Avantis Italian Restaurant & Pub

"So the wife and I don't get a chance to get a date night often. The in-laws live in Verona and offered to watch the kiddos so we could have a Valentine's date. Very disappointed! We had reservations at 5pm. We arrived about 4:50. We went to the host area and waited, the waitresses and hostess saw us, but just left us waiting.it was dead in there, 2ish tables and a habdful of people at the bar. We waited long enough that the bartender (only positive thing) gave us 2 drink chips. We had an older lady as our waitress. She started off like she was annoyed that we were there. Not friendly at all(she got a little better by the end). She saw the drink chips on our table and her 1st words were, "I can't take those, you can only use those at the bar" I mentioned that the bartender just gave them to us to use. She was snarky and said "whatever, I will take them this time". Now to the food... we ordered 2 appetizers. Cheese curds and bruschetta. Cheese curds were good, bruschetta didn't have balsamic and wasn't great. Tomato soup not good either. We ordered the 16 oz ribeyes. For $34.99 each we expected a decent one.. they were the thinnest ribeyes I have ever had in a restaurant.(maybe a half an inch thick) very salty as well. My wife ordered medium and it was close, I ordered medium rare and it l came out well done. Not a hint of pink. I added pictures of my 1st and second steak.. My waitress wasn't around but another waitress came over when she saw I was lookkng for our waitress. She agreed it was well done, and took it back. A few minutes later I got the replacement one and it was blue rare. I ate it because I was hungry and waiting too long, but it was cold in the center and very rare. (Their cook has no idea what they're doing). Overall would not recommend and was a waste for our rare(no pun intended, or maybe it was...) date night."

"Seems like a local dive bar type of spot, which normally I love, but not today. Had very strong recommendations from my friends but ultimately was underwhelmed. I was early and had to wait at the bar until more of my party showed up. The bartenders barely paid attention to me, they were spending all their time with "the regulars". They also charged me full price for my wine during happy hour. Or tried to... I saw on the website what the specials were. They just assumed I wouldn't know and tried to charge me full price. They also mixed up wine orders at our table during dinner and tried to pass off the wrong wine as my order. I ordered my favorite wine so I knew it was wrong as soon as I tasted it. The food was not good. Barely any meat in my meal, and just didn't taste good. Mixture of bland and/or way too salty. After such strong recommendations from others I expected much more. I won't be back"

"I don't get the appeal. We went due to the mostly favorable reviews. The food was really not great. My pizza tasted like frozen pizza and my husband got ravioli served on spaghetti (?). It's American Italian food with overcooked pasta, too acidic marinara sauce (felt like my tongue got burnt). I'm sure all the regulars love it, but if you're a foodie, avoid it. Olive garden tastes about the same or better and is faster."

"The portobello mushroom ravioli was mushroom heaven and the (perch) fish fry was great! Service was amazing and so was tiramisu. The Italian soda was nice as well- not overly syrupy or sugary- definitely give it a try!"

"We had a group of 8 and we were able to be seated at two tables in the bar area by each other. Service, food and drinks were all great as well as the prices. I had several of the Wisconsin old fashioneds and I really liked them. Also had a "blind Russian" instead of a white Russian and it was good too. For food, I had the lasagna and some of the ribs that someone else couldn't finish. Everything was really good. Overall had a great time. I have to come back several times over the next few months (Epic training) and this will definitely be one of my stops each time."