Victorio's Oyster Bar & Grille / Longwood — Restaurant in Longwood

We have talked about coming here a few times but never actually had the thought when we were in the area. That is now a regret, as this place was EXCELLENT. It is worth going out of your way to visit.

First it looks like it is old and run down, but it is actually in good condition. It maintains that older oyster bar type of feeling. There is no cigarettes or vaping allowed inside which was a surprise but we were happy about.

Since this was our first time here we decided to get a couple of appetizers. We started with half a dozen raw shucked oysters and half a dozen oysters Rockefeller. The raw oysters were perfect, nice and chilled without being freezing cold, served on a bed of ice. They perfectly sized for how I eat them, on a cracker. Tender and juicy. A light squeeze of lemon juice. Their cocktail sauce is excellent, they bring it out in a large squirt bottle. It is good slightly on the sweet side, but they bring you a small portion of horseradish minced and a cup to mix them to your level. My wife doesnt like horseradish but I do so it was nice she could have it straight and I could mix a large amount in. They also have 2 house hot sauces on the table, habanero and scorpion. At best they are a medium heat level. I recommend putting a little of each on the oyster, they work great together. Almost bought a bottle of each to mix.

The oysters Rockefeller were a little bit larger of an oyster baked with an e excellent topping. They were not overcooked which is great, most places seems to leave them under the broiler too long.

For our meals, my wife got the Captains, which contained snow crab legs, fried shrimp, raw (or steamed) oysters, scallop scampi, hushpuppies and a side of spaghetti and meat sauce. There were other sides but as this seemed odd we wanted to try it. Everything was cooked perfectly.

I ordered the shrimp 3 ways, which came with 5 scampi, 5 fried and 5 grilled on a bed of rice, hushpuppies and a side, I picked the seasoned fries with the suggestion of our server.

Starting with the scampi, it was very good and rich. The sauce tasted the same with the shrimp and scallop scampi dishes. Which is fine they were both great.

Then the fried shrimp, let me say that this was the best fried shrimp we have had to date. The batter was nice and thin with a good crunch to it. The shrimp was tender and flavorful. They were cooked to a perfect golden brown. (Will be back and order these)

The snow crab was steamed perfectly and was sweet and tender. It didnt stick to the shell which is common at many chain places.

As for the grilled shrimp, they were surprisingly once again excellent. Cooked perfectly with excellent seasoning.

The things that really shocked us was the hushpuppies and the fries. Never have either of us ever thought at a seafood place that we would say that either of these were good. The hushpuppies were so good we agreed, these were worth ordering by themselves. Crunchy on the outside soft and moist on the inside. They were slightly sweet, but as it is corn that is expected. The fries were perfect a little crunch outside and soft inside. Their seasoning was well covered.

The rice was good, nothing that I would go out of my just to have but was an excellent side for the meal.

Now the moment I have been holding off because i did not expect it. The spaghetti and meat sauce... it was good. Not great but good. I believe it is better then other Italian places we have gone to before. She really liked it, I am just not a huge fan on spaghetti.

We ate so much that when our server offered dessert we asked her the options, and after careful thought decided we over ate as it was and passed this time.

The service was good, they were very attentive to us and made excellent suggestions. Food was prompt and the drink refills kept coming.

There is some bar sitting where they would shuck the oysters fresh for you which is what we will probably do next time. The booths were a little tight as is expected with older places. But the feel and atmosphere was perfect for the place.

We will be...

My family and I were looking for a place with good seafood. Victorio's so happened to be very close by and we were excited for the experience. The restaurant is a "seat-yourself" which wasn't really a problem, it's just not as diverse as I expected it to be. It didn't take long for someone to greet us and give us the menu. She was a very nice lady with a broken leg and she notified us that our waitress, Carey, will be with us shortly since herself was not able to maneuver as much. Carey was not enthusiastic even the slightest. She seemed to be in a rush. My family and I decided what we wanted for appetizers, but Carey wanted to take our drink orders first then come back to take our orders for appetizers. Majority of us ordered water and it took a little while for her to come back with our drinks so we can order appetizers. Since the wait took a while, we were no longer interested in ordering appetizers. Carey convinced us to do so because the appetizers only take "a few minutes" to make. We ordered appetizers along with our entrees then waited way over a "few minutes". Also, when we ordered our entrees, it was obvious that Carey was rushing us to put in our orders. She kept volunteering to repeat herself so that we basically hurry up and make a decision. Finally, our appetizers arrive, but it was cold and tasted like it's been sitting out for a while. We notified Carey and we didn't even get an apology, just an "Okay". She just took the plates and left in a hurry. A few minutes, later Carey comes back with the plates of appetizers and decides to put the food at the END of our table and rushes off in a hurry again. My family and I were appalled at Carey's action. Not only was it rude to put the plates at the end of the table, it was also rude that she expected us to reach for the HOT plates. It seemed like the food just came out of the microwave. At this point we are annoyed and still willing to stick around for our entrees. After moments go by and Carey passing us copious amounts of times, we decided to cancel the order for our entrees and leave. We got up and notified the lady that greeted us from the start. She was very apologetic and sweet. It's sad because I wanted to enjoy this restaurant, but I don't think that I could change my mind. If you're looking for a place that lacks diversity, has a rude waitress, and cold appetizers, this is heaven for you. Also, to the very nice lady with the broken leg, the second star rating is for...

No concept of customer service whatsoever, over-priced, so-so food. I have gone here a few times, only because I have a family member who lives close, doesn't like to travel far, and because Victorio's has a large unused seating area that can hold large groups. I have never had a good experience here. First, the service is always slow and poor. One time some people in our group were done eating when others didn't even have their food yet. They never seem apologetic, and in fact they don't seem to care what you think. They never know who ordered what and they act like we did something wrong when they mess it up. The food is very expensive. I could understand this if this was a high quality, fine dinning place, but it’s a bar! In fact, much of their food isn’t any good at all. The last time we went, my daughter asked for Alfredo on her kid's pasta. The waitress said, "no problem." Her pasta came swimming in Alfredo soup with no pasta visible. She didn't like it and ended up eating some of her grandmother's pasta. When the bill came they had charged us for a kid's spaghetti AND a kid's Alfredo. We pointed out to the waitress that she had charged us for two pastas. She said Alfredo costs extra, the price of an extra meal extra! We reminded her that it isn't on the menu, that she never told us that it would cost extra, and that we wouldn't have spent double the cost just for a different sauce. Instead of taking it off the bill like any reputable restaurant and waitress would, she chose to argue with us. I asked her for the manager, expecting that it would be taken care of. I was wrong. He was just like the waitress and argued with us too! He didn't care that we weren't told of the cost and that we would not have asked for it. He just wanted to stick it to us anyway. He finally said he would take $2 off! I just looked at him in amazement. When he came back with the bill, he said he went ahead and took $3 off! I can't figure out if he was trying to be a d_ _k, or if he just had no clue on how to run a business. Don't owners/managers know that such service will eventually end his business? I think most business owners know that even if you don't always agree with the customer, you do whatever you need to to make them happy. Because of this last visit I refuse to go here on outings anymore, and we will just have to find a new place for our groups of 10-20 people. It won’t be difficult to convince the others of...