Cafe Nini — Restaurant in Grosse Pointe Farms

I am a regular at Cafe Nini. I visited about a week ago and was very disappointed with the service and the servers. I had a reservation for 8:30, now I realize that occasionally tables do not clear on time thus your reservation gets pushed back 10-15 minutes. This was not the case.

First of all, upon arriving at Cafe Nini my party and I were passed by the wait staff 5 times before I had to initiate a conversation with one of them to tell them we were here for a reservation. I understand they were busy but walk by patrons as though they don't exist is a big no no for me, at least say hi and we will be with you in a minute.

After being told our table was not ready we patiently waited. When seats cleared at the bar we sat and ordered a drink. 40 minutes after our table was supposed to be ready and having had no additional contact with wait staff we decided to eat at the bar, obviously not our first choice. If the seats at the bar had not been available we would have left and gone to another establishment.

After the meal we asked politely what the typical response is when a group is waiting 40 minutes for a table, generally in my experience the restaurant is overly apologetic, not the case here.

We were initially told the manager would come and talk to us, when 15 minutes had passed we asked if the manager was coming. We waited another 10 minutes and then asked the bar tender, we were then told there was no manager as the manager had quit the week prior. So why is the wait staff telling us the manager is coming when there is no manager. The bartender then asked what was wrong and we relayed our evening and the frustration behind the fact that there seemed to be no process or procedure for guests that have to wait for, what in my mind was an extremely unreasonable, amount of time. Generally speaking, in order to please patrons, a restaurant will offer to comp a drink or a dessert. The bartender then got very rude and dismissive. To top off the evening a member of the wait staff came over and asked what the problem was, very rudely. We were then told and I quote "we can't possibly give free drinks or desserts to any group who has to wait for a table, we would go broke". We then had to wait 10 minutes for our check which was thrown on the bar with a here.

I am hoping the rudeness and lack of concern over guest experience is something that will go away when a new manager is hired. I can honestly say that almost a week later it still bugs me and it will be a very long time before I head back to Cafe Nini or recommend it to anyone I know. Just for reference I would in the customer service industry and if I treated anyone the way I was treated I would be in...

I’m going to call this a hidden gem because “The Hill” is kind of a sleepy business district if I’m being honest. Cafe Nini is also on the opposite side of the street from the majority of the restaurants The Hill has to offer.

Make no mistake, this cozy little Italian restaurant is one of the better restaurants on The Hill. The wife and I went for our regular date night and were definitely not let down.

I had the fruitti di mare and the wife had fettuccini alla carbonara. Both were excellent. Can’t wait to go back and try something different.

The restaurant is super cozy and has the best atmosphere of any restaurant on The Hill that we’ve...

We had reservation for Valentine's Day. They overbooked and squeezed us in by front door. The waitress did not notice us until after she had already taken care of at least one 5 minute later arrival. Then drinks took too long. There is no inner door so I got hit by winter blast ever time the door opened. It opened a lot so the Grub Hub delivery people could bump into my chair every time (no exaggeration) they came past. My fish was over seasoned but at least it was not overcooked. The one bright side of Covid is that it may significantly improve custtiomer service and...