Really great good, nice portions and quick service. We were finishing our bottle of wine close to closing time and felt a bit rushed. Our plates were cleared quickly even though we asked for to-go boxes. The baked pasta options were delicious - lasagna, shells and cheese (with the romano sauce) and baked penne. read more

Vinny Vanucchi's - Shells with Romano Sauce - Italian Near Me - Galena, Illinois

We were there 5 years ago, we really liked it so this yeas we visited them again. Still good service and good food. Thanks read more

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we went to galena on Monday just a few stores where open and 2 restaurants on was this Italian restaurant we got dinner here spicy Italian sausague sandwich cup of soup brushetta Italian margarita tiramisu martini and lasagna was pretty good read more

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So bad on so many levels. And by levels I'm referring to the stairs required to enter, traverse and then be seated. We were on the top level and I noticed a handicapped entrance from a street but it was blocked by a truck. I saw a heavy woman pulling herself up while warning the waiter behind that she was about to fall while the host tossed back a, "Sorry about the stairs." I was prepared for an expensive lunch but not for one that was inedible! Eggplant Parmesan so rubbery it needed a steak knife. The linguine was ok & the sauce average. Sent it back and settled for just linguine & sauce, $17. Husband ordered spaghetti and meatballs and the spaghetti tasted as though it was coated with starch. Gummy tasting. Giant sized dense meatballs and the same bland sauce. Bread & salad were good. read more

We were happy with our food. Just had Seafood stuffed Mushrooms and Bruchetta and they were both very good.

A nice Italian restaurant! This was surprisingly one of my favorite places that we ate at in the Galena area. The bread is good, and the salad is amazing. We ended up getting seconds of that because it was so good. I got the spaghetti and meatballs as my main dish, and it did not disappoint. My wife was happy with her gluten-free meal as well. The atmosphere is neat. It's a strange place for sure, but it has charm. I would go again if we come back to Galena! read more

All 3 were very good. Food, service, & ambience. Portions were very large. Cheese cake very good.

The salad was phenom. Lasagna was great. Bruschetta was delicious. The bartender knows how to make a good drink...or 5. Portions are massive. The chocolate dessert was delicious. The server was very friendly. If you go, you must take home a bottle dressing. read more

Salad was over dressed, the entrees wee cold and bland. The prices were terrible for the bad, bland, and cold food. Olive Garden is better

My friends and I visited here for dinner this past weekend and it was amazing! We had a great experience with Ty and Remy as our waiters. They treated us so well - checked up on our table to made sure we had everything, kept our drinks full, and provided everything we could've needed! Highly recommend! read more

The fact that this makes any list is indicative of the remoteness and availability of competitors in the area. It's really the only Italian restaurant and it isn't good. I'd rather go to Olive Garden down the street. read more

We had an amazing experience at Vinny Vanucchis!!! Food was amazing and service was as good! Outstanding very authentic Italian food!! A MUST do in Galena!!! read more

I promised the manager I would write a review and here I am. My fiance and I were in last Friday for lunch to celebrate his 30th birthday. We had only been here once before with my crazy, loud family on a Saturday afternoon last Spring and I loved it. A little secret....any place that has buttery garlic bread is top on my list. Now, I must let everyone know that Steve (my fiance) picked out this restaurant -of all the places in the area- for his birthday lunch. HE wanted to come here. He was, by no means, persuaded by me. (really!) We sat in the "second" story dining room, at least that is what I'm calling it. This place's layout is so weird, but it's old Geneva in an old building that's up on a hill. Yes, a hill, a very steep hill. Kinda difficult for any handicapped people and people just simply out of shape, like myself. It's a WALK up those stairs just to get in the restaurant. They have a lot of tables in a room not necessarily meant for as many tables and you can sit pretty close to your neighbor. But, you know something? It just makes you more likely to talk with the table next to you and mingle just like us Italians. Hey, we're all familia, right? In fact, we had conversations with 2 or 3 tables around us on Friday. People are pretty laid back out West and much nicer to deal with. Ok, my favorite part, they brought salad with their home made dressing and fresh garlic bread straight from the oven. The butter glistening and the steam from the temperature coming off the bread. My one complaint, they serve re-fill-able drinks (such as soda and tea) in rocks glasses. Because the staff needs to go up and down stairs to get food and drinks from the kitchen, the wait time is already a little longer....I just wish they would invest in a 20 oz. cup for soda and iced tea. Steve ordered the Italian Sausage sandwich and I opted for the Chicken Piccata which is prepared with artichoke hearts, red peppers and lemon. Yummmm! The sausage was HOT! and I'm talking spicy hot, it was not "mild" by any means. So watch out if you plan on getting that thinking it's milder, it is not. He LOVED it!!! It came with delicious home made fries. My chicken dish was accompanied by a small bowl of macaroni with marinara. The lunch portion of the chicken was a single breast with the pasta and it was perfect for lunch. I ate almost every bite. Our server overheard us talking about it being Steve's birthday and she got him a cup of Spumoni ice cream with whip cream and a cherry to celebrate. Nice touch, Vinny Vanucci's! It finished off our meal perfectly and encouraged the table of ladies next to us to offer to take out photo, which was very kind. Gotta love that close nit feel you get when dining here. The staff was courteous when you are going up and down the stairs and step to the side. The bathrooms are clean and their food is memorable. Gotta love remembering a meal...that means they did something right. And VV's sure does it right!! read more

