Vigilucci's Catering and Private Events — Local services in Carlsbad

I'll preface my review by saying I really wanted to like this place. It is a cool spot in the Village, and the Village deserves great restaurants that everyone can love and recommend. The atmosphere here is quite pleasant and I chose patio dining. Kudos on the Singers and Standards music selection too - excellent - and it wasn't too loud or distracting - even more kudos. Service was professional and attentive. The menu selection was extensive and inviting, the presentation of the food was also attractive, the concept of the seafood pasta plate I ordered was a tantalizing combo. All positives. Unfortunately, the review turns negative when it comes to the food itself, specifically, the preparation and cooking. None of it was cooked properly. I truly hope it was some kind of fluke with a stand-in chef, or perhaps because I was there at an odd time (before 5pm mid-week), or something. It just can't be normal. The prices, as others noted, are indeed quite high. $15 Calamari app and $38 seafood pasta entrée. (!) My goodness. These prices should ensure something close to gastronomic nirvana. The calamari looked good and the marinara dipping sauce was excellent, but the calamari itself was heavily overcooked - the thin and little pieces were dry and brittle, the thicker pieces were tough and chewy. The most pointed unpleasantness, however, was with the small shrimp added to the mix - these had an ammonia sort of taste to them, which is the unmistakable signature of digested coral grit - meaning that something in the same boiling pot wasn't deveined properly. That was disappointing, but I still ate it all - I was hungry - plus, I'm a trooper, bring on my wonderful-sounding entrée! It arrived water-vapor hot, so I let it cool for a few minutes while I admired it. It was nicely mounded with an enormous sea scallop, prawns, mussels, clams and calamari. But… once I dug in, more disappointment. The sea scallop was under cooked, but I'm a crudo fan, so no problem for me. The pasta was al dente for sure, but some portions of it were still raw - clumped together in un-chewable stacks of hard ribbons that hadn't even separated during boiling. The calamari was once again over-cooked and chewy. The wonderful-looking prawns brought another dose of ammonia-like flavor (apparently boiled in the same tainted water as the other shrimp that came with the fried calamari?). If a professional chef had been testing this food, neither plate would have made it to the table - but since that was apparently not the case during my visit, a wonderful-sounding, delicious-looking, expensive plate of high-end seafood and pasta was a complete flop instead. I ate less than half of it, focusing mostly on the clams and mussels (which carried less of the tainted flavoring). For so many other aspects of Vigilucci's to be working so well, it is truly unfortunately that for $68 I had a lousy meal that could have otherwise been a memorable delight. I hope they get this sorted out - but at those prices, I'm not going to risk a repeat. In fact, at those prices, it should be cooked with exquisite skill, every single time. I wish I could recommend this place, I wish that I wanted to return, but I can't and I don't, I'm sorry to say. Diner be warned, but I'll hope for the Village's sake that my experience was just a one-night peculiarity. I do see some glowing reviews here, so I hope that they are just as...

I don't quite know how to begin, but, lets start with the reservation process. We had reservations for a specific time and then were called to come an hour later. (I had Jerry Seinfeld and his make/keep the reservations bit going on in my head). Once we got there, our table was still not prepared, but the staff hustled and threw together (and very closely to another groups table) our table. OK, a little bit of discomfort, but now time for some Italian food. I am from New York, so I am very familiar with good Italian food. The waiter comes and takes the drink order and inexplicably fails to take the order from 5 of our party of 12! Even serves the drinks to the other 7 and does not recognize the rest of us do not have drinks. Only after complaining several times, did they eventually bring us drinks, and even then, they were wrong. I would like to tell you about the dinner next, and if I were to make you wait as long as we did, we would be here all day...so right to it...the chicken parm was beyond dry, my lasagna was a runny, sloppy mess and the over-priced Spaghetti and meatballs for my son and nephew were inedible. I am not joking when I say The Olive Garden did a better job. One of our party said something along the lines of "We maybe the staff is too busy." To which I now thought of the famous Mr. Pink line "The words 'Too busy' should not be in a waitresses vocabulary", but then again, they made the reservation, the number of people was known, so how could they screw it up so badly? The person defending them changed her tune when she got her meal and it was bone dry. So, OK, fine, maybe we hit an off night, and it will be better next time...that was until we ordered a second round of drinks for four of us and only two came, ever, followed by the check. One item (which of course is not priced on the menu) was Pellegrino water. You know, $1.79 at the store, probably half that from the beverage wholesaler...$10.00. Yep $10.00!!!. Oh an I should mention that the waitstaff continually bumped and nudged us because the tables were too close together and had the nerve to lecture us on sharing space. Remember I said off night, maybe visit again, after that final straw, I have written them off forever. Good Italian food is not hard to find, coffee can be served hot and, I don't need to overspend to be abused at Vigilucci's ever again. You have...

disappointing... The first night of our family vacation, I google restaurants in our area and was quickly drawn to Vigilucci's. Vigilucci's is an upscale Italian restaurant in a beach town community...so pretty fancy shmancy. The service was a bit slow, our waiter was Angelo. Perusing the menu, I ask him what a tagliatelle noodle was and he told me, but then I ordered melanzana Parmesana (as it came with veggies). We also ordered the fritte di calamari as an appetizer. When our order came he brought me the tagliatelle al pesto....which is totally different from what I ordered. I told him it was not what I ordered and he apologized and told me that he'd ask the kitchen to make what I ordered...but my family had their dishes and I didn't want to hold everyone's meal up, so I accepted it. The dish was ok...but I ended up trading with hubby bc I wanted bolognese. We had a couple espressos for an aperitif.... As we've dined all over the world, we live in Sonoma county...and have traveled to Italy a few times ...I do have to say I expected to be comped something...as it was their mistake and I didn't eat what I ordered. They didn't even comp the espressos...and that isn't the kind of service I expect from this caliber of a...