24 replies to this topic

[Ras712]

Myself, my wife, and my in-laws went to My Brother Vinny's the other night for my Father-in-law's B-day dinner. We have been there a couple of times, and we even had our rehearsal dinner there a June 2006, we have always had a great experience. We hadn't been in a while and unfortunately I'm not sure we will be going again....

It was on Saturday and it was quite busy. We had reservations and were seated immediately outside (beautiful night, nice view of HD). Our waiter was nice but the staff seemed to be harried a bit. I'll try to be brief - here's what bugged me:

The service - they asked us three times if we wanted more water, we said yes, but it took quite a while and we had to ask again to get it (three of us had wine to keep us busy, but my pregnant wife really needs to keep hydrated...
Also, they brought two of the meals out very quickly, before the salads, and the person who brought the two meals (not our waiter) asked if we ordered anything else as he "did not see a ticket for it, maybe your waiter put it on another ticket"?!? I responded "are you kidding?!" There really wasn't a big problem, the other two meals followed pretty quickly, but the perception was that they didn't have their sh-t together. When I got my Ceasar (sp.?) salad with the meal (not before) it was SAD! I know that $2.99 isn't alot, but I'd rather pay $5 for a good Ceasar. Very little flavorless dressing and pale white iceberg(shouldn't it be romaine?) lettuce, tiny store bought croutons and basically tasteless, not acceptable...

The main courses were pretty decent, my wife was not too fond of the Salmon salad, but the Salmon was prepared well, the salad was just not to her taste (not their fault). However the food was very $$$ for what you get. $16.99 for a salad with a couple of small pieces of Salmon seems a bit steep... If you put yourself out there as a nice restaurant, you need to match it with the food and service. My issue is not so much about price as value.

Overall I was disappointed, it seemed to me that things have slipped a bit there. I know they have a niche market and a cute place, and I really want to support some fellow east coast refugees, but it really wasn't worth the cost, and it was a bit all over the place. The staff was friendly but disorganized. If I had to give it a 1-10 I wold say a 5.5. For $17 a plate and up, I expect better service and GREAT food, not just so-so and did I mention the sad excuse for a Ceasar salad?

I hope they see this, and I hope it was just a random off night. We will probably try again, but not for a while... Too bad. Good garlic bread though...

[camay2327]

And did you tell the manager about the bad service/food???

[Ras712]

I really should have, my bad. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I guess I just wanted to see if others have had the same experience recently.Probably a bit unfair to not give them the chance to recover, but it was busy and I wasn't up for it...

[mylo]

We generally have good experiences there. It was probably just a fluke of being so busy combined with a new server.

[Darthvader]

Myself, my wife, and my in-laws went to My Brother Vinny's the other night for my Father-in-law's B-day dinner. We have been there a couple of times, and we even had our rehearsal dinner there a June 2006, we have always had a great experience. We hadn't been in a while and unfortunately I'm not sure we will be going again....

It was on Saturday and it was quite busy. We had reservations and were seated immediately outside (beautiful night, nice view of HD). Our waiter was nice but the staff seemed to be harried a bit. I'll try to be brief - here's what bugged me:

The service - they asked us three times if we wanted more water, we said yes, but it took quite a while and we had to ask again to get it (three of us had wine to keep us busy, but my pregnant wife really needs to keep hydrated...
Also, they brought two of the meals out very quickly, before the salads, and the person who brought the two meals (not our waiter) asked if we ordered anything else as he "did not see a ticket for it, maybe your waiter put it on another ticket"?!? I responded "are you kidding?!" There really wasn't a big problem, the other two meals followed pretty quickly, but the perception was that they didn't have their sh-t together. When I got my Ceasar (sp.?) salad with the meal (not before) it was SAD! I know that $2.99 isn't alot, but I'd rather pay $5 for a good Ceasar. Very little flavorless dressing and pale white iceberg(shouldn't it be romaine?) lettuce, tiny store bought croutons and basically tasteless, not acceptable...

The main courses were pretty decent, my wife was not too fond of the Salmon salad, but the Salmon was prepared well, the salad was just not to her taste (not their fault). However the food was very $$$ for what you get. $16.99 for a salad with a couple of small pieces of Salmon seems a bit steep... If you put yourself out there as a nice restaurant, you need to match it with the food and service. My issue is not so much about price as value.

