Cugino's — Restaurant in Grand Ledge

I think that most people who rate this place highly have probably never been to a REAL Italian restaurant. Real Italian food is big on flavor - like garlic, basil, real olive oil, etc. This place offers extremely large portions that are full of carbs and fat, but sorely lacking in any discernible flavor, besides soggy noodles and cheese. To be fair, I have enjoyed their pizza, but only mildly. It's slightly better than anything else here locally. But I have lived in NYC, San Francisco, and Portland, OR, and I'm spoiled. There isn't a pizza place here in Michigan, that I've been to anyway, that compares to the ones I've been to on the east and west coasts.

I was at Cugino's the other night and ordered lasagna. That plate of food must have weighed about ten pounds. It was loaded with flavorless ground beef and cheese. The lasagna noodles were thick and overdone, and the ricotta cheese was like a super massive chunk. It was one bite of fat after another. There was very little sauce and it tasted like it came straight from a can. The cheese had a chemical taste to it. The bread roll was awful. The best part of the meal was the salad, and it was just a basic lettuce salad with grated cheese. It seems like a place of this caliber would spend the extra dollars and get some spring mix or something a little classier.

Now I'll mention the wait staff. I have gone into that place to pick pizzas up time and time again and I am greeted with the same nastiness every time. They are rude and unkind. Until the last pizza I ordered I always left them a nice tip, even though I always get pizza to go. My teenaged daughter was treated so rudely, when I sent her in to pick up our order, that I refuse to ever give those people another tip dollar.

I can't see myself having another meal there. Fazoli's actually tastes better, in my opinion, and it's cheaper. That's not to say I like Fazoli's, because I really don't. I'm just saying... Quite honestly, I make better Italian food than the "chef" at Cugino's so I think I'll stay home next time and do it myself. I can't wait until we move back out west next summer. It'll be nice to have a real...

Food quality seems to have decreased in the past several years (based only on one experience in the last month. It has been several years since I dinned here last so take this review with a grain of salt.) Facts: Overcooked calamari (chewy/rubbery, cold cheese bread which tasted like it was made a week ago and the reheated. Calzone filling was underwhelming/sparse (you got a small bite of any one of the "toppings" for every bite you ate. Other members of our party had no complaints, so maybe I'm just overly picky. Service: Our server was excellent. Hostess stand was a different matter. The young ladies acted as though it was an imposition to have a line of people waiting to be seated. When asked if we could move tables around on the patio for our larger party we were told we'd have to ask the server if they'd be willing to do that. I started off our experience somewhat irritated at this point. I understand that they were faced with a rush as they'd just opened but I don't feel as though it is our obligation to track down individuals about readjusting the furniture.

When we live in GL we used to regularly eat here, now, I just feel like there are better offerings in the area. I wouldn't actively pursue a chance to eat here again, that may be related to my taste changing or my dining expectations increasing. Having said all that... The place was completely filled twenty minutes after they opened, with a mass huddled near the hostess stand waiting for a table, so it's clearly working for a...

We had a group of 10 that met on December 29th at Cugino's. We understood that the wait was going to be long. But, we waited almost 2 hours, I called ahead and continued to check while we waited in the bar area. The worst part was that they had no bussers to clear the tables and we waited an extra half hour while we watched 2 empty tables that would accommodate us, sit there and wait to be cleared. We did speak with our awesome waitress about this, her service was outstanding, and she let us know that they did not have bussers on weekends and the wait staff was expected to clear the tables and she had been swamped. The interesting part is that there were three hostesses that were doing nothing during this time. Once it got past 6:30-7:00 there wasn't much for the hostesses to do. They could have saved us a half hour by clearing the table and helping out the wait staff. We did speak to the manager who really didn't offer much. We did ask for some appetizers to be comped since we were starving when we finally got seated. No help there. While the food was good and our waitress was outstanding, we were quite disappointed with the long wait time due to the fact that there was nobody to clear the table. We hope this feedback will help...