Volare Wine & Bistro — Restaurant in Hapeville

After weeks of talking about it, I finally had the chance to visit Volare Bistro. Sitting in the cozy revamped district of Downtown Hapeville, Volare Bistro presents as a great romantic dinner setting for any occasion.

Walking in, we were immediately greeted by the host. Providing him our name, we were immediately taken to our seats. The inside is small yet spacious as well as they have a patio area out back. The natural wood tones are highlighted by the perfectly placed dim lighting.

Once seated, Desmond arrived at our table and presented us with a smile, warm welcome, and water. He discussed the menu options with us and allowed us a moment to decide on our order.

As the menu is curated on an ongoing basis, the selections displayed were perfect for the season.

After going back and forth between fish or pasta, I decided on a Greek Salad as my appetizer and the Bucatini Marinara for my main course.

Upon arrival, my salad was gorgeous. The ingredients were fresh and the portion size was perfect for the price. The dressing provided really enhanced the freshness of the salad and wasn’t heavy. Paired with the bread that was provided, this was a perfect way to enjoy a light bite to kick off the food experience.

The Bucatini Marinara, which consisted of House-made marinara, tomato, basil, and grilled chicken was a perfect pick for my Saturday night meal. The dish is made so that the natural flavor of the tomato is the star of the meal. The sauce is lightly seasoned so you have the authentic flavors of the basil but anything else is minimal as the tomato takes the show. The Bucatini pasta was tender yet firm and sat well with the lightly seasoned grilled chicken.

As I love a diverse flavor profile, the simplistic approach towards the flavoring of the Bucatini Marinara puts you in the mindset of a good dish that keeps the main thing the main thing.

From the ambiance to the service and the food. Volare Bistro was a great option for...

The food was very good, if a bit pricey for this sort of place and/or location. I scanned the reviews and didn't see any prices, so I'll just throw some out there: Wine by the glass was mostly $10-12. I got the 'Chicken Cordon Bleu' for $25 (more in a minute on why I put that in quotes), and my wife got the Lobster Risotto at "MKT" price, which turned out to be $38. I ordered a Diet Coke, which the menu didn't list the price for sodas, but I figured it would be $3, which it was. But here's why I deducted a star: the two refills I got were EACH $3 also. And we're talking -maybe- a 12oz glass. When I asked our waitress about it she said it was because it was individual cans. However, I wasn't offered the rest of the cans (because no way did a whole can fit in those glasses with the ice), nor was I ever told that EACH REFILL was $3. To me that's just poor form. Either put it on the menu that you're charging $3 for a 35c can of Coke so I won't order it, or at least tell me before I order a refill that it's going to be another $3, and I won't order it. I told the waitress that they should at least warn a body, but passed her the bill and my cc and left it at that, fully expecting to pay the $9, but she came back and said she'd taken the 2 refills off, which I very much appreciated. The 'Chicken Cordon Bleu' was good, and I'd order it again, but it wasn't a traditional Cordon Bleu with ham and cheese inside the filet. It was a breaded chicken filet with a cheesey sauce spread over it and tiny chunks of pan-or deep-fried prosciutto strewn about on and around it. Good, but maybe they should call it their interpretation of Cordon Bleu. The Lobster Risotto was excellent. For dessert we got the bread pudding with ice cream ($7 I think), and it was to die for. I'm a bread pudding fan, and that may've been the best I've ever had. So if you go in knowing some prices and the soda refill situation you should have a...

So the restaurant is very small and very cozy the outside pictures that you see on Google make it look so fabulous or when you pull up it doesn’t count really look the outside doesn’t kind of look like that but it does come so we had to park down like a block away and walk in the rain and after we did that The hoessss which was really not the host as it was the manager his semi told me she was a manager and she was kind of rude and kind of blunt because she was like oh it’s only this table in the bar it’s only this table of all it’s only to take me to BofA and it was like OK lady we just walked in the rain to come here you could be like a little nicer in and say happy holidays and merry Christmas or something and then her hair wasn’t even done she had on blue and red like it was Fourth of July when is supposed to be Christmas she could at least one nice dress or wore something red or white or black like everything everybody else or maybe a nice red dress or something I don’t know she kinda Like So the bartender she was super cool we had the shrimps with the grits in the shrimp some kind of cool card but the sausage wasn’t cooked enough it should’ve been brown and it was pork sausage I wish I would’ve asked if it was pork sausage I probably would’ve had it because I don’t really eat pork but anyway I’m not gonna die it was good anyway um put the pork sausage need to be cooked more but the ice cream the caramel salted ice cream Pasado Shelato was the best oh my god so the whole that was so nice the only thing I would say if they could do like some type a background place where you can take pictures like something real real nice and special that would like put the cream on the crop of the cake so um I would make this a five-star place but because of the manager and because you can’t really take any nice pictures and I have to get them before and that’s about it but besides that it was...