Andiamo Detroit Riverfront — Restaurant in Detroit

We went to celebrate my husband’s birthday 4/10/24 and were extremely displeased and left looking for takeout after dinner. Way to ruin a special night for us. This was our second time at this location. The first time was during the pandemic where we waited 25 minutes in the outdoor seating area and no waitress ever came to take our order so we left. My husband decided to give them another try thinking the disorganization was due to the pandemic. However, yesterday they showed us they operate at a low standard and are not inclined to provide a great experience since gratuity is already included on the tab.

Their last reservation is 9pm and there is a 15 minute grace period according to OpenTable. We arrived at 9:06pm and the hostess calls over a manager to see if it was too late to be seated. This completely caught us off guard because we were a few minutes late for our reservation. Please stop offering a 9pm reservation slot if the kitchen closes at 9:15pm. We were able to be seated but we already knew what we wanted to eat so we ordered quickly. Our food comes out and we ordered lasagna, fettuccine, and the Ribeye medium rare. The fettuccine lacked flavor, the lasagna was okay. We cut into the steak and it was medium well. My husband was not going to voice his disappointment but it was his birthday dinner. The waitress comes over to ask how the food was and my husband was honest and let her know the steak was overcooked. Our waitress proceeds to say “cut down the middle of the steak for me honey”. He does so and she immediately says “wow you are completely right”. She lifts the steak plate off the table and let us know she will tell the kitchen and will get the steak removed from the bill if kitchen cannot remake. I have never had a waitress remove food from the table knowing the kitchen is closed and my husband and I both mentioned the kitchen staff most likely would not be able to remake. She comes back with the tab and no steak to let us know the steak was removed from the bill and asks if there is anything else she could get us. Why ask us a rhetorical question knowing there could be no food replacement? She offers to give us a drink on the house and I take a red wine.

My husband reviews the bill and realized we were charged automatic gratuity on this even though we did not get to eat the steak and she voluntarily removed the steak from the table. He inquires about this and the waitress advised “ we ordered the steak, the staff cooked it, and it was delivered the steak to the table so we still needed to pay gratuity for it”. So the kitchen staff overcooks the steak and we had to pay for the mistake of a stranger. We were so disgusted by this mediocre response that we did not even argue but should have asked for a manager. The tab said food return but we returned nothing, she swiftly removed it from the table. So we paid gratuity on an item that was removed from the bill and that we did not get to eat. The wine was not on the “house” technically I paid for it since gratuity was paid on an item that was removed from tab.

We asked for take out containers but did not even box anything up and made the conscious decision to not give them a third try!

The icing on the cake was the restaurant gave us a bogus parking validation card so we still had to pay for parking!

Last year we went to the Vegas Andiamo two days in a row because we were so impressed by the service and food. It was a complete 180 from this location. Our waitress only got one thing correct that night, “Vegas is probably better”. “Sweetheart/honey” you have no idea because this location leaves much...

So I’d just like to get this out of the way real quick - the older hostess who was working tonight (10/12/25) an older woman, has kind of an attitude and should work on her customer service a bit more if she’s gonna be the face of the restaurant coming in. But I wasn’t going to let one person ruin our first experience here.

We on the whim made a reservation online (around noon) for 6pm this evening and got there right on time. We noticed a wedding just outside the doors but a nice quiet interior restaurant. We were seated outside the doors of the restaurant with the wedding - and my wife and I could barely hear each other talking, let alone the server who was asking if we’d like water. I went back to the hostess to see about possibly being able to be seated inside but was told that inside seating was for reservations- which we had. But it was for other parties coming. Okay, fine. We were offered the patio to which we obliged. It was a cooler night and we didn’t mind if it meant being able to actually hear each other. We sat outside where Grant our server greeted us. He was the main reason for this review remaining 5 stars.

We sat outside enjoying our drinks and appetizer (Calamari Fritti) when it suddenly began to rain. My wife ran inside to see about getting moved and found another hostess who immediately came running out, grabbed our appetizer and sat us back inside (where we were originally) at this point it appeared as if the wedding had turned down the music some to make it to where we could actually hear each other as well as Grant. So it was fine.

Grant immediately found us reseated inside and got us some bread and took our entree order! My wife ordered the Fettuccine Limone e Granchio and I ordered the Confit D’Anatra. My wife was raving over the flavor and the real crab meat! The crab meat was exceptional as I tried a bite of her. As for mine, the duck was incredibly juicy and tender, and the skin was toasted to perfection and gave it a nice crunch. The food came out presented really well and the taste was great!

Grant was exceptional with ensuring our drinks were good and getting my wife more wine, as well as making sure our needs were taking care of and he was extremely respectful and nice! He truly made this a great experience! We will definitely be back in the future as there are other menu items we were wanting to try as well lol

My only recommendation is - if you guys have a wedding or event going on, I’d recommend putting larger parties outside where a majority of us smaller party tables were seated since the larger party’s conversations aren’t as intimate as a couple going out to dinner and just ensures all parties are comfortable with their dining experience. Just my opinion but it was still a good experience.

Grants service: 10/10 Food:...

Last Andiamo restaurant experience was seven years ago because quite frankly the food was subpar and I gave up. I heard that the Riverfront is different than the other locations so I wanted to be fair and give this location a try.

It’s white cloth with valet overlooking the Detroit River. The downside is if you’re having dinner and want patio seating you’re in the shade and to be fair the Canadians have a better riverfront view than we do of their side, unless your idea of city lights and skyline is a Canadian Casino, some houses and what look like factories to me.

The service was stellar, absolutely, the employees are very well chosen and very well trained, and genuinely I feel they like their jobs. There is also a good chance you’ll run into celebrities and sports celebrities.

The furniture is very comfortable, again did I mention the service was outstanding? Unfortunately it’s a restaurant and not a hotel, so food carries the highest weight for rating.

Bottom line it was... better. It was not superior Italian dining. The minestrone came in a miniature pot with a lid, at first I thought I was going to have to cook it myself (it’s a bad joke I know). But it smelled homemade. Under seasoned, and not as flavorful as it smelled. The ravioli I didn’t even take a picture of because it just wasn’t photo worthy. Needs work on presentation and considering they ran out of the meat ravioli the cheese ravioli needed something to cut the dish, we asked for some steamed veggies on the side. The rouge sauce that came with the side of pasta, eh I didn’t really care for it. Would have been better they skipped the cream and left the hearty acidic tomato shine.

Desserts the Creme brûlée was.. almost great, not almost perfect. The s’mores molten lava cake was dry, the sponge needed moisture in some parts, maybe some syrup or something because the parts that were moist were great, the combination really worked.

Would I go again? It’s a tough world out there and there are many options in downtown that I’d choose ahead of Riverfront Andiamo. It will be years before I will give them another try. But we’ll done on superior service. Is that the third time I praised...