We’re not hoity toity, foie gras, oysters & crap...

If you want to know what restaurants, clubs, hotels and retailers will look past the fact that you're "twenty something" and actually provide you the quality food/service/experience they tout...you've come to the right place! This blog is all about two twenty somethings in Dallas, now DC, who love to eat, shop, and enjoy everything this great city has to offer. We've been there, done that with an innumerable number of restaurants and places of interest, and some are truly "all that and a bag of chips", while others fall flat when it comes to living up to big hype.

Bookmark us, as we begin to add in our favorite places to eat and play...and for those that felt our experience was a little less important than our youthful appearance, we know who you are, and soon everyone else will too!

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Monday, December 21, 2009

Villa-O

I've heard about the free dinner's Villa-O does, but hadn't ever gone until last week because I couldn't remember what day it was! They started following me on twitter, so I decided to follow them. When they posted that their free dinner was going to be on Monday night, I promptly called and made reservations because who is going to pass up free, organic Italian? Not me I tell you. (FYI, I believe they do this every Monday, you just have to make reservations!) J was going to be out of town so I called up one of my adventurous friends, B, and got her to meet me there.

They had two drink specials that night, one champagne and berry liqueur drink and a Martini di Ananas (an organic vodka infused with fresh pineapple for no less than seven days and then strained). Since our dinners were free, we thought we had to get drinks! I happened to have both (shhh) and they were great! I loved the Champagne cocktail, just the perfect amount of sweet and berry. Very refreshing.

The free menu was actually quite comprehensive. They offered salads as a first course and quite a few second courses from Eggplant parm to Wagyu Beef Lasagna to Chicken Piccata. The best thing (well besides the fact it is free) is that it is all organic and homemade pastas.

We were served some great bread with dipping oil as a starter when we ordered our drinks. We were also offered purified in-house Natura still or sparkling water for a dollar. Because we are ridiculously cheap, we declined and went for what the waiter called "Dallas Tap".

I ordered the Cesar with anchovies (normally they don't put anchovies on their Cesar on Monday's, but my waiter was nice) and B got it without. I enjoyed my salad; they definitely didn't hold back on the dressing! The polenta croutons were great.

B got the Lasagna Bolognese with handcrafted pasta, ricotta cheese and rustic Wagyu beef sauce. It was delicious! Very meaty and not too sweet. I ordered the Eggplant Parmesan. There was supposed to be thin handmade pasta layers in between the eggplant, but I honestly couldn't tell the difference in consistency between the pasta and eggplant if it was in there. The sauce was SPICY! Cleared out my sinuses, that's for sure! I wouldn't really recommend ordering it.

I'd love to try their brunch and their Sunday 3-course, all-you-can-eat dinner for $15.95 per person sometime soon! They have a pretty extensive drink menu, borrowing some offerings from Trece, their sister restaurant across the street. They also have quite a few bottles of wine less than $40, so great for sharing! The pizzas also looked promising!


Happy Free Eating!
http://www.villaorestaurant.com
214.780.1880


Addendum to previous post...
J and I went back recently, so I wanted to update this post! I ordered the risotto and would definitely not recommend. It was very bland and heavy and lacked a lot of salt. J got the lasagna and it was, yet again, amazing. One thing I forgot to mention previously was the bread. It is a delicious focaccia with a great balsamic vinegar dipping sauce. We ate at least two or three baskets worth! Happy eating!