Vinny Vanucchi's - Lunch Chicken Piccata - Italian Near Me - Galena, Illinois

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Our server Meghan was great! It has been many years since dining here, we drove 3 hours for a day trip excited to go back. The food quality was poor! My wife ordered a spaghetti with marinara- $19 small serving sauce separating from pasta - I have had better bottled sauces. My daughter got some sea food dish - the shrimp and scallops size was mini poor quality seafood. This place has changed dramatically over the years. Will definitely go somewhere else next time in town. read more

My family and I ate here on memorial day for dinner. The service was great and timely. The ambiance is nice besides the restaraunt using any open space to store inventory. I ordered the veal marsala my son had the lasagna. The salad was meh, the garlic bread was cold and dry with a huge scoop of parmesan dumped on top. The veal was a 3 to 3.5 oz portion drenched in un reduced marsala wine. not good at all for the $36 price. The lasagna was extremely dry and the crumbly texture of the ricotta cheese filling was overpowered by the Wayyyy too much oregano. Very disappointing. read more

From: June 2021 Vinny Vanucchi's is in need of a new owner that knows what good fresh authentic Italian food made from scratch really is! If I could give this place negative stars I would! Being from Chicago and Italian, you bet I am going to have high expectations for great Italian food. Based on the reviews and recommendations, I have to say Vinny Vanucchi's did not even come close to any of the reviews and was very disappointing. My family of seven arrived at our time of our reservation. As you enter the restaurant it looked as you are entering an Italian deli, it is rustic and low lite with Italian music playing in the background. Our server was excellent and made us feel at home. Everything looked promising, until the food arrived...... We started with fried calamari. You can tell right away it was pre-made and frozen, something you just throw into the fryer to save time. It was over cooked and was not fresh. We also received our salad and garlic bread, which were the only 2 items that tasted excellent. The salad had a great dressing and was fresh. The garlic bread was buttery and crispy. Next our main entrees arrived. We all ordered pasta dishes, except my seven year old son. We had to purchase him a plain grilled $15 chicken sandwich because they had a very limited kids selection that only had pasta options. Let's just say I could have driven a mile up the road and purchased a $7 chicken sandwich meal from Culver's and it would have been 5 times better. Every single pasta dish we had ordered was covered in a large amount of cheese, and a watered down sauce. Not recommend for someone that is lactose intolerant. The pasta was all over cooked! How difficult is it to cook pasta. My guess, they pre-cook there pasta and bag it out into portions to save time. None of the items we ordered tasted fresh! Lastly we had desert; cannoli, chocolate cake, vanilla bean cheese cake and taramisu. Which were not bad, but my guess they get there desert from a bakery based on the way there main entrees tasted. So, after a $302 bill with tip and no alcoholic beverages. The conclusion is "I can't believe I am saying this" save your money and go to an Olive Garden. You will have a better meal at a fraction of the cost. read more

Food was mediocre at best. Decent Salad but mains were not good. Eggplant Parmesan was dry, tasteless, poorly sauced. Beef sandwich had no flavor at all. Lasagna not enough sauce and not appetizing. All in all a disappointment. We like Italian food but this was a strikeout. Service fine. Patio nice. read more

