Location |
403 G Street |
Hours |
Monday-Saturday 11:30am -10:00pm |
Sunday 11:30am to 9pm |
Phone |
(530) 750-0100 |
Call day in advance for parties larger than 6 people |
Owner |
Aziz Fattahi |
Established |
2009-08-26 |
Payment Methods |
Cash, credit/debit, no Amex or Discover |
Menu |
http://villagepizzagrill.biz/ |
Village Pizza & Grill is the sit-down restaurant version of Village Bakery. It's a great place to go if you want some really great pizza with some really good beer. They also serve kebab sandwiches, hamburgers, and specialty salads, as well as a few other entree dishes, like steak. Oh, and they have very tasty (but somewhat overpriced) wings.
They have a nice patio with a decorative water fountain, and in the winter they keep a fire going in a corner. If you come on a nice weather night, be prepared to wait a long time to grab an outside table.
The restaurant inhabits a building that used to be an infamous party house. Does anyone remember if it had a name? House with baseball team party? The 2007-2008 school year this was the baseball house. They did a fantastic job remodeling, one would never know that this was the freshmen black out spot. The owner before that was a senior citizen lady.
Voted the Best (#1) pizza in Yolo County
Special deals
- Quickie lunch special: Mini Pizza, Side of Salad or Fries & fountain Drink $7.95 Mon to Thu 11:30 to 3:00
- Happy Hour: 3-6pm, Mon-Thurs, $3.50 any Pint Beer on Tap, $1:00 off Glass wine, appetizer
Gallery
Click any photo to see full size
2009-08-26 14:30:29 As of 8/26/09 I can verify that this place is open for business and that it is associated with Village bakery. I called them up and they said as much. —tombrokaw
2009-08-27 11:38:05 sure, it's the new location that serves the drinkage, and hopefully the latenight pizza cause it's near drunkie central —StevenDaubert
2009-08-27 20:52:15 Went there for dinner, the pizza was amazing (which wasn't a surprise coming from the owners of Village Bakery), the ambiance was very nice. It's kinda like a nicer, bigger version of Burgers & Brew, with ample indoor and outdoor seating. Service was quite slow but I'll give them a pass since it's the first week. Will definitely be coming back again, and again. Especially for that spinach and roasted garlic pizza. Mmmm... —jsogul
2009-08-28 15:25:28 Pizza is wonderful, as expected. Ambiance is great and they have lots of comfortable outside seating. They have a pretty good beer selection on tap. All the staff was very nice and pleasant. Yes, the service was slow, but out server notified us and apologized in advance that he was swamped. I think even the owner was serving and busing tables. Give them a few weeks and I bet they will get it all figured out. —lemurific
2009-08-28 18:03:11 Went there a second time on friday. They did have things other than 8 inch pizzas, but still no smoked salmon, which I really wanted to try. The 8 inch pizzas are not worth it, just get the 16, it's better value. The burgers are good but not as good as burgers and brew and with slightly inferior variety. The pizza is, as has been stated, the best in Davis. Gf had the kabob sandwich which had a pleasant and unique flavor. Perhaps not as spicy as one might expect. I would like to see more middle eastern food.
The service was all over the place. Ordered a potato salad, got fries. Friend ordered a side salad, got fries. Gf ordered steak fries, waiter came much later to tell her she'd get curly fries. Asked them to cut the burger, they forgot. Told me they had jalapenos, came much later to say they didn't. No pen with the bill. They did refill our water quickly. This kind of thing is to be expected in the early going anyway. So it's not a big deal.
They did have much more pleasant servers than burgers and brew, which I feel is their direct competition. —tombrokaw
2009-08-31 16:22:37 Can someone put up a menu please? :) —sm0729
2009-08-31 16:47:24 Several people I know were surprised that they were closed on Sunday, 8/30. Don't know if they won't do Sundays, or if, perhaps, this was part of the "shake out" process. —DougWalter
2009-09-01 21:35:16 First time eating here tonight. The place itself is really nice, very comfortable to sit and enjoy. The service was struggling with the large amount of people there, which is to be expected the first few weeks of being open. The waiter was a nice enough guy, seemed to like looking at my gf more than me but thats totally rational. Our waiter was slow to get us our one free refill, which was a little upsetting to have to pay after a single refill. We ordered a meat-veggie combo pizza which was great. The tomatoes were especially fantastic, and the sausage was very flavorful. the 16inch was a bit much for the two of us, I'd recommend the 12inch for two people unless you wanna n0m pizza really bad. Its a great place to take Davis newbies or visitors and overall we enjoyed our dinner.
