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I’ve had several people recommend that I visit Villa Nova, and I’ve read mostly positive reviews about the restaurant, so I decided to finally pay this north side institution a visit. After opening in 1978, Villa Nova has become known as a mom and pop Italian restaurant offering comforting home style pasta dishes just like grandma used to make (assuming your grandmother is Italian).
The restaurant’s decor is a treat, with walls adorned with copper kettles, barometers, posters of the Mona Lisa and other doodads. It’s the same type of kitsch that can be found on the walls of Olive Garden or Buca di Beppo, but it certainly felt less contrived than the mass produced walls of the chain counterparts.
Service at Villa Nova was friendly and prompt. And the beginning of the meal started off ok…
The Hodge Podge ($7.50) is a sampler that contains a variety of items from the heavily deep fried appetizer menu. It includes mushrooms, zucchini, cauliflower and onion rings and is served with a side of ranch dressing. The onion rings and mushrooms were fairly standard fried food, and the zucchini I actually enjoyed. The side of ranch was pretty generic, as was the cauliflower.
Villa Nova’s breadsticks (included with meals) are buttery, garlicky and salty. The bread is served warm, rendering it perfectly soft. While I couldn’t find too much to distinguish these breadsticks from your average chain variety, I did think that they were a decent enough offering.
Here’s where things started to head downhill. The Italian Wedding Soup ($3.50 cup / $3.95 bowl) was so heavy on the chicken stock and so light on other flavors, that it more closely resembled a bowl of chicken noodle soup. There were small chunks of shredded chicken, but there was a complete lack of sausage or meatballs that typically define the composition of this dish. Overall, a disappointing rendition.
The Side Salad ($3.50 or included with pasta entrees) was a very basic serving of chilled iceberg lettuce mix and some croutons. The French dressing on the side was a generous portion. Nothing special here, just your standard variety side salad.
The “Famous” (according to the menu) Spaghetti with Homemade Meatballs ($10.95) was a large plate of flat noodles, two large meatballs and a heaping helping of pasta sauce. The sauce was overly sweet and devoid of much seasoning; essentially tasting only of tomatoes and sugar. The meatballs were slightly above average, tender and moist but again without much in the way of spices or flavors beyond cooked ground beef. The noodles were overcooked and lifeless. A sprinkling of fresh Mozarella might have helped, but wouldn’t have been enough to salvage this dish.
The Manicotti ($10.95) is three tubes of pasta filled with ricotta cheese and completely buried under tomato sauce and melted cheese. I initially thought this was the wrong dish when it arrived at the table, since I was unable to see any of the noodles. Once again, the sauce was overly sweet, and the melted cheese was a greasy unappetizing mess. The noodles were unevenly baked with some portions being dry and hard while other portions were soft and moist. Manicotti is not a complex dish, and this felt completely thrown together without a whole lot of thought about flavor.
Columbus was a much different city in 1978 when Villa Nova opened for business, and the Columbus dining scene was much more limited in scope and scale. It feels like nothing has changed on the inside of Villa Nova in over 30 years, while everything has changed outside of it. I imagine that anyone who has fond memories of this place that date back to earlier times will continue to forgive the lackluster food (and will mostly likely give me an earful for not enjoying it). But as a newcomer to Villa Nova, I have no warm fuzzies embedded that allow me to overlook these things.
Another one of the big issues I have with Villa Nova is the pricing. The main pasta entrees all range between $11 and $13. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but I’ve found that you can get much better food for only a few dollars more at places like Tony’s Italian Ristorante (pasta entrees starting at $13), Martini Modern Italian (pasta entrees starting at $15), Marcella’s (pasta entrees starting at $13), Due Amici (pasta entrees starting at $12) or even Basi Italia (pasta entrees starting at $17). With most of those examples, you’re only spending two or three extra dollars, but receiving a much higher quality plate of food.
I’ve heard better reports from the bar side of the business. While I’ve not tried out their bar, I would recommend skipping dinner and heading over there for a drink if you plan to visit. Otherwise, there are too many better options for Italian food in Columbus for to me to be able to recommend anyone eating here.
Villa Nova is located at 5545 North High Street, near Worthington. It’s open Sunday through Thursday from 11am to 11pm and Friday & Saturday from 11am to Midnight. More information can be found online at www.villanovacolumbus.com.
I have always thought of this place as an Italian comfort food hole in the wall that doesn’t put on airs. It is the kind of place I like to go when I don’t feel like going to Marcella’s, Basi Italia or Due Amici…
I don’t think you can compare Villa Nova to Basi, Marcella’s or Due Amici’s. I think it is better suited to compare them to Olive Garden, Carrabbas, chain italian. I know it is not the best italian food in Columbus but I love the place. Huge portions and low price helps me add to my BMI with decent quality. I personally recommend this place to everyone.
Argggh. Great review. The photos fully corroborate your impressions. Seems like the kind of place that would be featured in “Restaurant Impossible”. For anyone who is sceptical of just how lazy some people in the restaurant industry get, my advice is to get a membership to Restaurant Depot (West side of town) and stroll around once in a while. You will find familiar faces from restaurants like this one who are buying their sauces, meatballs, and practically the entire entree directly from the store to do little more than heat and serve.
I am not much of a cook, but I have a hard time ordering spaghetti in a sit down restaurant. I agree with the thought this is more about larger portions and comfort food swimming in sauce and cheese.
Columbus was a much different city in 1978 when Villa Nova opened for business, and the Columbus dining scene was much more limited in scope and scale.
I’m perplexed by this. Why do you think this is so?
