Vinology Restaurant & Event Space — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

The food at Vinology, especially their brunch, is always top notch and decently priced (contrast to, say, Cafe Zola, which has good food but is erroneously labeled as a two “$$” restaurant to Vinology’s “$$$”, especially considering their very expensive drink options); while my friend group used to plan monthly brunches, it was always my secret preference to come here. I’m back in town from having moved out of state a few months ago, and we decided to rekindle the brunch club, coming to Vinology again yesterday, much to my pleasure.

What has been an increasing frustration, however, is the constant pattern of poor service that seems to be offered when we come to brunch, at the very least to our group. While we are albeit young-ish adults, and maybe greenness suggests low maintenance, we nonetheless don’t believe we should have to sit wondering if we’ll ever get a second cup of coffee, with our server nowhere to be found; or that our party’s meals should arrive both nearly 45 minutes after ordering them, and still not all at the same time; or that we should generally receive no check-in from our server over the course of this wait about things like how long it will even be, or whether we’d like some drinks while we wait, or so on. The restaurant was not at all busy, though whether they were short-staffed nonetheless, I guess don’t have the personal experience to say one way or another.

To be more fair on that last point, about drinks, we did receive a question of whether we’d like some mimosas or Bloody Mary drinks when our first round of coffee finally came out, and we did initially demur. But also to be more precise on that last point, we explicitly agreed with our server’s comment at the time that we may need a couple minutes to wake up with the coffee, and probably would order something later. Totally fine plan. Later came late, what with our server being MIA, and by then we collectively decided to not partake, because what’s the point of trying to take advantage of good drink deals like their “nearly bottomless” mimosas if your chance to get your second one may come as early as when the food arrives? This is something in particular which vexed me yesterday, because it seems to vex us every time we come here, with the silver lining being this time I learned my lesson and didn’t waste my money.

All in all, worth it for the food and if you were planning on staying around for a very long time, and I do unreservedly recommend their dinner. I think they can fix their service problems, and maybe this prod can help. ...

Came here for a nice dinner with my husband and 5 year old. I'd scoped out the menu before deciding to dine here. We'd dined here before and were please with the food. There were plenty of options for our son tonight- burgers, grilled cheese, flat bread.

When we ordered we handed the waiter an allergy card for our son. It states his allergens- peanuts/tree nuts. We ordered cheeseburger sliders- simple, no sesame bun. The chef refused to make the order stating he "wasn't sure there if there had been a cross contamination with the buns in the factory ". They were plain Kings Hawaiian Sweet Roll buns. The web site web states they (Kings) don't handle peanuts/ tree nuts. The manager explained the chef didn't feel comfortable. I told him we'd had it before and it wasn't an issue. The chef still refused. I asked for the grilled cheese on toast and he refused for fear the toast was a problem. I asked for the plain flat bread and they STILL REFUSED. The restaurant refused to serve us any kind of bread which meant over half the options on the kid's menu was ineligible.

We've traveled across the globe eating everything from local village food to five star restaurants. I know what my child can/cannot have. The manager apologized and stated he must abide by the chef's decision. I even told them I'd be willing to sign a waiver stating I wouldn't hold the restaurant liable- since the ingredient label stated there weren't any of his allergens NOR possible contaminants.

The manager said he couldn't basically have anything outside of pasta. Seriously? They made me sign a waiver for pasta. While I don't mind signing a waiver I'd prefer to get what I wanted. They had no problem serving up a chicken dish with CASHEWS for me on the table but refused a white flour bun for my son.

If you have any special dietary or allergy problems avoid this place like the plague. My son's food took over an hour for a bowl of pasta and red sauce. I RARELY ever write reviews (positive nor negative) but felt compelled to share our nightmare of an experience, especially on a school night. What should've been a 60-90 minute experience lasted almost 2 1/2 hrs. We eat out 1-2 times a week~ and I'm not talking fast food. They will never receive another dime of my money and I will make sure to tell everyone I know about our poor experience. The chef needs a refresher on allergies. Stating that there might be a cross contamination of a million possibilities in a facility where they don't even carry the ingredient...

I’m going to give this place only 2 stars for now, until I speak to the manager about my experience today. When I first arrived I was offered a seat at the bar, I said it’s going to be a party of 3 is that okay? The young man said yes, I get to the bar and there is only 2 chairs available, I asked for a table and he said I can seat you outside, when I clearly asked to be inside and there were plenty of tables becoming available because people were done eating and leaving. He sat us outside anyway, my third guest arrived. So we sat, and sat, and sat, and waited and waited and waited while servers kept walking by but also taking notice that we were not being helped. One asked if we had been helped after almost 30 minutes. I told him no. He said hang on. While he went in to check and see what was up one of my guest went in to ask for a inside table because we saw many people going in after us being seated and not brought outside like us. The rude young lady with her rude friend told us no there are no tables available, but clearly seated a party of four that came in after us without any issues. Finally the wonderful wonderful server named Eric, got us seated and served almost right away. He said he reached out to management to let them know what happened but he didn’t know where he/she may be. Over all my wine flight was delicious and my daughter enjoyed her breakfast, the place is clean and beautiful. All the other servers clearly saw the way we were treated by the two people in the front who I will go back and point out!! Those servers and the bartender went out of their way to right the wrongs of those two greeters. And I am appreciative of that. I will be back because the place is fantastic! But the way me and my guest were treated is not okay. The young lady at the front constantly rolled her eyes and act like she was high on drugs and hard of hearing. It was unacceptable service and I’m extremely disappointed that it took us 45 minutes to be properly seated and served while other guest came in after us and was clearly treated the way all guest...