Testimonials

V BAR @ Valentino, finally I have found what I am looking for in Santa Monica!

I stumbled into V bar yesterday with a girlfriend...it's the offshoot bar of the well known restaurant Valentino. Ever since I moved to Santa Monica over 3 years ago, I continually complain about the choices I have to go out to eat and drink wine. Everything is super high end or super low end without anything in-between. How many times can I head over to the 3rd street promenade or abbot kinney? It usually takes a good 20 minutes just to park. V Bar is located in a mellow neighborhood right near Trader Joe's on Pico and 31st. Now I am well aware that the main restaurant Valentino is one snazzy and expensive place but I was more than pleasantly surprised by the warm service, wines by the glass(Valentino has one of the best wine lists in all of Los Angeles) and the menu available in the side bar. The food is an offshoot of the Valentino menu with much lower prices.(they said you can order off the big menu as well.) I ordered the branzino which was FAB-U Lous and they served parmesan crisps on the house that were not to be believed.

Most of the menu items were priced between 11-16 dollars...seriously! The wines by the glass were perfect and in my price range as well. I kept thinking the whole time I was there...why did I not know about this place?why have I not been here before? why is it under the radar? why are they not advertising this place? I asked and they said the bar had only been open 2 years...but still 2 years is a long time. I am so excited to have found this place...especially since I live 5 minutes away.

Valentino hit a vinous grand slam... taking "Best Wine List," "Best Sommelier," "Best Wines by the Glass," "Best Values," and "Best Place to Take a Wine Snob."

This is the best restaurant in the country and no one tops Piero Selvaggio as a host.

Piero Selvaggio's Valentino shares its owner's easygoing friendliness - glamorous without being aloof.

One of the leaders in the movement to bring Italian cooking back to its roots.

One day, when someone writes the history of the success of Italian cuisine in the world, one chapter should be dedicated to the generous southerner [Piero Selvaggio] who has battled to help America understand that Italy is not just about macaroni.

Piero Selvaggio has assembled a breathtaking cache of the finest wines from all over the world.

There are great restaurateurs, and then there is Piero Selvaggio, the consummate host with the uncanny ability to know exactly what you want to have for dinner even before you do.

If you ask almost any serious food person to name the best restaurant in Los Angeles, he or she will probably steer you to Valentino.

Piero Selvaggio and Valentino have made a significant contribution to the Los Angeles (and national) restaurant scene, introducing authentic Italian products (radicchio, sun-dried tomatoes, aceto balsamico), wines and regional cuisine to the public. He has nurtured many of our most influential chefs and restauranteurs, who went on to enhance the dining scene. And over the years, he grew with restaurant into an elegant monument to fin dining. Ruth Reichl, when she was the influential restaurant critic of the New York Times, said that Valentino may be be the best Italian restuaarnt in the country. Piero has move forward with the times, now offering a more casual dining area (V Bar) and menu in part of the restaurant, and it remains a favored destination for sophisticated diners.

Valentino is the best Italian restuarant in the country, and no one tops Piero Selvaggio as a host.

Dining at Valentino always is suffused with a sense of occasion, from the ceremonious greeting at the door to the lingering arriverderci. Selvaggio's genius is his warmth and charm, in the way he makes each guest feel they have his entire attention for the time they are there. Valentino has found the cuisine of the heart.

With Valentino, Selvaggio upped the ante for Italian restaurants in America. He demanded more, and gave more. Thanks in no small part to Valentino, many of us now know that poricni are a variety of wild mushroom.

There's no time to rest when creating a symphony of food.

Before there were celebrity chefs, there were celebrity owners. Piero Selvaggio of Valentino - now celebrating its 40th anniversary - is one. Selvaggio, who came from humble Southern Italian beginnings, opened the restaurant as a modest red-sauce spot in 1972. But after returning to Italy in search of finer, more authentic cuisine, he transformed Valentino into one of the best Italian restaurants in the country, and brought one of the most impressive Italian wine lists to LA. In short, he has elevated dining to an art form.

Clearly the best winemakers in the world have found a good home for their wines at Valentino.

New restaurants have their charms, but I never visit Los Angeles without treating myself to a meal at Valentino, a venerable restaurant that serves the best Italian food I have ever eaten in America.

Those who enjoy fine Italian cuisine her in America, oew a debt to Piero Selvaggio's great restaurant, Valentino, in Santa Monica, California. For 40 years, Selvaggio has been bringing the ingredients and culinary techniques of Italiy to the United States, and in 1981 earned one of our inaugural Grand Awards for his wine list, which represents the best of Italy.

Renowned as one of the country’s top Italian restaurants, Valentino has a truly awe-inspiring wine list. With nearly 1,200 labels consuming 100 pages, backed by a cellar overflowing with nearly 70,000 bottles, this restaurant is nothing short of heaven for serious oenophiles.

Valentino restaurant in Santa Monica has been one of LA’s most beloved Italian eateries for over three decades.