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 1st Avenue downtown, it was off of 2nd 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.
