Vinny Testa's

7 Boston Turnpike
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
508-755-0900

Atmosphere:
Italian
7
Variety7
Quality6
Service6
Portions7
Overall6

TOTAL

39

Needs Work

Review:
I recall a time several years ago when East Side Mario's closed down, and Vinny Testa's took its place. I fondly remember my enthusiasm for such a good restaurant opening close to me - I had previously dined at Vinny Testa's in Lexington and Natick, and very much enjoyed myself at both locations. As soon as Vinny Testa's Shrewsbury had opened, myself and some friends tried to go, but couldn't even get in the doors for a month as patrons packed the walls of the establishment and drove the wait time up to 1.5 hours plus. The tale is much different today, sadly.

I went on 9/4/2002 with a large party of 12 for a birthday dinner celebration. I had expected that we would have to wait for some time to get seated... but in fact, we were sat down as soon as we walked in the door. This amazed me - I had not been to the restaurant in several months, as it had gone down a bit in quality from when it first opened, so was not sure what to expect. It's surely not a good sign when people aren't going in the numbers they used to.

Roasted garlic is one of the few things they get right here - surely the meal would have been a total disaster if not for the tasty breads and mushy garlic and oil.

I had had good luck in the past with the combo dinner, but the dishes, once delivered to me, were flavorless overall - the sausage and peppers I had on the side was bland, and the eggplant rolotini, fried portobella and ravioli all tasted the same. The entire meal was cold, to boot.

Service was very sub-par, considering that the restaurant was barely a third full. Also, a wrong meal was delivered (to the birthday boy!) even after the patron specifically told the waiter what he wanted - twice. It isn't that hard to distinguish veal marsala from chicken marsala.

Prices are average for the chain, but I surely didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth, even with the "large amounts" of food. I just decided to throw out my leftovers rather than subject myself to their blandness again.


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