-
I ate there about three weeks ago and I did not have to pay for refills on Diet Coke. —NickKory
2009-09-02 12:12:56 Innerlightz: Wait, you have to pay after you get one refill? That is unfortunate if that is what you meant. that's the best part of going out to eat. I may have to rethink this place... —EricaMacGregor
2009-09-07 17:50:32 the 2007-2008 school year this was the baseball house. they did a fantastic job remodeling, one would never know that this was the freshmen black out spot. —shraken
-
And factoids like this are what make Davis Wiki so fantastic. Hahaha. —jo
2009-09-16 09:50:10 I had a really good experience here. I ordered the roasted red pepper and goat cheese pizza, and it was probably one of the best things I've ever tasted. My boyfriend got the margherita pizza with pepperoni, and that was good too. Service was a little slow, but they were really busy. —StephanieRobinson
2009-09-16 15:27:57 The remodel looks fantastic. I was really excited to see the chain link fences that used to surround it gone when I returned to Davis this summer. Can't wait to try it, but it always seems too busy when I pass by. Maybe within a few months, I'll stop by. —BrookeB
2009-09-16 19:16:51 I had a great time last night. The place was full but they squeezed me and my friends into a bar table to eat since we didn't care about eating outside. The pizza is great and the beer prices are reasonable. I will be coming back. —ARWENNHOLD
2009-09-17 20:36:12 Had a celebratory dinner on the patio on a nice day. Their blue corn calamari is probably the best calamari in Davis (unless someone can point me to better). The blue corn batter adds a nice flavor compared to the usual flour batter. Their pizza was up to par with what you would expect from the Village Bakery, I had the roasted bell pepper with goat cheese and an anchor steam from tap. —KellyM
-
Wow, sounds great! The calamari and the fact that I've always loved Village Bakery means this is one of the first spots we're trying when we roll into Davis next time. —Evan 'JabberWokky' Edwards
2009-09-20 09:54:44 Ate here last night; obviously still a new place (hostess, waiters a little slow and inexperienced but really nice). I had the smoked salmon pizza which was delightful, split a chili appetizer which was also tasty. Watch out for the gourmet veggie burger, however - my dining companion was EXTREMELY disappointed that it was advertised as "gourmet" and then came out a freezer garden burger. Please, Village Pizza, do NOT advertise something you can buy in the safeway freezer section in boxes of 4 as GOURMET, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone in Davis make a good housemade veggie burger - you would be frequently visited! This place is DEFINITELY the best in town for pizza, and I will be back frequently for that! —UCDvetstudent
2009-09-22 19:46:52 spinach pizza was great, pitchers are huge, staff was super nice. love it. —bluemoon
2009-09-30 13:26:37 I've been here twice for lunch, after hearing glowing reports of the food and ambiance. But both times, my experience has been disappointing. Maybe it's great for dinner, but pretty mediocre for lunch. First time I got a BLT, and the bacon looked microwaved and the bread was thin and not toasted so the sandwich basically felt apart as I tried to eat it. How hard is it to make a good BLT? Second time I got a personal pizza, and it was not close to fresh- the crust was tough, the toppings wilted and oily, and it looked and tasted microwaved. Basically it was the quality of re-heated leftovers- not worth the $8. —annlewis
2009-10-05 21:32:45 Mediocre/terrible place. Pizza was bland; clam chowder came out cold; our cups were empty 80% of the time and best of all, we had a waiter that recommended the bland pizza and when we told him we didn't like it, he said we should have ordered something with more savory toppings. Yes, because fresh tomatoes, sausages, pepperonis, etc. are such boring toppings. Pizza is pretty tough to screw up on and of course, Village Pizza succeeded in failing. The menu was very typical- sandwiches, salads, and pizzas. There's nothing memorable or great about this place. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone who appreciates food. —skcmned
2009-10-12 20:40:56 At 11:40 this morning, I paid in cash, and the change fund was not out yet. That's poor management. Food was reasonably good, though. As with many places in Davis, if you want a refill on something, like a glass of wine, you have to go back and stand in line. That's a direct hit on revenue, because I won't stand in line. I don't understand why so many places in Davis don't have separate beverage service, but the Grad gets it. —JohnBerg
2009-10-12 21:58:29 Went here with a friend for dinner Friday. I guess I may not have the same interpretation of "medium" as the cooks do, because I thought my burger was very rare. I do have to comment that the seasoning/taste of the burger overall was good, next time I will just have to order well-done. Also I wish the potato salad had more potato in it. —Babhari
2009-10-17 15:11:01 Good location, went there last night and got to sit upstairs outside, which is way cool and right next to an owl house. ON THE OTHER HAND, everything else was pretty much CRAP. We got there and were seated right BEFORE a group of 8 next to us, and our waitress didn't even take our drink order until taking all of their food and drink orders 10 minutes later, then served them before us. Tried to bring the wrong pizza to our table right after that, then tried to bring our garlic bread to the wrong table - they need to get their table numbers right. Food was alright but wasn't that good, fries were way skimpy (but good), didn't bring any condiments to the table, had to ask for condiments and drinks. Oh yeah, they brought a bottled beer to me, brought it with a not-chilled glass and oh yeah, didn't even open it! My girlfriend had to search her purse for 10 minutes to find her bottle opener. They were pretty much TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE. The food was so-so. Will order a pizza to go from the other place next time. This place acts way more yuppie than they are. That waitress needs some schoolin'. —GarrettGallegos
2009-10-25 15:55:57 I went last week. The pizza was great and the house salad excellent. BUT THE SERVICE WAS HORRIBLE! The waiter forgot to put our order in and we waited 45 minutes for a pizza! They gave us a discount on the bill but I do hope some training takes place for better service. Simple mistakes were made like reaching across the table to pick up food, never refilling water, etc. But the food was great and I'll go back and hope for better service this time! —lovestorun
2009-10-27 19:08:20 I was worried about the service from some of the reviews here, but ours (on a Sunday evening) was just fine. Quirky, but fine — fine meaning, our order was taken promptly, our pizza arrived in around the time it takes to make a pizza, we were checked on to make sure we were OK, and our check arrived promptly. And I am thrilled to see that moving down the street has not affected the quality of the pizza. Now to check out some of the other menu items... —CovertProfessor
2009-11-08 21:07:38 So I guess sometimes they close early on Sunday nights when it's slow after 8. I was excited to finally try this place ... oh well, another night. —ChristyMarsden
2009-11-08 21:20:00 Probably the best pizza I've had in Davis.
