Little Venetian

Sad to see all the negative reviews. We really liked it. I thought it would be more like the restaurant which I never made it to, but it was still good.
We walked in and weren’t sure where to sit. One of the servers who turned out to be ours told us how to order etc. we perused the menu for awhile and then decided on the following:
Large Antipasti salad. It was delicious. The dressing was wonderful and the ingredients were plentiful. Pepperoni, salami, cheese, olives green and black, peppers, red onions etc. it tasted great.
Baskets of bread.
Chicken fingers and fries
Italian Sausage and Peppers sandwich with a little side of spaghetti. Kind of an odd combo, but whatever.
The best part was the spamoni pie. Damn that was delicious. That cookie crust was so good and I haven’t had spamoni is years.
Service was great all around and our server was delightful.
Lots of sweet regulars that frequent the place.

Its tuck in a little strip mall along rice st. Food is average. I had the ravioli which was mediocre at best. My wife had the spaghetti and meat balls which again, were mediocre. The staff were pretty friendly as it was my first time there. I’m a huge fan of italian food so my expectations were higher than normal. But sad to say this place didn’t hit the spot for me.

Very cute place. We had no idea what we were going into when bought our Groupon but were pleasantly surprised. Has a casual set up (order at the front, drink machine, menu is on the wall) but at the same time, it’s on the classier side (plenty of room for parties, table cloths, food brought out to you, free bread!). The food is all very delicious, generous portions (3 out of 4 of us were only able to eat half of our plates and had to take the rest home). Carry out is also an option! Very clean and has a pull tabs machine! Good for all types of events. We will be back soon!

Got a Groupon, Chicken Parm was awful, the sauce wasn’t even good. I got fried chicken, the oil was so old you could just tell, I burped up fried chicken all night long. Ordering at the counter then finding a table was just weird, food took forever and it wasn’t even busy in the restaurant. Never, ever again. I agree with another review who referred to this place as nursing home food for a nursing home clientele.

This is 1 of my all time favorite spots!!! The French onion soup is the BEST!

My husband and I have eaten here twice. We wanted to give a second chance after they failed the first time. The food is just gross. The alfredo sauce is canned chicken gravy, the marinara is store bought. Its truly shameful to see pictures on the wall of the old Venetian Inn and its owners. They would have never approved of the disgusting slop being served at this place.

What a disappointment. I dined at the original Little Venetian thirty years ago. The large restaurant has morphed into a strip mall and only a small part is now the Little Venetian. The only remaining piece of history are the photos. There is no table service. You order at the counter. Take a number stand. Wait for your food. We ordered lasagna and chicken Alfredo. They arrived in five minutes. My guess is the time it takes to microwave the two items. The meals lacked any depth of flavor. The original owners would be embarrassed. There was a lot of parking in the huge lot. Staff was nice. Food was no better then a frozen entrée from a local grocery store. Times have not changed for the better at Little Venetian.

No. Just no.
Nursing home food. Nursing home clientele. Nuff said.

I, and my dad awhile back ate at this restaurant.
We ate their about a 2 years ago or so. My dad ordered spaghetti with meatballs. He cut into his meatball it was the color of a strawberry. Meatballs even I his daughter have had never been that color.
So my dad told the waitress),” this meatball it looks raw”. She the waitress said,” all day people have been complaining the meatballs were raw. But I promise they are not. The meatballs are not raw we have added a new ingredient to the meatballs food coloring”.
DOES SHE THINK WE ARE THAT DUM, WHO ADDS FOOD COLORING TO MEATBALLS?
So we asked for the manager she said,“not in”.
I TOLD MYSELF I NEVER WANT TO GO BACK UNLESS SOMEONE FORCED ME TO GO THEIR.

I heard from sources the waitress got canned from this restaurant.

To be fair we have no idea what the food tastes like. We’d never been there, made the drive from Woodbury. The salad bar really isn’t. I think there was maybe a dozen items on it, including dressings. The first staff member we met was cold and unwelcoming. A second staff member appeared, said she was the cashier, was much friendlier, and asked if we had questions. Of course,.we did, we expected to be seated and have an order taken. That was admittedly our mistake, this place has some odd thing where you order at the counter, sit, and wait for it to be brought out to you. Not what we were looking for, but the vibe of the place, combined with the lackluster sort-​of salad bar, was enough to keep us from ever coming back sometime when WE ARE looking for that type of place.

Food was disgusting. I ordered the Alfredo pollo. It came on a large plate and was filled with A Lot of sauce. I mean A LOT! The noodles were literally drowning in the sauce. It didn’t even taste anything like Alfredo. Don’t get it. My sister got the chicken parmigano and it was awful. The chicken tasted like it was reheated. Was old and dry and burnt. They covered the burnt park with cheese on top. Plus the dish tasted just like chef boyardee. I went here because I had a Groupon deal. No wonder why they had a groupon. No one ever comes. We also got a bread basket and the bread was cold and hard. Will not be coming back. My sister and I ended up going to Culvers. It’s right across the street from them. Save your money and time and don’t go here.

