Rossana's Table - Caledonia, Michigan
Well... It's far to say what could have been a deliviouus meal wasn't anything special. I was going out with my mother and I, wanting to get out and have a nice, early dinner. We came to the small establishment with high hopes. And yet, we had to wait a full hour before our appetizer came out.
We sat down, they seated us at a nice window table with cute fairy lights. It was a beautiful establishment with lots of pretty paintings and a beautiful atmosphere. The bossa nova pop song covers were smooth and a wonderful atmosphere boost -- let's just say the view was pretty while I waited, well, other than locals walking around giving me and my mother dirty looks via the window.
I ordered a Cherry Coke instead of Dr. Pepper because they had Coke products, it was a beautiful sweet. My mom wanted moscato, but unfortunately, they were out. She tried a red wine, but she claimed it was vinegary. Gratefully there was no cost to her tasting, the server was kind to us given how long they made us wait. She got a ginger ale instead, which she also claimed was good compared to most fountain drinks. I didn't have my phone on me, only a book and a couple of sticky notes to write down my thoughts. I read my book while waiting for our food.
We had ordered a Calamari appetizer to share, she ordered the salmon & risotto, and I ordered the Funghi pizza because the mushrooms sounded very appetizing. She was looking to later try their cookies, but given how long it ended up taking, we were in no mood to stay much longer. We had arrived at the place at 6:30ish.
We were often approached about how the food would be out very soon, but when an hour had passed, we were getting a little antsy, hangry if you must. I could tell the workers were embarrassed about how slow their kitchens were working, but to be graceful, it wasn't their fault the chefs were behind on their work.
We got served our appetizer at 7:30; I thought it was wild they actually still came out. When we tasted it, it had a soft breadcrumby flavor to it. Some of the Calamari stuck to one another, so it was evident they couldn't defrost it. I only noticed this later. The outside breading kept falling off, and the insides were impossibly chewy. I feel that the chefs at the Italian restaurant didn't know how to cook it. At maximum, it deserves a three, and I can be quite generous on my ratings. Although we asked for our appetizer to be brought out a bit before our food, the food came nearly a minute after it arrived.
I saw my Funghi Pizza and had high hopes as it had a nice aroma. I picked the slice with the most mushrooms as I noticed the others were lacking. It tasted wonderful, the first few bites of mushrooms mixed with the creamy mix of gruyere and mozzarella... to feel the truffle oil rapidly trickling down my arm. I had to wipe it up quickly to not get it on my book or annotation supplies, I realized how badly soaked the pizza was in truffle oil. I forgave the pizza for its incident, and I tried another slice, which felt like I was just eating caramelized-onions pizza. There were barely any mushrooms on the pizza. It felt less like Funghi and more like a cheesy grease pit for dinner. My mother called for some lemon for the Calamari, but it did almost nothing to help aide its flavor, demoting it from a previous 3.5 I'd given it to a 3. I'd give the Funghi Pizza a 2. You could barely call that a "Funghi" pizza.
My mother ordered the salmon and risotto. She first took some of the risotto to try, but she said it wasn't too great, not elaborating much more on it. She only likes a certain risotto that her friend makes, but she claims that compared to other risottos she's tried, this was the most bearable, other than her friend's. She tasted the salmon, didn't quite like it, tried it with lemon. It did absolutely nothing to aid the dish, and as she claimed, it was still super dry and tasted too fishy, which is important to a salmon dish. Salmon should not taste like a stinky fish straight off the boat, rather, it should be armly cooked, buttery, and on the wetter side. All during my wait, I was told the food would be out in minutes, but minutes turned to an hour so I'm not exactly pleased. She said the salmon would get a 0 if she could, but I don't give zeros so it gets a .5 star.
We tried getting marinara sauce for the calamari, and the first girl said they didn't have it, but she'd find a red sauce. She forgot our order. We had to get another girl to bring us some, but it was evident it was just heated up in the kitchen.
I heard the people around me had similar reactions, complaining about their 6 o'clock reservations lingering to this late at night to get food. Their excuse was that the kitchen was backed up. I hear, looking at other reviews, that they make a lot of excuses to cover poor service, but on repeat?! As I said to myself when we were leaving, someone's getting fired. read more