Victoire

Amazing drinks and a amazing food menu! Bartenders were super friendly and held great conversations!

I have been a solid fan of Victoire since they opened. Years back my husband and I first visited during Jazz Fest and had a charcuterie plate. It was awesome — lots of diversity, good portions and a great ‘snack’ to share between two people with a drink during the fest.
Since then we’ve been back over a dozen times for dinner — mostly on Mondays when they would do half priced mussels. We took several groups of friends and family, and it has remained a favorite. We’ve had every flavor combo on the menu but our faves are the Snobby and the Farmhouse. Served with frites and several dipping sauces and bread — it’s the closest you’ll come to the authentic Belgian dish in this area!
Most recently we’ve been back for beer flights or just to get our faves in bottles or drafts. Their prices are really great for a bar downtown, the atmosphere is totally pub style and the bartenders know their stuff.
Highly recommended!

If you’ve never had duck before this is the place to try it. The duck wings were the best I’ve ever had! Even better than any chicken wings I’ve ever had. The beer selection is outstanding and whenever I had a question about one the bartender was more than happy to give advice. Great place for a drink after work!

I’ve been twice… Unfortunately they are going the Chef’s be aware…
Ok I’ve driven past this place enough times, finally went and met some friends. Slightly disjointed about whom was to seat you at a table? Oh well… Service was not rushed but our server seemed towards the end MIA. I ordered a cider it was on draft gee so sorry no one else had an alcoholic beverage. We were a group of women who knew what we wanted and most of us had more than a 20 minute drive home. We all had the «Monday Night Special» Moules & Frites aka Mussels & Fries (Monday’s its $ 10) with the fries came with two dipping sauces: YUMMEH. I ordered mine with the «Classic Sauce» others got the «Snobby Sauce» (that had lobster in it) now I usually like to try a place that’s known for its Mussels with the classic sauce, it was good and the mussels were fresh, but I wasn’t blown away by them. The flavor of the sauce was to be honest one note? The fries were actually very good but so damn salty? Would I try this again sure for $ 10, not 16 – 18 $ for this dish w/​fries. The place is warm and inviting a large fireplace going and big tables, large long bar. The outside had the fireplace going I’m sure during the summer this outdoor patio is rocking. If you want to try some craft beers they have them as others have reviewed you can get a «flight»
I’m sorry I did not try anything else but for a Monday Night and a Monday Special and good friends it made it all worth while. Would I try this place again sure of course. That’s all I got.

I tried their flights and it was a really good experience, excellent music, ambient, cordial.

Just went to Victoire for lunch.
Beautiful day — sat outside.
Served some water and water refills.
One waitress. Table of 5 seated next to us 15 minutes after we sat. Waitress totally ignored us after we had sat for 20 minutes and went to the table of 5 that was just seated.
We left — and mentioned what happened to the bar tender. He told us there were only 2 of them working. So I guess the poor service and lack of staffing is now the fault of he customer.

Pretty pricy about $ 30 for lunch but very delicious! My waiter was great! Such a nice guy; much more helpful than I expected. I had the duck poutine which was AWESOME but the crab salad sandwich not so much… It was dry & not flavorful & for $ 16 i wouldn’t try it again! On a better note I’m DEFINITELY looking 4ward to returning 4 another lunch date.

From the moment you enter, you feel like your in another world. Saturday night. Jazz Band playing (assuming they are from the Eastman school of music). Service was quick and good. [side note] wedge salad is huge! Don’t order anything else. Get a flight of Beers and live a little. Great Place!

Went here on Monday night, not knowing what to expect. It’s a pretty cool place to hang out, drink lots of beer and eat.
For Monday, they have special for their awesome mussels frites for $ 10. It was really good.
The duck confit poutine was also good. They have awesome selection of belgian beers.
They have outside seating area with fireplace!

Delicious mussels and delicious cider, I am a fan. Love the warm dining room. Loved that we arrived at 4:45 and were able to order off the lunch menu too!
This was an extra early Valentine’s dinner. We are not into holiday hype and dining out on amateur nights. So happy we were able to get in and out before the dinner rush.
Service was nice and welcoming. But those mussels… snobby mussels in lobster broth. So sweet and succulent. The frites and aioli, oy vey.
Great job guys.

Four words: Small Plate Happy Hour. (and one more: biergarten)
Seriously.
We’ve been to Victoire at least a dozen times, and I can’t remember the last time we ordered entrees. The only small plate I wouldn’t recommend with shining eyes and rapturous voice is the poutine, which, considering how good the fries typically are, is a shame. The entrees we have eaten at Victoire were good, but nothing to write home (or on Unilocal) about.
We tend to go at about 5pm– early enough to order another round of food if we like, but late enough to hit the dinner menu, which includes a grilled cheese small plate. You also definitely can’t go wrong with the pretzels, and the duck wings are stellar (although I don’t understand why they don’t send the giant pieces of peanut that top them through the food processor first). The fries themselves can be a little inconsistent, but the three dipping sauces they come with are amazing.
The beer selection is extensive, and focused on Belgium. My fiancé is a belgian beer aficionado, and he’s always pleased with the selection.
The service tends to be very good, especially when we’re one of the few tables in the restaurant. We’ve never sat at the bar, so I can’t speak to that. In fair weather, the biergarten is lovely.

