Via Lago Catering & Cafe

The old limp lady that served us was extremely rude. I understand she's mad at the world but c'mon! I sat down at the table then she promptly came out and yelled at me to move. There were NO customers anywhere around but she couldn't have me " getting their table dirty" RUDE! Why would I want to order anything with this attitude.

Absolutely horrendous customer service. Extremely rude, belittle and scream at customers, and overall a terrible experience. I have been a customer for many years but will not be continuing my support as of now. This behavior is not new.

Very disappointed in the service as well as the food. Photos show the amount of Turkey, the amount of avocado and lettuce that should have been discarded by Via Lago, not me! Very disappointed as we are with family from out of state. 3:51 PM Saturday, 6/11/22.

Went in the middle of the day, 2 people in the entire place. Waited 10 minutes at bar. Many staff walked by, no one acknowledged us. Left and went down the street. Very disappointed. Would leave no stars based on service if possible.

Via Lago is a wonderful cafe/restaurant in Lexington Center which I have frequented for many years with my family. The food is consistently excellent! We recently had them cater a luncheon for my son's bar mitzvah and they were wonderful to work with. Very responsive, on top of everything, served excellent food and took care of all the setting up and cleaning up. I would highly recommend this business!

We had fantastic cocktails and appetizers here after a paint night at Pinot's Palette nearby. Luis was a charismatic and perceptive bartender who provided great recommendations for drinks. Will definitely be returning in the future.

The food itself is ok - I've always felt it was too expensive for the quality but the dining options in Lexington are so limited. We placed a takeout order last night because we were too tired to cook. After waiting the half hour and then taking the round trip in the cold to pick it up, we get home to find out we were given the wrong order. The person who took my order wrote my name down wrong (though I heard it correctly when they repeated it back) and as luck would have it, someone else with my name also placed an order.

We got that person's order. When I called to let them know that the order was all wrong, they told me twice that this was my order.until finally they figured out what happened. So of course, that meant returning that food to the restaurant to pick up ours, which by this point, it's been an hour since we ordered and we were hungry and frustrated.

But what choice did we have? I'd ordered the roast tenderloin sandwich but the meat wasn't seasoned at all. The mashed potatoes were also bland. I would have preferred the fries we were mistakenly given. For the cost, a little salt and pepper on the meat would have been appreciated. For all the time, trouble, and cost, I would have just made dinner instead.

I understand mistakes happen, but at least for future takeout orders, since I know I won't receive any incentive to return to Via Lago for a very inconveniencing mistake, I'll order from places that will appreciate my business more. Still, the food is ok, but you expect better for the price.

Good menu selections, delicious food, and easy to get as takeout. Ordering is easy, staff are friendly and take orders accurately. Time estimates are always accurate too.

The service at Via Lago doesn't look anything like the service when I wrote my last review. I have been in a number of times over the past few months and the service has been courteous, helpful, and much faster. I believe I was speaking with Joyce when I was there, and she was friendly and welcoming. The food has always been good, and now the service matches it. I highly recommend Via Lago.

Delicious food! Great atmosphere and great service. My first time here. Kayla was a wonderful waitress who went above and beyond. I will definitely request her next time I return.

Had a very strange experience at Via Lago last night. My fiance and I showed up at 9 to sit at the bar for a drink and dessert (they close at 9:30). At first everyone was really friendly but then the bartender serving us said they were out of all the drinks I wanted and then she gave my fiance his drink with half the ingredients missing! When he mentioned it tasted strange she started getting defensive and didn't offer to get him a new one or refund his (badly made) drink.

We felt really awkward, ate our dessert quickly, paid the bill (paying for that drink too, unfortunately) and left. Dessert was good but after that experience we won't be going back. Really soured our fun date night!

I have been frequenting this restaurant for many years with family members, friends and clients. It's a pretty comfortable neighborhood restaurant and they do a nice job with the food and eclectic seasonal menus. Unfortunately, they have a manager, Joyce, who is the most rude, unfriendly, unprofessional person I have ever experienced in a restaurant.

I have been in the food and restaurant industry for decades and I am astonished that the owner keeps her on. In addition to the above, she has been instructing the bartenders to make half cocktails and to water down the martinis and manhattans if people want them dry or extra dry. $14 for half a drink! I've known several people who have worked here and they've left because of her, so she's just as difficult to the employees as she is with the customers. Sadly, they have lost my, and many other's business. There are many other restaurants in the area that serve fantastic cocktails along with delicious food. Shame on you, via lago :

Nice atmosphere, friendly service, great food. Great place overall.

