Just as an update– I passed Venice on my way to work this morning and noticed that they were closed.
Bill I.
Place rating: 1 Bronx, NY
My friends and I only dine at Venice occassionally. Maybe 2 – 3 times a year. It was a friendly place with experienced waitresses and it had that nice neighborhood feel to it. The food was simple Italian of a high quality. Th eingredients were always of good quality. After learning that the restaurant was closed, we found out that it had recently reopened. So, last week we decided to go for dinner on a Saturday night around 9:30 pm. The restaurant had undergone a complete makeover. And unfortunately, NOT for the better. The restaurant is still divided into two section, but one section is now dominated by an expanded bar and TVs. The night we dined, the bar was extremely noisy with a young crowd screaming and yelling half the time. The menu we were given was a folded piece of paper out of a printer. The selections were sparse at best and very unimaginative in an attempt to be fancy. The waiters and busboys were more busy talking to each other than attending to their customers. The tableclothes were covered by brown paper. The food was no better. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms with cheese and sausage as an appetizer. There was NO cheese and NO sausage. It seemed like it was just stuffed with tomato sause and put under the broiler. It was tasteless. For the main course I had the seafood fettuccini alfredo. The cream sauce was the consistancy of milk and has about as much taste as skim milk. The shrimp were small and tasteless(probably frozen); the scallops were BAY scallops which should have been mentioned on the menu; and the lobster was, well somewhere. I think I found one piece. Two at the most. My friend ordered a grilled chicken and pasta dish which he said was so-so. In conclusion, for those of you looking for the same quality Italian food that Venice used to offer, you won’t find it here anymore. It seems like the owners are focusing on getting more income from watered down drinks at the bar than from loyal customers looking for a hearty Italian meal.
