Vella Wine Bar + Kitchen
“We got a 3-cheese platter (delicious!), duck liver pâté (fantastic!), and truffle mac and cheese with bacon (out of this world!!!)”
“Best hospitality in the upper east side.”
“Drinks were excellent , food served on time and very tasty, especially crostinis, flat breads and mussels.”
Vella Wine Bar + Kitchen
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Vella offer a decent by the glass wine selection and a great offering of charcuterie and cheese and service. The grapes could have been a bit fresher but the wine made all things bad go away to a very distant place. Love the ambiance and spring to early fall they have outdoor seating. Now that most of the Second Avenue Subway surface work on these block has been completed, patrons may reclaim the outdoor space.
In short: good wine, average oysters.
Both the pinot noir and Chardonnay wines they offered for happy hour were enjoyable. The prices were about average for New York happy hour ($7/glass).
If you sit at the bar, oysters are half off during happy hour. We ordered 6 of both the east coast and west coasters. Nothing special, but not bad.
Make sure to check in on Yelp to receive a free mound of marinated olives!
Vella is a Wine Bar on the corner of 77th & 2nd Avenue in the Upper Eastside. They are on a block with four other restaurants which makes the area quite busy. They have a rustic charm with an airy atmosphere providing a laid-back feel. We love their Lamb Meat balls, Mussels, Kale Salad, and all their flat breads. They have a selective medium price wines that are very good. The outdoor feel from inside to outside is quite appealing. As I say, just give me a good glass of wine, and I promise no one will get hurt.
The restaurant is very cute and and they have a nice outside area. The waiter was super sweet and helpful! However, the food was very average. The cheese plate, the salads, the flatbreads were good. My friends got the steak and they both were disappointed. The pepper sauce was probably the worst we ever tasted, unanimously. Overall, I would not recommend to try it, there are lots of other places to try before.
They did sit the 6 of us really quickly and without a reservation, so it is a nice plan B option.
Great restaurant, great food, great atmosphere and an added star for being among the only non Chinese restaurants/ bars open Christmas night. Doesn't everyone realize the large Jewish population in NYC? :/ I celebrate Christmas and I still think more bars should be open; there should be dancing in the streets like a post family happy birthday JC celebration. But, hey that's just my opinion 🙂
Very vibrant Italian wine bar with decent-ish food.
Pasta and pizza were ok…best food of the nite was the kale/brussel sprout salad and the side of roasted cauliflower. If the veggies are the best things, you know the food isn't all it's cracked up to be. Wine list is nice, but a bit pricey for what's being offered. Enjoyable vibe, friendly service that doesn't rush you out.
More like a 2.5 star resto, but will round up rather than down.
Came here for a late brunch with my mom and brother who lives a few blocks away. Great decor & atmosphere, love the raw bar at the side of the restaurant. Seated right away as there were maybe only 3 other tables filled when we arrived.
Mom ordered a mimosa and brother had a coffee while I just stuck with water. For the meal, mom got the omelette which in my opinion was kind of small (only 2 eggs) although maybe it was more filling with the extra veggies. Brother originally wanted the all in one breakfast but they ran out of sausage, so he ordered the chicken sandwich instead. I got the smoked salmon eggs benedict. And all entrees came with a small side salad and home fries / regular french fries.
Everyone enjoyed their meal, I still felt a bit hungry after the meal, but that could have been due to the very late brunch after a long workout earlier that morning.
Service was a bit slow considering how empty it was. And especially for the food that was being prepared, eggs and chicken shouldn't generally take that long to make??
Would be curious to come back here again for dinner during the week as the other reviews looked interesting. But nothing especially fantastic or horrible about this place — kind of middle of the road for me.
One small bonus, very clean bathroom — always says something about the cleanliness of the restaurant & kitchen!
I would not recommend this restaurant, especially for lunch.
We live very close to Vella Wine Bar & Kitchen and were extremely curious about it and saw that the reviews were quite mixed. Now I understand why.
When we arrived, we were seated quickly and given our menus. Then we didn't see our waiter (the only waiter on duty) for another 20 minutes. When he arrived, I showed the Yelp offer of free marinated olives and we placed our order.
My daughter and I went to the restroom which was clean but guarded by about 5 flies. Right by the kitchen too.
10 minutes later our olives came and they were delicious….until we found…..the hair. Half way through the olives….we found a hair and it didn't belong to any of us.
I brought the dish with the remaining olives and the hair discretely to the waiter and alerted him of our surprise. He said Oh! Sorry! No restitution was offered what so ever. Granted they were free olives, but I don't recall asking for a side of hair.
I went back to the table, and I am not going to lie, I was angry. I asked the hubby if we should leave. He said no, the kids are hungry and the food had been ordered.
20 minutes later I not so discretely went over to our waiter and inquired about our meal and he said there was only one cook and he hasn't gotten to it yet. The fact that there was one waiter and one cook for lunch service is not my problem.
I let him know of my displeasure with the service and the unexpected surprise with our olives and that he should cancel our order.
The waiter held it together very nicely and didn't get nasty and said OK.
That being said, I don't think I will be coming back to Vella any time soon.