Villa Rosa Italian Restaurant & Grill

Reviews 4

ZA

Zac Goldstein

In my experience, Italian restaurants tend to fall into three distinct strata. At the lowest level, there are pizza-and-sandwich places that offer a few pasta dishes. They tend to be cheap, but you get what you pay for. At the highest level, there are establishments that appropriate Italian naming for their menus (Primi or antipasto for appetizers, dolce for desserts, etc.) and offer bold combinations of authentic-sounding ingredients. Of course, the culinary craftsmanship – or at least the illusion thereof – comes at a price. In the middle are traditional red sauce joints, the familiar, moderately priced restaurants that offer a wide selection of recognizable Italian dishes. Villa Rosa sits firmly in this middle tier, but it is among the better of this type that Greensboro has to offer. Established by Sicilian immigrants, Villa Rosa is the epitome of an old-school Italian-American eatery. The large menu incorporates plenty of familiar names but little innovation. Capelini replaces linguine for a few of the dishes, but don’t look for squid ink pasta or an uncharted variety of ravioli: the requisite Alfredo, arrabiata, with clam sauce, and diavlo are all here. There is, however, enough variety here to keep everyone happy. In terms of quality, complimentary salad and garlic bread were mediocre, but an order of seafood pescatore really delivered. The sauce was sweet and flavorful, and the dish came with a copious amount of shrimp, scallops, and calamari (the lesser quantities of mussels and clams were fine by me). Villa Rosa’s conventionality extends beyond the food. The décor is of the sort that you can image Robert Irvine taking a sledgehammer to: wooden booths, tile floor, off-reds on the tables and the walls. It’s tired, to be certain, but it isn’t garish or cheap. There is no shortage of seating, and even on a busy night, you won’t feel like you are eating elbow-to-elbow with another party. Service rates above average. My server was speedy, attentive, and polite, and one of the owners came around to chat with customers at another table. Price-wise, Villa Rosa gains an edge on its direct competition (such as Elizabeths). Most of the pasta dishes run from $10 to $13 while grill and Italian specialties are higher. This might not seem like a bargain at first, but the portion sizes are quite generous. Factor in the salad and bread, and you end up with a lot of food for the money. The $4.99 weekday lunch specials are an outright steal. Villa Rosa is by no means a trend-setter. It lacks the sophistication (and the hefty pricetag) of Giovanni’s or Osteria, but there is comfort in its familiarity. If are seeking reliable Italian cuisine in a welcoming atmosphere, make this your first stop.

BR

Brad Rock

If I could have given this place less than one star I would have. My wife and I went here on valentines day and when we got there we were told to sit in the waiting area so asked where it was and we were pointed to this little 8X8 room that was nasty and we sat in some nasty chairs. We should have left then but for some reason we didnt. We were then met by a woman who looked like she has no clue what was going on and then taken to a room and sat in a corner. Our waitress came out about 10 min later and took our order. We ordered a appetizer and my wife ordered the shrimp scampi and I ordered the shrimp and chicken parm. I will say that our waitress was extremely nice. Our food came out extremely fast. it only took about 10 min. The problem with that is our appetizer never came out. We had our little girl with us and she was going to be eating off of that. We stated to feed her our food and the reason is because the appetizer never came out and our waitress disappeared. When my wife looked at her food it was soup with noodles and we were told that is how they serve their scampi. my wife tried it and it tasted like you buried your face in raw fish. I tasted my food and the tomato sauce tasted like it was dumped out of a can and the chicken and shrimp had no flavor and half of the pasta was cold and the cheese wasnt even melted and I was told it was placed under the broiler. We didnt finish our mean. I asked for our bill and then I found the manager and wanted to talk to her about things. She became extremely upset the second I stated talking to her about how things went with our food. I never asked for a discount nor did I ask for a free meal but she jumped down my throat and said that she cant give a discount or a free meal to everyone that doesnt like their food because they are a family run business which tells me that this has happened more than once. I then told her that I didnt want a discount nor free food I just wanted inform her on how things went and pay my bill and leave. She then wanted to offer me a piece of her cake as a gift and I told her no that I didnt want to take money away from a family run business. Dont go to this place.

ER

eric withers

Overall our experience was horrible. This restaurant seems to at once had a great reputation years ago but has long gone downhill. First off the decor is very dated. Outdated light fixtures were covered in dust. The restaurant overall had a good food smell possibly from food being cooked at the time, seeing we were the only ones there at 5:45 pm who knows. Our server was a clean well kept young girl, Who had just started. Not her fault, but apparently they dont push their servers to be knowledgeable about the menu nor be enthusiastic about their job. In short we left with plates full of food without her questioning it at all. Mind you a good server would have quickly called the manager or at least asked if we were ok with our orders. She didnt. The Garlic bread, cheese sticks, and drinks were the best things we ate during this visit, most likely all prepped and supplied by IGA. The salads were bag salads and the fried zucchini was horrible. Most of it wasnt even breaded and the parts that were tasted bland, like a failed first attempt at frying somthing without any directions. Ive had better at Golden Corral. I ordered the chicken and sausage parmesan. Ive never had it where the chicken wasnt breaded. It tasted old and like it had been frozen. The sausage wasnt good and it was topped with sliced cheese. It was plated like it came from a college kids dorm kitchen. My wife had the chicken marsala. The chicken again was horrible!! I have a pretty tolerable palate (seeing Ive eaten at Golden Corral), but I couldnt even swallow it. Overall this restaurant needs a reboot badly. Its in a prime location and could get customers easily, but the food is just to bad.

RO

Roderica Wade

I read the reviews on Local and was referred by a coworker. I was eager to visit and eat at this restaurant. Upon entering, my guests and I waited about five minutes before being greeted, bussers and wait staff past by us and didnt greet or acknowledge us. Finally got seated, the server didnt ask how we were or mention his name. The lighting was not appropriate, both my guest and I wear glasses and found it difficult to read the menu although we knew what we wanted to eat. The table had leftover food on it as did the bread plates also (for hoagie bread with garlic or butter). No fresh foccacia, French or Italian bread. We ordered veal parm and a large pizza, the pizza was tasty and great portion size, the veal was not tender, thinly sliced, maybe sautéed and not fried and the pasta was penne was hard, under cooked. Terrible experience. Next time I will stick with Bravos or Carrabas for authentic Italian, a great atmosphere and good times. Complete waste of time and money. Also some guest were seated and all three servers we noticed in the area we were seated never greeted them but as soon as the guest left the server came to the table and collected their menus.