Venus de Milo

My family has eaten at Venus multiple times but I never really attempted to go to Venus a lot because of the stories I have heard of what the staff do it the back of the house, on the night of the super bowl my mom ordered baked stuff chicken, stuffed shrimp, mini stroke soup and chicken wings for take out. First of all in my opinion take out is something u can eat as soon as you get home! But at Venus they make you finish cooking it when u get home I strongly disagree and not a fan of how that works. Second of all when my mom was ready to eat the baked stuffed shrimp it had a terrible smell of ammonia/​bleach or some anonymous chemical that I will never forget, I do not recommend this place at all. Save your Money !!!

Place is run by complete and total incompetent teenagers. Just left an event there less than an hour ago, I will never, ever go back. We went to the Portuguese Kids doing «A Portuguese Wedding». The service was the worst I have had anywhere. The food, OMG, so disgusting. The Soup I’ll give a pass to, that was good, but the main course, ugh, stuffed chicken breast, dry and rubbery on the outside, pink and red on the inside, I mean, how to you overcook something and still have it red inside, we could have gotten food poisoning. Our server looked like he was on meth, or stoned. Please, for the love of god, don’t go there for any reason, whoever was in charge of the waitstaff and the kitchen should be fired.
P. S., The Portuguese Kids Portuguese Wedding, so boring, not funny at all, really disappointed by the show they put on, it was a disgrace.

This place has really gone downhill. Haven’t been in years and was excited to go, as I have great memories. Very disappointing. Two of us ordered fish & chips on special ($ 9.95). Not much of a special, because the meal itself was disgusting. The fish batter was so thick and greasy, I had to eat the fish from inside the batter. The Venus DiMilo soup that I once was so fond of, was very watered down. The service was not very good either. When I sat down, I noticed my empty water glass had lipstick on it (not a huge deal, I know the dishwasher doesn’t always get it off). The bigger deal is when I pointed it out to the waiter to simply request a new glass, his reaction was as though I had really put him out. The only reason I gave 2 stars (which was generous), is because the white chowder was delicious. As good as it was, I don’t think I’ll be back!

2 ½ Star to be honest.
If you’re over 60 years old, like reminiscing about the 1970’s while enjoying your dining surroundings, enjoy bud light type beer on tap and a two page wine list chuck filled with less than $ 10 bottles of wine found at Walmart then this is the place for you!
The stuffed lobster was good but honestly worth about half what they charge. Be sure to verify the price before ordering. $ 70 for a 3 lbs lobster is a bit high, especially for Swansea MA.
Parking is easy, menu has plenty of entrees you’d find comparable at the 99 up the road. Busy on a Fri/​Sat so don’t be in a rush to dine.
Good but honestly drive to Providence or Newport for dinner if you’re not a senior citizen :-/

Not like it used to be lobster was the worst lobster we had there was no lobster in it it’s a big ripple off

The Venus De Milo has positives and negatives, but unfortunately the cons outweigh the pros :(
Pro: There are lots of banquet rooms of all sizes. Multiple events can take place at once because of this.
Con: Because there are multiple events simultaneously, events can lack the intimacy of locations that feel less like a banquet factory.
Pro: Tons of parking!
Con: It’s kind of a pain to get to.
Pro: The soup.
Con: All the food that isn’t soup. Honestly, the pasta was reminiscent of Chef Boyardee. The salad was served with oil and vinegar and no other dressing options (lame), and the entrée of stuffed chicken was pretty blah and inferior to the same entrée at the West Valley Inn (which at least has separate buildings for separate halls – and the soup’s actually better there too if we are comparing soups side by side).
I can see how this is a popular venue for banquets, weddings, etc because of the availability of rooms, accessibility, etc, but the food is seriously lacking even when compared side by side with comparable banquet halls. Personally I’d pick the West Valley Inn hands down over Venus De Milo. It’s just eh.

Ate here this evening. It was def middle of the road food and service. Not impressive, but not poor. The service was less than professional, but prompt. The food was just ok. Not seasoned too well and basically edible. No wow factor. I’d come here once in a great while, but def not on a regular basis.