This troubles me. I realize that most of the menu items come from sysco. That said, I really like the place. Maybe it is the ‘warm fuzzies’, but they still count for something.
I honestly don’t care where they get their food, it feels like family when you are there. You feel good about eating in a neighborhood place.
If I am looking for a place in my neighborhood after a long work week, its a place like Villa Nova.
I still love this place. great place to meet friends. Their Ziti, spaghetti carbonara and pizzas are delicious. Place is always packed, the consumers can’t all be wrong.
I thought this was one of your better reviews. You’re pretty accurate on the food but not sure your experience is in line with what many experience (potentially the CU readers) versus the families who choose the Nova over Olive Garden, etc (and have never heard of Basi, Due Amici, etc.). Like another poster mentioned, you can’t even put this place in the same sentence as Basi and the others.
Your pictures and descriptions are pretty dead on for the food. No alfredo sauce for the average breadsticks? It’s so naughty and delicious! But most of the people I know who go to Nova can cook food five times better, but simply go for the atmosphere and the people around you, whether it’s friends and family at the table, the regulars at the bar (or the a cappella group that dines there weekly and belts out songs to fill the restaurant) or the staff. Yes, if you didn’t spend any time at the bar and you went too early, you missed the experience. The pizza is really solid here along with very cold 32oz drafts of domestic swill. You can’t go there just for the food. If it was only about the food, it wouldn’t be open 34 years later. Wow…it’s the same age as me…
It’s funny that Marcella’s and Basi were mentioned. I go to those places for Italian, but I also go to Villa Nova. To me, they each offer different things I crave. I go to Villa Nova when I want comfort food, they’re amazing at that. Also, I was told Villa Nova made their own pasta, is that not the case?
I doubt that Villa Nova has homemade pasta but I’m not 100% sure. I think that’s part of the charm!
As several others have mentioned above, you have completely missed the point of Villa Nova. Its good simple down home Italian with no frills. Its great for families, its great for groups on a night out with big beers, and the staff is always consistently friendly and competent. The kitchen is open up late, the food is always consistent, and its always packed.
In fact, its to popular that they bought the business next door, KNOCKED IT DOWN, and turned it into a parking lot for their customers. There is never less than an hour wait on Friday and Saturday nights, so there are clearly some people who love it.
I think a good review points out the ambiance and food from a place and let’s people decide if its a good fit for them. Villa Nova is a staple for a lot of people, because (like me) they can’t eat over-wrought fancy food seven nights a week. Sometimes you need a big beer and a plate of pasta with a good red sauce.
Morgan doesn’t seem to like much!! First DP Dough, now this. JK ;)
Most of your review sounds pretty accurate, but it still is one of our favorite spots in town. If I want to wine and dine some out of town friends, I’ll probably take them to one of the many other great Italian spots in town. But if I want to take my out of town family out for a casual dinner where no one will leave unhappy, especially an overly picky sibling, we go to villa nova (my parents now request to go here every single time they are in town). A little bummed you didn’t try the pizza though… If you go back for a bar night, I definitely recommend it.
I want to thank Morgan for writing this review. My brother is always arranging family dinners at this place and I’ve never had a good meal here. He loves the place because it’s local and it’s not putting on heirs. I dislike the place because it’s a restaurant and its food is terrible.
And I have to agree with Morgan that it is over-priced (if your food is McDonald’s quality — you need to have a dollar menu). These are the types of restaurants that dumb down the American palete and leave people to think that Olive Garden is a good restaurant. When in fact all restaurants are good when compared to Villa Nova. The egg-salad at the Sunoco gives this place a run-for-its-money. This is not “just like mom used to make” food, unless of course your mom is Marie Callendar.
So, thank you Morgan. With your help perhaps the next generation won’t have to suffer through any more family dinners served from Villa Nova’s microwave.
i’m thinking of getting a bumper sticker made:
here are my choices:
support your local food snob
have you hugged a food snob today?
have you seen this food snob?
buy a food snob get one free
mrbrenton, you need a 32oz cold Hoster Gold Top and a large supreme pizza in the bar. I wouldn’t like the experience if I sat in the dining room with my family either.
Someone disliking something doesn’t automatically make them a snob.
It sounds to me like this place has some pretty strong supporters and some people who just don’t like it. As long as the former outweighs the latter, it will stay in business and do well.
And if you don’t like it, there’s plenty of other local businesses to spend your money at. A win for everyone, right? ;)
I eat here for lunch about every other week. I like the wedding soup, pizza and anything with their alfredo sauce. Two guys from the office can’t seem to order anything, but the chicken carbonara. They can’t get enough. For fine Italian I go to Marcella’s, but I like Villa Nova as well.
mrbrenton, you took the comment right out from under my keyboard! We have been going to Villa Nova since I can remember, and it used to be good (for my kid palate, anyway). I always got either the pizza sub, grilled chicken with herb garlic spaghetti, or the ravioli and I loved them all. But somewhere along the line (perhaps the time I tried the crab special and got food poisoning?) Villa changed. It became gross. It got to the point where we’d just get an appetizer and stop somewhere on the way home from whosever birthday we were celebrating to get some better food. And if that’s all you could say negatively about them, that would be one thing. But the last few times my family has been there, we have been treated so poorly that I wonder what is wrong with their wait staff! They are so rude and unattentive now that it was finally enough to get the family to start scheduling gatherings at Spaghetti Warehouse instead. That is a comparable place but is 100 times better, for anyone who is looking for “unpretentious” American Italian dinner locales that accomodate big parties and are not expensive. The sourdough bread and garlic butter served there overshadow any food served at Villa Nova!