Victoria's: Rochester's Most Overrated Restaurant

Sixteen years is a long time.  Since 1997 Victoria’s has laid claim to the best Italian restaurant in town or best Italian dish in town, not that such award says much because choices for Italian restaurants seem to be slim in Rochester.  That would be akin to Rochester being named the best town of 100,000+ to live in in the southeast portion of Minnesota.  By default it would win.  Such is the same for Victoria’s.  Sure once the award from Rochester Magazine changed to best Italian dish it opened the door for other winners, but apparently the people of Rochester fail to realize that other restaurants make Italian food.  Heck, if I sold my beloved Tiramisu I would, or at least should, win best Italian dish in Rochester.  Most recently Victoria’s was awarded the best Italian dish in town for their lasagna (or lasagne as they spell it).  I had not been to Victoria’s in a while so I decided to revisit their restaurant for a Sunday dinner to see why it has been the best Italian food for over fifteen years.

Upon entering the restaurant you are in the bar where you encounter a host stand.  When I arrived there with my brother and sister-in-law no one was at the host stand.  There was someone at the bar, but she did not acknowledge us.  There were other employees, probably servers, at the opposite end of the bar who saw us. Again, we were not acknowledged.  After a couple minutes the hostess came back with a carry out order for someone.  After giving the order to the customer she greeted us and took us to our seat.  I do not fault the hostess for the wait, but it is surely a sign of either employee laziness or the general attitude of not caring if the bartender or other wait staff does not acknowledge customers upon first entering the establishment when they are within eye sight.  It takes just a few seconds, yet it gives an initial, positive experience of hospitality. 

The inside is decorated as you would expect from an Italian restaurant; there are murals on the walls, sculptures, bricks, stone, wood, archways, and so forth.  I don’t have a problem with how it looks, though I could see some people thinking it is dated or too “old” looking.  For me it does the job, however. 

After sitting down you are given complimentary crusty rolls and your drink order is taken.  Victoria’s serves Coca Cola products (finally!), a variety of teas, coffee, espresso, and there is also a full bar menu, including many beers by bottle or draft, a decent sized wine menu, and various cocktails.  Each day they have a happy hour from 3-6 PM.  They advertise themselves as a wine bar and do have 35 wines by the glass, priced between six and twelve dollars,

I do not frequent Victoria’s frequently, but I do recall the crusty rolls each time I eat there and I have often wondered their origins.  The bread is actually pretty good.  It is very crusty, though nice and bready inside.  At the table there is olive oil and Parmesan cheese to eat with it.  But I have long wondered if it is house made from scratch, if it comes in par baked and finished in house, if it comes in fully baked and frozen, or if it is fully baked elsewhere and delivered.  The reason I question it is not due to the taste, but the much too perfect in consistent shape.  If it is handmade, the maker has incredible skill.  Either way, it isn’t a huge deal, I just have always wondered…

Before Victoria’s moved to its current location off of 1^st Avenue downtown, it was off of 2^nd Street SW.  Back then I thought Victoria’s had a much more gigantic menu, or maybe it is just formatted differently now.  They still have a plethora of options, which isn’t too hard when you can vary pasta shapes and sauces into numerous dishes.  If executed well, this is fine.  When doing wrong, this ruins a large part of the menu. 

The menu is divided into the following categories:  Appetizers, Dishes you love….ala carte (they do not include soup or salad, but are served over pasta….so if you want spaghetti and meatballs, for example, and only that, look here), Salads, Pizza, Pasta Parade (where you choose the shape of the noodle in four different preparations), Southern Pasta, Northern Pasta, Steaks, Fresh Chicken or Pork, Veal, and finally Seafood.  The Pasta Parade through Seafood options include soup or salad and, unless otherwise noted, are served over pasta, except for the Steaks which are served with your choice of baked potato, French fries, rice, or pasta.  Confused? 

