Villa Italia — Restaurant in Conroe

I'm a home cook and a foodie, so this is a long review. We had a group of 8 for lunch on a Thursday. Other than us, I believe there might have been 4 other patrons in the whole place. I didn't see anyone, but could hear a couple of voices from the entryway. The service was extremely slow. It was almost 2 hours for lunch and that's too long for me. It wasn't waiting on food, but waiting on the server. He came and brought water and drinks, then someone had to go and find him in order to come and take our order. Then, it was quite a long while for our food which was all chicken and pasta. The garlice bread was fresh and had good taste. They brought out "salads" which consisted of iceberg lettuce, 3 shaves of a carrot and a tiny quarter of a slice of a small tomato. They did not give us a choice of dressing but had what looked like Ranch, but had no taste whatsoever. I mean it tasted like water. My friend next to me asked if anyone else thought the dressing was tasteless and I said yes, it's like water. I tasted nothing. So, the salads definitely need improvement. Several of us ordered Chicken Carciofo, some with pasta and some with steamed veggies. The chicken was pounded out to about 1/8-1/4" thickness. The sauce was a white wine w/ capers, artichoke hearts and garlic. The artichoke hearts were straight out of a can or jar and they did not do anything to them but throw them in the sauce. When making pasta with artichokes, frozen is always a better option than can or jar. Since the sauce had the wine and capers, the canned artichokes made it overly briny. A frozen artichoke that was roasted with olive oil and fresh parm would have been much better. They did not offer any freshly grated parmesan cheese. They had that awful powder in a shaker on the table like a pizza place. And they needed to put some rice in there because it appeared all clumpy as others tried to use it. Powder parm is a cardinal sin if you are trying to be more of an upscale Italian restaurant. Another friend had a creamy sauce with spinach that was excellent. I wish I had ordered it. I had Tiramisu for dessert and it wasn't very good. The bottom layer should be dipped lightly in coffee, not soaked and it should taste like coffee. Amore' has the best if you need an example. I don't know if they make this or buy it ready made, but the bottom layer was so soggy, I could not eat it and once again, it tasted like it had been soaked in water and not coffee. I ate the upper layers which did not have much flavor either. This restaurant needs help witht he cooking and the decor. Some of the chairs were those old bentwood backs with hard seats. We had to trade them all out for the few we could find with cushion backs and seats. They need to get rid of all the hard bottom ones. The room we were in was cluttered with all sorts of junk. It would help to have a nice, clean, uncluttered look instead of looking like a hoarder's house. They had 2 stereos from the 70s with 8 tracks and turntables stacked on top of eachother. They were stuffed with 8 tracks inside the turtable top. Way too much clutter on the...

5☆ Atmosphere 3☆ Server 3☆ Food

Loved atmosphere, casual, very cozy, very 'date night', in an older, converted home in downtown Conroe, TX. Exactly as other reviews described.

Salad, was small, uninteresting, kinda meh. Dinner was very much like home cooking. Ordered veal and sea bass. Veal w/ linguini was a bit bland for us. The sea bass was good on flavor but texture was too soft; a reheat, maybe? Tiramisu custard texture and flavor was good, excessive coffee/liquid (not expresso) made ladyfingers too mushy; no liqueur or rum... (server did recommend eating right away)

Server was stiff and a little awkward at first. It seemed he was going for "formal". We got "J" to loosen up a bit by the end of our meal and he was pretty funny. "J" made our night at the end, he was smiling and joking with us. We left on a high note, laughing at my expense, about how long it takes women to get ready.

I offer some unsolicited advice to our reluctant or inexperienced server;(for what it's worth) Dear, "J", 1.You are very tall; stand up straight, roll your shoulders back and hold your head high! This lends to confidence. Be confident/positive that you can make the customer's experience special! **great experience = better tips Make eye contact and smile, Smile, SMILE! You seemed like you were a little uncomfortable, at first. If you are uncomfortable or uninviting the customer will notice! **smiles w/eye contact = better tips Relax a bit! You are in a cozy, romantic, CASUAL atmosphere; a converted HOME. Welcome customers into YOUR HOME for dinner! **feeling welcome = better tips Try not to show disappointment if cusomers dont order wine and appetizers. I really like that you offered both. Great! BUT... Customers may have a budget or medical reasons to not order. Yes, bigger tab USUALLY means bigger tip; BUT NOT ALWAYS!!! When mentioning specials, or ingredient lists - S.L.O.W. D.O.W.N.!! I like that you could list the specials, but it was dificult processing all that information! Slow down, make eye contact. If you watch people as you give menu items with contents, people will unconsciously give a nod to show they understand and invite you to recite the next item. Try not to list ingredients like you are reading a grocery list.

**To conclude this short, albeit incomplete, long-winded guide:

What would you like your experience with special person to be like? How do you want someone to serve your family? Try to have an enjoyable shift, (as enjoyable as work can be), it will come through to your customers. Happy customers, Enjoyable experience = BETTER TIPS!! Maybe even make your shift more pleasant,...

Villa Italia!

Downtown Conroe

First visit party of two.

8/10 🌟

I was looking for an intimate classic and quiet place to take my wife for dinner and this place was a home run!

Appetizer: Stuffed mushrooms, wonderfully deliscous. Not much else to say but they were great. The premeal salads we're mediocre though.

Entrees: I don't honestly remember the name of what I ordered but it was a chicken and shrimp dish with pasta in a creamy sauce. The chicken was only ok, seemed kind of generic. That being said the Shrimp was amazing and the sauce blew me away. I've never had a sauce quite like this. It was sweeter than Alfredo but not to sweet. I loved it.

Lasagna is what my wife ordered, it looked very good and I would have tried it but I was pretty entranced with my own dish.

Drinks: They serve wine but I wasn't aware of this till well after I ordered. We had water, lemonade and tea. The lemonade wasn't great.

Overall: This is a great place if you like small intimate historical venues. This is a one waiter place and you might have a stretch of wait time between ordering or getting your ticket paid. There's also a table situated directly in front of an A/C window unit you may want to avoid. I feel like I'm putting a lot of astericks on a 8 star review, this place is in no way perfect. But I...