Cafe Venice Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Venice

Hooray! There is a hotspot in Venice on a Monday night. Guest bartender Gregg Hassler featured a delicious Old Fashioned cocktail. The crowd was friendly and lively. I was happy to run into other people I knew. A nice feeling for someone fairly new to the area. We enjoyed ourselves and the atmosphere so much that we decided to get a table and stay for dinner. The booth was comfortable and quiet. The whole restaurant was well decorated and planned. Great location. We spent $100. Including the cocktail at bar. I thought the $10.00 drink was a little pricy for happy hour but then was hoping that some of that went to help the charity they are raising money for. Food was good except must report that the mashed potatoes were dry and uninteresting and the mushroom sauce on the pork didn’t have much flavor. We both ordered a wedge salad. I had the blackened Delmonico steak and my friend had the roast pork tenderloin. The pork tenderloin came with pink areas in the middle. I know it’s popular to specify a doneness with pork but he was not asked so we thought it should have been fully cooked. My steak was perfectly cooked but there was not much seasoning and wasn’t really much different from a grilled steak. (It should have been blackened.) Service was excellent except for one major problem, which completely changed the atmosphere and pace of the dinner, hence only two stars. We had hardly started our salads and then dinner arrived. We are not slow eaters and started on our salads as soon as they were brought out. Our dinners were brought by someone other than our server and sat there on the end of the table while we finished our salads. She offered to take them back but I asked her to leave them thinking that they would just sit back there in the kitchen under a heat lamp overcooking my steak and drying out everything.

But having the food arrive so fast made us feel rushed. That is my big complaint. I hate having food pile up on the table before the last course is completed. What started out as a comfortable and relaxing evening turned out as a rush dinner. Very uncomfortable. The food was good and I can’t complain about it being cool because I asked it to be left on the table instead of send it back to the kitchen. It’s just a major faux pas of service that changed the mood of the...

While there are many excellent culinary possibilities in historic downtown Venice, Florida, this one is definitely worth a stop if you have a little money in your pocket.

The food here is second in quality to very few. Across-the-board: drinks, appetizers, mains, desserts. There is a strong variety of food, so most people are likely to find something that they want, regardless of what they are looking for. There is a full bar that offers pretty much anything you could ask for, although they did not have sloe gin when I asked for it (I am going to imagine that not too many people ask for it, at all, but they probably do not get too many requests for drinks that are off the menu or unusual). Service is swift and professional. Our server was Katie and she was definitely top shelf.

Our party ordered a variety of dishes that included gyoza and eggplant appetizers, osso buco, seafood pasta, vegan lasagna, crispy roasted duck, pot roast, and stuffed fish (flounder, I think?). We ordered red wine by the bottle, a French 75, and a traditional Moscow mule. When I say you could not ask for a better preparation for any of the dishes, I am serious. The flavors and the doneness for each were exactingly executed. Our deserts: creme brulee, Irish cream cheesecake, and key lime pie slices were all fantastic.

The atmosphere might be regarded as slightly nicer than casual, but not formal. Nighttime ambiance is warm and subdued, maybe at the very edge of intimate, particularly if you can get away from the noise of the bar.

Prices are relatively high, but not obscene. You will not feel like you paid too much, most likely. The quality is worth it.

The positive problem with Venice is that when you turn any corner in the historic district, you may run into another wonderful restaurant. This one, probably numbers among the best in the area, but that's sort of like comparing any number of works of art. The big challenge for you is likely to be picking the style that you are looking for on any given day.

I guess if I had any caveats, I would say look out for the parking. If you have been to historic downtown Venice, then...

The food was OK (3, maybe 4 *), not spectacular, and the pricing was not bashful (but not bothersome). Which brings us to service (minus 3 *). Our server was Rachel, who obviously wanted to be somewhere else. We arrived a little after 4:30 (opening time) and decided to have some drinks to get us to the 5pm dinner menu. With no one else in the restaurant we finally flagged our waitress Rachel down. After finishing a beverage & leaving the empty wine glass by the tables' edge for 10 to 15 minutes we were able to get another waitress's attention & requested another drink. The bartender brought the beverage requested to our table. Fortunately, HE left his station to bring it over to us. This all brought us past 5:00. By 5:10 we asked someone to have our waitress return so that we could place our order. Most of the restaurants that we frequent would have said: "I can not place your order until 5 ... but I would be happy to take it now if you'd like. And in the meantime, may I bring some bread?" Never mind leaving an glass empty for any period of time. To say that they were not busy while we were there would be an understatement. With nothing else to do, the staff kept busy by chatting it up amongst their themselves. I can name several places (Metro Diner comes to mind) were if one waitress gets hung-up with a table - another waitress will bring the order to the table rather than letting it sit at a pickup station, servers with empty hands hold doors for those delivering orders to tables. Hey, that's a "Diner"! I would rate Venice Café as unimpressive. A customer should, IMHO, should never be asking themselves: 1) where is my server or 2) where is my good or worse yet 3) #1 AND #2 !!! I realize that we all have bad days, but if you are not up to doing your job ... stay home. You may lose some pay/tips, but that is better than losing patrons. We will be in no rush to go back. Too many places that we like. Some the...