Russo Italian Restaurant + Market — Restaurant in Byron Township

Before leaving a review we gave this place 2 attempts. Once on a busy weekend night and once on a slower weeknight, to give them a fair chance. But both times were highly disappointing.

The first time we went my husband ordered a pizza that was mediocre at best. Five Lakes, Monellis and Village Inn make a far superior pizza at a fraction of the cost. I ordered salmon and requested medium well done, and I asked what the vegetable medley was and was told it was like spaghetti strands of various squash, carrots and zucchini. My salmon was cooked medium, still partially raw in the middle and the medley was raw strips of vegetables slathered in olive oil. It was also on top of garlic mashed potatoes that tasted like a boxed potato as best. Everything was terribly under seasoned and bland. We ordered the cannoli to go, and while the filling tasted pretty decent, the shells tasted very pre-made and stale.

The second time my husband ordered the fettuccine Alfredo and added chicken, and I ordered the spaghetti pomadoro with gluten free pasta and added chicken. By the way, the pasta dishes alone are almost $20, and then an additional SEVEN dollars for a few strips of chicken. Again, everything was incredibly bland. The sauces were extremely watery and thin. The chicken was just okay. Worst of all, the gluten free pasta was way over cooked and was falling apart in the bowl and turned to mush when eaten. I ate the chicken and requested to have the pasta portion of my dish removed from the bill, which they did. But neither the owner or the owners son even came to follow up on the situation or offer anything in return.

Ambience wise, pretty drab and sad inside. Not sure why they went with this open concept with literally the all tables sitting right next to one another and very minimal sound absorption. Decor is almost non existent and quite dated. This place took forever to open and I had assumed they were working on an elaborate interior, and was surprised to see the end result given the length of time it took to open.

For the price of the meals, I had much higher hopes and expectations. I understand they are trying to be more of a fine dining experience, but then the food quality, ambience and customer service really need to...

Truthfully, I was really looking forward to this place. Russo is such a big name in the history of GR wine and food. After 2 hours, we walked away mildly disappointed.

It was busy, but we were able to get a table for 3 right away. Everything off to a good start: waiter came over, got us waters, asked if we wanted something else. Thumbs up.

Problem started after the food came; our waiter come back to make sure everything was OK 1min after the food was dropped. Didn't see a wink from them the rest of the night unless we flagged them down. It was busy, sure, but they only had (from what I could see) 3, maybe 4 tables. Finally flagged them down for another glass of wine, but they had taken the wine list and had to fetch it again, more time.

Fine, ok, I'll give some grace. But after we finished, we waited 30ish minutes to get our check (again, had to flag them down), and another 20 for it to get processed (you guessed it, flagged them down). Maybe they're newer, and still learning the ropes, fine, but whooo, didn't enjoy that

Apart from that, the food was good. Wine list, honestly left a bit to be desired, but was ok.

The biggest disappointment for me was the atmosphere, the decor, the whole ambiance. Just miserable. It had no soul; it was set in the outlet mall (fine), but inside felt like it was the inside of an outlet mall. Boring drywall finish, boring paint, high ceilings with miserable, uninspired, flat lighting, big aluminum framed windows. It just felt so...Suburban sports bar, without the energy and tvs.

If I'm paying what I'm paying for a meal like that, you need to get me from jump street, ya know? Rustic Italian villa, mood lighting, colors other than boring gray-green. I dunno, maybe I'm being too critical, but truthfully, it took me out of the mood.

All of that to say, I'm sure we'll go back some point, like I said, the food was pretty tasty, and ultimately that's why I'm going to a restaurant. But man, I feel like there are better Italian...

Chose the restaurant due to high ratings of food and service. Went for a birthday, just 2 of us. I had called the week before and was told it shouldn't be busy when we planned to arrive. This was not fully the issue. Tables were about 50% seated. The hostess told us she couldn't seat us because the section she would put us in just got seated a table. If we could walk around for 5 minutes she could seat us then. We said we would be fine ordering a drink and waiting. The manager walked over, we were told it's trivia night so it gets busy. Ok...but there were tables. I understand it's hard to find help these days. In front of us they said ~ we couldn't go X because that server had a big table (not all had arrived yet), we couldn't go X because that section was full, we couldn't go X because that server just got seated. I made my way through college as a server, my single mom kept us clothed and fed as a server, getting seated two tables close together was never a big deal, esp with a hostess, manager and bartender in a small bistro setting. And there were 2 of us, ready to have a laid back time. Finally they decided (still in front of us) that one of them could get us something to drink while the server tended to her other table. The hostess showed us to a table where the trivia announcer's speaker was literally (I do mean literally) directly to the point of touching behind my husband's chair. Again, many other open tables but it was this or the bar we were told. We left. The customer experience manager caught up to us in the parking lot and said he could find us another spot. At that point, my husband, whose birthday we were out to celebrate, was done. While my husband is a tall lean man he can pack away the Italian food and was hoping to try a good portion of the menu:) We ended up at the Alehouse where the...