 35. Our waiter, Michael, normally tends bar, but he was covering for another waiter. My friends and I gave him a 20% tip, and on the way out, he thanked us for our «generous» gratuity. I nearly fell over, since most servers «expect» a tip. I called the owner the next day to share how much we loved the food and Michael. Returning asap. JIM

The food here is amazing! I’ve never had such a delicious filet mignon. The service could not be better. This is what great service is all about. The cocktails are outta this world. Margaritas rock! Authentic Italian!

Great atmosphere. Not a loud restaurant. Had to wear a jacket but it made the place a little more classy. Great food and portions were not to big or small. Waiter was personable and good at his job. Had a nice wine list. Will absolutely go back again.

The best place for Italian on the Island. An incredibly classy and upscale establishment. Owner and staff are very friendly and make you feel welcomed. And of course the food you cannot beat — classic Italian dishes at their best!!! Highly recommended!

I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a few years now. Unilocalers haven’t had much luck here but I often hear from locals that this is one of the better Italian spots in the neighborhood.
So we went ahead and made plans to come in on xmas eve for a nice fish dinner. Lots of specials were mentioned by the very courteous wait staff. We weren’t rushed at all (which is quite nice on a holiday) and the specials mentioned gave everyone at the table a tough time deciding on what to order.
I don’t remember off hand what each of us had, but no one had anything but good things to say about each of their courses. I plan on coming back to check out some of their regular menu.
The food, 4
The service, 4.5

Sempre Vivolo is a very nice/​expensive italian restaurant. The food was probably just above average, and I have had better italian food on Long Island and in New York.

Nice ambiance, but that’s about it.
Went on a Monday night with my fiancée to a celebrate a special occasion: Neither of us had been here before.
Made a reservation earlier in the day — probably wasn’t necessary for a Monday night, but wanted to make sure.
The place was not busy, but not dead either. Most customers that were there appeared to be regulars and knew the staff. The staff were a bunch of older gentlemen dressed in suits. Even most of the customers were 50+. Nothing wrong with that, just an observation.
Anyway, the ambiance was nice, like I said. The food was mediocre at best. I think the best part of the meal was the bread. We started off with fried mozzarella, which was very greasy and for $ 10, you get 2 pieces? The sauce was bitter and chunky– too much garlic.
We ordered the penne bolognese and chicken parm. The food was salty and overall very bland and boring. Little flavor other than salt. The chicken parm which in my opinion is a staple of any Italian restaurant, was prepared for us by request because it wasn’t on the menu. It was served, on the bone which I guess was for affect but I don’t care about affect with my chicken parm. Again, food was bland, salty, and portions were small for the price. The penne bolognese was also disappointing, more of a brown sauce than a tomato based sauce. Again, portion was a little small, I usually have leftovers when going for a good Italian meal. We passed on dessert and probably will not be back. The service was ok, place was nice– they just need better food. The customers that were there all seemed to be regulars and were chatting with the staff as if they were family– maybe they were. Not my cup of tea but I like to try new places. It’s not always about the meal, it’s about the company, and I was with my amazing fiancée so who cares?

Went here for a lunch meeting and got a grilled chicken in a grand marnier sauce. It was delicious. Service was good, but this place is old school. Looks more like a 50+ crowd. Would go back in heartbeat though, I will be trying to find «The Godfather» hiding in a back room here.

went here for dinner for the first time in september 2011. Amazing place! delicious food, large portions, amazing service, waiters all were dressed in suits. Quite possibly the best restaurant I have ever been to. Would like to go more but as with any high end restaurant the price is accordingly high

Amazing Chicken Mona Lisa. I have eaten that same meal every time I’ve been there! Never had the need to even think about ordering anything else. Great service, great atmosphere.

KINDA LIKE BEING IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Wow… how this place stays in business is a mystery.
Dinner for an aunts birthday. Mostly older, retiree types as patrons.
Very weird old guy (owner) who would come stand behind our table and survey the space.
Appetizer of calamari was unedable. Tasted like it was spoiled.
The appetizer (they do ½ orders pasta as an app) Spagetti Carbonara was delicous.
I needed a gallon of water to flush out all of the salt in the veal entrée.
Dirty martini was perfectly made, but you would need 20 of em to see this as good italian food.

Old School Italian.
Looking for a place to meet some of the guys for a nice sit-​down we settled on this spot. The restaurant is old school — lots of dark woods and all the waiters nattily attired in suits.
There is a decent sized bar area straight in from the lobby where the bartender was right on the money with the service and the selection. The bar seems to function more as an overflow catching area as this place gets busy.
The dining rooms are dimly lit and very intimate– a nice place to bring your date. The menu is fairly extensive and there was a nice selection of specials the night we went.
The wine list is outstanding and thorough. It can even be daunting but there are price points for everyone and you should be able to find something that will thrill you.
The food was simply great — I had a very nice chicken dish and everyone else had a variety of things– chicken, eggplant, veal and so on. Everyone was satisfied.
Dessert was nice– the cannoli was filled with zabaglione instead of the traditional ricotta cream and it was very interesting — but I still would have preferred the ricotta filling.
It was a little on the pricey side but you won’t complain as it was worth the money when you walk out of there in a food bliss coma…
Valet parking.

In the area for business and Sempre Vivolo was enthusiastically recommended by another hotel guest. We gave it a shot and all I can say is WOW. EXCELLENT ITALIAN FOOD, EXCELLENT SERVICE!
I started with pasta frijole that was perfect, and for my main had calamari alla marinara. The calamari was cooked perfect and served with clams and mussels. A ton of food cooked perfectly.
I will defiantly look this place up again. My total bill with two mixed drinks was $ 50.00. Average plates run between 18 and 25.00