Aug.31,2022 First off, we have heard about this place for a few years and have known plenty of people who have patronized and recommended it.
In all fairness we knew we would be eating in an old school restaurant but didn’t realize the “main level”...as they call it, was an old dingy, dark basement. We were seated in a tiny room with 3 tables off the main dining room in the corner with a fan blowing directly on us. In the beginning the owner came by and said hello, we told her we were first timers and she seemed delighted to have new patrons. The waitress introduced herself and told us we would have 4 people serving us.
Service Begins: Tap water or Sparkling? One tap,One sparkling,Charge for bottle of Perrier $9.00!
Appetizer: Very Good, Mozzarella wrapped in Prosciutto with roasted peppers (4) Typical.
Entrees:#1. Veal Parm Chop, (Signature Dish) Borderline bottom burnt, over fried/ saturated in old tasting oil, topped with cheese and sauce. $59.00 Side of angel hair pasta,same sauce, however, pasta was not drained enough so pasta just slipped off the fork, totally tasteless and sauceless, plus pasta was ala Carte.
Entree #2. Shrimp Franchaise, jumbo shrimp fried with some old oily substance served in a cup on the side to dip or pour over the shrimp.Just Weird, also with a side of AlaCarte angel hair with same oily rancid tasting substance over it which was inedible.
The bread, the appetizer and dessert was the best part of the meal. Pretty sad right?
The dessert was a slice of the banana cream pie $15.95 per slice with two watered down cappuccinos.
The tab:$180.00 before tip.($45.00)
Upon leaving the restaurant,the owner is at the exit and she asked if everything was OK if we enjoyed the meal. I basically told her very politely what I have stated in this review. The owner seem to be listening only for first 20 seconds,after that she totally dismissed what I was saying and actually began talking about how many dinners they do and the dish I had is the “fan favorite” and then proceeds to tell me about how many ice cream flavors Baskin-Robbins has and not everybody likes the same flavor as an analogy. Instead of listening, she already decided that I was that one customer that didn’t like the food. I didn’t even get to the shrimp disaster. I must say that before we actually came to the restaurant we did read the most recent reviews and a lot of them were not positive but we wanted to judge for ourselves anyway.
Conclusion:Sub par food at best, over priced and over rated.
FINAL KABOOSH : Within 1 hr of eating there, I was in and out of the bathroom with acute stomach pains, nausea and disintary.
In the morning, my husband had the same.
We had not eaten anything else since the morning. We had only bagels and coffee as we were saving ourselves up for this anticipated fabulous dinner so it was nothing else we ate. We traveled two hours south of our home ,reserved a room for the night just to go here. It was a most disappointing night. I did not choose to call the owner because she already has it in her mind that I was the exception to the rule. I think the owner should read the reviews and pay closer attention. We definitely had food poisoning!! A few weeks ago we had a wonderful experience at Café 2825 right up the street, Outstanding! If you want to spend the same money and not feel ripped off please go there. As far as Chef Vola goes,I’m still puzzled how this place gets 4/5 star ratings. It was not worth the wait, the ride,the expense ,aggravation and above all,the illness we experienced. Save your money for cafe 2825!
Beware!More