Cello Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Howell

Delicious food, high prices, dark atmosphere, crowded tables.

THE GOOD THINGS: •The food is good! Well made, well thought out, and quite tasty. Pretty good variety. •The Limoncello is UNBELIEVABLE. My favorite thing on Earth. Love it. •The service is ALWAYS incredible. Every server I've ever had has been just the best server. Bar drinks take FOREVER though.

THE QUESTIONABLE THINGS: •Host/Hostesses are a little green and bewildered, but they're young and learning. •I keep seeing the little window in the room in back that says "fresh pasta made daily" but I have never once seen anyone making pasta. The giant mixer in there is just there, like decor. The pasta doesn't taste like fresh made pasta, it tastes like freshly boiled pasta. When you have freshly made pasta, you can taste and SEE the difference. This is a highly suspicious situation. •The prices are honestly really high, even for Howell. Obviously I go and I buy because it's yummy and usually a special occasion, but it's not THAT good. The last time has made us rethink where we go on special occasions, though. •The waiting area in back is uncomfortable, dark, and bizarre. It's weird to have to walk through a crowded restaurant to the back. It's weird to have to walk through a crowded restaurant to the front host desk! I think this is a Livingston County problem, though, not a Cello problem. •If you are having an event, consider taking photos for people. It's a nice detail that makes the cost more worth it. But I guess that leads me to the following.

THE BAD THINGS: •I genuinely hate how close the tables are to each other. Out of the 10+ times I've been to Cello, only one time was I not grazed by someone's bum, belly, or front, or whacked by a coat or purse, and that's because we were sat at a booth. Every other time, it's a struggle for people to get in and out. I really hate that part of it. If it's supposed to be an intimate night out, but the tables on either side of you are listening in, is it really that intimate? The last time we went, I was quietly talking with my husband about the menu, and the person at the table next to us gave her input. Honestly she shouldn't have even heard me. •On that note, the tables are also TINY. I don't understand why restaurants do this. I mean, I know why, to get more butts in seats, but I still don't understand why businesses like making customers uncomfortable. If you want your customer to order a starter or two, water, a drink, a salad, a main course, and a desert, can you please provide more room for these things?? Please? •The music is wildly inconsistent. You get modern pop (like Ed Sheeran), soft rock love songs (like Whitney Houston), and 40s-50s crooners (like Dean Martin & Frank Sinatra). Choose a style and stick to it. Retro Italian place? Stick with the crooners! It's atmospheric and fun. Also, please choose a volume. Whatever you choose, go sit in each and every seat and see how it sounds. Because WOW is it LOUD when you're next to a speaker. •The pictures on the walls are campy and distracting. A few cute "famous people eating spaghetti" pics are fine, but the Marilyn Monroe head w/hair made of spaghetti? Super distracting. And when that's the only thing to look at, it's almost invasive. Get some living plants, get some light features, do anything. It's super dark in here!! So dark. I get the idea of trying to be romantic, but it's not executed quite right, especially with close tables and loud music and weird art. A space can be romantic and intimate without dull, lifeless colors. •Between all of these things, the whole atmosphere is super overstimulating. It's honestly a sensory overload. Not really the right idea for a quiet, romantic, intimate night out, right?

OVERALL: •We like it enough to be a repeat customer, but might not like it enough to keep coming back. We love supporting local, but there are plenty of local places that can earn our patronage without spending a fortune for a hellacious sensory experience. I want to love Cello more than anything, but I am struggling to make it make...

We have been enjoying Cello for years. But last night was so bad we felt we needed to share. I tried to contact the mgmt or owner instead but nowhere on their sites is there a contact page. We did let the staff know. They tried to fix the errors but they kept happening. We will try it again but something is very wrong presently:

It started off with the arugula salad I love and order every time we go although we haven’t been in a few months. They forgot to serve it at first. when it came, it was completely different, and it was simply a ‘pile’ of arugula with some red onion on top and vinegar doused on it. It was inedible. We returned it. This salad in the past is splendid with pears and a lovely toss of champagne vinegrette. Not this time.

We had lots of anppetizers and drinks. Excellent. The food takes a long time. We get that. It’s a busy, packed place. No problems with that course.

Next our meals came. There were 7 of us happily squeezed in a booth celebrating a birthday. 6 meals arrived. No 7th meal arrived. We waited… and waited. No meal. We had to eat without her. When the busy waiter came back it turned out the kitchen missed her order. Now the person delivering our meals didn’t take note she delivered 6 and not 7 dinners and tell our waiter? At least 25 minutes later after we were done eating when her meal arrived. No exaggeration.

Now, the food: I order the lemon spaghetti every time. Delicious. One person got the mushroom gnocchi… it was inedible. It now has peas and other greens in it and the gnocchi was so overcooked it was mush. She didn’t eat it, and it’s what she has ordered for years so she knows how it is served. One person got the chicken parm with fettuccini. She said the noodles had been sitting in water to the point of mush as well. She didn’t return it or complain, as she felt it was ‘tasty’ but nothing like usual. One person got spaghetti and meatballs. She said it was delicious. Two people split the fettuccini Alfredo with chicken on top. It wasn’t split in the kitchen. They were not even given individual plates. So they had to wait for the waiter to return to ask. She brought one. No one was going to eat off the large center plate so they had to ask for a second dinner plate instead of eating off a platter…. That, by the way, when it was delivered, she dropped the chicken on the table off the top of the dish. The couple said it was tasteless, so we all tried it. The sauce was watery and flavorless. The noodles were mush. It was extremely disappointing. They didn’t eat anything but the chicken. The waiter offered to remake it but everyone was done eating so they declined.

We got desserts to go. The bills were messed up but we decided to let it go because the confusion and disappointment had already been enough. I might add that the restaurant was every bit of 80 degrees. The staff was melting. I heard two frustrated staff talking about dying from the heat. As were the patrons.

The person who didn’t get her meal did get it free to take home. They did discount the bill with the gnocchi and fettuccine on it. I understand after just now talking to someone that the chef was a ‘fill-in’. We might suggest if the regular chef(s) are not working, Cello might opt to close for the night rather than try to conduct business like we experienced last night. We understand unforeseen things happen, but we were left with a memorable birthday event not at all like what Cello or we would like to remember. Even if our meals were free, that wouldn’t change...

We went to Cello’s for the first time last evening. We were able to make a reservation one hour before, on a Friday night. We were taken to our table which was not in the best location to suit our fancy, so we asked to move. There were no other tables available inside but we could have gone outside. We chose to stay in because it was our first time and the place is beautiful. Our table was up against a wall by the kitchen so we moved it about a foot away from the wall. The manager, Kaylin (sp?), came over and was very polite in apologizing for our table location, explaining we were the last reservation for 6pm. We did not need an apology. Any table is a good table there, honestly. We can just be picky with our ambiance:). Then she politely told us, due to covid and social distancing, we had to move our table back to the wall. She was again, very unnecessarily apologetic. We completely understood as we try to be covid conscious as well, and moved our table back. Our drinks, food, and service were a 10/10, seriously the best Italian food we’ve ever eaten. As we were finishing up our meal the manager came by with two free desserts to go, again apologizing for our inconvenience. This was absolutely not necessary and was a gesture we will never forget. So kind! We will certainly be back! In fact, we went back an hour later and had drinks outside, with the same wonderful server. You all are top notch. The carrot cake and Tiramisu were to die for, delicious, as a midnight snack! Great...