I really want to like this place. I really do, but I just can’t do it. We’ve tried the Little Venetian 3 or 4 times over the past few years. The original Venetian was a Rice street staple for decades. This may be similar recipes but it’s an order at the counter and they bring it out type place, Culvers style. They even give you a number to set on the table so they can recognize your table from the other one person in the restaurant.
The food just isn’t anything I could recommend. The sauce is so very uninspired. Meatballs are bland (and quite small). Sausage is soft and bland. Ravioli is pretty much Chef Boyardee quality. My wife ordered the baked penne. I took a few bites and just couldn’t take any more. The cheese seemed very low quality and absolutely flavorless. I realize it’s baked so it gets cooked more, but they have to really account for that when they are cooking the pasta. The penne was just obliterated and total mush.
Prices aren’t ridiculous and when we’ve gone, the service is good and they were always nice to us.
Like other reviewers pointed out, there are quite a few other Italian places not too far away that are much better. I would recommend searching out those places.

Awful, sauce tasted like Ragu. The sausage was boiled, not fried or grilled. Grey in color and flavor. The pasta tasted like creamettes. Chicken Parm breaded patty with freezer burn. No wait Ragu sauce is better. Stand in line to order a very small counter. Staff acted like we were bothering them.

A cut way below Chef Boyaredee. Most who come are still living in the Venetian Inn on Rice Street days. Between cheap ingredients and LC white bread clientele, this place is no better than an Domino’s with tables. Skip it.

The pizza was so bad! Staff unfriendly and rude. I should have just stayed home and made my own homemade pizza for the fraction of the cost. I’m very disappointed.

Ignore any negative reviews. This place ABSOLUTELY should be in your restaurant rotatatrotation. In fact, I am surprised at the several less than stellar reviews for Little Venetian. Truly, you will not be disappointed here.
Disclosure: Think of Little Venetian as more Rachel Ray than Mario Batali. Great cooking without aspirations to be gourmet.
Now, my wife is a true foodie. It takes a lot to impress her. And, this place rocks! We are just as (ok, more) likely to enjoy a white table cloth restaurant than a local place like this. And we both eat out a lot with travel and entertaining for business (domestically and internationally). We know bad from good, good from better, and appreciate the best.
We have a preference for REALLY GOOD food, especially Itallian. We keep coming back to Little Venetian! For the flavor. And, for the value.
Little Venetian is sorta like what Damico’s used to aspire to be (that is, before Damicos cost-​cut themselves away from being a really solid Italian-​on-​a-​budget quick-​serve but not fast-​food option… but that’s a different review).
If you appreciate old school Italian, the sauces and flavors here will not disappoint. Sure, the pasta won’t have the nuanced texture or flavor of some higher end restaurants. And veggies may be canned or frozen just like your great-grandma’s recipe called for. But this place is sooooooo much better than any chain’s offerings, let alone most mid– to upper-​tier places
Little Venetian is an unexpectedly GREAT Italian option with side benefits of being budget sensitive (ok, really inexpensive) and quick-​service but not fast-​food.
TIP: Go here for ribs before most local rib restaurants!!! Shockingly great!

I’m here right now and they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about redeeming the $ 3 off entrée. Ok…

Oh, how I wish I could give this place that is oh, so local to me more stars than just one.
I cannot.
The lady who took our order at the counter was disgruntled and pretty much told us she hates her life, manager, boss, etc.
The place seems poorly managed, understaffed… etc. Low morale is picked up on by customers!
The food… well…
The fried mushrooms were obviously frozen, from a box. The garlic toast featured uncooked bread at the bottom with stringy melted cheese on top. The lasagna was «acceptable» (per my dining companion), I had the Sloppy Dago… it was pretty much an english muffin with a ton of sauce on it, a frozen, store bought meatball, and some flavorless cheese.
The star goes out to the one server who was very sweet to our kiddo and actually seemed like a person who wasn’t completly surly about her job.
We (my bf, kiddo and I) are not complainers or picky by any means… my other reviews prove this, but this place is pretty bad. Take your money, drive down the road to Mama’s Pizza (seriously) and see how a real divey Italian place should be run.

I’m glad I read Patti K’s review on the Little Venetian, because a group and friends and I made plans to eat here on Friday night. The place closes at 8:00 PM, so we had to eat fast!
The spicy Dago was the best, and I have a bib to prove it. Make sure you order the sloppy version if you want to get the full experience. I also ordered the Minestrone soup, which was loaded with veggies.
I enjoyed the meal, but the reason for not giving an extra star was due to our server. I think Flo from Mel’s Diner was her role model. Now, she could have been crabby because she had to serve a large group just before closing, but something tells me not. She did loosen up a bit during the course of our meal, but we all noticed her disposition.
Good food though, and make sure you check into Unilocal so you can take advantage of the Unilocal $ 3.00 off coupon! (Although the lead server came out to see my phone to check out the deal, and she said she didn’t know about it and she does all the marketing!)

This little restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside, but there were quite a few pleasant surprises. The restaurant is a cozy little place, and the owner and employees greet you warmly. We ordered broiled haddock and the portobello mushroom pasta special. The portions were generous, and the tomato sauce had a little kick of pepper. Our server offered us plastic bibs, which I gratefully took. This is not classy in the conventional sense, but only a fool who loves to do laundry would refuse. My haddock was ever so slightly overdone, but the vegetables with which it was served were fine. I was also pleasantly surprised by the salad bar. It was small, but had many tasty pasta salad options in addition to the regular greens.
The one downside to our visit was that they close pretty early, so we had to rush through our meal. Most of that strip mall seems to shut down by 8. Overall, it was solidly good food for a good price. Little Venetian is better than many other small independent suburban Italian restaurants that I have visited in recent years, and I would probably go here before I go to a certain overpriced national chain Italian restaurant.