A wrong turn
Cold soup which came back extra salty
Greek salad with Blue cheese.
I gave it one star because there is nothing lower

Abner and I were feeling down in the dumps this week. A combination of things and we wanted (needed!) comfort food and headed to the Empire Grille. Having only been to the Venus De Milo for functions over many, many years, we just never thought to try out their restaurant inside.
It wasn’t busy when we first arrived and we were promptly seated in the booth area near the bar. I don’t know why they chose to seat us there, as there is an entire dining room on the other side of the partition, but this was our first time there and didn’t have the lay of the land yet. The booths must be old, because every time the man in the next booth leaned back into his booth chair, it pushed me forward on the other side. It was very uncomfortable.
Drinks: I ordered the pineapple martini, which was delicious. Not too sweet and had 3 little balls of fresh pineapples on skewers. Abner got the expresso martini, which he said was very good.
The bread and dipping oil. So good that we asked for more.
I ordered the 10 oz. prime rib and paid the extra for the delmonico potatoes and fresh asparagus. The meat was tender, juicy and flavorful. Potatoes had a mild flavor and I enjoyed them very much. Asparagus was crisp and cooked perfectly.
Abner ordered a seafood and pasta dish with an al fredo sauce. Our server said the sauce is one of the best and that Abner would not be disappointed. She was right. He loved it.
We ate half our meals and brought the other have home because we wanted dessert too. Our server brought out a large tray of a variety of desserts. We picked the chocolate lava cake. I thought the dessert was just okay. It came with ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce, but the lava cake itself just didn’t seem warm enough. It should be oozing a little and there was no oozing. The vanilla ice cream had a blandness about it also.
Décor seems outdated, reminiscent of the 1980’s. Service was excellent. Had a rather large menu too.
Note to Management: Use the booth area as seating as last resort. Our first experience here would have been better if we had been seated in the dining room with tables that had table linens. The booth chairs are too old and worn down that they bend and annoys those seated back to back.
Overall, we enjoyed our meals and will return. Will request the dining room next time though.

Stop in for a bakes stuffed lobster and minestrone soup whenever I am in the area. Food is amazing. Service is sometimes hit or miss and the ambiance is a bit dated, but man are the lobsters great!!!

Great for functions weddings. Proms etc. Best Clam chowder in new England. Great lobster. Great minestrone. always good time with family and friends.

Was in the area and just had to stop in and get some of my favorite Minastrone soup to go. They sell half gallons of this stuff and its delicious just as I remember. 3 stars because of the lack of sinage pointing to the take out area and very poor service by the smug, I have better things to do, bartender.

I’ve been twice and each time I’ve been less than impressed. Nothing against the service– that is fine. The food is so bland and quite frankly it is low quality. I think the chefs recipe book and the menu need a major overhaul! This place is no better than Denny’s!

I’ve been eating at the Venus for 30 plus years. I stopped ordering take out, stopped dining in, and only pop in for a function once or twice a year. I think the food has gone down hill. Prices have gotten ridiculous and the atmosphere is no better than a school cafeteria. The writing was on the wall when they started taking tables out of their dining room and closing it up.
The last time I ate in the dining room it was half empty on a Saturday night. I had to listen to loud music from the function on the other side of a 2″ dividing wall. I thought the tables were going to part and King Kong was going to make an appearance with all the thump, thump, thump. I have to say that’s typical for the Venus. I was greeted by a waitress who was missing a front tooth, who, god bless her, spit all over the table when she spoke. I was sure to cover my food with my napkin when she came back to the table.
I ordered a salad and fried scallops. I find their soup way too salty. I got my dinner and they gave me half the scallops I was used to getting. I asked for ketchup for my fries, which I never got and I quietly ate my dinner and told myself I would not go back to the dining room. I got the feeling they could have cared less that I was there so I obliged them.
I recently went for a $ 30 a head banquet and was very disappointed. I had their soup, after which I had about ten glasses of water. I had ziti pasta that was so overcooked it fell apart when you picked it up. I had a chicken marsala that was deep fried with a teaspoon of gravy and a mushroom slice on top. The chicken squirted my hand with hot grease when I tried to cut it. Otherwise, it was very dry. It was served with three canned deep fried potatoes that were supposed to be oven roasted and soggy green beans with chocolate pudding for dessert. If I were there on my own, I wouldn’t stand for it. If it was my party, I’d be up in someone’s face. Alas, I was but a guest but I’m embarrassed for the hosts. I really am.
I put up a pic of dinner being a tablespoon of gravy and one piece of mushroom on a split deep fried chicken breast with three deep fried canned potatoes. That was supposed to be chicken Marsala with oven roasted potatoes. You can’t see it because Unilocal did not find it representative of their restaurant.
JUL 24, 2014 | 10:12AM PDT
Hi there,
We’re writing to let you know that we have removed your photo of Venus De Milo. Business photos and captions should be broadly representative of the business, however you’re welcome to share your personal experiences in your written review.
Thanks for using Unilocal!
Regards,
Mikaela
Unilocal User Support
San Francisco, California
I can assure you, my picture does broadly represent what they are dishing out. Discount my 30 plus years of dining there from San Francisco. Objective.

