The Villa Restaurant — Restaurant in Wayland

The Villa used to be my special place out. We drove an hour to get their food and waited no matter how long it took in line because it was worth it. But because of covid and the economy we haven't been back until yesterday and needless to say my family was incredibly disappointed with what it's become.

The remodeling is fine, but it has no character at all. It's just like any other chain restaurant. The food was mediocre too... The sauce tasted premade and the chicken parm tasted like cheap oil and wasn't crispy at all! And the chowder-- I run a chowder ranking site as well and the Villa's old recipe used to be the one I based ALL my rankings on because it was so good, it was the chowder that got me into chowder-- And they changed that too.

When we used to go to the villa, we would take advantage of the specials menu, or ask for our pasta to be replaced with a baked manicotti-- It's ok that they're no longer able to do that, but the fact the manicotti in itself is almost 20$ and is sold as a meal (and nothing comes with salads anymore?) is ridiculous.

I understand that the economy causes changes. But this goes deeper than that, I think these changes would have been made regardless of if the economy was bad or not. The Villa we all knew and loved was a little hole-in-the-wall old-school italian restaurant with a small menu and great food. This villa is basically just eating at a chain restaurant, except wears the mask of the old Villa. I was surprised they still took our loyalty card... It's no wonder I didn't see anybody in the bar and the normally 20 minute wait was non-existent... You might as well just go to any other italian restaurant and get the same experience for...

Went here last night for the first time with my wife for her first Mother’s Day. Pulled in line at the time we were suppose to pick up the food. Made it to the front door where we were kindly greeted by Kelly. She let us know that they were behind and our food wasn’t ready. We waited across the street for an hour before returning and talking to Kelly again and finding out it still wasn’t ready. We parked next to the door and peacefully waited for our food to be ready. Kelly kept coming over to give us updates and to talk to our one year old son. After waiting 4 hours we finally got our food. We went update, but very impressed with what there limited staff did. My wife and I were more upset with how total strangers could be so disrespectful to the restaurant staff trying there hardest to make your Mother’s Day the best it could be during this time. You guys need to remember they had a small staff and there were limited restaurants open. Even if there wasn’t this pandemic going on they still would of been busy because Mother’s Day is the busiest day in the service Industry. Also remember there humans too, kids weren’t home with there mothers and mothers weren’t home with their kids. If you were one of the disrespectful customers please don’t go back they don’t want your business. Thank you to Kelly and the rest of The Villa staff for all your hard work. You guys stuck it through and worked extremely hard and definitely made for a fun and eventful Mother’s Day. We can’t...

Updated review: The Villa was known and loved for over 100 years now. That experience is gone. Sure, the updates to the building have kept the look but that's where the charm ends. The new owners advertise their bar quite a bit. That's fine but the reality is that it is a sad little bar with keno popping and barflies stagnating. Ownership may want to think of it as an active venue for entertainment but the reality is, no. We stopped by for dinner at about 7:30, Friday night, we were seated on the restaurant side. When the waitress came to bring us water we asked for clean glasses. The glasses on the table still had chunks in them from previous use and poor washing standards. The waitress stood there examining the glasses and tried to tell us that they were clean, just spotted. No, they were actively dirty. Grit and mystery clumps decorated the insides. Getting pushback from the waitress did not go over well. Prices have gone way up since new management took over. Gone are the days of value in nice, family friendly atmosphere. The staff have gone from "local restaurant quirky" to just plain rude. The "daily specials" have not changed in over a year. They no longer represent value and there is nothing special about them. End result... On a hungry Friday night, we walked out without ordering. I went home to...