Villaggio's Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Lebanon

Can I start off by saying the food wasn’t bad, that’s not why we were left unsatisfied. The atmosphere was strange, considering that they market themselves as an Italian restaurant— yet they played country music the whole time. And their food is not necessarily authentic by any means, which I get but I was definitely expecting better. However, it wasn’t bad. We both ordered the lasagna per recommendation from the server. We came in from out of town to visit some family, so my husband and I decided to stop in. It was a crazy night, there were bands outside as well as food trucks. I get that things get chaotic, but it definitely should’ve been conducted better. There were only three servers from what it looked like, and all of them seemed very behind. This was absurd to me, most restaurants have adequate staffing. Considering there was an event downtown, there definitely should’ve been better preparation. We joined a waitlist with the help of the host, who was very friendly, but seemed a bit overwhelmed. After about 45 minutes we were sat, and we were sat in the section close to the bathrooms. Our server had dark curly hair, but I didn’t catch her name. She told us she would be right with us, and she seemed nice enough… but it took her 15 minutes to even take our drink orders. She appeared to have a larger section than any of the other servers, so I understand that she must’ve been pretty busy. But 15 minutes to order two waters was quite frustrating. The host ended up having to bring out our drinks, and even then we had to wait another 10 minutes to order our food. At this point, we could tell everyone was flustered. I don’t think that’s an excuse for our server walking past us multiple times without hardly checking in. Our food came out pretty fast. But the time between getting our food and us receiving the bill felt like an eternity. Once again, I want to cut everyone some slack considering the given situation. But I think better staffing and management is severely needed. I also wanted to point out that our server was sort of rude and short sided with us as well as dismissive. The entire interaction felt kind of odd, and it felt like we were a burden. Which I would never want to be a bother, we just wanted dinner before we headed back home for the week. The other servers seemed to have things a bit more under control with their tables at this point, however us and her other tables didn’t get the same attention. We ended up paying cash, but their must have been an error because we were a dollar short with our change. This wasn’t a huge deal to us, but it added to our frustrations. I remember telling my husband that I wished we were sat in another section, because we could’ve gotten out of there way earlier than we actually did. I’m writing this review now in hopes that management will see this and strive to improve from their mistakes. We love to give small businesses a chance and all of our friends have always told us to try this place out. We want to give it another fair shot but we’re hesitant because we don’t want the same...

We waited for over 20 minutes after receiving our menus. Never received or was offered any beverages. A group came in of all white men about 15 minutes after us. They were immediately seated and received water almost instantly after they arrived. We waited to be waited on and we were long ready to order before the group that arrived 15 minutes after us. The hostess/waitress looked at us directly in the eyes several times after the other party received their drinks from the same hostess/waitress and never once approached us to order. Her only interaction with us was when we first were seated. While she had a very chummy conversation with the group she served after we arrived. We walked out. Terrible service. I felt since we were the only interracial couple in the place we were treated very differently. We never received any acknowledgement of us being there except to be seated and our treatment was an extreme difference from what we witnessed towards white patrons. As an interracial couple we felt very uncomfortable and treated very poorly.

• Update:* I am not a returning customer. I have never been to this area of Ohio in my entire life. This was my first time here in the establishment since we were spending the weekend in the area at the time. So your review of your surveillance is flawed. This hostess was the only person that interacted with us the entire time we were there. She was wearing a Jeff Healey Band T-Shirt and I remember so because he sings one of my favorite songs and the group that she tended to over us commented and raved over her shirt. As for saying you have mixed race family is very similar to saying some of my best friends are.... The actions of the service spoke volumes over your reasoning of not being racist just because you have mixed family members. You could have mixed family members but that doesn't mean the actions that were presented to a stranger interracial couple that were visiting for the first time to your estvlishment doesn't show the inclusion you claim to express. So basically your "excuse" isn't justifiable. She blatantly ignored us the entire time we were there and tended extensively to an entire white group of men. We never received any drinks or were offered any type of service from the time we walked in till we left. All that was done was we were seated while everyone around us were treated exponentially better than we were treated. This is indirect racism and it spoke major...

Valentine's Day Dinner Disaster ! My Husband and I arrived on time for our 5:30 reservations. We checked in, but while waiting to be seated, we realize guests with later reservations were being seated ahead of us. We then spoke with the a hostess that appeared to be very overwhelmed and confused. After a wait, we were finally seated at a table that was not level in a crowded space against a wall; where no service was offered at all. After that waste of time, I returned to the still-overwhelmed hostess, to ask to be re-seated; it was at that time I realized that the hostess was also one of the only two servers. Finally, we settled in at a better table, then requested a bottle of wine. When our selected bottle of wine final arrived it was left corked on our table with mixed-matched wine glasses for quite some time. Again after waiting for quite a bit, we asked the server to uncork our wine. While we had her attention we place our food orders. When our appetizer came to the table our server said she would return shortly with plates and flatware. But by the time our plates and flatware arrived our appetizer of roasted artichoke and cheese was cold. We then waited more than 30 minutes for our dinners and replacement appetizer to be served all at the same time to include our bill. My salmon was good, but the mashed potatoes were cold and stiff, as were my veggies, my Husband’s med-ordered steak was “extra” well done and his sides were cold as well. During this dining disaster we stayed pleasant and understanding with the only 2 serves working; we could see they truly were trying their best. We heard them both apologizing as they worked from table to table. Both of those ladies were literally walking as if they were in a foot race back a forth between the kitchen and tables. It is abundantly clear to us that this restaurant overbooked reservations and was understaffed. With no show of Management or Owners throughout the evening. Going forward we will choose a different place to dine as it was truly the worst dining experience ever, and painful to watch well-meaning staff trying to do their jobs in an...