The Little Village - Downtown

We had a wonderful dining experience. Food was delicious, service was fantastic. The music and restaurant had us transported. Great little gem in Baton Rouge.

Awesome experience as is the usual at this restaurant. Great food and drinks and friendly staff.

Profoundly average. Two colleagues and I ventured into this place on the recommendation of a local, and while it's fine as restaurants go, there was very little that stood out with respect to food taste and quality.

We maintained the essentials with spaghetti and sausage, spaghetti and meatballs, and lasagna. Figuring that if they got these right, then, we could come back another night and enjoy some other things. I'll let you guess what happens next.

The sauce on the spaghetti dishes was a preternatural red, almost candy apple, so there's very little doubt they spent more time opening #10 cans than they did actually putting together a good sauce from raw tomatoes.

My colleagues reported that the spaghetti was good, and they finished their meals, but really for twenty dollars, they should have had twice the amount of pasta, as the dish was swimming in sauce. Some folks like that, but for me, the value was not there.

The bread which came highly recommended with a side of roasted garlic was tasty, but at sixteen dollars for a full loaf, and another 4.50 for a measly single bulb of garlic, that's a twenty dollar loaf of bread that's worth about three dollars and fifty cents.

Side note: if you want red sauce with the bread, you get less than a cup for another four dollars and fifty cents. That's nervy.

The side salads were fine, I find the lack of ranch disturbing, however.

Finally on to the lasagna. Don't bother. There was very little flavor, it was served almost cold, and there was so much sausage... Or whatever meat they used... That I, as a big giant carnivore, did not want to finish. I could have. I did not want to.

The lasagna needs about half the meat, twice the pasta, a bechamel between the pasta sheets, and some layers of ricotta as well. Ironically it needed some more sauce.

The lone bright spot was our server Gracie. A sprite of a thing, she was cheerful, fun and helpful. Made sure we always had fresh drinks and although with a little slow in ordering the entrees, always checked on us as we went through the meal.

This place was most likely good once, if I were taking bets I would say that time has passed.

Were I to save this restaurant, i would start by reimagining all of the recipes from scratch.

They may say they do that now, but either they do not, or their chef is awful.

If you have a favorite here, please enjoy it. If you're coming in from out of town, and have had truly good italian food, you can go ahead keep on driving.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Roasted Garlic, House Salad

We ate here before a concert at the river center. We had drinks at the bar. The bartender was excellent and the drinks he served were great. Highly recommend. We ordered two appetizers, toasted ravioli and the fried burrata. Both were excellent. I have some regret not getting the bread. It looked excellent, but the fried burrata stood out. My entree I was not enamored with. Ordered the veal marsala. It felt over reduced to me. It may be the way they make it, which is fine, just not the way I want it. The Louisiana Seafood Medley was excellent. We loved it. Service was excellent as well.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

I have recently went to this restaurant and proposed to my now fiancé.
Mr. Brian and his whole staff were amazing. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was what we wanted. Thank y'all so much to a very wonderful night and an extraordinary experience that we will never forget!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Garlic Bread, Toasted Ravioli, Fettuccine

Ordered Fish of day “speckled trout”. Tasted like catfish and was way thicker than any speckled I’ve ever seen. Rice was almost crunchy. Etoufe was ok. Fried deviled eggs were overcooked ,dry, and had no taste. Bread was only thing that was excellent. $65. Will not return.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 1

Service: 3

Disappointing. The bread was awesome, but the garlic that accompanied it wasn't roasted as it should have been. My trout almondine was deep-fried and burnt instead of lightly pan-fried. My wife's seafood dish came out without the seafood on it, and she had it sent back. Service was great! But won't be back.

First but certainly not last visit to Little Village Downtown BR. From greeting to service to food everything was excellent. We ordered lasagna with a blue cheese wedge salad. The lasagna was cheesy and full of flavor. The wedge salad was enough to share and the blue cheese dressing was delicious. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and cant wait to go back!

Felt like for the money we spent - this wasn't worth it. The 8oz bottle of water we got was $8 each. I think that is a little steep for a serving of water. We got 2 - I am happy we did not order another bottle each. We got the steak special and it came out way underdone. Our waiter took it back and within 3 minutes brought it back. It was STEAMING hot - I am assuming they put it in the microwave... And for a $69 steak special - I was very disappointed. Definitely tasted liked a microwaved filet that was now overdone. We also got the chicken marsala. It came out like soup - there was SO MUCH SAUCE on it was soupy. The flavor was okay but not my favorite. I tried to like the food but it was not for me. $178 before tip for 2 people - it needs to be right.

We had a wonderful meal and a great time at The Little Village. The waiter was most helpful and the food was tremendous! Happy to have gone there for my reunion. Thanks!

The restaurant was conveniently located down the street from our lodging. Got the veal marsalsa and shrimp scampi. Both were very good but more New Orleans than Napoli. The scampi sauce was very creamy and the veal was in a mole sauce. Again, very good but not typical Italian. Although we didn’t order it, I noticed the bread order at an adjacent table and, again, it looked deicious but more like giant biscuits from a breakfast at Louie's. I would go again sometime.

Good experience, love the waiter. My husband food was cold and lots of salt. But mine and our friends food was very good.

Unfortunately this was one of the most unpleasant dining experiences we've had in a while. We were seated immediately & greeted by a friendly female server & placed an order with her for water. Then another server, a gentleman came by and asked if we had drink orders. We ordered our alcoholic drinks from him & then overheard the female server tell him that he had stolen her table. It was immediately tense & awkward after their exchange. Our drinks from the bar came back & my dirty martini was made incorrectly & tasted as if the olive juice was out of date. The village bread was good, if a tad over-baked. We ordered a meatball, which was cold on the inside, despite having been served in a bowl of piping hot red sauce. The chicken in the Alfredo we ordered was burnt to a crisp & completely black. We also ordered the fried ravioli's which were fried for far too long. The server was kind enough to take the meatball off of our bill, but the quality of the food was beyond disappointing. Go for a happy hour drink & the bread, but don't spend a dime on anything else.

The service and the food were great Only issue is the music was so loud you had to almost scream to talk to someone across the table from you.

SO. VERY. GOOD!! This is just a good old-school, delicious Italian restaurant. Reminded me of what you would get in New York or Chicago, just great attentive service and wonderful food! I will definitely return on my next visit to Baton Rouge!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5