A great local spot. Never had a bad meal in here. One of my all time favorites. 100%recoomended if you are in the area.

Visiting Beautiful Town of Lexington Massachusetts. Ran across a AWESOME restaurant that delivers food to your table that makes your TASTE BUDS SING!

Nice menu, outdoor seating in Lexington center. I had an appetizer and glass of wine which was enough for dinner along with a delicious roll. Generous pour for the wine. I'm looking forward to returning soon!

My favorite restaurant in Lexington. Gourmet food very reasonably priced. Great environment. Sole meuniere best we ever had.

I really enjoy going here. I start with an espresso martini which is great. Lot of great choices and the menu changes over time so new things are showing up to try. Bartender was pleasant to chat with.

We made 6:00 reservations. We got there at 5:50 and we're seated immediately. We were given water and menus. At 6:10 no one shows. We walked out and I commented that we had been waiting for 20 minutes with no service. The three servers and the hostess we're sitting up front twiddling their thumbs and playing on their phones. Maybe the food would have been good but I would have never known cuz the service sucked

Hometown disappointment. Usually a predictably positive experience. Food was just ok. Service was lacking. But when we ordered a bottle of wine and was served glasses of the same wine instead.and then charged extra for the waitress error, defiant manager insisted the up charge was justified. Not cool. Zero awareness of customer care. Aargh.do we go back and support our local establishment or shift elsewhere?! Chagrined.

So this was my first time come here to celebrate a 88 year old man birthday. the service was the slowest I ever seen arrived at 7 pm got served hour and half later. I would not recommend anyone to come here unless you want to starve. the food was not that good. no one offered refill water. had to ask twice to put the heat on. needless to say. after take bite of the cheese ravioli it was cold. the pasta was raw. and the ricotta tasted old.the tomato sauce was watery no flavor might as well eat raw tomato.

I am not greeted at the door. A bartender yells, do you have a reservation. I say yes. A woman who looks like she just came from the gym comes over and I give her the name of the reservation. A good friend made the reservation and she goes there twice a week. They can't find it. The bartender and the lady in sweats talk. Then I am not walked to a table but point to a table."take that one".

Then I hear the bartender Louis and the sweat lady talk about the next reservation. FYI.there are 8 people in the restaurant. It is 5:30. Louis comes to the table and with his back to me says that there is a 90 minute limit.wow. I guess we are going to be rushed. By the way there are 10 people in the restaurant when we leave at 7! The occupancy for this restaurant is probably 40 people or more. Yes, we were rushed. Appetizer came in 4 minutes.

I guess that wasn't prepared to order! Dinner came in about 4 minutes after we finished out appetizers. Never again. Starting out a night with my blood pressure going through the roof because we are being rushed is not cool. Yes, every restaurant for how long now has had a 90 minute limit. But when we were there the week before he didn't say that. Food is good. Too bad the staff sucks!

This is my wife's and my go to place to dine out. We ordered two Ruben sandwiches for takeout the other night and they were by far the toughest corn beef we've ever had! I didn't want to call them but I hope they see this. Couldn't even eat the corn beef, but on another note the bread & sauerkraut was delicious!

Had dinner there before, food was good. Called Friday night to order take out, attendant informed they were busy and it would take an hour. We agreed and ordered anyways. One hour and ten minutes later I arrived, waited to inform that I was there to pick my order. Person behind the counter was extremely rude, said they told me it would take 90 minutes and needed at least 20 more mins to be ready.

I was nice and informed they told me one hour, person still yelling and being rude in front of several other people. I cancelled the order. If you do not want to be yelled at for no reason in front of other people, go eat somewhere else. Very sad and disrespectful. Plenty of other options nearby where they appreciate a customer.

Just want to say how delicious our dinners were last night at Via Lago. We ended up doing take out and enjoyed the Duon peppercorn rack of lamb, 18 hour herb crusted pork roast and the weekend special pan roasted mahi mahi and some delicious salads too! Everything was cooked to perfection! Thank you very much

I visit downtown Lexington regularly and was looking for a quick lunch takeout spot. They have a pretty easy set-up during the pandemic environment. You can order and pay ahead for your food. When you enter the restaurant, you can go straight to the back where the food counter is, and it is a one-way route. They put your take-out back on a counter with your name, and then you can grab it and walk out the door which is a separate entrance.