We did some work up the street and were practically yanked by the nose to this restaurant by the amazing smells wafting up the way. Outdoor seating only due to COVID phased re-openings, which was just fine by us. It was a great atmosphere in the historic district, great weather, and the music they piped through really sold it too. Our service was perfect and we were genuinely impressed by how they handled the stairs and all the dishes they carried. They were turning tables like crazy. We came for lunch in intending to split dishes and eat light due to dinner reservations later in the day. However, we were immediately hooked up with some solid garlic bread and a really nice salad. More garlic bread showed up later. I know, we should've known better -NOT that we're complaining! The fried ravioli was impressive. I don't think either of us has ever had that dish so well executed. The balance of the taste with a fresh pepper added in for heat was awesome! We split an Italian Sausage sandwich and the sausage was so great. Wonderful amount of heat there too, without being too much. Be warned it can get pretty messy with the sauce though! It might be more manageable cut up on the sandwich and we'd love to try it over some of their pasta some time. The fries and steak width, but cut super-thin the other way and we loved them. They were piled to the ceiling on the plate. Remember how we were trying to go light (ha!). I know we both look forward to making a return to "Little Italy"! read more

The food was brought out cold, messed up our order, had to ask for my side item. Food bad but the service was worse. Talked to the manager and he really didn't care to hear about it. They don't care because it's almost all tourist whom they'll never see again. I wouldn't recommend eating here. read more

We just drove up to galena for spring break. We have been wanting to try them for a while so we gave it a shot. The decor is beautiful and the old town charm around it makes it even more stunning. We ordered calamari which was so so...kinda rubbery. We also ordered bruschetta which was really good. Sadly my sons order and mine came up wrong twice. The staff was really friendly and apologetic but after returning 2 orders I still ended up paying for both which I felt taking 1 off the bill would have been the right thing to do since they got 2 orders wrong. Again staff was super nice. Finally when my veal Marsala came it looked like something from a Chinese restaurant. While the charm of old town is out of this world it is not enough to bring back for round 2. read more

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Ate here tonight and it was great. My kids LOVED the garlic bread and my husband and I were quite pleased with the chicken parm and tortellini carbonara. Our server was AWESOME! Attentive and kind, especially to our two kids. He even took it upon himself to track us down as we were crossing the street because we accidentally left our daughter's sippy cup on the table. Very family friendly. Will definitely be back again on our next trip to Galena. (Thanks again Ray!) read more

We did take out during the covid. The interior looked beautiful when we picked up. The staff was very nice and had our order ready when they said it would be. The food was excellent! The stuffed mushrooms where the best I every had. This is a must try location in Galena. read more

Lets start at the beginning. Covid era. Outside seating only. 1 hour wait at 5.30pm. These people are doing everything right. They haven't done this on this big a scale. Service is fast for ordering. Drinks are 5 minutes from ordering. We doubled up to save our server from to much walking. Very polite people! Now for the food. BIG servings. Hot. Very tasty. I got everything I asked for. It's outside so take that into consideration. The hardest part of this is the climbing of the stairs. I will be back. read more

We drive from Madison, WI to Galena, IL every 2 weeks to a month, and we always stop at Vinny's, mostly for the atmosphere and our favorite waiter John, who is just a darling conversationalist. I've come with my husband and I have brought friends. We love to shop in Galena. Last weekend we quick popped in to use the restroom before shopping and we were met by a woman who told us the restrooms were not open to the public. I told her we were planning to return later for lunch but 930am was a bit early. Instead of being the hospitable hostess, and saying something like "Wonderful! We will see you soon", she told us she was the owner and again the restrooms in her restaurant were not public. That's fine. Lady, you not only lost 2 customers that day, you lost several repeat customer's for good. I also figure if you had a good business going, you wouldn't be cleaning the toilets yourself. I grew up in Italian restaurants, your's isn't overly special and the only thing we will miss is John. read more

Food was one of the worst places we have ever eaten. We had the lasagna and veal parmesan. The lasagna had 2 noodles and the center was this coagulated sausage/egg/broken cheese mix? It was absolutely disgusting. The tomato sauce is flavorless and nothing special. The entire meal from our cocktail to entree was a huge disappointment. Only thing edible was the salad and our water. Our server was polite but wouldn't acknowledge that we didn't eat our meals so we paid our tab and left as quickly as we came in. read more

Ate here before never had any issues. Wife and I had the chicken marsala and it appears that the "B" team was cooking that afternoon. Sorry Vinny's I think you need to do some training! read more

This restaurant Ali's as authentic as it comes other then going to Italy. The staff was amazing and words can't describe how amazing our waitress, Cora was. By the time we left I felt as though I had a new friend and would see her in a couple days and have known her for years. I have nothing bad to say about this place and can't wait to come back again! read more