The good: amazing pizza The bad: not such a good value. Prices are VERY high. You'll pay about $10 for a very small pizza. Other items are expensive too, so I got a small pizza there, and then got something else elsewhere. Also, they do close early if there aren't enough people there, as Christy noted above. —IDoNotExist
2009-11-13 11:00:33 MENU PLEASE! —ashleyinthemist
2009-11-20 14:49:33 They need to hire more servers. Each server handles too many tables so service is very slow. Took 15 minutes to get our glasses of water. They were great and friendly though, so maybe that Sunday night was just overly busy. —julpham
2009-11-20 17:14:41 I was so excited when this place opened! It has probably the best outdoor dining in town. The food is good; the bar is well-stocked. I was so excited the first couple of times I was there—there was table service and the wait people were attentive. On a weekend afternoon, however, we went there with some out of town guests. To our dismay, there was no table service—we had to get in line and order at the bar. Unfortunately, we were behind a large group of young women (with matching purple shirts and pig tails!) who each proceeded to order separately and painstakingly slowly. We LITERALLY spent 25 minutes in LINE. When the food came out, the service was disorganized and slugish. No one was bussing tables—diners came in and moved dirty dishes off of the tables themselves. When they have table service, this place shines! Five stars!!! When they go the typical Davis route of counter service, thumbs down! —toriac
2009-11-21 12:54:18 I have eaten here several times. The pizza is always amazing and some of the servers are great, but it's the specials that truly shine. The fish tacos were the best ones I have ever had. The French onion soup is also delicious, pulled of like a five star restaurant. Keep up the good work village. Whoever makes the specials is truly talented. —Pinkadottie
2009-11-21 13:28:54 Chris is also a really great waitor. And the bartender with auburn hair is so sweet and a total hottie. —Pinkadottie
2009-11-29 14:35:58 Went there for lunch on Sunday and they actually open at 12:00 noon not 3:00 PM as shown above. —jbauer
2009-11-29 17:06:21 I have been here about a dozen times since the place opened, for dinner, for lunch, and just for drinks. They have pretty good food and a decent selection of beers on tap, and I've heard a rumor that they are hoping to expand the tap, which would be amazing since Davis has only one other bar (The Grad) with an interesting selection. I like this restaurant, but they really need to get the service sorted out. Only twice have I had good service and the other times it has taken forever to get a drink, or waitstaff brings drinks for some people and not others (even though the drinks were ordered), or it takes forever to order food.... I would think by now that the staffing issues would have been ironed out. They seem to need more waiters, and it wouldn't hurt to train some of them better as well. —Ratatat
2009-12-02 20:14:26 Gift cards only work at the bakery, not at the restaurant, unfortunately. —JoFeuerstein
2009-12-29 16:01:06 I went there with a friend for lunch last week. I had the chicken kebab sandwich and she had the burger. For the price, I don't think it was worth it. My sandwich came on a nice roll, but with only 4 "nuggets" of grilled chicken, and some produce and sauce. As for the burger, I think Burgers and Brew does it better. However, I did enjoy that UCD students get free drinks, and also thought their french fries were delicious. But again, I wasn't satisfied with my $9 sandwich and probably won't be coming back. —BrookeB
2010-01-06 15:13:57 Food is good, service is friendly, but DO NOT go as a large group unless you plan to leave a huge tip... Our order total was just over $98, but the "18%" gratuity was $25. When we brought this to the attention of the waiter, instead of fixing it, he just said "I just push this button" and shrugged. So yeah, small parties are fine, but over 6, beware. Also, they charged us for soda refills (only one refill per person was requested) even though we were told refills were free. —JenniferKucich
Not sure if your issue is with the fact that you have to leave a tip with a large group (most places in most cities charge a tip for groups of 8+)... Or if it was the bad math? You guys should have just left an $18 tip if service was decent (simple math and all) and if you were so inclined, brought the discrepancy to the managers attention... I wonder if they know of the error. —H4rry
-
It was the bad math. When the error was pointed out, they did nothing for us to fix it. We should have gone to the manager at that point, but we had folks waiting on us for a ride home. We would have just left an $18 tip if we'd paid in cash, but it was credit and was charged as part of the bill with no way for us to correct it ourselves. —JenniferKucich
2010-01-18 15:40:08 The chicken kabob is really good here. However, the service is terrible. My boyfriend and I came in today, the waitress (Jane, I think) sat us down, took our order, and then didn't check in on us ONCE. At one point, we assumed that she must not be our server. There were around four other tables in the room that she checked in on multiple times. She did not get us our drinks and we had to ask the busboy to get them. Then, without asking us if we would like any dessert, coffee, etc., she gave us the bill. My boyfriend and I were pretty annoyed at that point and he said, "Excuse me, did we ask for the bill?" She replied, uncomfortably, "Umm.. I'm sorry... I'm confused. Do you want me to wait until you ask for it?" (Most other restaurants do). I have NEVER not tipped a waitress before, but there is a first time for everything. I am really disappointed because I was excited for this place to open, since I love the original Village Bakery. —JanethN. * Her name is Jean. The service is downright embarrassing. With 26k undergrads, how is it possible to not be able to stumble upon a handful of waitresses that aren't retarded? —kenvinuda
2010-02-02 21:57:01 I had a great dinner here on a Tuesday night. The first room they sat us in was very loud (a small room with 4 tables) so we asked to move, and it was no problem. I came here with 3 others. We started with a French Onion Soup, which was probably the worst part of the meal; the onions and bread inside were burnt and the soup itself had a slightly funny taste. I had the New York Steak Sandwich, which was delicious and tender. Another guest had the chicken kabob with a side of the beef kabob. The chicken was delicious and juicy, but somewhat salty. The beef extra was served on an extra plate and looked fairly unappetizing. It had a good taste, but was dry.
