The Villa Restaurant
Old School Italian in a fresh new atmosphere. We are on East Plain Street in Wayland, Massachusetts. And this red building has stood here for 100 years. And since 1955, it's been known as The Villa Restaurant. I've been coming here with my kids for many years and frankly, it started to get a little bit worn and tired. So a couple of years ago, new ownership came in and they completely renovated this place. Now you have a very spacious dining room with lots of booths and tables and they have a great bar with plenty of seating and awesome craft cocktails.
The atmosphere is comfortable, clean and stunning. The menu at The Villa is like an all star lineup of all the classic Italian-American red sauce favorites. Here's a good way to start your meal. The arancini. Basically this is Italian style fried rice, inside it's stuffed with some pancetta and some Fontina cheese. Crispy on the outside, very creamy in the center, rounded out with some of their tomato sauce and some shredded Parmesan on top and this is a perfect way to start any meal.
The Villa has been around so long they have some dishes you don't see at a lot of restaurants anymore. And here's a perfect example: the clams casino. Served right in the half shell, nice and toasty on the outside. Inside, you can see all those super fresh chopped clams, bacon, peppers, onions, and it's glistening in melted butter. So sweet, got the saltiness of the sea, freshness from the onions, bread crumbs give it that nice toasty crunch. And of course, butter makes everything better. Especially clams casino.
Pizza has always been one of the star attractions at The Villa and they have a unique style here. It's a thin square shaped pizza. It's not like a Sicilian pizza. It's not like a New York pizza. It's a Metro West pizza. The number one selling pizza is the Margherita. It starts with that fresh dough, crushed tomatoes right on top, that in comes the mozzarella cheese. Comes out of the oven, a little sprinkle of some fresh basil. Let’s go into the taste test. First thing that hits you is a burst of sweet tomato. The cheese is really nice. And here's the thing - the crust super super light like crispy crust, great cheese, burst of fresh tomato, a little bit of that licorice kind of flavor from the basil and it's delicious.
Another popular pizza is the Bianca. Now the Bianca is the Villa's rendition of a white pizza. And basically, it's like the best garlic bread you've ever tasted. But just in pizza form.
If there's one dish that truly defines The Villa experience, it's this one: the absolutely mammoth platter of chicken parm. The key is in the chicken itself. These cutlets are pounded out so nice and thin. They fill the entire plate, totally blanketed in cheese, of course and by the way, the cheese is a blend of both mozzarella and cheddar so it gives you a little bit more depth of flavor than you're getting in most chicken parms. And of course, it comes with plenty of pasta. So altogether, it's a lot of carbs, a lot of cheese, a lot of value for your money.
And if that's not enough parm for you, check out this dish: the Parmesan Combo. You get all three of their most popular Parmesan dishes, Chicken Parmesan, Veal Parmesan and the Eggplant Parmesan. This is like getting three entrees for the cost of one. The combo does not come with pasta but frankly, you don't need the extra carbs when you're having three full size entrees on one plate.
Seafood and pasta are both very popular here at The Villa. So if you want to get the best of both worlds, I recommend the Seafood Fra Diavolo. This is a classic Italian dish - clams and mussels, some shrimp, you take your pasta, take your Fra Diavolo sauce, and you take all that fresh seafood, put it together. Super spicy from the sauce, super sweet from the seafood. So every time you swirl some spaghetti, you're getting a nice bit of spice, seafood, and a little bit of that homemade freshness from the sauce. This is my kind of Fra Diavolo and you're gonna dig it.
When dessert rolls around, that's when things get really old school. What was the last time you saw Spumoni at a restaurant? You have cherry ice cream, chocolate ice cream, and pistachio ice cream with some raspberry sauce on top. It's cool, creamy, refreshing, it's just awesome.
I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but my all time favorite dessert is Grape-Nut Pudding. And The Villa is one of the only restaurants left in Massachusetts that still serves it. It's basically an egg based custard that has some sugar, cream, cinnamon, and has some Grape-Nuts cereal in it. They serve it warm, it has whipped cream. It's super fluffy, super eggy. I am nuts for Grape-Nuts. So here's the bottom line: if you want some awesome, old school family style Italian food at an affordable price, you come right here to The Villa in Wayland.
