Vieni Vai Trattoria

For my birthday weekend we drove up the coast to Santa Maria, stopping for lunch at Freebirds in Isla Vista which Sean already reviewed. For dinner Friday night (my actual birthday, June 5th), we went into SLO. I really had no idea what I wanted for dinner, but Italian sounded good, plus they normally have some vegetarian options and my friend Karla who was with us is a vegetarian. We walked around Higuera for quite a while; there was an event going on called Art After Dark, many galleries were still open and there was live music in a lot of the bars and pubs. We finally decided to eat, we were all starving by then and we happened upon Vieni Vai Trattoria. It wasn't overly crowded and we were able to be seated right away. Our waiter was an older gentleman and he was one of the best servers I've had recently. He was very friendly and helpful without hovering too much. I wanted a glass of wine so he made a few suggestions and I ended up having a Sangiovese that was quite good. We ordered the Mozzarella ala Caprese salad to share as an appetizer along with the bread they give you. Both were really good, the cheese was soft and mellow, the tomatoes were perfectly ripe and the bread had a nice salty crust with a slightly chewy interior. For my entree I had scallops with fettacini alfredo and veggies, Sean had a dish that included about 5 different kinds of meat including a small pork chop, steak, etc, also with a side of pasta and Karla had the Gnocchi a Modo Tuo with gorgonzola sauce. Entrees come with soup or salad and since we'd already had the caprese salad we chose soup which was a really tasty lentil soup. As for the entrees... all I can say is that my scallops were beautiful; large and perfectly cooked, swimming in a butter sauce, they were delish. Sean's meat extravaganza was good, he barely was able to eat it all and Karla really enjoyed her gnocchi; she let me taste and the sauce was awesome. Then I mentioned that it was my birthday and our waiter told us he wouldn't be showing us the menu; he then brought out a piece of Tiramisu with a candle in it and they sang Happy Birthday to me. And that tiramisu, oh my gosh, it was SO good. I've had a lot of different versions and often it's a bit dry or the marscapone overpowers the other flavors, but this was not like that. It was really moist, the bottom layer almost drippy with liquor and cappaccino and just the right amount of marscaponi. Such a nice dinner and it's not even overly pricey to eat there. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Italian food and happens to be in San Luis Obispo.
Here's the link to their website: http://www.vienivai.com/index.php
And my rating is Four Monkee's!