Il Vecchio - Pacific Grove

The food is delicious and the service is great! My girls and I love it here! They also have the best Gelato ever! The atmosphere is lovely.

Great Italian food a stone's throw away from the Monterey Bay aquarium. Be sure to go with at least four people who would be willing to share because the portions are large and everything is good. The ragu goes well with any carb. We had it with pasta and polenta and both were winners. As tempting it is to eat your main course, be sure to save room for the gelato dessert dishes. We had the black cherry and toffee flavors. I was going to lick the sundae glass if it wasn't frowned upon.

Fresh focaccia, pasta, daily fish specials and creative cocktails. These people great you with a smile and a strong welcome. Follow up with just the right amount of attention and a good service level. Don't pass on their gelato, like the bread and pasta it's their own. Their price and value are balanced. A weekly visit confirms and has for years, they are the real deal restaurant people who care about their regulars and have always taken care of visitors I have recommended to check it out.

This place has long been on my list of destinations to visit in Monterey, and today we finally did it while zipping around on e-scooters. We locked them to a pole, and in we went. The restaurant wasn't busy at 7ish, and there's plenty of room and a good ambience. Our waiter was quick to take our order and fairly attentive. He had an Italian accent that added to the authentic feel of the place, and was kind enough to remove the soup that my wife didn't like from the bill. Our service experience was pretty positive, but let's get into the food. We came HUNGRY. I hate reviewing places when I'm starving because I'll usually just assault the food and not take the time to properly taste it. Today was different. We ordered two entrees, the aforementioned soup, and a dessert to share among my wife, my son, and myself. Oh, and a side of meatballs. I was very excited by the server's repeated reminders that their pasta is made fresh everyday. I am a sucker for fresh homemade pasta. My excitement was quickly tempered though. The soup of the day was a pumpkin soup. I'll admit I am not a member of the pumpkin spice brigade. My appreciation for pumpkin happens once a year with my mom's homemade pumpkin pie, made from real pumpkins she roasts herself, not that canned business. This soup was indeed pumpkin colored, but that's where the association ended. It was bland, and somewhat tainted by the bread and cheese placed in the middle of it. The bread turned to a soggy blob, adding nothing to the flavor. Even generous helpings of salt and pepper weren't able to save it. It was graciously taken away and credited. Because we were splitting two entrees with three people, we also ordered a side of meatballs. The side is two meatballs in a healthy portion of marinara. I believe it to be a beef and pork blend. The meatballs were hard. Really hard. They tasted like they'd been frozen and reheated. Since we already sent back the soup, I gutted it out and ate them, but I wish I hadn't. The flavor was... ok. They were just so hard and overdone. The spaghetti and carbonara came next. I confess I was excited about the carbonara. I wasn't bothered by the thick spaghetti style noodles instead of the linguine I had come expecting, but I was by the fact that they were undercooked. The pasta was so thick and stiff it caught me off guard. It was also very greasy. The spaghetti and meatballs had much more appropriately cooked pasta and a nice marinara, but it was brought down by those rock hard meatballs again. Our hunger drove us to finish both entrees, but it came with a healthy dose of regret later. Finally the tiramisu. We came here primarily for that. I didn't expect it to come in a soufflé dish, but I'm open to new presentations. Sadly, the lady fingers were mush. I did like the mascarpone part, but not much else. It was better than places that serve tiramisu shaped cake, but not much. Maybe we'll try it again in the future. Maybe not. Tonight wasn't great.

Service was good. Ambiance was good. Food. Food was not good. I'm sorry, I tried but it was awful. Everything tasted just awful. To start I tried the pumpkin soup. I know, I know... I can still see my husband's eye roll, but I wanted to try it. It's a firm no for me. Tasted like chicken and canned pumpkin. The bread slice in it was burned and added nothing. A soggy mess. We ordered Carbonara and Spaghetti with meatballs as our entrees. With a side of extra meatballs. Our server (who was excellent btw) suggested both dishes because it was homemade fresh pasta. I will say that the spaghetti was better. The carbonara noodles were exceedingly thick and chewy. The spaghetti sauce ... left something to be desired. The meatballs were tough and hard to cut. The carbonara sauce was greasy. The pancetta was cooked great and was tasty. I do wish there were options for another protein. Our Hail Mary was the tiramisu but it also was not what you expect from a restaurant with 4 solid stars. IMO it was overly sweet, too much rum and soggy. I prefer the ladyfingers to not be mush. I'm just saying... if you go out to eat, you expect to get something you can't make at home. Or something you look forward to. I'd say that the locals that enjoy this place are probably assisting a memory with the food. And that's fine but at least be honest about the food. I've wanted to try this place for a while and I'm just sad that the flavors did not excite my palate. I love a good Italian meal but there are far better places nearby that are worth the money. This menu could be excellent! It just needs more flavor. We probably will not go back.