Villa Dolce — Restaurant in Middleton

Our recent visit was a huge disappointment, unfortunately. It was supposed to be a BD celebration, but was pretty much ruined. The food is good (except for their pizza) but the service was poor.

Upon being seated, we noticed the music was very loud, so we asked our server to please lower the volume. Her response - "I am not sure we can". When she came back to bring our drinks, she did not mention anything about it so we asked again if the volume could be turned down. Her response: "They already did".

I pointed out that the speaker was right above us, making it hard to hear her and each other speak. We asked if they could turn it down even further. I am not sure if she answered (possibly, but I didn't hear). Then walked away. Not only did the volume stay as is, but she never mentioned anything about it anymore. It was after 7 pm on a week night, so it was a total of 3 tables with guests (ours included). They could have moved us to another table if turning the volume down was that difficult so we were not directly under the speaker. Had we not had a table full of dishes at that time, the 5 of us would have moved to another table. Also, we were hoping that they would eventually turn it down.

I am not sure what was worse - the volume or the choice of music! What initially sounded like pop music, giving you a dance party vibe or a 2:00 pm "let's bring the energy up" in the sleepy office (rather than help you enjoy a glass of wine in a relaxed Italian restaurant atmosphere), ended up being covers of well known, iconic pieces, that were completely ruined by the pop-interpretation (think Eye of the Tiger, Man Eater, etc.). It was just a bizarre selection of music, being played so loud, we could not hear each other and did not enjoy our time. We chose to go somewhere else for dessert.

Also, the waitress started taking a plate that still had food in it away, so I had to tell her we were not finished yet.

I think we will chose a different place for...

So, yet another Restaurant Week post.

Short answer: Don't go here.

I was incredibly disappointed in this place. I had the truffle fries, pizza, and crepe. The truffle fries were good but also had a cheese sauce on them I wasn't expecting. I received maybe 8 fries so the portion was very small.

The pizza was terrible. It was so bad I only ate one piece and I was gagging it down. I tried to mention it to the waiter but he just walked off and then didn't ask again for the rest of the night. I tried to talk to a manager but she was VERY rude and dismissive and just said "nope, that's how it's supposed to be made" and took it to box it up. Honestly, it was so bad I didn't even want to take it home and ended up just throwing it away before I even left. To think that it was $20 for a 12 inch pizza on the regular menu is disturbing because it was seriously the worst pizza I have ever had in my life. I will never go back. I understand if it comes out wrong, or just isn't good but in the very rare situation that it is actually so bad that I am willing to say something I expect that they will do SOMETHING to make up for it, either make it again or do a substitution. At the very least I expect to be listened to and not just blamed and then walked away from.

The crepe was a disaster. It was under cooked and very dough-y. On top of that it was cold and tasted like they had just premade a bunch in the morning and then let them sit.

This place is extremely overpriced and the quality doesn't even come close to making up for it. The staff is rude and acts like you are inconveniencing them.

If you want to pay a bunch for the lowest quality pizza in madison go here, honestly you're better off ordering or going to...

It had been awhile since we had eaten at Villa Dolce. We went early on a Saturday around 6:00. We did not have a reservation but were seated outside immediately. We ordered a meat lovers pizza, side salad, and beet salad wine, and beer. They were out of Peroni and evidently, changing the keg was beyond the capacity of the staff. The 12” pizzas are not that big, which is why we ordered salads. After a wait, our pizza arrived but there were no salads. We assumed the salads would come before the pizza. The person who brought the pizza was someone different than our server but I told her we had ordered salads and she just said “oh yes”. After getting half way through our pizza, I saw our server who had not checked on us and told her to go ahead and cancel the salads. She apologized and went on her way. When our bill came, the beet salad that I had ordered was still on the bill. She was surprised and said, oh I thought you had not received the side salad. No, we didn’t receive either salad. I told her that when the pizza came and when I stopped her before that I had informed them that we did not get our salads. Kind enough person but then she didn’t even ask about desserts. Instead we went down to Hubbard Street Dinner for pie.

The pizza was excellent and we will be back. I think the system for ordering and delivering food is...