Overall I was disappointed, it seemed to me that things have slipped a bit there. I know they have a niche market and a cute place, and I really want to support some fellow east coast refugees, but it really wasn't worth the cost, and it was a bit all over the place. The staff was friendly but disorganized. If I had to give it a 1-10 I wold say a 5.5. For $17 a plate and up, I expect better service and GREAT food, not just so-so and did I mention the sad excuse for a Ceasar salad?

I hope they see this, and I hope it was just a random off night. We will probably try again, but not for a while... Too bad. Good garlic bread though...

That was the most confusing "review" of a restaurant I've ever read. For every negative point you also had something good to say. What about the free Wi-Fi, how was that?

[ChipShot]

Stick to the chain restaurants like Chili's. At least at those places when you get mediocre food and service, you don't pay ridiculous prices for the "experience".

[mylo]

Stick to the chain restaurants like Chili's. At least at those places when you get mediocre food and service, you don't pay ridiculous prices for the "experience".

8oz Salmon at Chili's is $13 bucks, and I wouldn't eat it.

http://www.chilis.co...enuType=Dine In

[Sandman]

Service at MBV's is hit/miss. Our last server was awesome, but the time before that not so great. Overall I think the food is good and the main reason we frequent MBV's is you rarely have to wait more than 15min for a table. Most of the time we just walk in and are seated. I'm not one to wait an hour+ just to get seated

[ChipShot]

Plenty of entree's at the chains under $10....MBV's is over-rated (from what I hear). Let me know when they get their act together, then I'll try it.

[cw68]

I had a really bad dinner combined with really bad service there last fall, which was the one time I've eaten in the dining room. The tortilinni alla panna wasn't made with ham, it was made with salami. ICK

I've gone to meet friends in the bar area since and while the service is a lot better, IMO, the food left a lot to be desired. My daughter wouldn't even finish the spaghetti and meatballs because she thought it was bad. Before you just brush that off, she's a little powereater and I thought she'd eat pasta anytime. I tasted it and didn't like it at all, either.

[Steve Heard]

Ask the owner of any restaurant in town, and they'll tell you how difficult it is to keep good, well-trained employees.

I, too, have had poor service at MBV's, but the good experiences far outnumber the bad.

Mike and Rebecca are great bartenders.

There is a server who is great, and I always forget her name because it is the same as one of my daughters, but I can't remember which one. She's either Jennifer or Stephanie.

I'm popping in tonight for a Monday Night Football beer. Join me?

[cw68]

Ask the owner of any restaurant in town, and they'll tell you how difficult it is to keep good, well-trained employees.

I, too, have had poor service at MBV's, but the good experiences far outnumber the bad.

Mike and Rebecca are great bartenders.

There is a server who is great, and I always forget her name because it is the same as one of my daughters, but I can't remember which one. She's either Jennifer or Stephanie.

I'm popping in tonight for a Monday Night Football beer. Join me?

I can make it next week, but hubby's out of town and I'm sick as a dog with a cold.

[Ras712]

That was the most confusing "review" of a restaurant I've ever read. For every negative point you also had something good to say. What about the free Wi-Fi, how was that?

Well...it was a confusing experience. There were good and bad points. I was surprised by some of the issues as I've has good experiences there before.

And the wi-fi doesn't work with my aluminum foil hat on...

[redman]

My wife and I ate at My Brother Vinny's once and just weren't that crazy about the recipes they use. Service was fine, but the food was just okay.

We much prefer Viscontis, even though the service there can be iffy. The Pollo Alla Visconti is awesome! Some of their other dishes are not so special, so you just have to order the right items. Usually we get good advice from the servers if we aren't sure.

We also tried Dominic's up in Granite Bay for dinner last week. I liked it quite a bit, though my wife thought it was overly salty.

And when we feel like a short drive, we absolutely love Il Forno Classico in Gold River. One of the best casual Italian restaurants in the area IMO.

Just my $0.02 on local Italian food.

[ChipShot]

We much prefer Viscontis, even though the service there can be iffy.

Why do so many places these days have 'iffy' service?? Hell, if I knew of ONE place that had excellent service consistently, I'd be a regular customer of theirs. Just ONE place....is that asking too much ??