Having never been bere, I planned my husband's birthday party at VLounge on a Saturday when Julian…read moreJumpin Perez was DJ'ing for "Old School Saturday". I called and spoke to with Frank and he was kind enough to reluctantly reserve a couple tables for us, only if I promised to have at least 20 people. He informed me he would charge me if I didn't show with 20 people, which I understood because after all, he could have reserved those tables for other parties and he already had a large party booked for the bar.
I started to get nervous about a week before after reading many negative reviews about the place, including reviews stating people were discriminated against, forced to leave, had horrible service from their waitress, etc.
I couldn't be happier with the way the night turned out and the way in which we were treated. When we arrived, there was a coat check available and the lobby was beautiful! I was very impressed with the ambience and decor. Our group included many people from diverse backgrounds including black, white, Asian, etc. I didn't feel discriminated against at all and our waitress, although extremely busy, was always checking on us and took care of our needs. She recommended some amazing drinks and despite what other reviews stated, was happy to keep separate tabs for people in our group. One of the men working that night bought my husband a drink for his birthday and at one point the DJ announced everyone's birthdays and the staff brought out a large piece of cake for each of the people there who were celebrating their birthday.
I expected an older crowd since I read that VLounge attracted older people but that's what we were looking for since we are not as young as we used to be and would stick out like a sore thumb at any club, yet still wanted a sort of club experience. The crowd was a bit older than I even expected but everyone was nice and there to have a good time. We didn't experience anyone being rude and the dance floor was poppin'! I was pleasantly surprised!
I have nothing but good things to say. The drinks were priced reasonably with a good amount of alcohol in them. The calamari was absolutely amazing! The ranch dressing, which one reviewer stated was disgusting, was one of the best I've had.
I was happy they actually had ranch dressing because most Italian places do not have ranch. You can tell it's homemade, too and it was the perfect dipping sauce for their calamari. The calamari came out nice and hot and crispy and there were no ro
rubbery pieces or weird looking pieces (like usual) that nobody wants to eat and are just left on the plate as waste.
The place was PACKED, so of course our server was not able to keep up with the empty glasses and plates on our table but that did not impact our night in any way. I read one negative review stating that the empties were not removed from the table fast enough. I think sometimes people just look for something to complain about because it was completely understandable, considering the amount of people our waitress was serving and how hard it was to move around in the room.
The bathrooms were clean but at one point in the night, there was a girl in the stall next to mine throwing up and it was all over the floor, including splashing all the way over into my stall and onto my shoes. It was pretty disgusting but when I exited the stall, I was happy to see staff in the restroom trying to take care of the situation.
I believe many of the negative reviews I previously read were unfortunately from people who wanted to come for the free entertainment and were too cheap to spend any money on drinks or food or were not dressed appropriately. Furthermore, any reviewer claiming discrimination...it is my opinion that the reviewer must have been rude or had to have done something to warrant a negative response from the employee. I do not feel any if the employees were discrimanatory. Either that or it was an isolated situation and thankfully, we didn't have that experience!
I do wish the staff had nametags so I could have known my server's name or I could have met Frank, considering I was speaking to him on and off the few weeks prior to our event. It also would've been nice to know the gentleman's name who was working the room when we were there and interacting with our group, since he was extremely cordial and professional.
All of our guests told us what a fun time they had and what a nice place VLounge was. We don't get out much these days due to our children being young but I do hope we get a chance to go back! I urge you to give VLounge a chance and check it out for yourself! You won't be disappointed!