The highlights of the meal were the rack of lamb, which at around 17 dollars is quite a steal. Another guest had the chicken pizza, which comes with onions and garlic with a garlic sauce. Like at Village Bakery, the pizza was delicious. I was very happy to pick this place and I plan on returning at least a few more times before I leave Davis. —BrandonWong
2010-02-05 09:04:06 Village Pizza and Grill (and Village Bakery) is a hugely supportive member of the Davis community. It's important to not let an isolated sub-par experience ruin your impression of this keystone downtown business, as this reviewer once did. I give a cumulative thumbs up to Village Bakery/Pizza. —Shootahh
-
Just curious, how are they supportive of the community? —TomGarberson
2010-02-17 23:50:51 FOOD WAS AWESOME, SERVICE WAS EXCELLENT, COULDN'T HAVE A BEEN TO A BETTER RESTAURANT IN MY LIFE I LOVE PIZZZZZZAAAAAA —benson
2010-02-19 07:26:43 FYI, the happy hour no longer exists! They discontinued it several weeks ago! —wilkml
2010-02-20 19:22:25 My sandwich was tasty, but my fries tasted like calamari...I later found a piece among my fries. I'm not liking the idea that they use the same oil to fry seafood and fries. —klee
2010-03-03 08:44:55 Actually Happy Hour is still going on. It is Monday Through Thursday, 3:00 to 6:00PM. —davisazip
2010-03-05 14:29:48 My wife and I went with a couple of friends on Tuesday. The food was quite good and the server was very friendly, but they still have a lot of fine tuning to do. My wife got the veggie pizza and we both loved it. Because of the comments here about small portions, I talked her into getting the next size up (12" instead of 8"), and it was more than enough for her even after I ate 2 slices (1/4 of the pizza).
I had the rack of lamb. Despite not being cooked correctly, it was delicious. I'm guessing that they cook it in their pizza oven or something, because the ends of the ribs were pretty much charcoal when they came out. Two of them broke when I was gnawing the last of the meat off the bone, they had gotten so brittle. Despite that, the meat was only somewhat overcooked—I ordered it medium rare, and the middle was medium. When you only get 4 chops, though, having the two end pieces being very well done is a little excessive. The cooking was also a bit even: one end was a bit more cooked than the other—again point to being cooked in a wood oven or something of the sort.
The lamb came with a really interesting "savory cobbler", which was indeed a cobbler with the sweet oatmeal-y crust topping a baked dish of raisins and onions in some sort of really rich, herby sauce. I found it a little strange, but quite tasty. The topping's sweetness surprised me in conjunction with the rest of it. Even with the cobbler, however, the meal was quite small. I had 1/4 of my wife's 12" pizza and left full, but without scrounging from her plate, I would have definitely left hungry.
The service was a mixed bag. It was very friendly, and not horribly slow (58-10 minutes before we got our water and bread, but the food came pretty quick after we ordered). The waitress dropped by twice to see if we needed anything, but then sort of disappeared, so we had to do some searching to flag her down when we discovered that she gave us the wrong check—about $35-40 lower than what our group of 4 actually owed. The next check she brought out was still missing the second round of drinks we ordered. Sigh.
