Cafe Venice — Restaurant in Norwood

Unfortunately I had a very negative and unpleasant experience with the owner of this restaurant. I am from out of state and whenever I visit family in the greater Boston area, we make it a point to go to Cafe Venice. Tonight was a horrible experience because of the owner and his unprofessionalism. One of the steaks was cooked incorrectly (a steak that was ordered rare came out well-done), and when asked to have it re-made, the waiter seemed confused, eventually took it back to the kitchen, then brought the same plate back with the same well-done steak. The waiter said, per the kitchen, the steak was rare and we were mistaken. I"m not sure how a wait staff can tell a customer that they are wrong about their opinion or preference. Even if the steak was rare, should the kitchen not just honor the customer's request and re-make the steak? VERY poor customer service. (Of note - side dishes were forgotten and drinks were not refilled once during the entire meal for any of the 8 guests). Eventually the owner came to our table and from the start, accused one of the members of our party of swearing at the waiter (which he didn't) and, again, that he was wrong for saying the steak was over-cooked. Understandably, this answer was unacceptable to our group and the owner proceeded to provoke one of his guests. The owner refused to acknowledge this customer's grievance, and told us to never come back. I hope he reads this because his wish is granted. Our family has brought a lot of business to this restaurant, and the owner was too obnoxious and arrogant to listen to his customers. Also of note, the owner was visibly intoxicated which would likely explain his childish behavior. But this is not the first time he has acted like this either. The bill was paid in full and our party left. As we were leaving, the owner was standing at the bar (surprise), talking about our group to other patrons. We could hear him talking about us as we left and he even pointed us out (including a 92 year old woman) to the people he was talking to. I feel bad for the people who are employed at this restaurant, and hope they can find a better place to work with more...

I had a terrible experience at Café Venice this evening and I won’t be back. The problem is that this place won’t even be in business in another year or it will ne under new ownership so I really don’t have to worry about I took pictures of a Greek salad with steak tips as shown below they gave me charred steak tips I asked for medium well and when you cut them up and they were but the problem was that they were so burnt on the outside that they were inedible. I never send back food . The steak tips were like charcoal on the outside. I showed the server my food he agreed they were absolutely burnt on the outside. Two minutes later the owner came by and said she asked for medium well I said absolutely I did and she goes well those are medium well on the inside I said absolutely but they are so burnt on the outside they’re inedible and she goes yeah I can’t do anything about that. They get cooked on the grill. Over the years I have ordered many steak tips salads from many restaurants and they manage to make a medium well steak tip without charring it on the outside. Before our food came my daughter and I asked for a refill of soda and she made it a point to say you only get one refill and we looked at her and said it was fine. I paid for my steak tips and put my plate of food to the side and did not eat a bite of it. I understand that all restaurants have staffing issues nowadays but people work hard and expect to have an edible meal for their money.

The owner needs to work on her...

This is a 1 star rating based on the customer service not the quality of the food. My family and I have been ordering/dining in from here for over 20 years. This evening, my family placed a take out order this evening, and my chicken sandwich came with no bun (an essential component for a dish to be considered a sandwich and they had asked me my preferred bread choice for the sandwich when ordering). I called the restaurant to give an FYI you messed up my order, and your kitchen staff needs to be more mindful in the future. I had no intentions to demand a refund or demand they remake the item. The person on the phone informed me that they had two large parties that had just come in and I would need to call them back in 15 minutes. I call back 15 minutes later and was told I need to call back later around 8:00 or 9:00 PM. When I was expressing my frustration about the poor customer service, I was put on hold and evidentially decided to just hangup. I am completely empathetic to the fact that when you are overwhelmed and overstretched being asked to take two minute to pivot and focus on something else seems like an impossible task. As a paying customer this whole experience left a bad impression in terms of this establishments customer service. I cannot stress the importance of supporting local business and I personally will continue to do so whenever possible, but in future I will think twice about ordering...