Zesti Restaurant — Restaurant in Hartland

We stopped at Zesti on Capitol Dr. in downtown Hartland for our first time on Friday (3/19/21),  We had reservations for 5:30PM but, we really didn't need to make reservations for dinner so early as it wasn't very busy.  We were greeted and seated promptly and courteously.  Zesti has a nice rustic Italian wine cellar-type of vibe.  We weren't sure if it was just the finish on our table or something on the place settings / menus but, everything was sticking to the table.  Everything seemed clean but, it was kind of weird - akin to your shoes on a movie theatre floor.  Service was friendly but, not as attentive as you would expect with a relatively empty dining room.  Dinner started with waters / drinks, fresh bread with delicious herbed olive oil / roasted garlic for dipping and we ordered the Calamari Appetizer.  The Calamari (and Spanish onion haystack) was well seasoned with a light and crispy breading that paired very well with the roasted lemon aioli with which it was served.  For entrees, we ordered:  Hunan Orange Chicken (nice portion size, crisped and glazed with an amazing orange juice reduction - house-made Chinese noodles were outstanding), Ravioli (small portion size with a meager amount of seafood to justify the price - awesome Spanish saffron sauce and the house-made ravioli pasta was spot-on) & Linguini (same as the ravioli - small portion size and not enough seafood to justify the price - organic scallops were listed in the ingredients for the dish on the menu but, were nowhere to be found in the dish - the roasted tomato garlic sauce was delicious and ZESTI + the house-made pasta was perfect).  Overall, while I know this is a fine dining restaruant, we found the portions of the seafood pasta dishes were small with not enough seafood to justify the price - table service was just OK and the sticky table was just strange but, we felt the flavors were incredible and the house-made pasta alone is a reason to visit Zesti.  In the end, we can't recommend Zesti as a great value but, we definitely recommend Zesti for their house-made pastas and fabulous flavors.  We will probably try it again down the...

This restaurant was good, not great. Plus, extremely inconvenient if you’re a parent. My mother in law made reservations here for us to have dinner and as a new mom I was excited to get out and have a nice dinner but of course have my 7 month old with me. When she went to check in she was informed there is no high chairs or booster seats. She expressed understanding but being she has not had an infant for 36 years she didn’t think too much into it. When we arrived we were told again that there was no high chair or boosters and I of course accommodated as I didn’t make the reservation and had already made the trip. So I sat with my squirmy 7 month old in my lap. Hated that. To top it off, they don’t even have a changing table in the women restroom so I had to take my son outside and change his diaper streetside because parking is also not ideal. If you’re a restaurant who is catering to adults and not mothers, families, etc you should post it on your website to let mothers know they’re not the ideal patrol the restaurant is geared towards…

To make matters worse I feel the service and food was lacking. We ordered a bottle of wine and the table side wine service was not ideal. The wine was not wrapped in a towel and wine was dripping down the side of the bottle onto the table. We spent $65 on a bottle of wine and expected better. The food was worldly and had a lot of great options for almost anyone to find something but the follow through was lacking. The food was just ok, nothing to write home about, and I have traveled and eaten all over so I’ve had excellent food. This place gives off a fine dining appearance without the fine dining experience.

As a mother who doesn’t have babysitters on call and like to bring my son places I will probably not come here again as I felt I was unwelcome...

We had been wanting to try Zesti since we moved to the area and finally got the opportunity on a recent Tuesday evening around 7 pm when we were passing through the area. We did not have a reservation and the hostess kindly told us that they were not taking any "walk ins" tonight even though it looked like many (at least 6) tables were vacant. We asked if we could sit and eat at the bar and she said that was fine. The bartender was very accommodating and waited on us promptly. We ordered the Hunan Style Orange Chicken and the Gnocchi Veneziana. The chicken was a bit too crispy and was rather tough...I certainly needed the steak knife that was provided to cut it! The flavor was good but nothing spectacular. The Gnocchi was good but again the flavor was just there...nothing spectacular and the shrimp was small and not very flavorful. The atmosphere in the restaurant was very nice and we would probably go back to give it another try. I will point out, however, that the 6 tables that were open when we arrived at the restaurant and were told that they weren't taking any "walk ins" remained vacant the entire time we were seated at the bar...over an hour! I think a less pretentious way to accommodate "walk ins" would be to perhaps say that there is a bit of a wait for a table or to indicate that sitting/eating at the bar is acceptable. Saying you don't accept "walk ins" is a bit...