The food has gone down hill over the years and I just can’t go back anymore. Butter galore and poor quality food. All around a huge challange to enjoy. And the waiters gave my gluten intolerant sister attitude for requesting specific food. «We’ll try,» was their answer.

Was «My Big Fat Greek Wedding» filmed here?
If you have a fixation with butter, you’re going to love this place!
I ordered baked scrod with mashed potatoes and the scrod was sliding around on my plate on a 1/​8″ thick pool of butter. There was even a butter reservoir in the corner of my meal in case I wanted to dip before every bite. I kid you not, and it started to congeal after a few minutes. The mashed potatoes were good though (probably because it was loaded with butter).
I thought I’d be saved by the veggies but they too were loaded with butter –sigh–

This review is solely for the Empire Grill at the Venus De Milo banquet facility. A couple Saturday’s ago some coworkers and myself went to see Kelley Lennon and Malloi, a great local jazz-​cover band.
Upon walking in to the Venus De Milo, I was a bit confused and overwhelmed, so ended up asking the bar tender where to go. The Empire Grill that is open to the public is the last room on the left, at the end of the large hallway… a bit confusing if you ask me. While I am focusing on the «confusing aspect» I’d also like to mention the décor. It’s really all over the place. Think large slightly boring building that attempts to be classy Italian with random statues and fake plants. Somehow it works though, in a delightfully tacky sort of way.
Onward, we ordered quite a few drinks at the bar. I think the management at the bar needs a little tweaking. Our bartender was not very customer friendly and just seemed overwhelmed. However, there was another bartender and other staff around to help so I didn’t see much of a reason for her apparent confusion and stress.
We witnessed the staff bump into each other behind the bar quite a few times throughout the night.
Having been for weddings, the food was not as good as I previously remembered but that may have been because we only stuck to bar appetizers. We ordered Buffalo wings and received buffalo tenders but didn’t complain. We also got an order of the fried pickles which were good but pretty standard.
All in all it was still a fun night out. The dance floor and layout allows for many people to dance and have a good time. However, at best the Grill was at half capacity and the staff seemed very overwhelmed, I can only imagine how they would handle customers on a busy evening.

The minestrone is the best!
The Venus is great. Awesome for big occasions such as special dinners and weddings. Have not been here in a while for just normal dinner, but I do remember is being very good. It can get a bit pricy, as it is more of a fancy restaurant, but they do have some cheaper items available.

Best lobster ravioli I have ever tasted!
Great service.

This review is based on their New Year’s Eve event. When you buy your tickets you have two rooms to choose from:
1. The larger (cheaper) room has a DJ that caters to the 20-​something crowd (heavy bass, hip hop, etc.), and the food reflects the cheaper price.
2. The smaller (pricier) room has a DJ that caters to the 30±something crowd with music from the 70’s and 80’s, but also with current hits mixed in.
For NYE 2011 we chose the smaller room as the buffet has lobster tails… and man were they good. I went to Venus two weeks before NYE 2012 to buy tickets for the same room but they were sold out, so we bought tickets to the larger room because the food sounded good on paper and once dinner is over you can dance in either room.
We had a fun time like last year but the food in the larger room wasn’t anything to write home about. The best part of the buffet were the buffalo tenders (which tells you how the rest of the food was), and I was appalled by the «prime rib» they were serving as it was overcooked and looked dry as a desert (sigh). The desserts were «from the freezer» pieces of cake which was also pretty disappointing. Once the music started at 9pm we had a fun time dancing the night away in both rooms, but by midnight the dance floor in the large room had spilled drinks all over the place, the 20-​somethings were drunk, and so that was our cue to make a hasty beeline for the exit.
I’d do it again if I could get tickets for the lobster tail room, but if that was sold out I’d go elsewhere for NYE. It was fun, but I wish the food had been better.