Velvet Buffalo Modern Italian — Restaurant in Beloit

Terrible doesn't even describe it. My husband and I went to Velvet Buffalo to celebrate my birthday it was laughably horrible. We made a reservation and arrive a few (like 3min) prior to our reserved time. We were greeted by the hostess, who said "you're early, you'll have to wait". We stood awkwardly to the side and waited, empty tables were in the distance, and we stood near the door for approximately 15min before being waved over and told to follow a younger girl to a table after she and the hostess loudly discussed how many tables each member of the wait staff already had been assigned. We sat and were told that "your waitress will be with you soon". We waited about 10min, waitress stops by and says "I'll be over in a few minutes". Another approx 10min she comes by, I ask if they can make a Bloody Mary, she doesn't know and says "I'll ask the bartender". On her way back from the bar, our waitress stops at the neighboring table and has a conversation with the couple there, they order a bottle of wine, waitress goes to fetch that bottle, brings it to them, waits for them to taste it, then returns to us to say "no" about my drink question. I order a Prosecco and my husband orders a bottled beer. We wait 10 more minutes, waitress then gets the drinks as it appears she has forgotten to put the request in with the bartender. Drinks arrive and we quickly order the mussels appetizer and our entrees, afraid she'll never return. Then we wait, and wait, and wait. Others who have arrived after us have full meals. A girl comes over and says that she noticed our food seems to be taking a while and gives us two slices of bread. We finally get the mussels, which were the SMALLEST mussels I've ever seen. The waitress comes back about 2min after dropping off the mussels and says "how's everything?"... I said fine, but who knows because we couldn't have had time to eat anything at that point. We finish them, about 20min goes by, waitress passes the table and says "your food will be out soon". More waiting, nothing... finally the hostess delives our entrees. Waitress is diligently checking on everyone around us, very obviously ignoring our table. She passes by briefly and asks if I'd like another drink, I ask for iced tea. We then finish our entrees... food was meh, salty, cold, not well cooked, one entree was spaghetti and meatballs, its an Italian restaurant, that should be easy but it was soooo salty and room temp at best. We begin to laugh about the terrible service, after we're done eating waitress returns and says "oh you didn't get your tea" then runs off and brings the tea, at that point I joked that I thought they'd had to go out to buy the tea somewhere. She offered to take it off the bill. Water tasted like soap, which was infinitely better than the iced tea which was oversteeped and stale, it was so bad I asked my husband to taste it to make sure it wasn't just me. Waitress returns after her other tables have departed and asks if we'd like dessert. We said no, having discussed that we didn't want to wait around until the next morning for it. She returns with the bill and a tiny cake truffle as a "birthday" item. It was the better item of food we were offered. We have both had service industry jobs in the past and even for poor service will generally tip in the 20% range. We should have not tipped, she clearly had some "issue" with us, but left 10%. Ruined my birthday celebration. I had really high hopes and might have excused the okay food because of a busy night but the service was so blatantly terrible that I won't ever return. It was very obviously some perceived issue this waitress applied to us as she seemed very good for all her other tables. We were dressed nicer than many others, no ripped jeans, no t-shirts. I was in a dress and my husband a collared shirt. That 10% tip would have been more like 25% if she had treated us half as well as her other tables. Awful, won't put myself...

Let me start with the good:

Our server was very nice and pleasant. She was the best part of the experience. The restaurant was clean and I didn’t see any fruit flies, which is always a positive.

Now let me provide some constructive criticism:

When we walked in all the staff were sitting together at a table chatting. Not a good sign at the start of service.

Earlier in the day we called and left a voicemail because no one was available at the restaurant to take a reservation. We wanted a table for five, the fifth person being my three year old son. When no one called us back I made a reservation online but the maximum party size for an online reservation, for whatever reason, is four people. In the comments of the res I said that we were a party of five and that my son would need a chair at the table. When we arrived at the restaurant they attempted to seat us at a small table for four, which would’ve been cramped even just the four of us, and wanted to seat my son on the corner of the table - which was basically nonexistent. When I said, we needed a larger table (and confirmed they knew there were five of us due to the voicemail and comments in the res) the host said “these are the only 4-tops we have but I can maybe put you in the side room but I have to ask my manager.” Ultimately, we sat in a side room complete with a TV on a cart like in grade school because apparently pushing two tables together wasn’t an option. And let me stop you right there Internet, I know sometimes pushing tables together is frowned upon especially on a busy night but there were absolutely zero people in the restaurant when we arrived 10 minutes before our 5p reservation, and when we left 1.5 hours later (more on that below) it wasn’t slammed, at all.

The food was OK but nothing to write home about and certainly not worth the $200 bill. What really upsets both me and my wife about the food is that the “finger salad” off the kids menu for my son included unpeeled, unwashed carrots and something resembling soon to be tossed out celery (photo included). Come on man - we can’t peel the carrot? If we’re not going to peel it - how about washing the dirt off? Does it look like celery to you in the picture? If so, would you serve it to your child?

As I mentioned above our server was very nice but the service overall was slow (not the waitresses fault I don’t think). We left at 6:30 and only had our meal (I had a salad, but should that slow things down?). When we asked for salt, the salt shaker was completely empty and it took 10 minutes to refill it.

Velvet Buffalo? More like Polyester Buffalo. There are better places in Beloit. We were excited about this place but now I’m honestly questioning the entire...

Many aspects of this review. Overall, the experience was pleasant. Had a 715 reservation. Checked in at 7 o’clock and informed them we’ll be up at the bar on the roof and that will be done at 7:15 720. They said no problem and they stated that we will checked for our table and it will be ready when we came down . Came down at 7:20 and it was seated at 7:40. Waited 20 minutes for our table. Rrrrrrrr Upon being seated, our waitress did not present herself to our table for 12 minutes. And that’s how I want the rest of the night with her. When she was with us, she seemed pushy. The busing staff (she) was phenomenal and were more considerate of us than the waitress. I truly think she – the Busing staff – should be made a waitress , that’s how good she was. I wish I would’ve gotten her name to give her credit in this tell management about her.

The food was awesome; plentiful And tasty. Very worthwhile.. We had the grilled brussels sprouts, which were delicious along with the bruschetta as an appetizer. Both done to perfect perfection. Our meals consisted of the chicken piccata, Sausage and peppers and chicken gargenalli. We all truly loved and devoured our meals. If you like a meal with a little kick, I would suggest the sausage and peppers in which I had. great taste great aroma great texture

Jokingly, I asked the busing staff if she could find me carrot cake for dessert, Since it was not on the menu.. Her eyes lit up and had a smirk on her face and she said we don’t have that on the menu but let me see what she can do. She left came back about 5 minutes later disappointed. She said that they just had an event the day prior that had carrot cake and that she scoured the area to see if there was any left to serve me, but there was none. I truly admired her effort in trying to make a customer happy, that’s what made my night along with the delicious food.

When I go back? Definitely I just don’t want that server. Patronize this restaurant, it is very worthwhile for special occasions a night out on a date. They do have a private dining area I saw for large parties. It’s attached to a great hotel in which my son spent the night with his girlfriend. A unique boutique style hotel,...