Venezia Italian Ristorante — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

My family and I have enjoyed many meals at Venezia in the past and so I was looking forward to taking 6 members of our family for dinner to celebrate my son's birthday. We are very unlikely to ever go again. We arrived near closing time, but instead of telling us that they were closing, they seated us. The waitress was not friendly, did not introduce herself and took our drink order. I asked her to bring us bread -- because the bread is always so good -- and she brusquely informed me that she could not bring the bread until we had ordered our meal. Because, you know, with 6 adults looking at the dinner menu she must have suspected that we were there to stuff ourselves with bread and then bolt. OR, it was a big power play because she was irritated that we had come in so late. Things deteriorated. My daughter in law went back to the ladies' room, which was occupied. As she waited, she stood watching a TV that was there. A second waitress told her that that particular television was for "the boss" and that he did not like customers in that area or watching the TV. My daughter in law said that she was waiting to go into the ladies' room and that she was just watching the TV while she waited and the waitress told her that "the boss" didn't want any customers in there (there being a second dining area which was the only way to get to the restrooms. The salads came and there were quite obviously right out of a bag of salad, and not even a very fresh bag. The waitress informed us that there were no rolls, but would we like some garlic toast. OK. She brought us ONE COMMERCIAL HOAGIE ROLL, just slightly larger than a hot dog bun, mashed, greasy and odorous (not in a good way. Not an aroma, but rather an insult). Nobody ate any of it. Then our dinners came. Two of them were good, two were mediocre, one was not what it was supposed to be and one looked like a commercially prepared frozen chicken patty which was served with cold sauce. Then came the vacuuming. Right around us. She did everything but ask us to move our feet. At that point I asked her to stop and I asked for the manager. She, this inept, rude, truculent, adolescent began to argue with me. At this point two other waitresses began to yell at me and to come toward me. Seriously. Like what? Were they going to beat me up? What the what? I asked for the manager again, and all three little girls ran to get him and began yelling about how I had asked her to stop vacuuming et cet, et cet and we were all able to hear every single word. Oh the drama! Finally the manager came out and I told him everything that had happened. He apologized, but not in any way that made me think that he understood what was wrong or cared. My sons wanted their meals, but didn't want to be there anymore, so we asked for boxes, paid our bill and left. I have eaten all across the United States, in Europe and in the Middle East. I have enjoyed meals in fine establishments and in greasy spoons, but I have never, in my lifetime, had an experience like this. Ever. And I certainly will never have another like this at Venezia, because I will never, ever go there again. Ever. And I am going to tell this story over and over and over, anytime anybody says anything about Italian food, or waitresses, or asks me where they should eat, or mentions eating, or makes eye contact with me. Which is just the risk you run when you allow your staff to treat a customer so rudely for no reason other than they walked through the door with a nice shiny debit card and plans for a festive dinner and then allow your staff to YELL at those customers. That story gets...

Had the worst dining experience. First ordered the garlic cheese bread as an appetizer, which costs $1 more than just the regular garlic bread. It was a joke! There was no garlic or butter on the bread, not even SALT, and there was just the slightest SPRINKLE of cheese on top. You could literally see the 5 little squiggles of cheese. It was dry bread with I think some garlic powder on it (the kind you buy in a plastic bottle on the seasoning aisle at the grocery store) and then just a few shreds of cheese. I chose not to say anything because I just didn’t want the drama. Then I ordered the Rustica salad because it said it came with ROASTED onions and red peppers, which sounded really good. Instead, the waiter brought me what looked like an expired bagged salad of iceberg lettuce (it was browning in the edges) with onions that were dried out, cold, and definitely not roasted. Looked like they had been cut DAYS ago and left to wilt and dry out in the fridge and the red peppers were also unroasted with a layer of slime on them. I didn’t even attempt to eat the salad and just asked the waiter to please remove it from the ticket after pointing out to him what was wrong. I held out hope for the 2 medium pizzas we ordered but they also came out completely different than what the menu described. We ordered the Venezia White pizza which says it comes with ROASTED GARLIC on top - it had absolutely none. It didn’t even have cheap minced garlic. No garlic at all. It was literally just a basic cheese pizza with zero sauce and it was extremely greasy. Then we had also ordered the Magherita pizza which says it comes with the typical FRESH BASIL and MOZZARELLA slices on top and it had neither. All it had on top were undercooked and under-ripe slices of tomatoes that still had the cores on them and then a dash of what I assume is dried basil sprinkles, like the kind you buy in a plastic bottle at the supermarket, not the fresh basil leaves that come on ANY Magherita pizza that I’ve ever ordered. Totally bland - the tomato sauce beneath layer of cheese tasted like it came from a can and had zero seasoning to it. I took a bite of each pizza and that was it. My daughter had a slice of each. I explained to the waiter once again that the pizzas were completely different than what is clearly described on the menu. He said he told the cook/chef…but no one came to talk to us and no one apologized. The ticket remained unchanged. The owner/manager didn’t even say goodbye or acknowledge us as we passed him on our way out. Worst dining experience ever. I paid for our food and we left. I won’t ever be returning unfortunately. Went home starving because literally all I had was my Diet Pepsi, a small slice of the “garlic bread”, a free roll, and a literal bite of each of the pizzas.

They REALLY need to update their menu descriptions if they aren’t willing to serve what they describe in them, otherwise they are setting people up for confusion and disappointment. The salad needs to at the very least be fresh and not look expired! And they should just remove the garlic bread from the menu if they aren’t going to teach their staff how to make the most BASIC of foods and still charge people $6 for it. I can’t believe they call themselves an Italian restaurant. They...

My wife and I called ahead to confirm what precaution methods they are taking in order to keep customers and employees safe - but unfortunately what they say on the phone is not accurate. This restaurant does not comply with state or cdc guidelines and recommendations on safely opening a dine-in service during current Covid-19 situation, which makes this a high risk location.

For those unfamiliar with those recommendations, I've covered some in brief.

There are no masks, gloves, or any other personal protection for employees, and although they partitioned the dining section to be socially distant, the sever, bussers and even the manger will get within two-three feet of you with no masks.

They do not remove condiments from the table and or sanitize it. So if anyone touches it, sneezes, coughs on it, they will remain there for the next customer.

Menus are not onetime use and do not appear to be sanitized after use. So as above, it leaves the risk of cross contamination.

When a busser cleans a used table, they do not have gloves and do not wash/sanitize hands before grabbing clean plates and putting it on the table.

Waitress/waiters helps pick used/finished dishes from other customer tables, and they do not sanitise before serving food from kitchen to customer.

Unfortunately, there are more instances. During pre Covid-19 this might describe most restaurants. However, those concerned about Covid-19 conditions but want to support local restaurants and dine in, do...