Just looking at their menu a few things pop out.  First, some of the salads, ingredient wise or otherwise, don’t scream “ITALIAN” to me, such as the Greek Salad, Mango Salad, and Mediterranean Salad.  I have never tried their pizza with homemade pizza sauce, perhaps I will sometime since I am a pizza connoisseur.  On the entrée part of their menu they have a lot of option that sound good and the options vary in the ingredients, heaviness, preparation styles, etc…  One of the chicken entrées, Mechi’s Chicken, which can also be made with pork, has been a winner in the past of various awards, such as a Silver Fork Award from A Taste of Rochester and I think it was also named Best Italian Dish at least once by Rochester Magazine.  I’ve never tried it before, but maybe one day I will try the Mechi’s Chicken.

The food my table ordered consisted of the antipasto salad, whole wheat spaghetti with meatballs, and the famed lasagna.  With my lasagna came a choice of soup or salad and I chose soup.  The soup choices were the same as every other time I have asked, Minestrone and cheese tortellini.  I should know by now that they always have the same soups and that both of them are quite sub-par when it comes to soup.  As in, the Olive Garden has better soup.  That says something…  After only a short wait the Minestrone soup came out.  The soup tasted alright, but not great by any means.  The broth tasted of tomato and dried Italian herbs.  Inside the soup were large, irregularly cut carrots and potatoes.  There was also one pea pod, several peas, and pasta.  The carrots, peas, pea pod, and pasta were all severely overcooked.  The soup also lacked seasoning.  I understand that soup is not made to order, but still, the knife cuts could have been vastly better and there could have been steps taken to ensure everything but the potatoes were not terribly overcooked.  Finishing it with some fresh basil, for example, would have been nice, as would putting a little salt and pepper into it so I didn’t have to do so at the table.

After only a short wait longer the entrées arrived.  Visually the antipasto salad looked best.  The salad tasted pretty nice, but anything with cured meat on it should taste fine.  The crisp lettuce, cured meats, marinated vegetables, and house dressing worked well together, providing freshness, saltiness, acidity, and a savory element.  It’s an $11 dollar salad so I sure hope it would be tasty. 

Onto the whole wheat spaghetti with meatballs, a $12 ala carte option; in a single word: disappointing.  The red sauce with meat was noticeably watery as an orange colored watery liquid gathered on either side of the plate.  I was utterly surprised that a homemade marinara sauce this watery made it to the plate of an Italian restaurant, much less the best of the best Italian restaurant.  I understand that tomatoes have liquid in them, but the cooking process should create a sauce with a proper consistency and, if nothing else, one more homogenous so it isn’t a watery mess on the plate sides.  The meatballs were very tender and soft, though a bit under seasoned; however, they were good.   I have made Italian meatballs before and they tend to be on the soft side and tender; these seemed to be akin to that.  The meatballs were probably the best part of the plate, despite their lack of seasoning.  Is there not a box of salt in the kitchen?  What about some fantastically fresh Italian herbs?  It is summertime, after all.  The whole wheat spaghetti on the plate was undercooked; this is ridiculous for such a “great” Italian restaurant.  I like my pasta al dente, but this was a before al dente; I know whole wheat pasta takes longer to cook, but it isn’t rocket science, it’s pasta cooking 101.  The watery red sauce has an acidic tomato flavor, as expected, but also a strong taste of dried Italian herbs and a lack of salt.  Come to think of it, the overall dish had a lack of salt.  The dried Italian herb flavor, which was prevalent in the Minestrone, was also in the homemade marinara sauce.  I see a pattern, no salt, heavy on the dried herbs. 