I've been to pasta restaurants in LA, NYC, and Chicago more than I would like to admit. That said, Vinny Vanucchi's made me want to pick up my things and move to Galena. I am not joking, this is the only available expression for me as I rub my proud tummy filled with their homemade Garlic bread, Pasta A La Vinny, and Fettuccini Seafood. Not many things make me say such ludicrous statements, unless the impact they had on me is greater than the fondness of what I at the time call "home." I want this village to be my home. So good. read more

When we got here it was a chilly fall evening and we were pleasantly surprised they were now offering limited seating indoors. Agreeing with many other comments, you certainly won't leave hungry. We will definitely return next time we are in Galena. read more

very good place. I recommend, delicious food, good prices, friendly staff and cozy interior, it really looks like Italy read more

Vinny Vanucchi's - Italian Near Me - Galena, Illinois

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Came here because of all the suggestions from peo around town but it was underwhelming 3/8 people I came with actually liked their meals. Although the bread and salad was good, the pasta dishes are pretty average. Service and atmosphere was fabulous, but I just can't get over spending money for average pasta. read more

Vinny Vanucchi's - Chicken Parmigiano - Italian Near Me - Galena, Illinois

Traditional Italian restaurant with a full menu. Pleasant "old world " atmosphere with great service. We ordered the penne dinner with a side of meatballs and shared the dish. These tasted great, loved the tomato sauce, and along with the bread and salad provided an ample and tasty meal for us both. We finished with a shared slice if tiramisu, a perfect ending. read more

Ambience- patio is pretty , decent ambience indoors as well. Food- average, have eaten better. Had the Alfredo penne with garlic bread and salad. Salad & garlic bread were good, pasta not so much. Prices- not worth the food. Service- real slow. 2waiters serving 7-8 tables. read more

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I am only giving this place 2 stars because the service was excellent. Galena really needs to step up their game when it comes to dinning. Knowing that the majority of their patrons are from Chicago the subpar foods is very disappointing. Our food this Saturday was disgusting and un-eatable. The salad was just ok, the bread tasted like Canola oil and Parmigian cheese out of a can. I ordered a seafood dish with shrimp, scallops and crab. It tasted like tuna, so I didn't eat it. My husband ordered a dish with sausage, peppers, mushrooms and red sauce and Lean Cuisine does a better job. He only ate about a 1/3 of it and that is only because he was starving. Fried Green Tomatoes is better, but not great either. The only place in town worth eating at is Log Cabin. Being surrounded by farms, why are they using canned and over processed ingredients? Needless to say I will never eat here again. read more

Overpriced, small portions, food literally tastes like microwave pasta. Only thing this place has got going for it is atmosphere sadly. read more

Another great restaurant. The food was really tasty. The customer service was super friendly. They got us a table sooner than we were initially told, which was outstanding. read more

Vinny Vanucchi's - The restaurant in Galena - Italian Near Me - Galena, Illinois

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I have never experienced such a terrible service as I did yesterday. We came as a bachelorette party for dinner and the manager gave us trouble when combining tables. Everything was a problem... no accommodations. On top of that the food was terrible $20 for shitty service and watery pasta. If you also like being swarmed by bees and flies, this is your place! There's way better places in Galena to eat, skip out on this one. read more

While shopping in Galena my husband and I were quite hungry. Vinny Vanucchi's took care of that! From the garlic bread, Spaghetti Olio and Aunt Gracie's Sausage Ragu what's not to like?? A late lunch perfection. We thought we would be taking some back with us, not a bite was left. Our service was friendly and attentive. The only reason for the 4stars is the cleanliness of the restaurant. That needs some attention. read more

Avoid- very strange experience with pre-packaged/frozen pasta. We ate outside and after being seated, it took 15 minutes and two separate conversations for a server to say even say hello. We were never offered drink menus, and the first time I went back into the host stand to ask about a server, two hostesses were lounging about chatting with each other ignoring the tables altogether before they noticed me and then said a server would be out. Another 5 minutes, no server. We asked another server if there was a server for our table and her (rude) response was that he was making bloody Marys before she went to assist a table who was seated after us. No apologies, or even offering to let him know. Customer service is clearly not a priority. Once our server came, he was attentive and did an ok job. The ravioli I had was clearly pre-packaged and was very bland. The Ragu someone else ordered was also bland and seemed to be mostly grease. Wilted salad came pre-drenched in overly-sweet dressing. Will not be returning here ever, and hope to spare other tourists with limited options a similar experience. A terrible ending to an otherwise enjoyable weekend in the town. read more

Ate here for the first time the other night. Cool atmosphere, great service but food was over-priced and lacked flavor. We wanted so badly to love the place but we won't be back. There are much better choices in Galena. read more