Vince's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

09/18/10

what happened?

by lotts at Citysearch

I don't know how this one-time favorite of ours went downhill so fast. Wet salads, cold soup, cold entree's 2 ounce glasses of wine and all of the food dumped on the table faster than McDonalds. No leisurely romantic dinner any longer. The place is dirty, the staff runs past so fast you can't get,' hey I need a spoon' out to them before they bring the check. It's an afterthought to ask if you want coffee and dessert. The bathrooms are gross and are sadly needing an update. The filthy dining room carpet is a trip hazard (maybe that's why they turned down the lights). We used to bring our out of town guests here but not any longer. The last couple of years and this once good restaurant has gone to the dogs with mushy pre-cooked pasta (pasta fresca takes two minutes to cook so it does not need pre-cooking), soggy salads, cold soup, have to ask for everything, and for crying out loud! Put some wine in the glass. We have not been back for 9 months and won't be back until we see that they closed for a good scrubbing and opened with new policy about pre-cooking food. No sense bragging that you make your own pasta when it has the texture of mush.

09/17/10

Terrible service and poor food

by JSActions at Citysearch

I have to say I'm extremely disappointed. My family used to eat at Vince's for many year before we moved out of the area. I ate there growing up quite frequently, I remember it as place with a warm atmosphere and good food and, importantly, good service. So, when I moved back to the area a couple years ago I was excited to be able to go there again with my family. Unfortunately, it's not the place I remember.

The service has really gone down the tubes with rude servers, poor food quality and portions, and terrible service. My experience culminated when my family decided to turn back the food that we had ordered. The salad was not what we ordered and the spaghetti dinner was half empty. This was a take out order so our card had already been charged. We asked for a refund on our card since we were not taking the food, our server said that she would have to get her manager. Her manager was very rude and said she'd get to us whenever she had time. Not having much more of our time to waste that evening we left and later called to speak with the owner.

The owner apologized and offered to remake the food. We would have preferred a refund but the manager said he wanted to "make it right" and so we decided to give him another chance. We agreed to come in and pick up the food at 7pm (several hours after we spoke on the phone). When I arrived to pick up the phone at 7pm I spoke with a young man at the counter. He had a hard time finding our order in the system but after a minute of searching found it. He went in the back to see if it was ready.

I waited at the counter for several minutes while at least five other customers were helped. I never saw the young man again but a young woman asked me if I had been helped. I told her I was waiting for a take out order and she went in the back to try and find it. Again several minutes pass (by this time it's 7:20) and still no food. My mother, for whom the food was for, grew tired of waiting and walked over to the counter. No one was there so she walked past the counter to the door to the back and told the woman that we didn't want the food anymore. She was not loud or rude, but simply said we didn't want it anymore and then we walked out.

After speaking again with the owner he claimed REPEATEDLY to me that the food was ready on time and that he was there. I don't know if he was there, I didn't' see him, but he lied repeatedly in saying it was ready, I didn't make up standing around for 20+ minutes waiting for food that should have been ready when I got there. He then refused to refund the money or remake the food, accusing us of wasting his food. He said, rather rudely, that we could only resolve this by taking it to our bank, which I am in the process of doing. He also asked us not to return, the best advice anyone has given us about this restaurant.

tr;dr Terrible service and poor food. I will miss what it used to be but the owner has decided to short change customer service. Take the owner's advice: don't go here.

10/09/09

Excellent Marsala

by mexican206 at Citysearch

The Marsala chicken was very tender and the sauce was just right!! The service was fast and friendly, and the Italian music playing over was just right for the mood!!!

10/15/08

Great affordable food!

by mgiclydlsh at Citysearch

I have been eating at Vince's since I was a little girl. This place has great food and really reasonable prices. The meal always comes with hard bread sticks with butter, an extremely basic salad, not too exciting french bread with butter and of course, your exceptional entree. This place is kind of kitschy, in an Italian way, and the precurses to your meal just add to that. My entrees are always piping hot and hugely portioned. I read some other reviews about watery sauce and burnt pizza and my food never comes that way. If it did, I'm sure the servers would fix it, they are always nice to me and my family. The manager that I've noticed is also extremely hands on and is usually bussing tables, vacuuming the floor, getting to go boxes for people and just being a great help to his staff.

Sometimes the service is slow, but who cares? It's not like I go to Vince's to wolf down some food, I go there to chat with people and enjoy my time. If you have problems waiting then you should get a glass of merlot and sip while you wait. Same thing goes if you have issues with your server. I'm sure they were just having a bad night. Ever worked in a restaurant? It's an exhausing and sometimes irritating job. So get over it!

The dish I recommend is the gnocchi a la sorrentia. It has lots of basil and huge chunks of melty fresh mozzarella. All the pizzas are good as well. I am going there tonight for my birthday with my family and can't wait!

• Pros: delicious food, great prices, casual

10/06/08

pro&cons of Vinces In Federal Way

by craiglisabrown at Citysearch

I have been eating at Vinces in Federal Way for as long as i can remember at least 10 years. I would eat there several times a week mostly weekend nights. The first 9 years of me eating there every thing was perfect, food was well cooked, servers were awesome, host greeted me very friendly and bus people very polite. This last year every thing has dropped. Their has been a lot of mistakes on my food burnt pizzas, wrong topping on them at that. Servers are going to make mistakes yes, but when my pizza was burnt they told me they couldn't get me another one because in their eyes it was not burnt to bad. i asked to speak with the manager to show him the pizza and they said he was not available on a Friday night at prime time dinner. Then i went in again knowing about the burnt pizzas and ordered a spaghetti and it was real watered down and asked to be drained of the watter and the server snapped back and said it was not watery but took it away real fast and brought it back a couple minutes later. so i figured i would try this place one more time knowing it was my favorite Italian food around and i went in and every thing was going good service was fast host and bussers real polite and friendly, had my drinks and bread sticks and saw the butter packets and it was all munched up like it has been handled a lot. I just didn't eat it, and when my food came it was the wrong order. I then got my servers attention and he told me this is what i ordered and he couldent change it he grabbed the manager and he politly took care if every thing and replaced it for me with the dish i wanted and took about 15 20 minutes. The last 3 or 4 times i have gone in to eat there something has gone wrong. The other years were suburb

Pros good tasting food, not to hard to get a table, price of pasta

cons rude servers, bad parking, bad service, food taking a long time even on just spaghettis.