Vesta, Redwood City

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Vesta 2022 Broadway St Redwood City, CA 94063 (650) 362-5052 Vesta Website

Why did we dine here? – Top Italian on the Peninsula! Vesta is a California Italian restaurant in downtown Redwood City. They tried to support local and organic suppliers. It has an extremely high 4.5 stars on Yelp and was mentioned in San Francisco magazine as having great pizza. These two facts were enough to pique our interest. We finally got a chance to try them at the end of 2013, been back several times with latest visit in summer 2023.

The place is packed most of the time, so come early. Redwood City has grown up fast, with lots of tech companies nearby like Box. Luckily, a parking structure is around the corner. Reservations are only taken for larger parties. Needless to say, Vesta was loud and packed, not a quiet, romantic restaurant.

Insider Tip – Go early, order many different items.

Cuisine – California Italian
Location – Downtown Redwood City
Opened – 2012

Service – Vesta had surprisingly very good service. It was rare to see this in a restaurant outside of San Francisco. The server was friendly and helpful.
Verdict – Vesta impressed us with very good service and food, making it a no-brainer if you are in the area. We will definitely be back to try out more dishes. The quality of the food is similar to many San Francisco California Italian spots. Also consider Donato and nearby LV Mar in Redwood City.

Vesta Signature Dishes – Sausage Honey Pizza

Vesta’s Menu includes 4 salads, 7 small plates, 6 red pizza pies and 7 white pies. The menu changes from time to time. Desserts are few.

Website Vesta Menu

Vesta Food Picks:

Garden Lettuces, shaved fennel, fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, champagne vinaigrette ($10 large) contained huge leaves that were well dressed and very fresh.

Beets ($13) frisee, arugula, avocado, pistachios, ricotta salata, orange vinaigrette was another well done salad. This dish could have used more avocado to balance out all the sweetness of the beets. 8.5/10

Cauliflower, toasted almonds, currants, serrano chili, honey, breadcrumbs ($10) was on the sweet side, but also hit the mark.

Avocado Toast ($12) was a special during the spring. Tons of avocado piled high on some quality toast. Normally they have Mushroom toast on the menu. Yes, this is a stereotypical California dish, but it rocks.

Mushroom toast ($15) sauteed mushrooms, thyme, crème fraiche, grilled bread was even better. Really nicely done mushroom.  Gluten free folks can opt for polenta instead of bread – which is not better! 8.5/10

Grilled bread with California Olive Oil ($3) hit the spot. Toasty, crispy and good quality bread.

Rosemary Potato Pizza, White Cheddar, Mozzarella, Rosemary, Applewood Smoked Bacon ($21) had a really nice crust and solid ingredients. Recipe was adjusted slightly to have German butterballs. A bit too much on the starchy side, they could have reduced the numbers of potatoes. Howie’s in Palo Alto does this well.

Honey Sausage Pizza, Tomato sauce, spicy Italian sausage, Mascarpone, fresh parsley, honey, serrano chili ($23) is an interesting exercise in sweet heat. Pretty spicy and some nice honey drizzle, a combination we haven’t tried. Again we love the crispy crust that was not soggy. This is not authentic Neapolitan Pizza.

Sausage & Leek White pie ($21) with spicy Italian sausage, mascarpone, red onion, leeks, fresh mozzarella was a nice white pizza for those who do not like tomato sauce. Thin crust, very heavy on the onion flavor.

Lush plant based peanut butter sorbetto ($5.50) was a special in 2023.  Sticky texture, lots of flavor. 8/10

Strawberry Sorbetto ($5.50) was a huge scoop of house made sorbet. TCHO Chocolate ($2) option add some dark chocolate to it. A must if we say so.

OK: (Order if you like this dish)
Pineapple Pizza ($21) with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, grilled pineapple, prosciutto americano, serrano chili was not as good as the Sausage Honey pizza.  Lots of meat though.

Pans: (We would not reorder these dishes)

Kale salad ($13), jalapeno pickled raisins, breadcrumbs, pecorino, green onion avocado dressing has a lot of chewy dino kale with an interesting dressing. 8/10

Wild Arugula Salad ($7 small) with toasted hazelnuts, shaved parmigiano reggiano had dressing that was far too sour.

Peach & Bacon Pizza Special ($22) was just too bland.  Nothing stood out.  Order the Sausage and Honey pizza instead. 7/10

Fresh brown sugar lemonade ($3.50) was very tart. They seem to like sour things here!

Do you agree with our review? Have you found other similar restaurants that are better?

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