Villaggio del Vino — Restaurant in Tyler

I rarely ever leave reviews about restaurants but after the experience my friends and I had last night, I feel obligated to do so. We went to Villaggio del Vino for my friend’s birthday and while the atmosphere and the service were both great, the food was the exact opposite. And before I go into details about the food, I just have to say that our server, Fredreika, was amazing! She was so nice and attentive and also incredibly funny and also apologetic about our meals! If only the food was as great as she was. There were seven of us eating and three of us had to send our meals back for various reasons. The chicken was incredibly dry and overcooked and one of my friends has a serious gluten intolerance and she was very clear about that and yet the kitchen continued to fry her chicken in breading. She had to send her plate back THREE TIMES before they finally got it right. And that last time the chef accompanied our server when she brought out my friends meal. Instead of being apologetic, he seemed very put off and annoyed and when my friend explained that she has a serious medical intolerance to gluten, he mumbled something disparaging about her or her medical issue being ridiculous. During all of this, another chef in black stood and stared at us with this angry grimace for like 10 minutes. It was all very weird and uncomfortable! As for me, I had the Chicken Alfredo, which I know from experience isn’t an overly complicated meal to prepare. Not only was my food cold but the sauce had a strong olive oil flavor and was VERY grainy, making me think the kitchen overcooked Alfredo. The portion was also very small and seemed as if it were intended for a child rather than an adult. So basically I paid $16 plus tax for a child sized portion of cold, severely overcooked pasta. I felt so bad for my friend, the birthday girl, we went there for her birthday and instead of having this wonderful meal it was really awful. She had to send her meal back and when they sent it out the second time, it was even more wrong than the first time but she ended up eating it because by that point she was starving. By the end of the meal, we were all wishing we had saved our money and gone to Little...

First, let me say... when it comes to quality food, I am not concerned with the cost.

I am visiting from out of town & took my Mother (A local) here on 10/02/2020. It has been extremely difficult to find quality food in this part of Texas & since this was a more costly option than your average Tyler hole in the wall, I assumed it would be better... I was wrong.

We ordered the following...

Bruschetta: (When I pronounced it correctly, broo·skeh·tuh ... The server did not seem to understand. This is an extremely small detail, I know, but they need to know the proper name of the dish) It tasted simply of tomatoes & cheep balsamic. Overall very basic & obviously subpar tomatoes.

I ordered the pistachio crusted salmon with risotto. I found the entire dish to be lacking in flavor. Very mediocre.

My Mother ordered the blackened halibut with Brussel sprouts. The veggies were by far the most delicious food served that day, her halibut was better than my salmon, though that's not saying much. This along with the red sauce that it was served with made the entire dish extremely salty.

I ordered an Old Fashioned, which was delicious.

My Mother ordered a Dirty Martini, which she found disappointing & did not care for the olives that it was served with, probably from a cheep jar.

Our total if you happen to be interested was just over $100

As a side note, upon originally entering the restaurant we were met with an extremely luke warm greeting by what I assume was one of the Managers. If the food had been amazing, I could have let this slide as this is typical behavior from humans that reside within environments deemed elevated above standard, though for Villaggio Del Vino, only aesthetically & only just slightly.

My hunt for fresh delicious food in this area...

If I could give 0 stars I would. A group of about twenty people and I came for a rehearsal dinner on Oct 7th. We arrived around 7:15 and at 9:15 we still had no food. The wait staff was very nice (they really tried to make the best of a crappy situation) but the manager was absurd. After a series of excuses for an hour+ delay (tennis tournament in town, new menu), he offered us two complimentary bottles of wine. THIRTY MINUTES LATER we still had no food. When the food finally started being delivered there was probably a 20 minute stretch between when the first plate arrived and the last. The father of the groom expressed his concerns again and the manager raised his voice saying he had already made it right with the wine. Then he blamed us for the delay because we "staggered" in. I was the last to arrive and I was seated by 7:20. Honestly, I get that everyone has bad nights but this was supposed to be a very special night for the bride and groom and a gift from the groom's parents to the new couple. To have such horrible, novice customer service, from a 30 year old "manager" from college station (he felt the need to tell us these details for some reason) from a restaurant that tries to sell itself as semi upscale, when we could have easily been satisfied with a genuine apology and an honest explanation, is a memory we will have from now on. You guys had one shot at giving this couple a great memory and one guy ruined it. He is not an asset to...