Guzzardo’s Italian Villa

I’ve been here twice. Had to prime rib the first time and it was amazing, had the meatball sandwich the second time, just as amazing. Service is great. Lots of toppings on the salad bar with great bread. Very underpriced for the size of the meal you get. They do not serve wine/​beer/​liquor. HOWEVER you can bring your own bottle of wine in with you and they will open it for you. Which I think is awesome. You don’t have to buy a 25 dollar bottle there, you can bring your own bottle from home. Or stop at spirited republic right in crib and pick up a bottle! Try this local favorite out! You won’t be disappointed.

Some of the best Italian food I’ve ever had. The oven baked pastas are phenomenal. Expect a long wait because this restaurant is always packed! Always worth the trip to Lincoln! Among my top favorite restaurants.

Guzzardos is in my top 5 restaurants in the world! The food, service and atmosphere are top notch. Their steaks are the BEST. I have never had anything on their menu I wasn’t happy with.

Excellent in every way! Prime rib is very good. Pasta dishes are wonderful, as was the service. Great place to have a great meal.

Oh my God. Unbelievable meal, so glad we came here. So much value for the money. BYOB– great idea! Service was excellent! We were in Lincoln for sports tournament and found this place. Will be back again, so worth the drive.

Wonderful food and great service! It is BYOB which is nice because you can bring whatever you’d like and save yourself some money by doing so! Food was delicious and portions were HUGE! Good salad bar as well!
Was a little hard to find, when we opened the door that said «first timers» it was the door to the kitchen! But the man led us right through the kitchen where we were greeted by everyone, showed us the door to use nextime, and sent us upstairs to the dining room! Very friendly and family oriented staff!

One of the few options to eat in Lincoln. BYOB which is a plus because you can’t get anything but Busch Light (usually served in Orange cammo can) in Lincoln. You get huge portions of Italian food or flintstone sized prime rib. Everything is very average tasting. Steaks could use some seasoning. Italian entrees could use a better sauce. My goto here is the coconut shrimp. Also recommend the pea salad on the salad bar.

July 17, 2015 Dinner time. Food is outstanding. Atmosphere is not. A rude large group of drunken patrons were very loud
would not tell them to tone it down. Would order out or deliver, not a place to eat in,

Did carryout the other day. Ordered the Nicks special pizza. Sausage, ham, Pepp +
Grn pepp, mush, & onion. Pizza cooked well. Nice crunch to the crust. Amazed at the size of the ham chunks. Big ass hunkin chunks! Sausage was oversized too! Slices seemed big as well but pizza was a Lg16″.
Went to pickup inside & opened door that said carryout. And I’m looking at the kitchen grill? WTF!!! I paid the guy & he was nice & said let me show you something. He led me thru the kitchen, boy u should have seen the steaks cooking on the grill! Would hv loved to grab one! All the cooks said hi to me, like this incident has happened before & would probably occur to people again in the future. He led me outside where the pickup door was (which was poorly marked) but this was at a different location than where I entered. He said it would be easier for you to pick up here next time. I thanked him & left. Seems like kind of fancy dining but the pizza was decent enough! Would return!

I came here thinking it would be easier than elsewhere to get something vegan, and my colleagues like pizza. We split a big pizza, some pasta, fries, and salad bar. I was resigned to this being our new vegan option when in town since First Wok closed, but I was unfortunately really disappointed. Luckily, I discovered there was a new Chinese place with veggie options the next day.
First, it took a really, really long time for our food to come. I think we were waiting 40 minutes. The fries could have at least come before that. We ate bread and more bread to deal with the hunger.
I had the salad bar, but there was barely anything vegan on it. Everything had cream. I ended up with iceberg lettuce and sunflower seeds and olives. The tomatoes were rotten, so I couldn’t eat them. The one pasta salad I crossed my fingers and tried (they all looked creamy besides this one) had a really sweet and unpleasant taste. I did go back and get some carrots and celery, and those were fine.
The pizza was decent, though nothing extraordinary. Still, that by itself would have probably been 4 stars, but the other food was subpar for us. Between the wait, the not so fantastic food, and the prices that weren’t horrible but weren’t a deal either, we just didn’t like it very much. Unfortunately, I think we will go elsewhere next time.

Guzzardo’s is well known in Lincoln. It is located on the second floor of a building. It has a maze of rooms rather than one large room, which helps to keep the noise down and can make it feel intimate even if it’s crowded. The downside is that it can be narrow to walk through in places and there is only 1 bathroom (only 1 toilet) for each the men and women.
The food is alright. I almost always get a chicken dish, which is more than I want but tasty. The salad bar is mediocre and only has iceberg lettuce. I don’t eat pasta, but it might be good. I haven’t had their pizza since high school. The portions are large but I would rather have smaller and pay less. Lincoln has few options.

My family eats here every time we come from out of state for a visit. My husband and I always eat the schnitzels. We split one and hit the salad bar. I love the food. The pizza is also our favorite. One of the best through our travels. The servers are great. Food is always fast and hot. I love this place! Make sure to call for reservations. It can get busy. Bring a appetite. Big portions!

The salad bar is what keeps me coming back. The portions are huge if you select the right food. Enough to split sometimes. The location is as good as it gets for central IL. The restaurant is located in the heart of the town and makes for a great date night. The food is truly good.

