Pop's For Italian — Restaurant in Ferndale

I visited Pop's for Italian on a spirited Sunday evening in downtown Ferndale, and was impressed with the restaurant's spacious, inviting atmosphere. The service was top-notch, even with the busy crowd. We kicked off our meal with glasses of wine but were a bit disappointed to discover that Pop's no longer offered wine flights. Fortunately, parking in Ferndale was plentiful, which made finding a spot a breeze.

Here's how I rated the dishes:

Garlic Loaf with Honey Ricotta and Aglio E'olio (8.5/10) - This dish stole the show for me. The garlic flavor was bold and incredible, and the honey ricotta and aglio e'olio (olive oil, parmesan, pepper, chili) were the perfect accompaniments. Although the bread was cooked well, I would have preferred it to be a bit more firm and less squishy.

Butternut Squash Soup (6/10) - Unfortunately, this dish was a bit of a letdown. While the butternut squash flavor was present, the texture was too grainy for my liking, and the aftertaste was a bit odd. The crumble on top added a nice touch, but overall, I wouldn't order this soup again.

Caesar Salad (6.5/10) - The presentation was great. The cold, crisp lettuce was accompanied by shaved parmesan that had a fantastic flavor. Unfortunately, the dressing was watery and lacked the punchy flavor that one would expect from a Caesar dressing. Additionally, at $18, the price felt a bit steep for what was ultimately a basic salad.

Nonna's Spaghetti Bolognese (7/10) - This dish was a great value at only $17 for a large portion of pasta with meat sauce. While the pasta was cooked perfectly, there was no pop of flavor and I found the Bolognese sauce to be too meat-heavy, which overpowered the pasta. However, adding the meatballs for an additional $5 was well worth it, as they were delicious and packed with flavor.

Overall, Pop's for Italian serves up decent Italian fare with great value on the pasta dishes. I would happily return to try their pizza and other types of pasta. If you're seeking a laid-back dining experience with excellent service in Ferndale, Pop's is worth checking out and should be around for quite...

There were 5 of us going to brunch to celebrate our friends birthday. No clear policy stated to us or on menu that a party of 5 or more cannot split bill and that gratuity was automatically added. The menu did say parties of 6 or more will have gratuity added to bill. Waitstaff, Lauren, told my friend, who wanted to take care of birthday girls bill as well as her own, she could not and the bill had to be split evenly 5 ways during check out. Lauren then avoided our table after we responded with confusion about paying. She had the manager drop our bill. The manager dropped our bill and aggressively stated to all of us she can’t split our bill and gratuity was added because we had 5 people. Before we could ask follow up questions she rushed off . We then talked to another table of 5 that was cashing out at the same time and they said they were not having any issues with bills being split. I went up to the bar where the manager was who dropped the bill off and she ignored me and quickly ran to the back. The other manager addressed me (the one that went to the back would not talk to me) and when I showed her the menu about gratuity not being added unless there were 6 or more people also that there was nothing stated about not being able to separate checks. This manager was dismissive and said it was a misprint. The misprint is not my mistake and their attitude toward the whole situation was unnecessary. After an uncomfortable conversation and being treated poorly by both managers our waitress finally came up with separated checks in hand and said she split the bill but could not remove gratuity. At this point it had been an hour since we were done eating and drinking and did this whole run around. We just wanted to leave so we paid our bills and quickly got out of there. The food was delicious and Lauren was a decent waitress up until the end of our experience. The fact that the managers were rude to our table for no reason (we were not angry or aggressive just wanted clarification and to be treated fairly). Our treatment was unnecessary and uncalled for. Will not...

I had one good meal there. The next time I went on Valentines day I had a bad experience with my meal as they had a limited menu and only had one steak option that day and it was a filet stuffed with cheese. The menu did not even clearly state that it was cheese stuffed and I had to figure that out for myself. When realized I asked for one without it and they brought my out a filet with cheese oozing out of it. Then they told me that they literally did not have one single regular filet that they could make because they pre-stuffed ALL of their filets with cheese. This process took about 20min to arrive to the conclusion that I had to order something else. It really ruined our dining experience as my wife was done with her entree by the time we reached that point. I was pretty unhappy and a bit confused that they had no steaks without cheese because dairy-free is so common these days.

Today my wife and I went there for brunch with her friend and her bridesmaids for her upcoming wedding. My wife ordered the Beef Tournedos Benedict and had a terrible experience. The entire plate was extremely lemony- which it said literally nothing about lemon in the description of the dish. I mean, a lot of lemon for not even mentioning it. Also the steak was undercooked. I wanted to complain, but my wife is non confrontational and just wanted to get out of there. I was extremely frustrated.

I honestly want to say that it's just the food, but this is now two times that the staff did not properly described food or even know about the dish. I get that mistakes happens, but the prices there are already high and food is expensive in general, so I highly doubt I will ever be returning here. Also things like telling me a steak doesn't have cheese in it, then I have to cut it open and show that there is cheese, is honestly dangerous for things like allergies. They need cheese/dairy free options. Can't believe they stuffed every single filet. Not sure what happened as my first experience...