I'll definitely go back again. The food was really delicious, and I'm hoping that they work out the kinks and refine the cooking and service a bit. It's also hard to find a rack of lamb, even a small one, for $18.54! —TomGarberson
2010-03-09 10:31:55 I have been here twice. Had the pizza which was delicious and the french onion soup. The soup was tasty but they need to reduce the salt to make it really good. Service was unremarkable both times. Not great and not bad. —LokiAbbi
2010-03-12 12:50:33 Please... why is there no menu? —ashleyinthemist
-
The page is waiting patiently until a wiki editor such as yourself makes the effort to scan the menu and post it here. :-) —CovertProfessor
2010-03-18 18:27:18 Went here the other day and was disappointed. The menu is pricey, and there are better places to go if you are going to spend that much. Our waitress was incredibly rude and we left no tip. I dont know if she was annoyed because we were college students but it doesnt matter, we are still customers. I one point I had to go up to the counter and ask for a water refill which seems a little unreasonable at a sit down restaurant. The waitress was probably in her thirties and blonde. She came to our table once and was rude when we werent ready to order, and the only time she came after that was to take our order, we didnt see her until we got the bill. The place wasnt even busy at the time but you could get better customer service across the street at jack-in-the-box. My food was good but I wont go back. —cj2012aggie
-
When we went our waitress was very nice (sounds like a different one, ours was college age), but we had the same problem with her disappearing. The employees tended to congregate back by the counter and just chat, or hang out and talk with regulars (I'm assuming). They definitely need to work on that —TomGarberson
2010-03-18 22:10:16 Went in tonight for the first time with friends, at around 6:50. Even though there were staff coming and going and a lady at the bar, we stood there for about 5 minutes without anyone greeting us. It didn't seem like they were so busy that they couldn't find time to ask if we've been helped yet. Since there were many empty tables inside and out, we wondered maybe we needed to seat ourselves, so when the hostess went past us for a second time, a friend finally asked her. She replied, "No, ma'am" with a "duh" tone, and my friend felt the hostess sounded rude. (We later realized there was a "please wait to be seated" sign at the other entrance, but we didn't know). She told us she could seat us upstairs in 15 minutes, which seemed odd because the restaurant was half-empty, but we agreed. Should have taken that as a bad sign and left....We waited for a good 30 minutes before we were seated outside on the patio. I've waited longer in busy restaurants and not mind it, but 30 minute wait in a half-empty restaurant was a little ridiculous, and the staff's indifferent attitude probably made it less bearable. I preferred indoor tables, but we didn't want to wait any longer. We sat at out table for about 15 minutes before our orders were taken, and then 10 more before our soda appeared. We would have ordered ealier if we could actually track down the waiter. Our patience was wearing thin and even discussed leaving if our food's not ready by 8:15; Jack in the Box across the street began to look very tempting. Luckily, our 8" pizza did arrive a few minutes before 8:15, but our entree were not served until close to 8:30. The food was really good. Pizza had phenomenal flavor, as one would expect from Village Bakery. My reuben sandwich also had good flavor and was not greasy. However, service needs work. It's fine if the owner's not a front-of-the-house person and don't want to greet the customers, but the hostess/host needs to be good at that and seating arrangement instead of filling in for a waiter's job so much. This restaurant is either very understaffed or have poor coordination. Many restaurants do fine with the number of servers present today, so I think better employee training, coordination, or something is definitely needed to improve their efficiency. I did like my waiter, yet speed was lacking. Overall I would go back for take-outs, but would think twice before going for a sit-down dinner. —winddolphin
2010-03-21 21:25:15 As counterpoint to a lot of the above kvetching about service and food here, my wife and I ate here for the first time today and neither one of us can think of anything remotely negative about the experience. We had a medium margharita pizza and a couple of adult beverages - it was like we were back in Napoli, but cheaper: with a $5 tip the total was 27+ bucks. —PaulThober
2010-04-06 20:30:33 Excellent experience, fair priced. Would take the family again. —klent
2010-04-27 12:32:08 Absolutely terrific food. Kid friendly options on the menu. The blue corn calamari is spectacular. Margherita pizza is one of the top 3 pizzas I've ever had in my life. It's THAT good. I took a nibble on my kids food and it was excellent. Nice beer selection.
2010-04-29 18:34:03 The pizza is good, rest of the menu is fine but nothing to write home about and expensive for what you get. I would NOT recommend the small 8" pizzas (mostly crust, not much topping, not worth it). Service here is constistently pretty bad. Been here several times and it's usually pretty slow and they always forget to bring us something (and still charge us for it), bring us the wrong thing (and have to wait again while the other half of the table is eating), etc. That aside, it's a great place to have dinner if you're with a lot of people. —SRB
2010-05-21 10:33:16 1)Very slow service. 2)waiter have no idea when asked about what exactly certain things in the menu are. 3)Waited almost an hour for the order to come.Order came but the wrong one.How busy they could be?? 4)Tried once not sure if gonna go there again. —aj1981
2010-05-21 13:08:44 The pizza here is the best, nothing beats Village Bakery. They have a nice beer selection and a beautiful outdoor patio. The service reminds me of Bistro 33, which is not very good. Our server was nice but not present when needed and asked us how the food was 1 minute after setting it down, I had barely had a bite. I will likely go back because I am a slave to their awesome pizza and I love a nice outdoor patio to dine in, I hope I get better service next time. —DagonJones
2010-06-23 18:11:55 Love the look of the remodel and really appreciate that they kept and reused an older Davis home. That said, however, the front indoor dining area seems chaotic with hostess and staff continually hurrying through the middle serving all parts of the restaurant, including the outside patio. And it was so loud we couldn't talk. Also, they turned on the TV over our heads during dinner. After greeting us, our server never reappeared and we were finally served by the hostess (after I complained about missing server). Food was OK (some of it a bit overpriced for what it was), but, overall, our first (and much anticipated) visit to this new restaurant, was quite disappointing. I wish the owners would add some sound absorbing materials, train their staff, and take another look at their price versus value on some of their menu items. Oh, and leave off the massive TVs! Eating out is about being with your posse - not watching TV. —BarbaraZ
