Date Night: Virgil's Real BBQ - Times Square, NY - Monday 3/31/2014

Her Take: For our anniversary we wanted to celebrate with some BBQ! There were a couple options but we decided on Virgil's because it was close to FIT, right in Times Square, so I could meet Nicky after school. We had both been craving good BBQ, so we were excited to try this place. We got there early, even though we had reservations for 6:30. We were seated quickly in a corner and it felt like we were in time-out. We wanted to exchange gifts right away because we were both giddy and excited so we did and I got a beautiful bracelet made in Italy and I got Nicky Knicks tickets. :)) The waiter came right away and asked us if we were ready to order, when we obviously weren't so we said if we could have a minute. He came back in literally one minute so we rushed our drink and food order. I got a pineapple mojito and Nicky got a some Ciroc punch. We put our gifts aside and as we were about to make a toast and cheers, our appetizers came out, holy fast! We ordered Trash Ribs and biscuits. Nicky had most of the ribs and I attacked the biscuits, and just as we were halfway into our apps, our entrees came!! SO FAST AGAIN! REALLY? That annoyed me. I let it slip the first time when the waiter was rushing us to order, and let it slip when the apps came fast, but the entrees too? come on, we wanted to enjoy our time and eat slowly and look into each others eyes and be romantic, but this place was not made for that. They were too rushy rushy. We put aside our apps and decided to try our entrees. I ordered the combo with pulled pork, brisket, corn bread cheese grits and mac and cheese. To be honest I was kind of disappointed because I wanted good BBQ and mac and cheese!! the mac and cheese was ehhhh the grits were alright, the brisket was hard to cut and eat and it was cold, and the pulled pork was dry; definitely needed more sauce, so I put some BBQ sauce on it, but it was still eh.
They came 8423984 times to ask if we were done with our food, no sir i'm just taking a break since you threw a hundred pounds of food at me at once!! Then when we wanted the waiter's attention, he was nowhere to be found. Anyway, we decided to wrap our food up and take it home and we ordered another round of drinks just so we could sit there a while longer. We literally ate in a half hour. I don't mean to rip this place apart, but the service was eh, too many people working and asking if you'd like anything wrapped and they give you no time to eat, they want you in and out! I don't like when restaurants throw the food at you and then give you the check right away, it make you feel like you aren't welcome and like they area throwing you out. The food wasn't terrible but it could have used a little more TLC. I think my favorite part was the biscuits...
Atmosphere I would give it a 6 out 10, service a 5 out of 10 and food 6 out of 10. It wasn't a good place for an anniversary, it's more of a "hey lets grab a QUICK bite" (emphasis on the quick)

His Take: Happy Anniversary to me and my wonderful girlfriend Ariana.  We decided to head out and celebrate our 1 year anniversary!  What better way to celebrate then with food and drinks.  I have to admit I was really craving BBQ/Southern food.  I Yelped some places and came across Virgil’s.  Ariana met me there and inside we went.  Virgil’s is really easy to get to and it is located right in Times Square which is an added bonus.

 

I had made our reservation for 6:30 PM on and naturally we arrived early.  We got to Virgil’s at about 5:50 and the hostess sat us right away.  The place was fairly empty but as our dinner progressed more and more tables came in.  We sat down and were immediately handed our menus.  Our waiter seemed like a nice guy, my apologies but I forgot his name!  Since it was our anniversary, we exchanged our gifts before even opening the menus.  Side note, Ariana got me two Knicks tickets to the upcoming game on Wednesday and I was super excited (more to come on that later).  Any who back to dinner, we started out just by ordering drinks while we looked over the menus.  I ordered a fruit punch drink that had Circoc vodka in it, and it was excellent.  Finally we ordered our appetizers and entrees.  We settled on an order of Trash Ribs with a side order of biscuits for appetizers.  Shortly after we ordered them, our appetizers came out (which was nice because I was hungry!)  The Trash Ribs were excellent, the meat was tender and fell right off the bone, and the ribs were covered in Virgil’s trash sauce.  The portion was a good size, Id say about 8 ribs that me and Ariana split accordingly.  The biscuits were your classic biscuits that came with a side of whipped butter.  Now here comes my first complaint with Virgil’s, we were still eating our appetizers when our waiter brought our entrees.  We did not want to send our entrees back in fear that they would get cold.  We literally only finished about half of our appetizers when the main course came.  For our entrees, we both ordered the Virgil’s combo, mine being Brisket and BBQ pulled chicken, with a side of mac and cheese and mashed potatoes, and Ariana’s being Brisket with BBQ pulled pork with a side of Mac and cheese and cheese grits.  The dish size was huge and full of food.  The BBQ pulled chicken was delicious and typing this now I could go for some more!  The Brisket was just OK, and I have definitely had better.  The Mac and Cheese was good, baked mac and cheese just a little bit to go with the food.  The mashed potatoes were good, but then again its kind of hard to mess up mashed potatoes in my eyes.  And yes of course with dinner we doubled up on our cocktails and ordered another!

 

All in all I was satisfied with the food at Virgil’s.  I was a little disappointed that we were sort of rushed in and out, literally dinner took maybe 40 minutes in total.  Also I regret choosing this place for an anniversary dinner, but it is definitely a nice date out.  I would go back to Virgil’s for some more BBQ food and drinks, but I would hope that they let me stay and digest and enjoy their good food!