I agree. We've been doing this for many years, not just Valentines Day but most other holidays as well. Better meal and way less stress.

Most are owner snowbirds. But they are all here for the fabulous lifestyle provided by the Villages,retirement community.

OOP's
 

Unless I am wrong, A "Snowbird" is a peron(s) who only come for a period of time usually in the winter and do not live in TV year around. Whether or not they are Owner ir Renter has no bearing on the title of "Snowbird".;)

I think that you have the wrong place. They use real dinnerware and flatware. I don;t know if it's cafeteria silverware or not, nor do I care. The salads are good, not great. About what you'd expect from a mid priced Italian restaurant. We're not talking five star fine dining here, which I don't care for anyway. It's just a good old fashioned, family owned, Italian restaurant like we had back in my home town. We've eaten there are few times in the past and loved it. Someone just went crazy with the salt, or maybe that have a new chef that smokes.

And I do agree with all of the posters about eating out on Valentine's day. To quote John Lennon, "I Should Have Known Better".

Next year, I'll cook.

Correct. A snow bird is a person that flies down here (literally or figuratively) when it snows up north.

I have many friend The Villages are owned by snow birds. They are the ones that can afford to summer up north and winter in Florida. I, and many of us here wish we could do the same. I would love to spend about three months a year in New England.

I don't understand why we have to have all of the disparaging comments about them.

We learned our lesson a long time ago. Valentine's day along with New Years and Mother's Day are the top days for dining out. We waited on Valentine day for two hours and never again. But we happened to go to RJ Gator's before 4pm that day and were seated right away. The restaurant was full when we finished. We are now use to going early dinner to beat the crowds and it works out for us.

I guess I would have told the waitress that the food was inedible and see what she would have offered or called for the manager. I tend to not complain and have a bad meal too

That is an excellent idea of celebrating on another day. Same with flowers when the prices are more normal. It is just one day in our lives

The Beatlemaniacs rock!!!!!

Bet you wished that you had a meal like you served Feb 9th

I know Anthony the owner. I will make sure he gets your feedback. Thank you.

Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt. :doh:

Celebrate before or after
 

We too went out for Valentines Day except we knew better than go on the actual day. We went to Lopez on Wednesday, Feb. 12. We anticipated having to wait for about an hour so we went early (4:30). To our surprise there was no wait and the restaurant wasn't that crowded. As usual, the food and service was excellent. Even when we left around 6 the restaurant didn't seem to be that busy. I guess a good break for us.

Thank you. I would have liked to e-mail or message him directly and let him know but when I googled them, all I got was Yelp and several other sites like that. I had trouble finding their e-mail or web site until finally someone on here posted it for me.

But even then, when I clicked on "Contact Us" I got a form to be added to their customer list with a small space for comments.

I really only want to bring this up to them for the good of their business. If I owned a restaurant, I would certainly want to know that something like this happened.

I had a problem with another restaurant about a year ago and e-mailed the owner and told him about it. He offered me a free meal and I politely refused. I didn't want him thinking that I was complaining in the hopes of getting something for nothing.

I used to run a business that had a food service component to it. If there was a problem with the food or service I'd want to know about it. It's impossible for an owner to know what happens to every single customer or every dish that is prepared. It's better when the people tell you about it. I am reluctant to talk face to face because I have met to many people in the restaurant business that have high strung explosive personalities and I'd rather not deal with that. Also often when you do something like this immediately, they owner/manager wants to make it up to you by taking something off your bill. I feel very uncomfortable accepting those kind of things. Like I said, that's not my reason for doing it.

salty restaurant foods
 

If you want a very interesting, non-fiction story of how our government controls what we eat, be sure to read the book "Salt Sugar Fat" by Michael Moss. I did and what an eye opener.