Victoire is a Belgian beer bar located in the center of the city. It’s a great place to get food or sample some classic Belgian beers. They do rotate taps but the majority of their list remains the same and covers the whole spectrum of Belgian beer styles. I find their food to be very good but a bit overpriced. I like visiting during Happy Hour (4 — 6 PM) especially after 5 when their Small Place menu expands for dinner. They also have weekly specials like $ 10 orders of Mussels on Mondays.
The service is very professional and most of the staff is pretty knowledgeable about their beer selection. They have a number of unique seating areas including a cool stone area outside with a large fireplace. Parking can be rough but I can usually find a metered spot outside.

Victoire is a solid happy hour spot. They don’t have happy hour drink specials, but the appetizers are all half off from 4 – 6, and they have different meal specials throughout the week.
Our bartender, Chris took good care of us, and was very knowledgeable about the different beers that would suit our tasting profiles. Everything he recommended for my flight based on my described preferences were delightful. Same went for my cousins, who dig the heavier brews.
The duck wings are a favorite of mine. The sauce is sweeter, but they are pretty good. The frites always come with three aioli dipping sauces, even when they are ordered with the mussels. Mussel Monday for $ 10 is always a good way to kick off the week.
The calamari was just OK. I wasn’t wowed away by it, it just «was». I guess calamari isn’t a very flavorful dish in itself, but it needed a little kick or something to it.
The charcuterie boards have a sage cheese (that’s why its green in the pic), a havarti dill, and aged cheddar. The meats were capricola, and smoked sausages. The hummus was a nice touch. I love cheddar with beer, and would like to see boards with more cheddar varieties for pairings in the future.
I’ve had their mussels, burgers, fish frys, sausage, and duck poutine during my various ventures to Victoire (you love my alliterations). I think I’m going to stick with appetizers and mussels with a brew from here on out.
It gets packed on weekends, I like it when it’s low key during the week. Grab a spot by the indoor fire soon, or the outdoor one again in May.
They do have purse hooks at the bar ladies, they are just spaces far apart… Had to feel my hand around.
Lastly, just park in the garage if you can’t find a street spot.

Victoire’s got a great selection of beers, with a focus on Belgians. They’ve also got a number of pre-​selected flights for a variety of tastes. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by all the choices. Food here is always decent as well, but I’d honestly focus on the beer if you’re going. I think prices are generally high here and table service can be hit or miss, though the bartenders are always attentive and happy to offer suggestions. Location is excellent with a great outdoor space with a fireplace for the summer and fall.

I can’t speak to the food, but Victoire is a very enjoyable place to enjoy some good Belgian beer when it isn’t overly crowded. They have a good selection of beer, all of which are from Belgian or Belgian-​style American beers (lots of Ommegang). Unfortunately, when they get busy they can run out of certain beers. Victoire also has a superb sunken patio on East Ave complete with a fire place.

Brought a downstater here for a quite decadent dinner and Victoire did not fail to impress. Must haves are the duck poutine, «classic» style mussels and frites, and the chocolate stout cake. I really do love the atmosphere here, with rich warm wood tones and open, minimalist space. I imagine the outside patio must be really cool with the brick fireplace going too!
The beer list, especially on tap, is not as deep as you might expect, but solid offerings to be had.
A children’s menu is also available to keep the youngsters happy, if you have the kiddos in tow.
Our server was excellent, and surprisingly the restaurant was almost empty on a early Sunday evening, the bar side had a bit more activity going on.

I really like this place. It’s tucked away like the Bar in Cheers from the show. Once inside it’s a very inviting environment with nice décor. It isn’t overdone with decorations but simple and modern. I stopped in with a buddy to grab a couple of beers after work and it was just what I needed. I ordered a dark Allagash on tap and while I do not typically like the dark beers this one was awesome and it went perfectly with the Soft Baked Belgian Pretzels I orders. The five cheese dip it came with was tasty. The bartender was polite and attentive without being in the way. I’ll definitely have to go back and check them out for dinner or to see their outdoor patio area once it’s open. All in all its a nice place to go and unwind.

