M Italian — Restaurant in Chagrin Falls

Food tasty; Service not bad usually... (My review in 2020/2021 4 stars).

2024 Update! I've ordered here 2x/month for the past 2.5 years, but in totality, have been a patron since 2019). Most times, delivery. Today, I drove over after work. [Wearing my scrubs], I was excited to arrive before 6pm. The lady at the hostess stand handed my order to a bar-tender. He asked her to ring it in herself. After she rung it in, the total was $33. After she rung it in, he went back into the order to modify it. The tab went from $33 to $50 b/c he took away the "Happy Hr" prices....

Handed me a credit card receipt AFTER he charged my card for $50 rather the original $33 that was rang up with ZERO explanation/words. And immediately walks to the food window pretending to be helpful. While he was away, the hostess came back to the bar to pour drinks for whomever needed them. I asked her why did the bartender change the price to get rid of the happy hr discount to which she replied, "I don't think Happy hr applies to to-go orders." She commences to continue pouring wines.. when he approaches w/the food, I asked him the same question. His response was the same. The biggest issue is NOT over $17, which I clearly have. The issues are: Lack of any communication with me before changing food prices and receipt prices. (I handed him.my card after he handed me a $33 receipt) Lackadaisical attitude when I asked, and ZERO apology from either worker when I inquired about the change in charge without my notification.

As I told the bartender when I was at the restaurant, I've ordered from M-Italian every other week for 2 years. I'm a loyal patron and have brought my family there before. But his disposition has caused me to change my: review & my loyalty. Clearly, they do not care. And the service has declined. FYI: Bartender's name is JEREMY (As printed on the receipt). Find another bartender if you choose to go. While I'm sure my food will not disappoint, the service today permanently did. Sidebar: Also, the guy making pizzas today had on zero gloves while handling pizza ingredients. I am saddened. Hopefully, a manager or owner will read this since the service dept. Is SOOOO detached...

Ok...so this one is hard. Food was great, well until tonight sort of...but...

Three weeks ago we came here for brunch on a sunday morning. Great food, place was very cool and it was pretty quiet early on a sunday.

As we sat there we decided to come here for our Wedding annivesary, from the WEST SUBURBS btw, yesterday, 10/10. Made reservations while we sat there, 3 weeks early.

We go to M Italian at 6:55, waited in a long slow line for valet...chagrin falls was BUSY!...and finally got in about 7. Went to the table to check in and this is were it started going bad....

"well, we are really busy and people who had 6:45 reservations still aren't seated. People are busy mingling today..." So first off not sure why that's a ME problem?! Gracefully remind people that OTHERS are here as wel!?

Anyway....52 minutes later, 7:52, we finally got seated. Waitress came by shortly after? Was so disgruntled that I'm not sure how long we waited at that point. Ordered drinks, which were great and added appetizers.

Someone came out with out apps in a decent time, but they weren't ours....and then. we. waited.....no waitress, no apps...we thought that our food, which was ordered as well by now, would for sure be out prior to the app!? Nothing....

FINALLY the apps came out and it was now about 8:40pm, reservations were for 7 mind you....

Then the food!? At least another 40 minutes to get out meal, and by then the apps set in and drinks so I wasn't really hungry. Eggplant and burrata came out, eggplant was ok but the pasta under it was dry and clumped together, which led me to believe it SAT for a while. I took 2 bites and asked her to box it up. Wife at a bit of the burrata, it was good, and we boxed that up as I was done by then.

My ass hurt from sitting so long and I was just NOT enjoying the BEST day of my life...my anniversary! I get it you guys get busy, but damn man...it was painful to sit through and watch.

Most likely won't be back...a long drive for a good meal, where I can get a good meal much closer and not be aggravated

Just beware on...

This was such a weird dining experience that I really feel like I have to unload it all into a review. 7 of us came here to celebrate 3 birthdays. We were excited to get out of our town and try something new. Valet was a necessity, because parking here would've been a nightmare. Our table was ready when we arrived. I have to start by saying this place is loud. I felt like I was yelling the whole night. There's something about the acoustics and the amount of people they pack into the restaurant. It's whatever, I've been in worse. Next, as we're seated, our server comes up and starts talking to us. No introduction, just random small talk. He brings out water, but we don't have glasses. He gets glasses and one of them had clear lipstick stains on the rim. I show him, ask for another, and he takes the glass, proceeds to wipe it down while telling us how busy they are and ran out of glasses, and then he gives it to someone on the other side of our table! Luckily, that person was going to get a drink and wasn't having water, but still so nasty. Our bread comes out and we waited for what felt like forever to order apps, which were good, and even longer for dinner, which was not good. The honey balsamic glazed Salman had no glaze. The chicken marsala was glazed and had no sauce. The vodka sauce was mid at best. One of our group ordered the filet which came with a polenta cake. Here's the kicker, our server made the decision on his own to substitute the polenta for some potatoes. He told us what he did like, hey, you wouldn't have liked the polenta, so I did this. So completely strange and random. Our birthdays, which I had put on the reservation, were never acknowledged. He started the bill process without telling us about desserts, and his general demeaner the entire evening made us feel like he was stoned. There are other things we laughed about all night that would make this comment even longer than it already is. Long story short, I would not come back here, not because of the server, bc everyone has a fluke day, but because the food was legitimately...