Mediterrano — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

We chose this restaurant for Mother’s Day after reading great reviews and checking out the menu online. The place itself is adorable—cute inside and out—with easy parking and a welcoming vibe when we walked in. Unfortunately, the experience quickly went downhill.

When we were seated we noted how hot it was inside, as it was a nice evening we asked service about maybe moving to a outside table, but she server hesitated and instead offered to turn on the air conditioning. Wanting to be polite, we agreed, and it did help long enough for us to place drink orders, but the restaurant remained uncomfortably hot throughout the meal, making it difficult to enjoy ourselves. And at that time it felt rude to ask again to move outside knowing it may affect her tables and tips for the night.

When our server came to take our drink orders, we hadn't been given a cocktail menu. So we referred to the one listed on their website—only to be told those cocktails weren’t available anymore. She then brought us the current drink menu, but this delay added more unnecessary time to what was already a slow service experience. It was frustrating that we had to initiate that ourselves, especially on a night like Mother’s Day.

When it came time to order food, we were all excited about the baked feta, which we had seen praised in countless reviews. But when we told our server our choices, she informed us it was sold out. It would have been much more thoughtful if she had led with what wasn’t available, which was quite a bit, so we wouldn’t have gotten our hopes up.

We ended up ordering the halloumi (delicious), the bread service (great), and the cold mezza with tzatziki (just okay). Our mains included the market green salad (very dry), the capellini (looked good, but I didn’t try it), and the gnocchi (fluffy but dry and lacking flavor). Honestly, the food might have felt more impressive if the rest of the experience hadn’t already soured the night.

Service continued to drag—our server, Karren, disappeared for long stretches. At one point we were without drinks for over 20 minutes until a kind and attentive food runner offered to help. He was easily the best part of the evening and should absolutely be front-of-house.

We stayed a bit after the meal to chat—it was Mother’s Day and we’d traveled from three different cities to meet up—but once we asked for the check, Karren never returned. It wasn’t busy by then, and it would have been nice if she had checked in one last time.

The manager we saw at the entrance seemed friendly, but we never saw him again during the nearly 2 hours we were there. If we had, we would have shared this feedback in person.

I was excited to try this new spot, but the overall experience—from uncomfortable conditions to uncoordinated service—left us disappointed. For the price, it simply wasn’t worth it, and unfortunately, I...

We were so excited to celebrate Mother’s Day in their private board room and it was the biggest disappointment. Our server Porche/Portia was so cold towards us we immediately felt like an inconvenience and when you’re paying so much money to have a nice intimate meal with your family it immediately set the wrong tone. I understand being upset about working a holiday but the service standard was so low I would’ve been upset if I received it at an Applebees.

She didn’t introduce herself, we had to ask for her name. We were given no bread service and had to ask for it after our appetizers came to the table, then given no taramasalata which we then had to ask for. We were never asked for a refill when we all would have ordered more drinks. I had to give my water to someone because they drank all of theirs and she never checked on us. Two kids were splitting the penne rigate and it was ordered as split. I have never seen a “fine dining” establishment deliver the plate to the table for the customer to do it themselves but when it was time to leave our plates were taken away and boxed. How can you not split a dish for two children in the kitchen but you can pack up the remainder of the meal? When our entrees came out, our server was not helping direct where the food goes and the food runners were dropping food wherever and we all had to switch plates. I also had the pasta rigate and it was flavorless. I went three times over with salt and pepper and it was still like eating cardboard. On top of that, it was cold. The only thing that saved my meal was the chicken from my boyfriends Alfredo, the grilled chicken and bacon wrapped dates were both very good.

After we finished our entrees not a plate was removed. I sat with mine to the side of me for about 15 minutes while she asked if anyone wanted boxes. Still never asked for another drink. And of course we had to inquire ourselves for the dessert menu. We were so ready to leave we ordered it to go and it was just as disappointing. My chocolate torte was so granular and dry and the “mixed berries” that came on it were a joke. I ended up feeding it to the cat and he didn’t even eat it, just the whipped cream.

I’ve never had a fine dining experience be so subpar. I was so excited reading the menu and seeing all of the beautiful ingredients the restaurant uses (saffron, truffles, etc) and the food and service were so far below fine dining standard. The only up to standard thing our server did was say she was on my right when placing our first and...

Something wasn’t quite right. The polite gentleman host, probably manager, stated my name and another hostess escorted me to my table. Reservations for two. When I looked online, the service stated zero tables until 6pm. Well, that wasn’t going to do, so I called the phone number, someone answered put me on hold ( not long at all) then 4pm was settled on. Beforehand, I visited the World Market, bought a few things and walked to the restaurant. I wasn’t even ten minutes late. The person seating me didn’t exactly throw my menus, but I did take a picture of how they were placed. Our waitress was timid and spoke with a very high pitched voice. There was no mistaking her enunciation through the mask. Yes, she was nice. She received almost a 15% tip and above 10%. Tipping is polite, essential and demonstrates kindness and class. Wherever I dine, I draw in the atmosphere as well as the greetings by the staff. I am comforted at witnessing diversity of ethnicity with the wait staff, not just the cooks in the kitchen. I’ll never forget my surprise a decade ago when I went to pick up my Chinese food and I could understand the cooks in the kitchen, they were speaking Spanish!! My Italian is not even Duolingo worthy but I can state, “Grazzi” one or two Z’s let me check. My Expresso -coffee , (double), wasn’t warm temperature wise. We ordered salads. Presentation of my watermelon salad was above average. The second salad, some lettuce with a piece of salmon thrown on looked very unappetizing and sadly, I was told the salmon wasn’t well seasoned and was probably dumped out of its frozen package and put in the microwave. Mind you, even if you’ve lived in Boston, traveled repeatedly to Sicily, you will find the rare restaurant with a Chef that knows that level of culinary experience. We accept that, but as you’ll see in the pictures, the salad was sad. Of course, my BMI is 30.?? %, so I went home and had a meal. There really wasn’t much to walk off but we went back to the World Market and bought chocolate. Yes, we had dessert 🍮 & no we didn’t enjoy it nor did I take a picture of it. No it wasn’t Terre-Miso, I think people order that just because of the name and I probably spelled it incorrectly. As we strolled out, there was one other family of color and the tables were fairly full on the outside. We only live once. We are grateful for everything and we are just as concerned about world events as the next person. You must continue to put positive vibes out there. Treating yourself and being treated is...