Relli's Sports Bar — Restaurant in DeWitt

I will preface this by saying…I am currently sitting across from the most beautiful and now happiest 38 week pregnant woman to ever walk this earth. She is 1/2 way through her spaghetti and has already had to stop to happy dance 7.3 times (the soundtrack here is immaculate).

Last week my fiancé, then 37 weeks pregnant, came across a friend’s date night post while scrolling the ever present Facebook. The immediate joy in her eyes was followed by her excitedly leaning across the coach to shove her phone in my face. I knew at that time, our visit to Relli’s was inevitable.

Let me back up and add here, that Relli’s is a 40min drive from our town of Owosso, which is a variable desert of Italian food. Being that Italian food has been part of EVER major event in our lives, Relli’s was the exact choice for our last date before becoming parents.

Now to the meat sauce of this review…we were greeted by a smiley and kind server named Paige. The warmth and grace she spoke to us with set the perfect mood for what was to come.

We both looked at the menu and had almost instant connections with a particular item. Being that she is 38 weeks pregnant with our lovely little girl, I of course ordered her 2nd favorite so she could have both.

Our salads were “bussin” as Gen Z would say, but next came the breadsticks, 10 of them to be exact. However “10” is a rather modest number to describe the LITERAL BAKING SHEET of breadsticks that was placed on our table. As I separated breadstick one, steak literally filled the air because the crispy outside so valiantly shielded the moist and soft insides.

If you are still reading this, you are probably noticing that I haven’t even mentioned the main dishes. That is because I could write a LITERAL periodical on our pastas.

She went with the classic spaghetti, i the three cheese stuffed shells. I, being the complete bearded savage that I am, went for the first bite with gusto as her plate was barely in contact with the table.

When I tell you my girl is an empath, I mean it in the most extreme way. This woman feels feelings for me that I have never been able to process. Well when I took that bite, my body went into immediate relaxation and she (and I’m assuming my unborn daughter) felt it as well.

The most unbelievable part of this oddesy to this point is that I, afore mentioned bearded savage, was able to feel hers as she took her first bite of the spaghetti.

I’m trying to wrap this up as we sit here with our to-go boxes, 5min before they close, so I’ll conclude by saying…

I have been all around this lovely world, I’ve been to New York’s oldest Italian joint, I’ve been to Rome in the shadow of the Vatican, but never, in my 37 years on this planet, in the many miles on these tires, have I EVER had Italian food like this.

10/10 RECOMMEND, Paige rules, End.

BTW…our final bill was $37 and we are leaving with 3 FULL...

I love this little hometown bar restaurant. I've always had good food there and the service is always on top of whatever you need. Those both are 5 Stars. However, when you go to a restaurant with family and friends, you want to have a conversation. We're not just there to fill your gut. We're there to fill your souls. If you can't hear the people sitting next to you or across from you or standing beside you asking what you would like, the music is too freaking loud. The horrible rappy crappy that repeats 1 line of lyrics and drives nails into your ears. Ok...ok. Not Quite THAT Loud, but too loud for the 10 grays- haired customers that were in there. It was obvious that the station was for the 4 employees we saw working. As soon as we walked, in I asked to have it lowered. Uuummm, yeah -no…..? (whatever that means)... I...Didn't notice any reduction in the noise level but I was told it was lowered a little. It's usually very cold in the restaurant/bar area. I had to choose to have a table big enough to seat 5-6 that's cold or being blasted by the speakers in the ceiling that you can't get away from. 🙄 I mean seriously, bad music along with 20 or 30 TVs ( ok...again probably ONLY 24) for a room the size of a Taco Bell. Thankfully, the volume wasn't turned up on any of those near the front of the restaurant. If there was one with the volume up, at the far end of the bar, it was overridden by the bad music assaulting the restaurant floor area. It's really sad nowadays that you cannot go out and have lunch and a drink and a conversation with Everybody at your table. THE SOUND ASSAULT IS EVERYWHERE IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY. They drive you out so they can turnover the table faster. Next Please... These are the 2 main reasons why I haven't been there in a long time. If I can't hear the people I'm there to commune with, I will find someplace else to go where I can. They also need to take a good look at their clientele. Yesterday afternoon when we were there, at around 2:00pm, there were very few people under 45+, 50+ plus in the main room. Nobody actually listens to the crap that was on that radio. Unless of course, you're -20 something and haven't grown up with truely-talented, human- written, music. One...Please destroy all synthetic, backward spun, over-processed, music! It's not real People. I still have ringing in...

Terrible customer service, even when you do take out, numerous occasions. Last night was the last straw.

I ordered take out, and the girl who took my order tried to take the order quick and get off the phone. I asked her to repeat the order back and she got pissed off and reluctantly did. I ordered a simple pepperoni pizza. The pizza came with extra green olives! I have no doubt that they did this on purpose!

When I got there, I stood next to the pick up counter for 5 minutes waiting to be helped. My food was just sitting there on the counter (not sure for how long). This has happened before in previous visits. The owner and his wife were sitting in the bar area and saw me waiting there. They didn’t care! They didn’t do anything! Sorry to interrupt you! Employees made eye contact with me, and no one came over to help.

I finally left the money on the counter and walked out with my food. No one even cared at all.

I would also like to add that we have sat down a few times over the years and never were helped, so we left. We have also had very slow service when we did get helped. This place should do everyone in Dewitt a favor and close their doors. I would suggest staying far away from this place, unless you like terrible customer service, mediocre food at best, and...