LOCATION: 9.2
It’s hard to get any better than this: On the southwest corner of the square in Oxford, Venice Kitchen manages to be right in the middle of everything, but still feel like it’s quietly tucked away.
ATMOSPHERE: 6.8
This is a tough call. We went for dinner just after daylight savings time kicked in, so the sun was still out at 6:30pm. The crowd was a little light in the middle of the week, and glancing toward the back of the restaurant we couldn’t help but notice something that looked like makeshift curtains blocking off part of the place. The front half of the restaurant, as you can see from the photo, offers a great view of the square, and the decor isn’t bad, so maybe once the sun goes down and more people arrive, and maybe if the odd business toward the back is remedied, the place feels more lively. We wanted it to be the kind of place where you almost feel as though you’ve been transported to a small family joint in Little Italy, and we think that’s what the owners are going for. While they almost get it right, there’s the distinct feeling that they started off strong and then just kind of threw in the towel at some point. Again, perhaps it’s temporary, so we would recommend checking it out yourself.
FOOD: 6.5
For us, one of the ironies of restaurant dining is how competence reads as low-quality. Chili’s and Applebee’s and Olive Garden are competent — the food isn’t bad, per se, and it’s nothing if not consistent, but few real foodies would ever describe it as high-quality. In our opinion, the food at Venice kitchen veers a little too close to the “competent valley” than it needs to; that is, it’s not bad, it might even be described by some people as “pretty good,” but there’s something about it that just fails to excite us.
The Caesar salad was okay… it just wasn’t special. “What do you expect from a Caesar Salad?” we can hear people saying. Well, we expect fresh, crispy Romaine lettuce. Check. We expect big, crunchy croutons. Check. We also expect fresh grated Parmesan cheese and a fresh, homemade, tangy dressing, and on both of those counts, Venice failed. The dressing was mediocre, and as far as we know it could have (and likely did) come from a bottle. The cheese was factory pre-grated from a bag. Both of these things indicate a kitchen that’s designed to be operated by minimally-trained staff — that is, people who couldn’t create a good Caesar dressing from scratch if their paycheck depended on it. They know how to assemble, but they don’t necessarily know how to cook.
For our entree, we ordered the lasagna. Like the salad, it was okay… it just wasn’t special. Don’t get us wrong — the sauce was okay, the meat and cheese and noodles were okay, the presentation was okay… but nothing about it was particularly memorable, and there was that awful pre-grated factory cheese again. Taken together with the salad, it just feels like Venice Kitchen is trying to appeal to the Olive Garden crowd by serving thoroughly “safe” food, while paying just enough attention to presentation not to completely put off seriously discerning diners.
We will say this: The bread service was well above average. The roll itself was the highlight, and the buttery dip, while almost certainly pre-fab, hit all the right salty and garlicky spots on our guilty-pleasure palate. We ordered an extra one of those suckers.
SERVICE: 6.5
Like the food, the service at Venice Kitchen was… okay. Our server was pleasant and prompt, so no complaints there, but one odd instance stuck out. When we asked for a wine list, she replied that she “didn’t think there was one,” and said she would go back to the kitchen to “see what they have.” She came back a couple of minutes later and recited a very brief list of low-to-mid-range wines. We ordered a competent-but-forgettable pinot noir.
OVERALL: 7.3
As we mention up top, there’s something a little too “Olive Garden-y” for our taste at Venice Kitchen. We knew when the competent salad came out that grandma wasn’t in the kitchen making tried-and-true family recipes from the old country. The competent lasagna confirmed that suspicion beyond the shadow of a doubt. The strange little incident with the wine convinced us that, more than likely, what we’re dealing with is a restaurant where much of the food is “assembled” instead of “created,” using far too many packaged ingredients, by people with no particular flair for cooking.
That’s not meant as an insult. As they say, “it is what it is.” And while we may go back to see if our experience was an anomaly, a final tab of $54 and change for a small salad, a slice of lasagna, and two glasses of mediocre wine doesn’t really generate any excitement. Were it not for Venice Kitchen’s peerless location, we would be talking about a restaurant sitting squarely in the sixes, with no compelling reason for discriminating diners to return.