V Wine Room and Pizza — Restaurant in West Hollywood

This is such a sweet little spot, it’s a shame it’s not given the proper support it needs in terms of the limited food offerings, presentation, climate, and care.

We went on a Saturday when the So Cal temperature had already hit 88°. By that point, the room was simmering at what felt like close to 90 degrees, and for some reason ownership or management didn’t feel it was necessary to turn on the AC…??!

We ask the bartender, and she said she had no control to turn it on, but that the owner was showing up shortly and she would ask him.

… seriously??

This was just plain bizarre. We are there to drink alcohol, to spend money there on wine, and enjoy ourselves, and instead, we’re in suffocating heat. Which not only is uncomfortable, but when you’re there for the sole purpose of alcohol, can be a little bit risky. My Guest is in her 70s, this was not a good situation; turn on the A/C in a wine bar if the room hits 78 let alone 88!

An hour and a half in, the AC finally kicked in. Had it been on from the get as it should’ve been at 4 o’clock in the afternoon we would’ve had a far more enjoyable time.

We were served lukewarm water when we asked for it just to cool down from lack of A/C (or even a fan!) - we needed to ask for ice!

We went to order the seven cheese plate, were told they were out of a few cheeses, she would just charge us for five…

I pick out a red wine I was hopeful to enjoy, and - you guessed - was told that they were out of it. At this point things are not great.

Next: the cheese was served with mediocre crackers that were basically half a step above Ritz – so we asked the bartender if there were any other crackers or bread we could enjoy the cheese with- and SHE makes a remark not only agreeing with us, but expressing with these low-quality crackers.

Now these are of course high class problems, so no disrespect; but this was our treat for the week: so if you’re spending upwards of $75 for a cheese platter, there should be good crackers- not soft, sugary supermarket bulk crackers, that honestly have no plave being served with nice wines and cheese.

Bartender also admitted she was not an expert in wines! – an interesting statement when you’re in a place that solely is… for tasting wine! We appreciated the honesty, but it left us a little unsure - basically not really knowing which way to order (we were considering a flight or whole bottle).

The other major grievance was: of course, if you’re tasting wines and this is a wine tasting room, each taste of a wine should be served in its own glass. Otherwise, you’re mixing whites with sparkling with with reds with rose- so you have no clear idea what you’re actually tasting after the first “reused” unclean glass.

She literally kept pouring samples into the same glass! That was a downer - we know they’re supposed to be served separately - so you know what you’re tasting.

My Guest was from NY, she was surprised that this is how they handle tasting. I asked for a clean glass twice – either bartender doesn’t know better, or is under orders not to use more than one glass per guest.

And we come to the finale: I wanted to treat my guest to a chocolate bar because she loves chocolate, and to help make up for the other gaffes.

Went up to the bar, pointed to the place on the menu where it said, chocolate— and she promptly replies: “oh, we’re completely out of those“.

Honestly, we dropped close to 150$, and while it’s a charming little spot, with no AC at 88°, out of their cheeses, out of their dessert, poor supermarket crackers … wines literally being pored on top of each other … no dessert… it just wasn’t the classy experience this place, or its patrons, deserves.

I have no doubt, running a place like this requires a balancing act, but there were enough patrons to warrant caring about things like this; charge the guests an extra dollar if you need to, but you bring down everything when you serve up mediocrity.

We highly recommend Melanie‘s in West Hollywood, a more upscale experience in terms of food, presentation, and certainly...

The 2 stars are strictly for their wine and cheese selection. One thing I expect in the USA, especially in a city like Los Angeles, is great service no matter what. Why? Simply because it is understood that no matter what customers are expected to tip at least 15%, no matter what right? My waiter took a little while to notice me at the bar where I sat (the whole bar was not overbooked and the 2 waiters didn't seem rushed at all). Eventually when he noticed me things started off smoothly. I told him what kind of wine I was looking for and he suggested a couple great choices. I also added to my order a cheese board and as the night went by I felt like treating myself to more wine and maybe even dessert. That never happened because after the first glass of wine and cheese board he decided to pretty much ignore me for the rest of the night! I ended up giving him a last chance by calling him and telling him I had a few questions to which he replied "I'm just going to attend these people over there and be right back". So he did, and then attended another 4 tables and then just continued chatting with his coworker! Then I finally gave up and asked him for the check to which he dared to say "I thought you had some questions for me". Of course I said it was too late and he barely said sorry, almost with a smirk as he was saying it. He looked very young so maybe it his first job out of college or something, but come on! This was in Beverly Hills....

We were a bit disappointed by the service and by the value per glass at this place. While you can buy a nice bottle of wine for a decent price, they charge almost one third of the bottle price for a glass. The glasses we were served were about 100ml (probably even less) which was a bit of extorsion given the price. We also did the elite wine tasting (3 wines for 25usd) where we were supposed to be served half glasses of each wine. Not sure why it was called “elite” but some of wines normally served by glasses were “out of reach”. Also you can barely call what we were served a half glass (40ml I reckon?). If you know exactly what you like and you are going to buy a bottle of this, this place would be ok. If you just want to taste different wines and explore, I wouldn’t...