Spoiler alert: this will be a thesis paper-​length review.
I hate giving poor reviews. I don’t dish them unless I felt like the establishment truly deserves it.
Victoire is a great bar in concept and theory, and I REALLY wanted to like it. SO badly, but the execution is just not there for me. You walk in through the front doors which are below street level, a cool element to the location. There is a large outdoor patio which looks like it would be a lot of fun during the warmer months.
The bar is long in length, but there’s not a whole lot of room to line up behind it, so when it’s busy it can be very hard to get a drink. There are a few tables and places to sit around the bar area. If you walk to the back of the bar, there is a hostess there and a full dining room (the bathrooms are back there too).
I’m going to split this review into 2 bullets because I’ve been on two occasions and both were different experiences.
1. The first time was last year sometime, it was myself and 3 other people. We go in and it is slammed, which is to be expected on a Saturday. I ordered an Ommegang Abbey Ale, it was busy so I didn’t think anything of it taking a long time to get, but when it did finally arrive, it was only half full and the bartender took off as soon as it hit the bar. If it were a pint, and a couple ounces short I’d still be bummed but I’d let it go. But when I buy a pricey 8 oz beer and it’s only half full it puts a sour taste in my mouth.
I had asked the hostess how long for a table, and she told me «I don’t know, an hour?» we gave her our names. We waited by the bar for a table in that area to open up. The hostess never came back for us. The rest of the crew got flights which were good, and we didn’t order any food. When it came time to pay the bill, my boyfriend asked the bartender if we could split our (very large) bill for everyone onto his card and mine, and the bartender told him «Are you f*cking kidding me?» In my humble opinion, that is absolutely unacceptable.
Due to the abysmal attitudes of bartenders the first time I went, I would give this place a 1. I wouldn’t have given them my service again if it hadn’t been for one of my girlfriends picking it for happy hour a little while ago. Which leads me into review #2.
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2. (I will make this shorter, and more concise.) We ordered food, appetizers were great. Those pretzels with that cheese sauce… Ohhhhhhh, man. Our entrees were not up to snuff for their price tags though. I got the duck Reuben, but once I tried it I was quite saddened by how dry it was :-(The general concusses was the entrees were ‘meh’. Dessert was okay, but not anything out of this world.
Our server was great! He was very patient with us while we mulled over the menu. I asked to have a sample of a beer (it was $ 12, not going to pay $ 1/​oz and hate it) and was notified that they don’t give samples of beer. So I went with a Stella. Not his fault; so I maintain that our server was great. I would give him 5 stars.
The bill was as expected.
I really hate dishing out bad reviews, but this place needs to get it together with the bar service. I just can’t get my first interaction with them out of my restaurant periphery. Yiz-​ikes.

Having dined here a number of times in summer this is the first time we actually ate indoors at Victoire. We love their outdoor patio but had to settle for a nice table near the fireplace on this cold evening. It was quite crowded by 6pm on a Friday. The best deal is to come for happy hour 4−6pm when all of their appetizers are 50% off. This is usually what we do and it is easy to make a whole meal out of the small plates.
We got the pretzel breadsticks which were soft and very tasty. The grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup was also good. Both are from the appetizer menu. The porchetta sandwich from the regular menu was less successful… the bread was fresh but the pork was dry and overcooked. Very disappointing. The frites were terrible. They were soggy and limp. For a place that specializes in Belgian fare and esp. frites they really need to learn how to cook crispy frites — please take a trip to Brussels.
This visit would be a two but averaged with our more successful past visits I will give them a three.

Victoire used to be one of my favorite places in the city, but lately — well, let’s just say I think they’re suffering from Popular Restaurant Syndrome. They seem to be coasting on their reputation, and not putting out the same effort as a place that is really trying to make a name for itself.
The last few times I’ve gone, I’ve been disappointed by at least one dish, whereas on previous visits everything has been on point. Case in point: the brussels sprouts with caramelized onions and bacon. I used to dream about this dish, and have even tried, without success, to replicate it at home. Yet recently they’ve become mediocre at best: sprouts not roasted, little to no caramelization, just a soggy dish that got most of its flavor from the addition of more bacon than, had it been better prepared, it would’ve needed.
The mussels, similarly, were once a real treat. Delectable sauces, plump mussels, a generous serving of frites. Last time, the mussels themselves were very small, as was the portion of frites. We finished the dish and felt unsatisfied — both of us were scooping up the sauce with a spoon because a) it was good; and b) we were still hungry.
The biggest disappointment I’ve had at Victoire was the shrimp po’boy. It tasted just fine, but it should’ve been named the Skimpy Po’Boy. Tiny shrimp and not nearly enough of them to fill the sandwich. What was galling about this dish was the $ 17 price tag. I would’ve been OK with paying $ 7 for what we got, but certainly not $ 17. I shudder to think of the profit margin they made off of us on our last meal.
I still love the atmosphere, and of course the beer selection is good, but Victoire needs to stop resting on its laurels. There are too many fantastic restaurants in Rochester to keep me coming back if they’re going to serve Distillery sandwiches at 2Vine prices…