La Dolce Vita — Restaurant in Oxnard

In the last 5 months my wife and I had been to La Dolce Vita twice. Everything was O.K on the first occasion. We were there with a party of six. No tip was added to the bill, and we left a 20% tip. On that occasion we had a waiter who was a very pleasant and efficient young man. The food was good, and the service was impeccable.

Because of that pleasant experience, we returned on April 11, 2012, with our 2 daughters and sons-in-law to celebrate my and my wife's 55th wedding anniversary. Much to our chagrin, the experience was one of the worst restaurant experiences we have ever encountered. It seemed like the prior competent chef, waitress, and other staff were replaced by incompetent help. After we were seated, it took 15 minutes before the waitress, who advised of the specials, and took our order for drinks, attended to us. We ordered a bottle of wine and a glass of ice tea neither of which was delivered for another 20 minutes. Another 20 minutes passed before the waitress took our food order, soup and salad of which were not served for another 10 minutes. The minestrone soup was very watery and otherwise unpalatable. When the entrees were served 30 minutes later the food was cold. My son-in-law and I had ordered filet minion steaks, both of which were over cooked and very dry. (I had ordered mine medium rare and it came medium well.) One of my daughters returned her pasta which was extremely seasoned, (hot) for a milder one, and the other returned her pot roast the meat in which was tough and chopped into little pieces and loaded with fat. She chose not to reorder a substitute. I substituted with Seafood Linguine. It was O.K. in taste but had no scallops, or shrimp, (they were on the description on the menu) and instead of those, pieces of fish (not on the description on the menu.) My son-in-law law substituted a pork and pasta dish, which was just O.K. (He would never had ordered it if he knew what it was like.) We waited 25 more minutes for the substituted dishes to arrive. It took us 25 minutes to complete our meal after the substituted dishes arrived. Then it took 15 minutes for a bus boy to clear the table, and 15 minutes more to get the check. All in all, we spent 2 and 1/2 hrs in the restaurant, from our reservation time of 7:30 to 10:00.

The rest of the service was horrendous. The waitress never appeared unless we summoned her. She never asked my daughter if she wanted more tea, and of course never gave her a refill. When she brought my seafood linguine, she didn't bring a bowl for the discarded shells, a cocktail fork, nor a spoon for the broth, and it took her two trips to bring them separately. She never offered cheese for those who had pasta, nor did she serve bread until she brought the soup and salad. The bread was served with brochette (which was fine) instead of butter or olive oil. However, when we ran out and she brought more, which we never requested, she charged us for the second brochette. She never asked if we wanted dessert or coffee. Of course we would have declined both.)

A short time after we had first complained, a lady in a chef's apron who I believe was also the owner stood behind the reservation booth for about 15 minutes with her elbows on the counter and chin in her hands glaring at us, making my daughters very uncomfortable. And finally, when the check was prepared it included an 18% tip, which of course we didn't authorize, and typically such inclusion is never added unless there is a party of 8 patrons or more. HOW...

I hosted a small, intimate Celebration of Life. We were a group of 12 relatives, many who hadn't seen each other in 20 years, and we wanted someplace with great food that was also quiet or private enough for us to reminisce and catch up. It was difficult finding a restaurant in Ventura County that even takes reservations, let alone can accommodate a group of 12 in a private/semiprivate room.

I called in advance and spoke to the manager, who set arranged for us to have a medium sized upstairs room to ourselves. The room would normally have accommodated at least 24, but the entire space was ours for the evening.

We ordered both wine and mixed drinks, given that mixed drinks are the restaurant's specialty. I ordered the Second One is Always Better, a tequila drink with Tajin on the rim - delicious! Among the things we ordered were wedge salads, garlic fries, mushroom soup, seafood linguine, linguine with clams, rack of lamb, the roasted duck special with risotto (this was my dish, and it was delicious!), and ahi tuna. All of the portions were very generous, enough for two. The tiramisu desserts were enormous and delicious.

The prices were quite reasonable, all things considered - the meals and drinks, with tip and tax was less than $70 per person. The servers were very attentive without being obtrusive. All in all, it was the perfect way to gather for such an intimate moment. Thank you, 1901 staff, for your wonderful food...

Had a wonderful experience here for a weekend Valentine date. The staff were so accommodating and really went out of their way to make sure we had a great time (providing us a table by the fireplace, constantly attending to us with water refills and checking in, adjusting lighting, putting a candle, etc). The little things that you appreciate and show that they go above and beyond. The house Merlot was very good and the food was spectacular. Pricing was certainly reasonable (definitely check out the BOGO Access card deal) and portion size (something nicer restaurants like this tend to cut back on) was more than generous. From the salad to the salmon to the vegetable ravioli, all was cooked to perfection and we were certainly stuffed by the end. Our waiter, Joseph, was knowledgeable and very friendly, and the host/busser? (Whose name I unfortunately never got) was very attentive and helpful. Great service, generous and yummy food. And be sure to check out the speakeasy style bar (1901 is the name) downstairs for frequent live music, fun atmosphere, and affordable but plenty strong cocktails and other drinks! Will definitely be...