Guzzardo’s is well known in Lincoln. It is located on the second floor of a building that appears to have been an apartment once, which makes it a very unique experience. It is a collection of rooms rather than one large room, which helps to keep the noise down and can make it feel intimate even if it’s crowded. The downside is that it can be narrow to walk through in places and there is only 1 bathroom (only 1 toilet) for each the men and women.
The food is good, but not fantastic. I almost always get the eggplant parm which I really like. I tried the chicken parm once, but it was a very large chicken breast which tasted very dry and bland. I would stick with the pasta or pizza dishes while there. I’ve never had the steak or seafood. The salad bar is nice, but nothing super special. The portions are very large, and we always end up taking a lot home.
They are often very busy on Friday and Saturday nights, so call for reservations if you want to be sure to get a table. Also, they are BYOB and I’ve noticed people drink more when they bring in wine they’ve brought themselves so occasionally you may get odd happenings like a man declaring the entire restaurant sing his brother happy birthday. It just adds to the atmosphere.

Please … click on the menu they have listed on here. I did this and ordered (for delivery) the Ravioli which is listed at $ 13.29 and the wings listed at $ 4.99 — when they totaled my bill it came to $ 22.00+ … I questioned why the prices they have listed say this should have been $ 18.28 — they said the prices hadn’t been updated in two years, OK … change your prices then!

My husband and I ate here again last night. I was craving a steak and it was fabulous! Hubby had the ribeye and I had the filet. We both like our steaks medium well and this is the only restaurant that manages to cook them accurately! Even my very thick filet was grilled perfectly on the outside and just a little pink in the middle. Still moist and very flavorful. Ribeye was $ 25 and filet was $ 28. Not expensive when you see the portion sizes and you know it’s going to be excellent!
Over the years we’ve tried lots of menu items, all excellent. Most servings are Huge! You can get spaghetti or fettuccine Alfredo as a side and it is as much as a main dish at a chain restaurant. Particularly wonderful are the Venetian Chicken, Baked lemon cod, and the lasagna will last you 4 meals!
The salad bar is also huge. Granted there’s only iceberg lettuce but in addition to the usual veggies there are pepperoni slices, dry blue cheese, shredded mozzarella or cheddar, sunflower seeds, green or black olives, and pepperocini. There are pasta salads, bean salad, and cottage cheese. There are large loaves of Italian bread for you to cut yourself and warm cinnamon bread puffs. There is also French onion soup available on the salad bar. Trick: get your soup, add the salad croutons, then politely squeeze back to the start of the salad bar line to get your shredded mozzarella!
Quirks: No liquor license so if you want alcohol, you bring your own. Lots of people bring a couple bottles of wine, or six pack of beer, or hard stuff to mix. Think of it this way, you’re not wasting money on overpriced, watered down drinks!
No traditional baked potatoes only twice-​baked available.
No desserts. Face it, you won’t have room for it anyway!
They are NOT handicapped accessible! You have to walk up a flight of stairs to get to the dining room.

Great place to eat! Salad bar is awesome. All the good stuff to put on your salad to make is taste good and you know not be healthy anymore! :) Prime rib on Saturdays are huge! Enough to feed a family! Pizza is really good and so is their lasagna. Really cannot go wrong here! Order the schnitzel sandwich it is the size of a dinner plate! BYOB or wine and they will bring an opener to your table.

While just passing through Lincoln, IL, we ordered a pizza delivered to our hotel room. We asked if they had thin crust and the man on the phone said «I’ll make it as thin as I can». Pizza was affordable, delivered on time, hot and delicious. (cheese, sausage, mushroom and onion). Was a little light on the sausage but still very good.
came with a really tasty, smokey flavored red pepper flakes and parmesan. Our experience was 5 star, but I reserve 5 star ratings for places with more than one experience. ps– also note, had an order of onion rings, wife loved them, I thought they were a bit saturated. (Large pizza, 4 toppings, onion rings, delivered for less than 25 bucks. :)

Cute Italian place in downtown Lincoln, IL. My in-​laws have been visiting this place for well over 30 years and it’s a great place. Really good pizza and the salad bar isn’t bad either.
Service is excellent and friendly.

Stopped in on a Friday night after calling for a reservation. Short wait but not horrible. Pleasant atmosphere although a little hard to find. Very attentive service but certainly NOT a place to go for a quick bite. BYOB & no dessert options seemed odd but its a 50+ year old family run place so I suppose it’s working fine for them.
Toasted ravioli was possibly the best I’ve ever had and difficult to wrestle away from the 10 year old to get a bite. Kid size spaghetti and meatballs could easily feed a hungry adult, especially with the included salad bar. Small pizza was twice as much as I could manage and I was hungry. The Italian sausage on the pizza was fantastic!
There was a guy at the table next to ours eating a bone-​in prime rib that looked like a caveman portion. No chance I could eat it all but might order one next time and take the leftovers home. Also saw a deep fried lobster tail at another table and it looked phenomenal.
A few notes:
— Call for reservations
— Plan on being there a while
— Order a lot less food than you think you’ll eat
— All portions are huge
— Be sure to try their fresh baked bread even if you don’t get a salad with your meal
— not enough bathroom space available for the size of the restaurant (clean but one person at a time doesn’t cut it for the capacity)