15 April, 2010

Villa 39 - Restaurant Review

It was Dad's birthday so we decided to dine at Villa 39 - a new Italian restaurant near Regal Cinema, Colaba. Walked in late but were glad that we were immediately seated. It was a corner table and we could feel that the AC was not as pleasant as in the other portions of the restaurant.

Villa 39 has some great interiors - the grey/silver and white with lots of mirrors really make the place very sexy. It's bright and nice - not that typical yellow diffused lighting. Makes it very interesting.

We were shown our table and I spotted that there were no glasses, no napkins and the candle was not yet lit. Well, maybe they just cleared it out and things would start getting. Only the candle was lit & then we had to ask for water twice ... napkins came in only after the starter was served.

In general the quantity servings I thought were rather poor and it would have been very very helpful if the waiter would have advised us to order accordingly. Of course they did offer to bring in some food but by the time the meal had come we were rather irritated for having to ask for water & napkins over and over again. The food was NOT cold but COOL - so negative marking for that too.

Oh and yes - the meal was waiting on the table for almost a full 5 mins because we were not given our dinner plates after knowing that we had 3 dishes to be shared among the 5 of us. I actually walked to the Kitchen door and snatched the plate from his hand. Felt sick and finally called in the Manager to give him an earful on the bad service experience. And in my dad's words - we were a neglected lot in one corner of the restaurant.

If we did like something it was the fusilli in pesto sauce. The rest I won't bother to comment because you can't just enjoy that overly priced food accompanied with such lousy service.

We refused to pay for the polenta lasagna [it was cold and the server made a khichdi out of it] and at that moment the manager said we had the option of not paying the bill at all. My dad refused and we asked him to revise the bill with just that item less. And I too thought it would be unfair not to pay for the rest of meal when the food was just fine - but badly served.

So I'll you skip the place for a while and see if some good reports come in, then maybe it would be worth the money.