2010-07-02 16:54:41 If I had the money I would eat here all the time. A great place to go with a family. —smartgirl
2010-08-03 03:46:36 I love this place, I remember when it opened up last year I went with my friends for my birthday celebration and we were their first party and they took amazing care of us! Plus their food is sooooo good! —Saher
2010-08-14 13:43:06 I have commented once before on this page and I'm doing it again because the service is still pretty bad. Again, a few of the servers are good but most have not been trained. I went the other day for lunch and the woman taking orders was dismissive of our drinks and my chicken kabob (usually pretty good) was over cooked and dry. I haven't been going here much lately because it's just always disappointing. It should be the kind of restaurant where you go with friends or family and enjoy a meal on the awesome patio, but having to wait so long for drinks, having some diners' plates picked up before others are finished eating, and being handed the check too early (or the wrong check) are just too disrupting. I wish things would improve! —Ratatat
2010-12-09 17:16:22 I went to have lunch here for the first time around 3pm and was very impressed by the staff, food, and hospitality. The place was not at crowded and out waiter was very attentive and accommodating. When we asked to sample the clam chowder, he brought us a nice sample for each member of our party. He refilled our bread basket three times and was very helpful with choosing items. One of the best things about eating pizza here is being able to order a whole pizza with different types of pizza. I ordered half meat lover veggie and half garlic cream chicken. Both were fantastic and loaded with toppings. The burger here is quite good and the presentation is very nice as it dressed with a salad(pls see all my picture above) Calm chowder was one dollar off for happy hour and the bowl is huge. The favors are very spot on and the dish itself is very filling. For dessert we had the choc lava cake and triple choc moussee cake- both were very good. The lava cake is much richer but if you love chocolate it's great. OUr waiter even put a scoop of vanilla icecream for us ,no charge. I had a great dining experience and will be returning very soon. Best pizza in town . —ElizabethBarthel
2011-02-12 12:31:18 TRY THE CHICKEN KABOB WRAP!!! (Or beef.) It has huge juicy pieces of grilled chicken and is drizzled in delicious lemon aioli sauce. Their fries are also AMAZING. I'd go back JUST for the fries. Village Bakery has the best pizza in town, but I say get pizza at the smaller Village Bakery by the Amtrak station, and get a kabob, burger, or sandwich if you're at the Grill. They also have good salads and garlic bread, and plenty of vegetarian options. New second favorite restaurant! —gurglemeow
2011-04-30 11:08:03 Possibly my favorite restaurant in Davis. I have taken several family members here who haven't been to Davis before and they were all very impressed. I've been here several times, most recently last week, and have always been impressed with the food. Hands-down this is the best pizza in Davis. The blue-corn calamari is delicious, and I would recommend any of the sandwiches, especially the lox and the reuben. The lava cake is seriously to die for. There are only a few negative remarks I have. The service can be really slow. I don't know if it's the waiters or just that the kitchen moves slowly, but don't be surprised if your wait is a bit long. Also, the prices are a little bit high, but nothing outrageous. To me, it's worth it for the great food and nice atmosphere. Patio seating is lovely and although the service can be slow the servers are polite, which is a huge deal to me. I haven't had a bad experience here and I will definitely continue to go back. —AbigaleMoody
2011-05-26 14:36:55 I'm a big fan of their chicken kebab plate. My only complaint is that service tends to be a little bit slow at lunch, even with few others in front of you... but it's a comfy place (inside or out on the patio), so waiting isn't the worst thing in the world. —ChonT
2011-06-20 15:28:40 Gave this place a second shot over the weekend with some family who were in town. The food was pretty good, service was friendly but quite inattentive. When we were seated we got water right away, then we were ignored for at least 10, maybe 15 minutes, while at least 4 different servers, the host, and a couple of other staff people whizzed by us regularly. It was particularly odd because our portion of the restaurant (the main room at the front) was mostly empty; they weren't at all crowded, particularly for a Friday night. One person in our party had a wheel chair, and they moved the extra chair out of the way of the wheelchair, but left it at the table. It may have confused our server, who asked if we were waiting for another when she finally came to take our orders, and it seemed like it got in her way a couple of times.
I got the "classic Z" burger and an order of 6 wings. The burger was pretty tasty; nothing out of the ordinary. Fries were the same: good, not amazing. The wings were pricey, but quite good. They're $7.79 for 6 ($12.79 for 12). Wings are a bit on the small side, but the sauce is quite nice. Fairly spicy, little bit sweet. It's a few shades darker than a traditional Buffalo sauce. I'm not sure what they add, but whatever it is, it works. The gorgonzola sauce that comes with the wings is not good. I don't know what's in it, but it looked and tasted like a bad buttermilk ranch dressing or something of that sort. Given that I don't dip my wings in the sauce anyway, it wasn't an issue. But if you like to dip your wings in the dressing, you're going to want to go elsewhere. Presentation of the wings was very nice! They made an oops with one of our party's salad—she wanted a salad as the side with her falafel wrap, and they brought her a salad before the meal as well as the one that came on the side with her wrap. I didn't see the bill, so I'm not sure whether she was charged for both.
All in all, I definitely was not wowed. They've been open long enough that they should have the kinks worked out of their service. The food was all fairly good, but also on the pricier side for Davis. I wouldn't object to going back here again, but it's not going to become one of my go-to places, I don't think. —TomGarberson
2011-06-22 13:59:03 I like this place. I love the clam chowder. The pizza is always great. The fish tacos are average the desserts are amazing! I want to try the burgers and the Reuben next. I have to agree with most, the service is not good. They pretty much ignore you at all costs! —ashleyinthemist
2011-07-26 21:03:19 Had dinner here tonight and people around my husband and I were pretty disappointed.