My lasagna was next up.  It too had the same watery red sauce on it.  One of the fundamentals of cooking is the understanding that the diner eats with his or her eyes first.  Presenting the “best Italian dish” in Rochester with a sauce that looks visually sub-par is not a good start.  The chunk of lasagna was a good size which it should have been for the $15 price tag.  I wanted to ensure that the same watery red sauce was the same as that which was on the pasta.  It was.  The taste of it was the same, tomato acidity, dried Italian herbs, and a lack of salt.  See a pattern?  Using my fork I cut through the various layers of Rochester’s current best Italian dish it was a letdown.  It surely wasn’t the best lasagna I have ever had.  For one thing it was overwhelmed with cheese; I like cheese, but the amount of cheese threw the dish out of balance.  I think I cut through eight different layers of cheese when cutting into my lasagna.  Moreover, I could barely find the “mounds of beef” that the menu described; perhaps they were in the lasagna somewhere between copious amounts of ricotta and mozzarella.  As a result, the flavors of the pasta and meat were lost to the flavors of ricotta and mozzarella cheese.  When eating the lasagna without any sauce resulted in it being a little dry due to the excess ricotta cheese.  As the lasagna cooled, the melted cheese on the top turned rubbery, a sign of low quality cheese.  Chewing it was akin to chewing gum, though I have chewed more forgiving gum before.  It is sad that “the best Italian restaurant” would use a low grade product.  I understand cost savings, but when you charge $15 for a plate of lasagna, put at least decent cheese atop it.  Or use less cheese overall, just a higher quality cheese, because more does not mean better.  Again, a little bit of fresh herbs would have been helpful.

At least the service was mostly good, friendly, and attentive.  The food came out at a reasonable pace, though the restaurant wasn’t bursting at the seams with customers so it wasn’t like it was hectic and busy.  Even so, I had no qualms regarding the service, except for perhaps the initial welcome, or lack thereof, when I first arrived. 

Victoria’s is conveniently located downtown Rochester and they have a Victoria’s Express location where you can grab a quick lunch like pizza, calzones, salads, soups, sandwiches, and other hot entrées like pasta dishes, if you so want to.  It seems that it is popular with the crowd of Mayo employees that work downtown.  I have also heard that later in the afternoon they sell off some of the food at a steeply discounted price.  However, with convenience comes a lack of consistent quality.  Perhaps other items on their menu are as tasty as the antipasto salad, but from my experience there, Rochester’s best Italian restaurant and Rochester’s best Italian dish did not hit the mark, despite trying the most basic of Italian dishes.  Why people continue to love the place, I will never know.  How it continues to garner best Italian anything by the people of Rochester, I will never know.  What I do know, however, is that I will not look to Victoria’s for Italian fare.  Besides, Fazoli’s is much closer to home.

To recap:

Food:  Overall the food was quite disappointing.  The flavors were not bright and fresh, the red sauce was watery, there was a general lack of seasoning, the lasagna was overwhelmed by cheese, the whole wheat pasta was undercooked, need I go on?  It must be nice to be a restaurant and get by on your name and name alone because surely the food doesn’t cut it.  I could operate an Italian restaurant with better food and I’m not Italian.  Like I said in the beginning, if I sold my Tiramisu that would get best Italian dish in town….by a long shot….because I’m sure it is better than anything Victoria’s could dream of making.

Service:  The service was adequate, nothing offensive, but nothing over the top, not that I expected an unreasonably high level of service.  The food came out in a timely manner and checked with us a few times.  We weren’t greeted upon entering, however, and had to wait a a few minutes in order to even be acknowledged. 

Drinks:  Victoria’s does have Coca Cola so props to them for that.  They also have a good size bar menu and other non-alcoholic drinks.  It is advertised as a wine bar so if that’s your thing it may be worth checking out for that aspect. 

Ambiance:  It surely has the feel of an Italian restaurant between the colors, wood, stone, arches, lighting, murals, etc…  I don’t have any problems with the ambiance, though some may think it is dated.

Conclusion:  Well, if you really want some “Italian” food, you could go to Victoria’s.  But the quality to price ratio is quite ridiculous.  If you have taste buds and/or the sense of what tastes good and what doesn’t, or how something should be and how it should not be, you will likely be disappointed.  Unfortunately competing choices in this lame town are few and far between.  I would likely recommend Fazoli’s over Victoria’s because at least then your expectations will be met for the dollars you spend.  It also isn’t overhyped like Victoria’s.  Perhaps you will have better luck than I do each time I eat there, but don’t count on it.