St.Villa in St Albans

First time to this place which I walked passed many times and I wanted to try out.Service was good and food was delicious

Really amazing cocktails and food. The venue is so pretty, very modern and trendy but also has a great outdoors area for the summer. Couldn’t speak more highly of the food, so fresh and tasty. We had the lunch menu and it was such good value. We’ll be back!

The servers were really friendly, and the food was fabulous.I had Calamari rings , seabass cooked to perfection and oreo cheesecake which tasted and looked more like whipped cream and crushed oreos in a glass.I went for a group gathering (about 25 people). The servers did seem to struggle a bit serving a large group, even though we pre-ordered our food over a week before the event. For the most part things came without delay but for some additional items we had to repeatedly ask for the same thing before it came, in one case peppercorn sauce never arrived for someone have a steak.Overall a good night and good food! Would definitely go back again just not in a big group.

We’ve dined on a number of occasions on different nights of the week and have never been disappointed by the quality of food and service. The menu does seem to be revised regularly, new items appear but we don’t seem to miss ‘retired’ dishes. The staff strike the balance perfectly between convivial and overt friendliness. The pods are a delightful way to enjoy a more private environment than generally afforded in a busy restaurant. Price is largely irrelevant when the quality is in this league.

Bistro style restaurant serving modern European food in St Albans. Parking nearby may be difficult. Great ambience with crisp white table-cloths and an open kitchen They have outdoor seating ( in pods too). Not too crowded when we went. Service was excellent, courteous and attentive. We ordered bread and olives to start with. The olives were good ( pitted) but the bread was dry and the butter cold.. it would have been nice if the butter were served at room temperature and bread served warm.The mains- mushroom risotto, chicken supreme and pasta were excellent and so was the dessert. Prices are on the slightly expensive side.All on all a good experience. Needs just a slight improvement to get 5 stars. Will visit again.

My friend recommended this place, I might have to "Will Smith" him!Venue nice, service good, food a"meh"zing 😒. Monk fish was ok the rest for me, lacked flavour even basic seasoning, please taste then serve.I Wish it tasted as good as it looked, Seems like a current trend should have checked reviews before.

Great food. High quality and served fresh and hot. Fine dining and worth the price tag.We asked to be sat in an igloo. I confirmed the booking in person & wasn't made aware that there is a £10 p/p deposit - I got an email telling me which went to junk mail - but they were content I didn't need to as I'd confirmed booking. The igloo was warm in Spring and has vents for air as can get very warm. Great to see heater and blankets for cooler nights!The staff were attentive although drinks initially took a while. But the food was cracking and enjoyed by all. Drink choice is good too. 3 of us ate, 14.30 on a Saturday. Starters of pan-fried prawn in a delicious lobster bisque, and a tasty mushroom crostini. Mains of two mushroom risotto, one with prawns, one with chicken, and one sea bass on a bed of mash and with stem broccoli was delicious too. Sticky toffee pudding was served with custard when we asked for no ice cream. The lemon tart is actually lemon meringue and a little sweet so bit disappointed it wasn't a tart! The Di Sarano sour cherry cocktail was good too. £39 p/head not including drinks at £48 including 3 alcoholic, sparkling water bottle, tap water and 1 cocktail for dessert.Can't fault them. Definitely recommend. Will be back.

Had lunch with a group of friends the restaurant is shiningly clean and fresh. If i had a negative opinion it would be that the food portions were too big.The toilets were a credit to the management spotlessly clean and well illuminated.We will return.

The fried seafood starter was great. Loved the spicy sauce that came with it. I was very disappointed with the main. I ordered the chicken and the portion was tiny. Very small chicken breast that had nothing special about it. Just plain roasted chicken. The dauphinoise potatoes were alright but all the cream was gone while they cooked them. I also got a bit of mashed potato with peas that was lacking on flavour, no salt, no butter..... While there was nothing horribly wrong with the food there was nothing amazing or special that would make me want to go back.

We arrived for our reservation on New Years Eve to discover that there was a last second plan to change it to a set £70 per person menu (instead of the usual price of about ~£20 per meal).Many of the waitstaff seemed oblivious to this change too (one brought us the wrong menu). We were not informed about this prior and definitely would have not attended had we known. But as we were already out and would not be able to book somewhere else, we decided to try it.During our stay, many tables around us were sending back food, and one table had a proper go at the manager. Another table was waiting for about 30 minutes before just leaving.We also discovered that of the small range of options on this set menu, when we tried to order, some were secretly unavailable so it was actually a very limited menu.The wait staff were delightful, although seemed very stressed and overloaded, making a lot of mistakes (that they apologised profusely for and were incredibly sweet about).The food itself was very nice, well presented, tasted good, all except for the fact that the prawns were deep fried in their shells..?We spoke with 3 other patrons as we left the restaurant, and they shared a similar experience to us. They were all equally puzzled by the shells on the prawns and sent theirs back for this reason.The experience felt like an understaffed cash grab, and although we ended up having a good time I don't think we will be returning.