Dinner party at Vinto

The Place: Vinto Pizzaria (website)



On Tuesday we were invited to attend a dinner party at Vinto Pizzeria with several other Salt Lake food bloggers by the ever charming Becky Rosenthal of The Vintage Mixer.  We were able to sit with some wonderful, and very knowledgeable foodies including Heather King of SLC Lunches, Mike Hollopeter of Foodie from Scratch, and Ryan Kendrick of SLC Eats.

Our entire experience at Vinto was fabulous.  The owners and chefs were friendly. The entire restaurant was designed for efficiency.  The dishes were delicious.  The desserts were heavenly.  We feel that we can't give this a typical cheap eats review, because our six course meal comprised of thirteen dishes would certainly not fall in the under $10 category, however, I'm sure we'll be back soon so that we can review our cheaper dining experience.

A few highlights from our meal:

Sorrel soup with potato and cream

Grilled artichokes with wild arugula and shallot vinaigrette

Tuttabella pizza with housemade spicy sausage, caramelized onion, fresh tomato, garlic, roasted peppers, fontina, and fior di latte mozzarella

Patate pizza with sliced yukon potato, fontina and goat cheese, rosemary, wild arugula, and white truffle oil

Vanilla Gelato with Viola extra virgin olive oil and grey sea salt
Butterscotch Budino with salted caramel sauce and whipped cream - pure joy!

While our main goal of writing SLC Cheap Eats has been to inform people of great spots around the city, one of the other big goals was to try to get some free food out of this, so a huge thanks to the Vintage Mixer and Vinto Pizzeria.

If you haven't tried Vinto, you ought to.  You won't be disappointed.

Vito's

The place: Vito's

What we hoped for: Well, really, we knew what we were getting.  One of us eats here weekly since it's close to work.  Weekly, we hope for a good sandwich at a great price and, if we're lucky, nice enough weather to sit outside and enjoy it.

What we've had: Almost everything.  The Philly is the classic and there are several variations of it (cream cheese, mushroom, deluxe, garlic, Italian, etc.).  The meatball is great.  The reuben and the Italian sausage are nice change of pace sandwiches.  Lots of people like the pastas, but we're not people that eat pasta at a sandwich cart.

(Philly)

(Alfredo Philly)

(Italian Philly)

(Cream Cheese Philly)

The pros: Price to value is hard to beat.  For ~$5, you get an overflowing 6 inch sandwich, chips, and a soda.  And in a county that's lacking in good, quick lunches, it's the hit of Davis County.  It's cash only, which helps keep yuppies away.

The cons: Only open for lunch, which is too bad.  In the winter, he's only open Tues-Friday.  If you get there after noon, the line fills up with high schoolers, so it's not quick.  And if you're one of those people that don't trust the cleanliness of a food cart, this might not be your place.  But if you're one of those people, stop reading this blog.

What to get: Permission from your boss to eat here often.  The first time you go, you should probably eat the Philly.  But after that, you need to have tried the cream cheese Philly, the meatball, the Italian sausage, the reuben, and whatever Philly variation you want.

Urban Spoon users: Are just getting to know it.  And I kind of don't like the publicity it's getting there (and here), because the line is bad enough already.

Ratings (1-5 mo mos.  5 is the best):
Price: 4.5 mo mos.  Extra drinks are a buck, which is the only thing keeping this at 4.5 instead of 5.  Two can happily eat for $10 total.
Atmosphere: 4.  If you like eating outside, like we do, and like you should, this is a great good-weather spot.  The downside is the line at times and there aren't enough tables - but you can just pull up a curb or open your trunk.
Food: 4.5.  Sometimes the bun is a little too soft.  But really, it's hard to complain about anything here.  This is a legitimately good sandwich.

Will we be back:
Every Wednesday for lunch for one of us.  Slightly less often for the other.  One of the very few places we eat at somewhat regularly.  It's a SLC Shawsome Spots club member.