V Pizza & SideCar - Gainesville — Restaurant in Gainesville

I really wanted to like this place, but sadly that just wasn't possible, based on my visit. Having heard nice things, I was excited about going there. Gainesville needs good Italian food...even if it might not know it. The menu is hardly inventive, but it hits all the right notes, and the ingredients are obviously top-notch. I haven't seen wings that big since last year's Thanksgiving dinner, and they were coated in a thick, rich and flavorful calabrese chile paste that was as good as any I've had in Napoli. That's were the joy ended. The problems here are ones of execution, not design. Their wings are fire roasted, and that makes getting crispy skins a challenge; a challenge that they were not up to. Someone should teach them the baking soda trick. Not only were the skins on the wings "rubbery" and undercooked, but there were even pockets of un-rendered fat under the skin that made them unpleasant to eat. The Italian beef sandwich was served on a very good, crusty roll, but the meat was sliced too thick, and therefore, was a bit chewy. In addition, the giardiniera was very briney, as though the olives hadn't been well drained before being added to the other vegetables. The result was unpleasantly salty. The other, and more pressing problem was very poor service. While the server was very pleasant, he was also very inattentive. When I arrived at 5 pm on a Wednesday, I was one of only a couple of tables, yet i only saw my server when he had to deliver food. I was seated, and sat for nearly ten minutes before the same server who had seated me, came to take my order. I ordered wings as a starter, and said I wanted to look at the menu before ordering my entree. I next saw my server when he brought the wings over...10-15 minutes later, when he took my meal order. Even though the place was nearly empty, my simple sandwich still didn't arrive until long after I'd finished with my wings. Plus, the wings were served with nothing to place the bones on or in, and no extra napkins. The cloth napkin that my cutlery was wrapped in, is very attractive, but also non-absorbent, and of little utility for wiping greasy fingers and mouth. Plus, I was reticent to place it in my lap afterward, for fear of walking out with wing sauce all over my trousers. Particularly bothersome to me is having a server who wants to demonstrate his great mental powers of memory. Get a pad, buy a pencil, and GET MY ORDER RIGHT. In true Chicago-fashion, I ordered my panino "dipped," with a side of au jus (called "gravy" here). Whilst it was "wet," since the outside of the bun was dry, it obviously hadn't been dipped. In Chicago, a beef is served wrapped, to hold the sandwich together while eating, as a wet bun is, by design, not the sturdiest of vehicles for lifting to your mouth. Here, it isn't wrapped, which would have been fine if I'd had clean utensils to eat it with. As he walked away after serving the sandwich, the waiter called over his shoulder to ask if I wanted clean utensils. Maybe he saw me wiping the wing sauce off of my fork handle. Either way, annoyed that he had asked, rather than having just gotten them, I said not to bother. I didn't see him again until after I'd finished eating, and I asked for the bill. He didn't even clear the dishes. I never saw him again. The hostess brought my check, and cleared my dishes, without bothering to ask if I wanted to take the two remaining wings home with me. I had planned on ordering a pizza to take with me when I left, and had told the waiter that when I ordered the sandwich, but as I didn't see him again until I was ready to leave, sadly that never happened. As a result, I'll never get the chance to sample their gluten-free (seriously? Not in Italy!) polpette, or their salsicce pizza. I never did get a chance to have someone explain their "C-Y-O Pizzas" menu to me. It was a bit vague, as written on the menu. My loss,...

I'm handicapped and disabled. I just had the rudest experience from the bartender. He gave me attitude the moment I sat down. His bar back took care of me. Wiped my place down that was dirty, while the bartender continuesd to be extremely rude to me and other guest. I asked for his name and he would not give it to me. I asked the manager for his name and he refused to give it to me. So I walked out. I would never go back or recommend this restaurant. Two big thumbs down!!! I went back in to try the food and sit at a table to see if the experience would be any better and if the manager would do something about how rude his bartender was to me. So the wings were great. The server was great. The manager on the other hand didn't care and in fact said he laughed at the review I left about his bartender being rude to me because I am handicapped. So if you go, I would sit at a table and avoid the bartender and management at all costs. Also since management is not competent enough to resolve this issue. Whoever is above management, maybe the owner needs to address this matter in my opinion. It really made me feel uncomfortable as a handicap person and I don't think I will go back after management just basically laughed in my face. I'm extremely upset and disappointed. I feel made fun of for my disability. This is not how disabled people should be treated!!

