venice kitchen

reading the review by the displeased "party of 12" and their dining neighbors, brings back nightmarish memories of working at tgi fridays years ago and dealing with parties such as that. that poor server; some people just can't act right in public. hah! anyways, onto old venice itself. some of the best pizza in town. i like the mona lisa, but i love the fajita/quesadilla pizza. if you want to be a real fatty, get a cup of the crab soup too.

great food and great service. refreshing atmosphere. nice upper class attraction.

on december 15, around 6:50 pm, this exchange happened.

i ordered my usual entree, the frenchmen st. filet. every time i have ordered this in the past, the sauce always smothered my plate, which i love. knowing this and knowing how much i enjoy the sauce, i asked for extra sauce on the side. when my to-go order came out, there was a minimal amount of sauce on my filet. the hostess stated that i would be charged for the extra sauce-- this confused me because they didn't even provide the usual amount of sauce i've always received with my order.

i asked to speak with the manager, and the manager came out immediately defensive. i showed him my plate and stated that this isn't even the standard amount of sauce that comes on it. he went back and forth with me on this. he even said they scaled back on the sauce for a more portioned meal. if i was informed beforehand (perhaps when i was placing my order), i could have decided to continue with my order as is, agree to the extra charge for added sauce, or not place the order at all. i was not informed of this change until i was told i'd be charged for more sauce.

i ultimately requested my money back for my entree and said i would keep the other entree ordered for my friend. the manager was disrespectful and started bringing up all the starving people globally and why i was wrong for returning my entree. he even took it a step further to the point where he said, "well, if you return one entree, you'll need to return the other entree too." i did without hesitation! this manager acted like he was punishing me, when in fact, he lost a long time customer, who plans to spread this message across all my networks. i will never patronize venice kitchen. the customer service was horrible, and the lack of transparency blindsided me and turned an already stressful evening worse.

i was really impressed by the food. the crawfish rolls were really good, and the pecan salad was awesome. my son had pizza and i had pasta - both were very tasty. we will definitely be going back.

i really enjoyed dining here with my family. the staff was also good and supportive. the food is very tasty and delicious. must try whenever near this place.

really enjoyed dinner with my husband! the waitress was very attentive and sweet! the house salad was huge and very good. we had the chicken tuscany and the great white pizza. both were excellent!!! overall we had a fabulous time!

just added gluten-free pasta and pizza! now you can have nearly all entres! i have celiac and have had no problems. the infusion of creole and italian is brilliant.

i was leery of the alfredo based sauce on the chicken tuscany pizza but it was wonderful. the sauce was not overwhelming and the balsamic glaze was a perfect combination. highly recommended!

service lagged a bit, but once we ordered, the food arrived in a reasonable amount of time. many dishes on the menu and i've tried a lot of them. the dish that keeps me returning is eggplant parmesan. seriously good. from the menu: "oven baked stuffed eggplant parmesan $12.00
seasoned breaded eggplant, seasoned ricotta cheese, homemade marinara, smoked gouda cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, oven baked until golden, served with angel hair and choice of side."

this place has really gone down hill. i used to love coming here, but my last few visits were awful. the quality of food and service are both horrible. i ordered a pasta with "grilled" shrimp and it was not grilled at all. it looked and tasted like it came from the frozen food section at kroger. the service is terribly slow even when there is no one in the restaurant. i really do hate this because this used to be one of my favorite places to eat. i really hope it can make a turn around.

i walked in at 1pm there was no hostess so i stood there for a few minutes. a few servers walked by and saw me but never came up to the door. i finally went to ask if i needed to seat myself. she said no they had a hostess and she would get her. once i was sat the bartender served me. she was very polite and attentive. the rest of the staff including a manager just seemed to walk around like there was nothing to do. i saw someone else walk in after me and turn around and walk out after she had been here for a few minutes and no one came to her. the food was ok. it is normally much better than it was today. it seems that the day time staff is never the best here from the few times i have been here for lunch.

disappointed i would like t.... disappointed
i would like to say that i ate here and could write a review but i never got past making reservations. turns out they don't take reservations, (i had a party of 10 that wanted to eat there), but instead you have to call ahead, they may hold a table for you and they may not. if they do decide to hold a table for you, you have to have at least half of your party present at the restaurant before they will even get a table ready. basically, they have a whole lot of rules in place for their convenience and not that of the customer. needless to say i'm not going to play crapshoot with a party of 10 people and potentially ruin our evening when they tell us there is no table available. i now understand why their parking lot is 90% empty most of the time and why there are so many negative reviews on urbanspoon.

to the party of 15, thats a very plausible rule and makes sense especially to those that come out and make such a commotion run your server crazy act ghetto and dont know how to tip 20% for putting up with your bs. sincerely the table next to you that you caused an unpleasant experience for. this place is amazingly fresh and exciting and the people here are awesome! dont let insane people like this b*%/h bring you down! you rock!

had a terrible experience! had a party of 15 and were told they have a new " one check policy" for parties over 12. they wouldn't split the check unless they split it equally or we all paid cash. i never heard of such a thing! even talked to the manager to try to work something out. she acted like she could care less! we left to go somewhere where they appreciated our business. we will not be back!!!

the food here is great and the staff is always friendly. i love the mozzarella sticks and the pizza....