Villaggio Prime Bar and Grille — Restaurant in Barnstable

So much potential but unfortunately this is not a restaurant that should still be in business and I’m very surprised has the positive reviews that it has. We were a party of 4 for Christmas Day dinner that was a prefix menu. I’ve dined at various high-end establishments all over the country and internationally and this restaurant has no business charging the prices it does for the level of service and quality of food we received. I understand that it was a holiday but that is not an excuse to lock customers into a prefix menu and then not have available all items on that menu, especially wine and beer selections which should be ordered and stocked well in advance. From the beginning of our experience we had a hunch the experience wasn’t going to be great. We weren’t greeted as we arrived (which seems small) but for a $125 per person price tag this a small but important touch to welcome your guests and thank them for dining during the holidays. We sat down and were looking forward to ordering the only Italian red wine on their menu (with this being an Italian restaurant that’s a bit surprising) but unfortunately our waitress returned to our table 20 minutes after ordering to let us know that they didn’t have anymore bottles of that wine. I’d like to note we had a 4pm reservations and there were multiple hours of existing reservations so this is a sign that whoever did the ordering had no clue what they were doing. (Additionally we overheard that cocktails were not an option because they didn’t have a bartender) It was a Christmas dinner where everyone had to have prepaid to dine. There should have been zero surprises on what to expect. Additionally as we continued to order we were told other sides were unavailable which was a big bummer for such an already limited selection given its prefix…

As we continued to dine we noticed others tables having similar experiences and one table ended up getting up and leaving in its entirety. I was constantly hearing the poor wait staff having to tell customers sorry or that they were out of something. It’s a terrible position to put your front line staff in and they were doing everything they could to keep customers happy. Paying $125 a head for such a terrible experience is completely unacceptable. It’s clear management needs to be completely refreshed as there is no passion or interest in properly running a restaurant.

A few other notes are that we had to ask multiple times to get bread at the table, the mashed potatoes had absolutely no flavor or seasoning, the stuffed mushrooms were obviously precooked and weren’t even warm when served, and multiple people received cold steak.

What’s truly unfortunate is that because we had prepaid there was no opportunity for us to change our minds or go somewhere else. We already spent $500 for a party of 4 and were stuck with this extremely lack luster experience. It truly felt like we were being robbed while being served mediocre food and feeling like an inconvenience to the staff. An absolutely terrible experience and I’d never recommend going to anyone. We would have had a better experience at Olive Garden.

Additionally, at the end we received a check including 20% minimum gratuity which added an additional $145ish dollars to our bill. Totaling close to almost $650 for 4 people to dine and receive some of the worst food and terrible experience we’ve ever had. EVER. I’m not understating how bad this was.

People work hard for their money and it’s a shame to provide such a laughable experience for people trying to celebrating the holidays with their family....

Let me first say the food here can be fantastic as in the past I have had good food here, even cannolis from Mike's Pastries, but not any more.

We booked a reservation on OpenTable and had to put down a nonrefundable $25 deposit to do so. It was Saturday after the 4th of July so we knew it would be busy but had no idea we were about to have the worst experience at a restaurant we have ever had.

Our reservation was at 7, we had no water on the table, missing drink menus, missing have the menus and we were not able to order until 7:30. I kept track of the time because my wife has gestational diabetes and needs to test her blood sugars so I took note of the times regularly throughout the nite.

When we noticed it was after 8 we checked with the waitress to see where our order was. At 8:17 the only update was it was coming. My wife then asked again at 8:23 because her blood sugar was dropping and needed to eat. At 8:27 a second waiter came up to explain it was coming and that they were short staffed and that everyone "came in at once". Now mind you this restaurant is usually reservation only and that there were six empty tables near us, but we fully understood that a holiday weekend would be busy and just wanted food for my wife. Any normal restaurant would offer us a free app or a round of drinks at this point but all the offered was excuses which is ridiculous for a restaurant that made at least $250 in profits off from our party of 8.

At 8:37 we asked again and at this point the exchange became rather heated with the host staff as they begrudgingly gave us more excuses about our order. Fortunately our waitress, who was new, worked really hard to get my wife food and ran down the stairs to get her food to her which she received at 8:47. I was the last of the 8 served and my meal came in at 9:01 (we sat down about 4 mins to 7 pm for our reservation). As you can see from my picture my meal looked like someone threw up on my plate and it didn't taste much better. It was a special, a veal Tuscany, the artichokes were not cooked properly. The veal was tough (for veal) and under seasoned and the sauce was so tart i thought the added vinegar to it.

Everyone else's meals tasted good but the night wasn't over. Before we had started we asked if it was ok to split the checks which they said it was but that was obvious at the end of the night as we were waiting more than 20 mins for our check. I finally had to go in and find the wait staff and tell them to just charge it all on my card. As we were leaving the restaurant the hostess decided it would be a good idea to double flip off my father in law as he exited the building, unfortunately we saw this which caused another angry confrontation. We left the restaurant at 9:54, almost 3 hours after we got there and we spent a whopping 20 mins of that time actually eating any food.

I have ate at thousands of restaurants around the world. I have had a few bad experiences, in most cases it was either a waiter on a bad day or poorly cooked food, but I have never experienced such a terrible experience in my life especially from a restaurant that charges $30-$100 for an entree. I highly recommend that you do not go to this restaurant ever and tell all your friends to avoid it as well. The staff that caused this issue has been there since it was a different restaurant and there is no front of the...

I have to say first off, its probably not a good idea to serve these type of entrees, appetizers, and other menu items take out. I understand with the health concerns around us, this is the only option at this time. If I wanted take out though, I wouldn't go here for it...It seems the restaurant still need to work out the efficiency of doing take out without jeopardizing the quality of the food during the process...This can be very difficult for a fine dining upscale restaurant and menu...I know because I worked at the Chatham Bars Inn Resort and Boston Park Plaza Hotel while I was getting my second Bachelors degree from UMass Boston in Hotel / Restaurant Management... Chef J, I have had the seafood diavlo from your place a few times now, but always dined in doing so and it was delicious ! On the contrary, yesterday I ordered some take out for my 50th birthday and explained to the server Jenna taking the order, it was a special occasion. So I get to the restaurant, and my order has already been sitting at the bar Jenna, the server who took my order, was on the phone for almost 15 minutes dealing with a customer who was not happy at all ! So another server finally comes from the back, only to circle around Jenna and find out what is the issue she is having on the phone...Meanwhile, I'm just standing there like Forrest Gump waiting for a box of chocolates and everyone is just walking by me...I knew right then judging by the initial customer service it was not going be a good night, and was very close to just leaving...So I get home and notice whoever packed up this order, put both of the cold appetizers Caprese and Anti-pasta on top of the hot Diavlo entree without anything in between. So why not just take the time to put the cold appetizers in a seperate bag ? One would think, isn't that the more practical and intelligent way to pack a take out order...I guess not because by the time I got home, the cheeses from the antipasta & mozzarella on the Caprese were practically melted as a result. The Diavlo was worse having a minimal amount of seafood, a huge lump of shoe string potatoe strings which melted into another ingredient in the pasta. There was a huge pile of angel hair pasta with barely anything in it ! Also, there were so many calamatta olives in the sauce, they totally dominated the sauce so bad that I could only taste olives period ! For the price this restaurant is charging for this entree, this meal was a total joke ! I'm disappointed because this was one of my favorite entrees and now I'm cautious to even order it again...I did talk to Chef J on the phone and he was nice enough to offer to remake my order or try another day so I appreciate his cander in the matter, but it was my 50th birthday people ! Cmon you can do better than that ! Impress me to come back...Just saying...