Here's the positive stuff: We are ALWAYS pleased with the quality our food and the staff are really friendly.
Here's the not so positive: There is always a long wait here, even just to order. Our drink orders weren't even taken in the first half hour. I don't know if it was because we were sitting in the side patio instead of the front or inside, but I know one cause was because there were only 2 servers for the ENTIRE restaurant tonight.(We went at 6pm) There was an elderly couple sitting at the table behind me and another couple sitting at a table across from them and a family sitting at the table next to us; these people were all frustrated that orders weren't taken yet. A lady asked the waitress what was taking so long and she said there were only 2 servers tonight, I heard the lady reply that they should've had a backup server, which I completely agree with. I don't think it is the servers or the cooks fault at all. One couple ordered wine and were waiting for their meal but they ended up leaving early without eating, they were completely frustrated because they had been waiting for so long. Our waiter apologized to us for the wait but I just felt bad for the guy, especially since he's already apologized to us around the same time last year for the exact SAME problem. I really hope the management rectifies the situation, they seriously need to have more waiters on staff , even if its a "tuesday night". I have worked at several restaurants myself and the management would typically have only 2 waiters scheduled after 9pm but typically had 5 or six before then. 4-5 tables per waiter at a time sounds pretty fair to me. I think this evening could've been a lot more enjoyable for more people if they had even just one more waiter. My husband and I gave our waiter a good tip but we figured with everyone being so disgruntled (and that one couple just leaving) that tips wouldn't be so good tonight. Better scheduling = better tips and better reviews. By the looks on their faces I don't imagine that one older couple coming back again. They marched off in the direction of burger's and brew. I'm only assuming they were off to that location since the burgers they ordered came out with no one to eat them. The waitress said "they left and I don't know why", but I think she did. —jenb
2011-08-05 17:16:21 I am the manager of Village Pizza & Grill. I wanted to apologize to all the good customers that got bad service on 7/26. It was an unusually busy Tuesday night for some reason. There were only two servers as always for a Tuesday night and many customers came at the same time. Unfortunately the hostess seated all the customers at once instead of metering the flow. We have added a third server for Mondays and Tuesdays since it has gotten busier lately. Again, my apologies to -jenb and others. Thank you "jenb" for your sincere comments. —aziz
2011-08-09 16:22:43 The veggie pizza here as at Village Bakery is fantastic, and the service for me has always been fine. Incidentally, I've only eaten here twice in the last year and each visit closely followed a crappy ER-level injury; in the event of your own bodily harm, I fully recommend the application of pizza to any lingering upset. I also recommend visiting for lunch (anytime) when the place is empty and you might find yourself, as I did this afternoon, treated to the shenanigans of the kitchen staff, one of whom parodied The Presidents' "Peaches" (Going to the Village/ Gonna eat a lot of pizza!). Dude had heart. —Willikers
2011-10-10 15:36:28 The food was great for lunch and the new gluten-free pizza crust was awesome! We enjoyed being able to sit outside on the porch even though it was raining. —LindaJConrad
2011-12-26 17:28:14 Have been coming here since opening and it just keeps getting better! My kids LOVE the pizza — it really is the best pizza in Davis!! I love the baby kebobs and french onion soup as well — but now my absolute favorite — the Persian stews which have been recently added to the menu — and are just incomparable. The pomegranate walnut stew is probably my personal favorite, but I also love the eggplant — I've never experienced either anywhere else, including while living in the Bay Area for many years. Highly recommended! —AnnBlock
-
I was not that thrilled with the stews, and I think Ali Baba does a better pomegranate walnut stew (aka fesenjan). But I agree about the pizza. —CovertProfessor
2012-05-02 21:22:01 Wow. I've always had a good experience here but the chicken pizza I recently ordered here was seriously bland and tasteless. It was basically inedible. This is not the first time I've ordered the chicken so I was surprised. I guess it happens to any establishment. —GeorgeScheer
2012-05-19 22:19:40 First, let me say that the food was good, but the service here is probably the worst I've ever had, in Davis or anywhere else. I went with about 6 other friends, it was my roommates birthday and we had heard good things about this place. They stuck us in a room in the restaurant that was hidden away in a corner. At first, it seemed kind of cool and private, but it proved to be the worst spot in the place. The waiter was all right in the beginning, he checked on us a couple times and was kind of condescending and arrogant. It was obvious he thought he was the shit—I think not. After that, we were basically left to fend for ourselves in that dungeon of a room. He completely forgot about us. All of us finished our waters and after about 20 minutes of them being done, had to ask a guy cleaning the tables if he could get us some. Someone order calamari as an appetizer, which took an obscenely long time to get to us, and no one checked on us again for another half hour. And we asked a girl server—not our male server, who was no where to be found—if she could bring an extra sauce cup for the calamari; it never showed up. Finally, the pizzas came to us and they were very good, unfortunately, at that point we all wanted to just leave and hoped the food was terrible so we could say it was overall a bad place.
My roommates boyfriend had asked the hostess in the very beginning of our meal if he could get a tiramisu for her at the end and she said yes; they just completely forgot about it. We probably saw our waiter a total of 5 minutes. And apparently they add an 18% gratuity to the bill. RIDICULOUS. The service was terrible and rude. So one of my friends went to get it taken off and had to talk to the manager and it turns out OUR WAITER WAS THE MANAGER. I was flabbergasted because how could the MANAGER be so negligent. Regardless if they were swamped with customers, he should have MANAGED his staff and had people check on us.
