Cici G.
Yelp
My husband and I were excited to come here for dinner. There was going to be live entertainment and we were ready for a fantastic night! Unfortunately, the other patrons were not there for the entertainment and they were in between us and the stage. It was hard to hear the singer (who was great). We confirmed with the restaurant's manager (I think he was the manager) that they do not turn up the speaker because the entertainment is meant to be background music. If the music is not the reason to go to The Velvet Martini Lounge, then the food must be. Sadly, it was not.
4/5 - "Prime Rib": Thankfully, we ordered this and not just the appetizers. Good char and a nice steak. However, it is a ribeye steak... not prime rib. We prefer ribeye, but that can be a huge disappointment for anyone expecting prime rib.
3/5 - Artisan Cheese & Charcuterie: Pretty good, but I don't think that it's worth $39
3/5 - Doris' Dance: Citrus vodka, raspberry syrup, Combier and lemon juice. It was tart, but okay.
3/5 - Shrimp Cocktail: Jumbo prqwns with house-made cocktail sauce. The sauce was weak (you could barely taste the horseradish). My husband thought it was ketchup...
3/5 - The Black Rose: Jameson Black Barrel, rose simple and orange bitters. This is their Old Fashioned.
3/5 - Garlic Mashed Potatoes: It was fine.
1/5 - Swedish Meatballs: Terrible. Didn't even taste like meat. To add insult to injury, this dish was $20, so it was $4 per nasty meatball (of which we ate 2)
1/5 - Cheesy Arancini: Panko fried risotto balls with mushroom, Grana Padano and mozzarella. This was a jumble of problems - undercooked rice, hard on the outside... Once again, we only at 2 and paid $18 for this.
1/5 - Brown Butter Banana Cake: Banana spice cake, walnuts and brown butter frosting. Wow. Total BS. Dense cake. The only bananas are the 3 dehydrated banana chips on top! I'm not even exaggerating. They are not fresh bananans. It tastes like and old pre-packaged snack cake that they frosted and they had to use banana chips becasue fresh ones have to be sliced and served immediately. This way, it can sit forever in the refrigerator (which is what it tastes like).
On top of all of this, they charged 3.5% for KITCHEN APPRECIATION. Oof. Are you kidding me? The food was overpriced and terrible. I definitely didn't appreciate the kitchen! The food came out to 2.4 stars. The atmosphere and vibe is great, but you can't hear the entertainment, so I am not going to bump it up to 3 stars. Nope, won't go back.