We ordered a few sandwiches to go, including a BLT, Chicken Quesadilla, and some pressed sandwiches. Everything tasted good, and it was an easy take-out experience. In the restaurant, there were lots of attractive items visible in their glassed food counter. Unfortunately we weren't able to get their tiramisu to-go during the lunch take-out, so I believe only certain items may be available during lunch vs. dinner times. They had outside tables, and attracted a fair amount of dining customers during the sunny day I visited.

Via Lago used to be my go-to sandwich shop in high school and I would go easily 3 times a week but then I had a few not so amazing experiences and stopped going for a while. I decided to revisit for take out with my mom today and it was mediocre at best. We ordered a mozzarella tomato basil on french bread. The basil is pre chopped and soaked in oil so it was brown and a bit bitter.

I always remember them chopping the basil but this was much less fresh than usual. I use lots of fresh herbs in my cooking and this basil definitely wasn't prepped today. It seemed unusually not fresh for June. The mozzarella is good, the tomatoes were in ratio with cheese and basil and decent quality. Overall pretty decent sandwich. I got a ceaser wrap with no chicken and there weren't any croutons or cheese.

Just shredded lettuce with caeser dressing. It was okay, but definitely the bare minimum a wrap could be. Via Lago used to be the best place to get a sandwich, soda, pasta salad or anything else. Everything used to be 10/10 quality every time but I don't know if that's the case anymore-- easily going to forget this place exists for another 5 years

We dropped by this little place after shopping at the nearby Wilson Farm. The food was great, ingredients were top notch, service was very personalized. They paid careful attention to my food allergies. Will return.

I was gonna let this slide because I enjoy their food but today I place a lunch order Whoever took my phone order was extremely extremely rude. It was a woman. I still place the order Because it was for me and my coworkers. From now on I will be taking my business elsewhere. This lady does not need a job!

Perfect lunch spot. Food was great and a great value. It was a bit crowded, but it was lunch time and I still found a place to sit. Street parking was available nearby without much of a walk. The staff was incredibly kind and helpful. Not in area often, but if I am around lunch time I am going to stop here! - Amazing, coming here whenever I can! Food, service, ambiance, value and restrooms on point.

I love stopping by this spot for lunch. I can walk into the back at the counter and order something to go. The only thing I don't like is how there are no descriptions for the food in the lunch area. So they typically have 3 different types of quinoa salad, etc. and it is hard to know the difference. Sometimes the staff isn't sure either.

I usually just grab a bowl of the chicken soup to go on my break. The staff is friendly and they have lots of regulars and always make nice conversation and seem genuine. The prices are very reasonable too!

Great lunch spot! I've met up with friends and clients here many times and have never been disappointed with the wait time or food. Great sandwiches, soups and salads. Friendly staff and the gentleman ringing up your order is a riot! Place your order, fine a seat and they bring your meals. Street metered parking or in the lot behind the restaurant.

I've been coming here since the 90s. I don't remember the service ever being super friendly but I thought it's cuz I was a teenager. I would definitely quantify the service as surly now. On top of that, the toasted bagel wasn't toasted and he "Meat Omelette" did not have any meat! Normally I would brush aside oversights from the kitchen but add on pissy servers and I'm done with you.

Great Italian restaurant! There is great foods. I love the beef chilly and shrimp chilly bowl. The staff are kind. They make a place for us our English conversation class. Thank you so much!

This is a great place and I do come here often but this morning I just ordered an egg sandwich and a bagels to go. I was told to seat and wait as it would take 15-20 minutes. really? Perhaps my order was too challenging to cook to? but I am out in less than 5. cool

Via Lago is an excellent catering service with fresh and great food! I have tried the Hummus & Vegetable wrap as well as the Mozarella, Tomato, Basil Sandwich and enjoyed both very much. The food is much better quality than other catering services I have tried.

This restaurant is a great spot! Came here for dinner and got the Special Filet and Lobster pizzette. Both delicious. The sauce on the filet with the brussel sprouts on the side tasted awesome. Our waitress was friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed and nice. Would definitely recommend!

FRUSTRATING! I come here for lunch 2 to 3 times a week with my husband and I actually enjoy it. Even though the set up is a bit strange it works and the day staff are lovely. However, for dinner. I wont be coming back. We came here 2 weekends ago with another family and 4 tweens. We had a nice waitress but the moment the clock hit 10PM the busboy came over and stuck his fingers in all our drinks (that we were drinking) and started clearing up.

He told us it was time to go and literally rushed us out of the door. We had ordered food, were still drinking when this was going on. And to make it worse the waitress felt so bad she gave us ice water in to go cups and apologized. Lunch is good here but NOT FOR DINNER! And its sad because this is one of the few places in Lexington with a liquor license.