REO Town Clubhouse — Attraction in Lansing

A slightly disappointing and expensive experience...

We visited early afternoon on a Saturday. The restaurant was less than half full. We were sat quickly and upon entering were very impressed with the decor. The restaurant looks beautiful.

When we received our table, it was awkwardly close to the tables around us. I could reach my hand out and touch my neighbor's table. You could hear every single word from all the tables around you. There was no relaxing or ambience. The table next was having some drinks speaking loudly and cursing. Not the restaurants fault, but the lack of spacing made for an uncomfortable experience, especially since we had our child (who later told a family member that we had dinner at the place with the f-bombs).

It looked very well staffed and we saw employees in uniform gathered by the bar and kitchen yet unfortunately it took over 10 minutes for anybody to greet us at our table. We did start to get a little frustrated. This added to the awkwardness of the lack of ambience.

When he finally arrived the server was very polite and attentive after that. They couldn't offer a wine list but the server gave us a great recommendation. Since we were ready to order when he finally arrived to the table we ordered our appetizers and dinner together.

The first disappointment was a custom cocktail from their menu. It arrived in a glass half full? It was a coffee liqueur drink and it was horrible.

The entrees come with soup and salad plus one side. The prices are reasonable. We ordered the cheese bread for an appetizer, the meatball pizza, the shrimp scampi and lasagna.

Upon asking if any of the dressings were homemade the server informed us that only the Italian was. I found it very disappointing they didn't have homemade Caesar. We did try the Italian and it was wonderful.

We ordered a side salad and a cup of minestrone which was the soup of the day. The minestrone was delicious however it was served in the smallest soup bowl I've ever seen. We laughed when they set it down on the table. Probably about half of a cup for the serving size. Again, the little soup ramekin was about half full.

Our meals arrived surprisingly quick given that we had ordered a pizza. Unfortunately our appetizer arrived after our meals.

The pizza was delicious with fresh toppings and cooked perfectly. The shrimp scampi had 5 nice plump shrimp but lacked flavor and was an incredibly boring dish. My son was not a fan and it would have been nice to have a couple more shrimp. The noodles were undercooked.

The lasagna came out stone cold. There was enough pizza to share so I ended up eating that instead. I heated up lasagna at home and didn't really like it. There was too many layers of noodles to my liking and not enough filling.

We love Italian food and hope to try this place again. I really hope they can make some improvements on the attentiveness of their staff (such as helping the server when he is busy by at least greeting tables) and the flavor of their food.

Please give the tables some space. If you aren't going to provide the privacy of booths you need to provide distance in an open air...

Kind of a train wreck… Went here for a friend’s birthday. He made a reservation for 10, but when we arrived they said that they had sat too many large parties and that they’d need to split our group up. Not ideal for celebrating a birthday! They were barely apologetic about this bad situation (of their own making). The hostess is in need of some more customer service training to work in a place going for a sophisticated vibe.

But wait— it got worse!

It’s funny that this new rebrand is trying to sell this place as a ‘premier’ eatery and talks up their ‘fine wines’, yet they don’t have a wine list available and all our server could muster was that they have ‘a good Chardonnay.’ Oh brother…

The specialty cocktails (also lauded on their website) did have a menu, which was written in a yellow font rendered illegible by the very stylish but dim amber lighting. It did provide an opportunity to test one’s clairvoyance, however, as no prices were provided (even by the server when asked).

After requesting the aforementioned cocktail menu (because why should one be offered), both tables were finally able to put in drink orders about 20 minutes after being seated. Once ordered, drinks arrived at one table within about 10 or so minutes. The other table waited about 25 minutes. So much for a birthday toast!

Similarly, the food came out at random intervals with at least 20 minutes passing between the arrival of the first entrees to the last. Three of us ordered the same thing only to find more than a little variation in the amount of pasta provided. The food overall elicited a pretty consistent sentiment of ‘it’s pretty okay for the price’. Quite the rave review.

To further enhance our dining experience, we were provided with cheese-encrusted utensils and offered dirty small plates. Bonus!

Premier indeed! Overall, the service was very slow and subpar. But at least the place looks pretty, right? Without a major course correction, I’d be very surprised if this place is still open in twelve months’ time. I’d like them to be, but some things definitely...

We’ve had dinner here twice now, mid February and again at end of month. We're so excited to have a new Italian restaurant in town and one close to where we live. The space is really nice, we loved it too when it used to be Ellisons. The staff is friendly and have been pretty fast. We got seated quickly both times in on a Thur & Fri night.

First time we ordered Chicken piccata and lasagna. Dinners come w soup or salad AND a side. Realistically I think with the large pasta dinners that come w either soup or salad, there’s really no need to offer an extra side. We were told green beans were the vegetable so ordered that side. It was asparagus - the server thought it was green beans. One soup came out first but not the side salad. Then when we asked for the side salad, it came out & they tried delivering the entire dinner order at same time. Timing is just off. Servers shouldn’t be bringing out dinners when the soup/salad are just arriving. Lasagna was massive. Just massive. Hard to show in the pic. Took 3/4 home, had it as leftover and still had some left. Red sauce is bland. Chicken piccata was pretty good although super watery. Sauce should be a bit thicker.

Second time we had Chicken Scampi and baked ziti. Soup and salad again, with vegetable side (this time it was green beans) and the rosemary potatoes. Potatoes are great! Beans were really good, Flavorful & crispy. Scampi had grilled chicken vs. the piccata that had breaded chicken. The sauce on scampi was more lemony than piccata. It was nice & tart. The sauce for ziti was like the lasagna - bland thick red sauce. Kind of like tomato paste. Spices would really help!! The plain white bread they brought to the table both times was just thin and dry. Would love to have a nice chewy/crusty warm Italian bread or focaccia. The second time here again our dinner was brought out right after bringing our soup/salad. They need to work on their timing here.

All in all a nice experience, friendly place, nice setting….we just think they still need to work on some things. They’re off to...