Viva Salon & Spa

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Viva Salon & Spa

Ocean View

Viva Salon & Spa on Tidewater Drive in Ocean View has one of the largest review bases in this entire guide at 552, and Lee — affectionately called Lee Lee by several regulars — is the technician who anchors most of the salon’s strongest, longest-running praise.

One reviewer specifically described going to Viva for many years, always satisfied with Lee and her crew, describing them as friendly and consistently leaving customers with a smile. Another reviewer specifically praised Lee Lee for taking her time on both a pedicure and eyebrows in the same visit, rating the combined experience a full 10 out of 10.

Long is also named specifically, with one reviewer calling him a source of “nail perfection” and encouraging others to specifically ask for him by name — a distinct enough recommendation that it stands out from more general praise.

Efficiency is a recurring, specific theme across this salon’s reviews. One customer described the service as amazing and specifically noted getting in and out within an hour, while several shorter reviews independently describe the experience as “nice, quick” without elaborating much further — a pattern that suggests fast turnaround is a consistent, reliable feature rather than an occasional lucky visit.

A first-time customer specifically credited a recommendation from their home health aide, who told them this was the very first nail shop they visited after moving to Norfolk from New York City, describing the space as clean with fantastic results — a meaningful endorsement given the aide’s presumably wide frame of reference.

That said, two specific negative reviews are worth including directly rather than letting the strong overall volume obscure them. One customer described crooked oval French tip work that they attributed specifically to the salon’s owner performing the service personally, saying the price didn’t match the quality delivered. A separate first-time customer described being overcharged and leaving with what they called the worst quality, most uneven nails they’d ever received, adding that a follow-up issue arose again within the same week.

A smaller, more measured complaint came from a customer who was otherwise pleased with their service but noted discomfort with a staff member speaking to a colleague in another language during their appointment — a comment on personal comfort rather than a complaint about the technical quality of the work itself.

Given how large this salon’s review base is, the pattern that emerges is fairly clear: Lee and Long both have genuinely long-running, specific, independently-corroborated praise, while the more serious complaints specifically point to different circumstances — one directly naming the owner’s personal work, another describing a first-time visit rather than an established relationship. Requesting Lee or Long by name, based on this salon’s actual review history, appears to be the more reliable path to the fast, satisfying experience most reviewers describe.

Given how large this salon’s review base is compared to most others in this guide, it’s also worth noting the sheer range of service combinations customers describe trying here — from quick single-service visits to combined nail-and-eyebrow appointments to full family group bookings. That breadth, paired with the salon’s specifically fast turnaround times, suggests Viva Salon & Spa functions well as a dependable, no-fuss option for people who want reliable results without treating each visit as a lengthy, drawn-out spa experience — a different value proposition than some of the more deliberately slow, indulgent salons elsewhere in this guide, like Bling Bling Nails’ spa-package approach.

That combination of scale, speed, and a large, specifically-named staff roster puts Viva Salon & Spa in a broadly similar category to Devinn Nail Bar elsewhere in this guide — both are high-volume salons where requesting a specific, well-reviewed technician by name appears to matter more than it would at a smaller, single-technician studio.