Villa D' Carlo — Restaurant in Kenosha

UPDATE: 7/22/22

I hate to complain, especially since we love Villa D' Carlo, but last night we had dinner and everything was very disappointing.

First off, I completely understand the struggles that restaurants are going through because of the rising costs and supply chain issues, I am a foodservice manager at Abbott Labs.

With that being said we were really looking forward to another great dinner and unfortunately, didn't come close to getting that. Our server Betty was terrible, you were running specials, but she never let us know you even had any specials. It would have been nice for her to explain the situation of the rising prices affecting how you were no longer including bread, soup or salad with the dinner entrees, but I had to ask her after our appetizer arrived. It was a bit confusing because it's still on your menu. I ordered meatsauce with my meal, I have no problem paying more for the sauce, it makes sense, but when the menu says one price and the bill reflects a higher price I am confused. Again, not that 50 cents is an issue, but the lack of communication was. I was also confused that the table of 4 sitting next to us as well as other tables in the dining room had bread baskets, but we didn't, a lot of mixed messaging going on. Was it us, or is the bread an additional cost that we needed to pay for? Again no communication.

My dinner was delicious, I wouldn't have cared if the cost was higher to get the salad or the bread, I have no problem paying for a great meal. But for obvious reasons you have several take aways that customers have come to expect and there was zero communication, and your menu is still reflecting the opposite.

As far as Betty was concerned, her service was terrible, she barely came to the table, no communication except when we asked, and even that was difficult because she never came to the table. It took over 15 minutes to get our check and a box for our left over food and equally as long for her to take the payment.

For the record, we had dinner a few weeks ago, our server was FANTASTIC, we also had the salads as well as bread, and the pasta and kidney bean salad that was, pre-covid, always your standard even if we ordered pizza or entrees. To say it is a disappointment is an understatement. Please change your menu to reflect your these new menu changes and prices

We went fairly early and it was very busy, luckily got seated right away. I would recommend reservations. The service was outstanding! I really like that the servers put carafes of water and the iced tea that we ordered on the tables. They still put the relish trays on your table, and generally, I'm not in to those kind of salads, but I really like them at Villa D'Carlo. We ordered the combo basket for an appetizer and it was a large variety basket of appetizers. Nice and hot and very filling. We also ordered salads, their dressings are delicious! They taste like they are freshly prepared...the Bleu cheese was outstanding! We ordered Pasta with red clam sauce so good! Lots of clams. Also order a Villa pizza, totally loaded with toppings. We were both full before our meal arrived! Villa D'Carlo is a great restaurant to eat at, always has been. The food is great quality, and...

Update

After our initial experience, we decided to do a little test. The whole story about the wings did not make sense at all. We decided to order the wings for takeout to see if we would still get the same "hot" wings that were tossed in Buffalo sauce and BBQ sauce. We were right. The wings we had during our first experience were not their typical hot wings. Our take out order had the correct wings, the traditional wings tossed in Buffalo sauce. I am adding another photo so you can see the difference for yourself.

The worst part of this experience was the LYING. Why lie? Why make up an elaborate story as if we didn't have any common sense? We were enjoying ourselves, and we were totally fine waiting for a fresh order of wings. We were willing to pay for the hot wings and the BBQ/Buffalo combo wings. We are still confused by the service we received.

If you plan on eating at this restaurant, just know that you might not get new food in the event your order is messed up.

Original Review: Tonight was a huge disappointment. We ordered hot wings, chicken dumpling soup, and 3 different 9-inch pizzas. First and foremost, we ordered the hot wings with a side of BBQ sauce as an appetizer. The server came out to let us know that the cook accidentally tossed the wings in BBQ sauce instead of putting it on the side. She told us they were making a new order of hot wings. We told her it was no problem, we were fine waiting. 30 seconds later, she brings out the "hot" wings. I asked her if the wings were the hot ones or the BBQ ones and she told us they were the hot ones. I took a bite and they were 100% tossed in BBQ sauce. When she came back, we let her know they were BBQ and asked if we could place another order of traditional hot wings with no BBQ sauce. She said absolutely and she would ask them to remove the BBQ ones off the bill. (We were fine paying, we just wanted an order of traditional hot wings.) And one minute later she comes back and told us that's how they make their hot wings. She said their hot wings are hot sauce mixed with BBQ sauce. I asked if I could just have hot sauce and she told me no. Needless to say, her story made zero sense at all and it was very disappointing. (Picture below, you be the judge) I ordered the chicken dumpling soup. I wasn't impressed it didn't have homemade dumplings, rather, they just dumped some gnocchi in the soup. Lastly, the pizzas were okay but overall mostly flavorless. They lacked any seasoning or flavor.

We sat outside and it was nice at first, then there were a ton of bees. We had to leave because I am allergic to bees and there were at least 5 hovering over us and our food.

After tonight's experience, we will not...

My family has been going here for decades. I've lived on the East Coast for 16 years, and before that, over 20 years in various other locations, and traveled extensively, and during all that time I've never - NEVER - had a pizza as good as Villa D'Carlo's. I will say that on this particular visit it fell a little short of the mark. But perfection all of the time is probably too much to ask!

The following is a postscript (9/2024) to my review from one year ago:

It is with a heavy heart that I have to write this review. For decades, I have been happy to say that Villa D’Carlo pizza is the best that I have ever tasted. It is no small compliment, because I have lived and traveled all over the country, and now live in New Mexico. And whenever I’ve visited my relatives during all of this time, who still live in northern Illinois, they always accommodate me by making the half-hour drive up to Villa D’Carlo so that we can indulge in our favorite pizza. It’s almost like a religious pilgrimage. But during all of my last three visits, the pizza has only been good, and not great, and certainly not what I would say was the best I have ever tasted. In fact, during my most recent visit, one of my relatives, who had ordered a small pizza of her own, said that it was even less than good. As I indicated in the review above, when the pizza was also less than great, I can understand that even superstars occasionally have a bad night, but now with three disappointments in a row, I can only conclude that something has happened. I don’t know if it’s due to a change in ownership, or lax supervision in the pizza kitchen, or a lapse in training, but the pizzas are no longer what they used to be. I suppose that I knew this would happen someday, and I am grateful that it was decades before it finally did. I will say that the service was still excellent, and those of my companions who do not order pizzas are always very happy with their dishes. The wine selection was also very good. Even the ambience was still great. The background music playing was from the late 1970s and early 1980s, which is an era that I particularly enjoyed, and was around the time that I actually first started going to Villa D’Carlo. I joked to one of my companions that the restaurant seemed to be stuck in a time warp: If only the pizza still tasted as great as it did back then! It looks like as far as pizza is concerned, Villa D’Carlo’s best days are behind it. I do thank you for the many happy memories, but whenever I visit my relatives from now on, I’ll tell them that we can forgo the half-hour drive and just pick up a pizza from someplace more...