Vida — Restaurant in Town of Mount Pleasant

I’m going to preface this review. We had a nice time at Vida. The food was solid and the ambiance was nice. I liked the space a lot and the staff was very nice and attentive. If it was a little less expensive, I would have given them 4 stars, but I am a firm believer in assessing a place not solely on the actual food and ambiance, but also whether the price matches the product.

The inside is nice. Interesting decor that sometimes seems a little at odds with itself (couldn’t figure out if they were going for a romantic gothic vibe or a modern hip vibe, but I liked it regardless). The wait staff was very attentive and nice. Honestly, service was definitely 4-5 star level.

On to the food. So the food is tapas, but they also have big main entrees. They’re also known for their charcuterie jamón products and we were tempted by the charcuterie, but opted for a number of smaller plates and splitting one entree.

We got the zucchini blossom, the pork belly tacos, the pan con tomate, and the patatas bravas. For the entree we got the beef cheek. We also got a side of the mushrooms.

The zucchini blossoms were very nice. Definitely the best tapas we got. Flavors were solid. The pan con tomate was very vinegar-y. I love vinegar, so I didn’t mind it, but it was overwhelming. The bread also didn’t hold up to the topping. It needed to be toasted or thicker. The potatoes were perfectly fine, the flavor was nice, but the potatoes themselves should have been crispier. The pork belly tacos were a huge disappointment. We couldn’t even taste the pork belly. The slaw overwhelmed it and even when we took the pork belly out for a bite, it was basically flavorless. The tacos were also $22 for two small tacos so it was disappointing.

The entrée was nice, but not cohesive. It felt like they made each element separately. The meat was cooked very well, albeit could have used more seasoning. The mashed potatoes needed more butter/cream. They weren’t particularly creamy and felt like the potatoes took on too much water during cooking. We liked the meat, but for an almost $50 dish, this was not meeting the standard. The side of mushrooms was nice. Not my favorite, but my partner loved them (and he ordered them).

Overall, if the food was in a slightly lower price point, I’d definitely go again. Other than the pork tacos (and maybe it was an off night), everything was solid. We had a drink each (one glass of wine and one beer) and the bill before tip was just under $200. It was a nice vibe for date night and a solid 3 given the...

I was really excited to finally check out Vida Restaurant in Thornwood after watching it being built for almost two years. It was such an eyesore at the four corners for so long, so I was hopeful the inside experience would be worth the wait. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had.

I ordered steak tacos and a seafood paella. The food came out quickly, but that was the only positive thing about it. The steak tacos were so soggy that the steak literally slid right out of the tortilla. It was impossible to eat them as tacos—I had to scrape everything together with a fork like a sad pile of leftovers. The seafood paella wasn’t any better. It looked like someone had dumped a can of tomato sauce over orange rice, and it tasted just as bad as it looked: soggy, bland, and totally unappetizing.

When I asked for the bill, I saw they had charged me $26 for the steak tacos despite me not being able to eat them. They did remove the paella after I complained. I pointed out to the manager that I didn’t eat the tacos either, and instead of addressing the issue reasonably, he accused me of just wanting a free meal. What happened next was shocking.

The manager got right up in my face and my wife’s, rudely escorting us out of the restaurant. As we were leaving, we saw our waitress running out of the restaurant in tears, and the manager just stood there glaring at us with a disgusted expression.

I don’t like to bring up race, but the way this man looked at us left me feeling deeply uncomfortable, like we were unwelcome from the start. I can’t prove it, but it was one of the most unsettling dining experiences of my life.

The food was horrible, the service was chaotic, and the treatment from the manager was downright offensive. I wouldn’t recommend Vida Restaurant to anyone. Avoid this place...

Service was extremely slow. Dinner took 2 hours and did not even have dessert, coffee or second round of drinks. Waited almost 30-40 minutes for waiter to even take our order. Myriad times in the meal we had no food, water or drinks. Food was not great. Ceviche was ok, but the octopus was not cut through so all the pieces were connected. Mussels were cooked well but the broth was way too sweet to eat and I love mussel broth usually. Brussels Sprouts were incinerated and Secreto was so tough and chewy I could it even eat it. Really wanted to love this place as it is pretty and like their other restaurant quite a bit, but this was our anniversary (they did send complimentary cava to the table which was very nice) but was one of the worst restaurant experiences we have had in quite a while. After the meal we realized on the bill we were also charged for a glass of wine that we never received, and when the manager came over to ask how our meal was, and we expressed some of our frustration and disappointment at the service, he began telling us about some of his staffing issues that night, which I thought was not super appropriate. Was not charged for the Secreto steak that was sent back, got a pork belly taco to replace it that was greasy and sweet, no crisp on the pork belly, but wanted to at least eat something (as a note, they’re taco portion is 2 per order not 3 as is more common, not a big deal but assume others may want that info) and was charged full price for that. Nothing else was comped, was not really looking for that, trying to give feedback. They did offer us two drinks for free, but never brought them before we...