In the end he lowered the bill, instead of taking off the gratuity. Surprise, surprise, so he could still have his unearned money. There was a woman who was just seated in the room when we were about to leave and she overheard our conversation and said she too has had a really bad experience with the wait staff and we told her to get the hell our of the room because they will forget about her after the initial meeting. SO, I'm never going back, the food was good, but not that good. —OpticalOut
2012-07-20 14:13:51 Dear "OpticaOut", I am sorry about your bad experience at VPG. I just found out about this. Could you please contact us during lunch hours ASAP and ask for the owner? I have already started to look into this, need your further input. Thanks VPG Management. (530) 750-0100 —davisazip
2012-07-26 15:35:08 It's been over two years since I commented above. The pizza is still great, the service fine, the price not bad. I've eaten here a dozen times and bought take away as many times and haven't been disappointed yet. Great selection of IPAs. Only complaint is that they didn't have soccer on the TV the last time I was there. —PaulThober
2012-10-19 01:55:06 I do not recommend going here for a large gathering (30-60). They require you to have a minimum bill, which is reasonable, but it applies even when business is slow. Our group had a particularly poor experience, as we were misquoted the necessary amount required to spend for our party, and were forced to give the restaurant an extra $200 for our room rental upstairs. If you ever consider going here with a big group, make sure you ask what the rules are and hold them accountable, otherwise they'll screw you over big time —NorteMansion
I am one of the managers at VPG and I apologize for the miscommunication. We are revising our reservation policy for large groups, the changes are as follows:
"*We are implementing a new reservation system for large groups due to some recent miscommunication. We will now be requiring a 50% deposit, by credit card, for the use of the dining area for parties larger than 10. The prices are as follows:
No advance (more than 2 hours ahead) reservations for Friday and Saturday nights for over 10 people.
For Monday through Thursday between 5 to 9 pm: There is a minimum final bill charges for first two hours as follows: $300 for a) downstairs covered area or b) half of the upstairs room and c) upstairs Balcony
$600 for d) the whole upstairs room, not including the Balcony. Note; All of upstairs including outside will be $900. Each additional 1/2 hour after first two hours, in food or direct $80 for a, b & c. $180 for d. All the above applies to all “ impromptu” weekend reservations: If the final bill is less than the required amount, we can sell un-opened wine bottles to make up the difference."
2012-10-28 11:46:59 I came here last week with a group from the university, and I just had to leave a comment because the staff at Village Pizza did something so unexpectedly nice for me. We had a group of 8 people, so gratuity was included at 18% as it often is. But I totally missed that on the receipt (even though it was circled!), so I added an additional 20% tip. When I went to turn in my receipt to the department, they asked about the additional tip and I felt like a total idiot. But when I looked on my credit card statement, Village Pizza had not charged me the extra tip! They were kind enough to realize that I made a mistake and decided not to take advantage of it. Great customer service - thank you! I will be going back. —sjmcdonnel
2013-08-13 13:07:27 I love the patio seating, and the fire. The pizza is good and the service is good. I brought my family in there 20 minute before closing, thinking they would be rude since I showed up so close to closing time. They were very nice, they even lit the fire for us. Food came out fast. Lava Cake is very small, but I will return to this place. —TJLanoue
2013-08-15 10:33:27 Always enjoy Village Pizza and Grill so I'm disappointed to have a negative comment. I was entertaining out of town guests Wed Aug 14 and our female waiter was very nice, thank you. During the meal, a different male waiter delivered 2 spaghetti bowls, stood by the table holding them, said something like "spaghetti sin cheese" (spaghetti without cheese), continued to stand there, then said the following with an annoyed attitude: "would someone take these so I can carry those away". I wasn't the only person at the table who noticed this behavior. One of my out of town guests said: "He didn't sound very happy". Needless to say, I was surprised, angered then embarassed for the rest of our time at the restaurant. In hindsight, I wish I had spoken to the male waiter, but I didn't want to disrupt the visit with my guests. Firstly, I do not know where this attitude came from as nothing was said or done from the table to warrant anything like this, secondly, this is not "service" if a waiter says "would someone take these so I can carry those away", and thirdly the attitude with which this was said was simply rude. I'll give anyone the benefit of the doubt, and maybe this person had no idea as to how his behavior or presentation was being perceived. Regardless, there's no excuse for not at least being courteous. Come on Village Pizza and Grill, you can do better than this. Mr. Fattahi, please be mindful of these things. —CameronMunnally
2016-11-18 11:57:09 Really poor service at this place. My wife and I ordered two falafel wraps at 12:30 on a week day -- the place was about 1/3 empty and other diners were finishing their lunches and leaving. Thirty minutes later, and no sign of a waitress. I go to the bar to cancel the order because we're running short of time, and somebody comes running out of the kitchen with two to-go boxes. I pay the tab and we take the wraps home to eat, whereupon I discover that the staff was in such a rush (after 30 minutes!) that they neglected to put any dressing on the wraps. Dry, crumbling, and tasteless. They said they had run out of tortillas (an hour after opening?!) and had to make new ones from scratch, but if that was the case, they should have told us immediately so we could have changed our order. Not likely to return. —rsradford
Comments:
You must be logged in to comment on this page. Please log in.