avelluto's italian delight

pizza!.avelluto'spizza margarita is the closet thing to eating pizza in naples, italy i've had since moving back to the states. it's the only thing i order here.

good, clean, stick-to-your-ribs italian.avelluto'smay not win any fine dining awards, but they should win some kind of award, because i have never been disappointed in the food. this is a clean, diner type place that serves unpretentious italian food well. everything i have had here, from the chicken spaghetti (which consists of their house red sauce over chicken tenders over perfectly executed spaghetti) to the calzones, to the pizza, everything is good, including the prices. my biggest problem is deciding what to order. service can be a bit spotty, so watch your ps and qs, but the food is consistently good.

i love it.. i eat atavelluto'salmost daily. i love all their food, but recently i've been ordering their large house salad. it has crisp lettuce, red onions, tomatoes,oil and vinegar dressing, and wonderful seasonings. i also love their rollatini, which is only served on wednesdays, as well as their eggplant pizza, which is also only available on wednesdays.

yummy and good prices. the pizza, the stromboli, the spag, and the salads are all wonderful! good food, quick, hot, and value for your dollar.
it's not really about service at this place,
we often call in large to go orders if we are having get-togethers at home and need to feed a crowd.avelluto'salways pleases the group.
i've been eatingavelluto'ssince i was a child (at the indian springs location) and now i love to drop in at the mission location.

great food, great people, great service. after 15 years of working across the street (and still do) fromavelluto'sitalian delight, i finally decided to look them up on the internet for the reviews and/or their website. all the reviews were great except from a few (joco snobs??). the food, atmosphere, employees and the owners have all been great. if you talk to the owners, they will talk/chat back as any owner/restaurateur would to make sure you are satisfied with their product and service.
my experience withavelluto'sitalian delight has been over the top in customer service and the one of the best for their pizza's. i've also had their calzone, strombli, sausage roll, combo hero, health salad, olive salad, and my wife the pasta salad and ultimate chocolate cake to boot, and she and my kids love the food.
avelluto's italian delight has the quality food anyone is looking for and the personal service from the owners.
and it took me 15 years to finally try this delicatessen, and now i go almost weekly (budget).

the best italian!. we've been frequenting italian delight long before it was remodeled (this goes back to the 90's.) prior to finding this wonderful place, we had tried all the "recommended" italian restaurants. having grown up in st. louis and having access to the "hill," i knew what i was looking for in the way of italian food and none of the "trendy" restaurants in kc offered the "real thing." the dishes were either bland or too sweet or just plain mediocre - nothing to write home about.

and then we discoveredavelluto'sitalian deight. i remember my first bite of their famous lasagna - i nearly wept. to compare this dish to music, i would have to say the lasagna is a mellifluous blend of wonderfully fresh ingredients - you can taste each one and put together, it's almost a religous experience. this dish and many others on the menu would easily rival anything on the st. louis "hill."

since our first pizza, we have no interest in ordering anywhere else. the pizza is truly the best we've ever had.

the chicken parmesan is nothing short of amazing! i wish i could make it half that well!

we now bring our grandchildren toavelluto'sitalian deight and i suspect they will bring their children as well.

love avelluto's!. have been coming toavelluto'sfor almost 20 years and have tried just about everything. have honestly loved every dish we've been served here. have so many favorites it's tough to decide, amazing calzones, eggplant parmigiana, incredible pizza (my son's favorite as my picture shows, and frequently begs to eat here!), my husband loves their meatball sandwiches and lasagna. i crave their chef salads all the time, it's a huge salad with the best, freshest ingredients, perfect dressing, spices and plenty of meat and cheese rolls on it. as we live 40 miles away now, it is always worth the drive to make lunch dates with friends (who i've gotten hooked on them) as often as i can!

as for the service mentioned before, we have never had a bad experience. but that might be because we walk in with a smile on our face knowing full well the great food we're going to enjoy or take home, and then met with a smile in return. i for one would not have a problem asking for the owner, at any restaurant, if i experienced less than acceptable service, and give that owner the opportunity to rectify the problem with said employees before taking to my computer and just writing a bad review. or at the very least, send them a feedback message on their website if you don't want to address the issue face to face or in front of the employee. that's what it's there for. john avelluto is not a personal friend, but i think i've gotten to know him over the years, (as he always makes a point to ask how i'm doing every time i go in), well enough to know that he takes pride in his restaurant, genuinely cares and strives to give you the best and always goes out of his way to take care of his customers. just ask any one of the many regulars, patiently standing in line waiting for an amazing dish!
thanks john and james,
conni

a gem.avelluto'swon't win any awards for ambiance but the food is absolutely great. it's traditional italian-american fare (red sauce, meatballs, spaghetti, etc.) but it's always amazing. my advice would be to avoid the pasta dishes-- not that they're bad-- but there other menu items are really whereavelluto'sshines. their eggplant parm, for instance, is awesome.

have enjoyed for years, customer service sometimes an issue. the good: i highly recommend their veal parm sandwich. i think it is pretty much the best veal parm i've had. i also suggest you try their prosciutto balls, calzones, or the cold ham sandwich. i also really like their pizza, which is a new york/new jersey style. they offer a neapolitan crust option, which is nice for people who don't like a big doughy pizza.

the so-so: my husband and i have loved coming toavelluto'sfor years, but we do go less than we used to, because service tends to deteriorate on busy days, and can be spotty other times. part of it is their fault, part not. the physical layout of the restaurant makes it tough and stressful for the staff to accommodate heavy customer volume on friday and saturday nights. and i think part of it is due to lack of organization or clear workflow for tasks like order taking and communicating where to stand. i haven't ever had a problem with staff members being unpleasant to me. they're just rushed the way that restaurant employees get rushed sometimes when everything piles up.

but this is an example of what i mean: a few weeks ago i called twice on a weeknight to place a carryout order and was asked to hold on, did so for 3-5 minutes while listening to the register employee taking counter orders (must have set the handset down on the counter), and then was hung up on for my trouble...both times. i was disappointed, but wasn't willing to try again at that point.

so in that respect, i think there is room for improvement in the area of customer service. however, they make good food that is reasonably priced, and this place is owner-operated and their love for this business is obvious. i really like this place and i'm willing to forgive a lot even when the service bums me out occasionally.