I also have 20 years of restaurant experience. Everything from a bartender, server, bar manager, front of house manager. I have been at places for 10 years, 7 years, and 6 years at another. I have worked for very successful restaurants that Gross over 8 million a year. All of this before I was recently disabled. So I know a thing or 2 about restaurants. This one has some cleaning house to do in my opinion...

Now the owner is lying about what happened to try and cover for his rude staff! Extremely disappointed!! The owner can make up what ever he wants to try to cover up this incident, but unfortunately it happened and he can't own up to it. Good luck with supporting that inappropriate behavior from your management and staff. I will tell everyone I know not to support your business! Thank you for your inconsiderate response. Hope it was worth it.

I also invite the owner out to lunch, so he can watch me walk on my bone on bone knee with a cane. We can go outside and see my car parked in a handicap parking spot right out front. I can also bring my prescription pain medication receipt for my medication just to be able to walk with bad limp. I can also bring my disability check to show you that I am handicapped and disabled. Seriously own up to your staffs inappropriate behavior and fix it. That way the next handicapped person that wants to try your restaurant out doesn't leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

I accidentally left a 1 star on the food. The food was good, it was the service and attitude from the bartender and management staff that was so terrible. Also I moved into the top 30% in restaurant reviews after this review. Thank you friends for the love and support. I will continue to leave reviews from my experiences at restaurants. Unfortunately this one will never get a second chance from me 😉 Maybe they will be nicer to handicapped and disabled customers...

This was a difficult one to rate and I don't like doing bad reviews when it may have been the individual we dealt with. It was our first time there and we there there after the lunch crowd and the place was almost empty. We waited at the host stand and were then told to seat ourselves. Atmosphere wasn't bad, outside of a couple odd songs. Took awhile for our waiter to come by, who seemed high, to get our drink and app order. Even being empty, it took a bit for our drinks to come out. I ordered the PainKiller which I liked and my wife ordered a daiquiri and a Bloody Mary, which she liked. Unfortunately, we didn't know that the attached bar had it's own separate drink menu. We probably would have tried different drinks if we had known. For our app we ordered the bruchetta.

Having not been there before, the waiter came by after we received our menus to ask us if we wanted something else in front of us besides air. The waiter came out after a bit of time to let us know that the kitchen burnt our app, and was remaking it. Kudos for remaking it before it hit the table, but I'm not sure how it happened, when they weren't busy. Also, during this time he dropped a glass of water from the only other occupied table at the time, which was behind us. It splashed a bit on my leg, but it was an accident and just water. Things happen. What was shocking is that the spill was never cleaned up before we left. I made a comment to my wife that it'll probably come out the same time as our main dishes. Sure enough, it did. Except, I didn't have my meal.

The bruchetta was good. Though, we were never given plates or utensils until we asked for it. The utensils could have been cleaner. My wife ordered the pepperoni pizza and added basil. She liked it, but prefers another area pizza place more. I ordered the Baked Cavatappi. It came our a decent bit after the rest of the food. If we give this place another chance, I will not order this again. Barely any meat and it just didn't have a good flavor. Our biggest issue was our wait staff. Besides appearing high, our table was somewhat neglected. Having to wait awhile to get greated, getting the things that we needed, the snarky comment, not cleaning up the mess on the floor beside me, taking awhile to bring boxes and the bill... etc. The bad part is, he appeared to be training a new staff. Hopefully, she gets training from someone else with better customer service skills. I don't know who to blame for the time it took for everything to come out. It may have been the kitchen or it could have been our waiter taking his time to put our order in. The overall experience wasn't so bad that we wouldn't go back, but I'd say that if the next time isn't better, it'll be the last. The sad part is, we enjoy going out to eat and normally do a few times a week.

ETA: I can't say for sure it's from the restaurant, but last night my wife was extremely sick. Though, she didn't have much else to eat other than what we had at...