Romagnoli's — Restaurant in Iron Mountain

Wow. Not a good wow. We didn’t even get the opportunity to try the food, due to the lack of customer service, but from other reviews it sounds like we didn’t miss much.

Generally, I really dislike reading restaurant reviews from people who haven’t even tried the food at said restaurant, but honestly, the service was so poor I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something.

We came in and there were two parties ahead of us at the unattended hostess stand. After about a ten minute wait an employee came to the hostess stand and informed the parties ahead of us that it would be a half an hour wait for a table. It’s a Saturday, so that seemed pretty reasonable. We asked the server/hostess if we could sit in the bar, as there were open (cocktail) tables. She handed us two menus and we went and took a seat at one of the empty tables. After 15 minutes of being ignored (a larger party that sat in the same bar section after us was promptly attended to and had their drink orders taken by the aforementioned server/hostess) my husband went to the bar to order drinks. He asked if they had chocolate milk for our 5 year old (why not - it’s a vacation). The bartender scoffed at my husband and stated “we don’t have milk” as if he’d tried to order a glass of goat blood. Who knows, maybe ordering goat blood would have been more successful. Whatever, two cokes and a water then. The cokes were mostly semi-carbonated water and not much coke syrup. Fine. Syrup bags need to be changed, it happens. No big deal. My husband inquired about placing an order at the bar, but was again looked at like he had sprouted a second head and informed that they don’t take orders at the bar.

So at this point, we’ve been in the restaurant about 25 minutes. Still no visit from any waitstaff, and our limited interactions with employees have, thus far, been less than cordial. This is when the weird stuff starts happening. The hostess/server reappears and takes a food order from the party that sat down after us. But… I thought they don’t take orders in the bar? The server/hostess then strolls past our table avoiding eye contact, presumably to put in the order she had just taken. Five to ten minutes later we watch this exact scene replay, except this time with a group of four who were seated at the bar. We weren’t yet starving and decided to see how this all played out. Ten minutes go by and server/hostess reappears and informs the party (of eight) that sat in the bar after us that their table was ready. Mmmkay… server/hostess then returns and takes the food order of yet another group seated at the bar. She disappeared and then reappeared again ten minutes like clockwork to seat (presumably in the dining room) the second group whose order she had taken.

After about an hour and zero communication from staff, we had watched this scene replay approximately four or five times. What made the least sense, however, was that the dining room was only about half full the entire duration of our visit. Our morbid curiosity having turned to hanger, we decided to split and settle for fast food.

TL;DR: Really odd seating / ordering / waiting system with no rhyme or reason to it in addition to unwelcoming (and I’m being generous with that descriptor) service equals a big no from us. I would recommend you not waste your time...

I was in Iron Mountain for work and the hotel recommended Romagnoli's. I am a big fan of italian food, so I thought it was worth a try. Boy was this the biggest mistake I have made in quite some time. While I was greeted quick enough, that may have been the best part of the visit. I ordered a drink and when the server came back I ordered my meal. That is where things turned for the worst. If I could give 0 stars, I would.

In fairly good time, my salad and bread arrived. The salad seemed like it was sitting in water. The italian dressing had little to no flavor. The bread was fine. From the time I received this part of the meal, it was at least 45 minutes until the entree came.

While I am willing to be patient with service in these tough times for restaurant owners who are struggling to find enough help. I wish that would have explained the poor and lengthy service. The restaurant was not even half full and there were three servers. Unless the kitchen was short staffed, there was no reason for the extreme delay. If that was the case, it was not stated, and no one acknowledged or apologized for the delay. I was not even asked if I needed anything during this time.

When my veal scallopini arrived there was again no acknowledgement of the amount of time it took. The veal was swimming in a pool of watered-down sauce that had little flavor. The veal was grossly underseasoned. The mushrooms had a odd taste. I did all I could to at least eat the veal, with a fair amount of salt added.

Not once during my meal did anyone stop by to see how things were or if I needed anything. I sat for at least 10 minutes after completing what I could eat before one of the servers came to see if I needed a box. I obviously said no. She didn't even ask how things were, despite the fact that most of the meal was still on the plate. She didn't even ask if I was interested in dessert.

I travel 2-4 days a week for work and eat in restaurants frequently during my busy season of April through October. This was probably the worst meal and in the top 5 of poor service I have experienced in memory.

Needless to say, I will not be returning when I am back in Iron...

Overall an okay experience, but I would not come back.

The food was alright though the menu either isn’t correct, or it is worded in a confusing way. It states each pasta dinner is served with a salad and loaf of bread. We all thought that meant each dish came with bread. Nope. One bread for the entire group for the whole dinner and served before your food comes out as if it is an appetizer. Extremely disappointing. The bread was served cold as well. I ordered spaghetti which was alright but was made with fettuccine noodles. Unexpected but okay. Wasn’t my taste preference as there was a little spice to it but it wasn’t bad.

Service was okay. Waitresses were rushing around though it was not busy. A bit gruff for my liking but fine overall.

The receipt to pay was like 5 pieces of paper stapled together. Why is there such a need for so much paperwork? Such a waste of paper.

This restaurant has potential to be really great and just a few simple changes could greatly improve the customer's experience. The following are suggestions based on the experience I had today:

-turn the heat on in the bathroom. It was absolutely freezing in there. It felt like it was probably 40-50 degrees. -turn up the heat in the restaurant. It felt like it was probably 60 degrees at the table. -fix the bathroom locks on the stalls. There were two stalls and only one had a lock or anyway to keep the door closed get the carpet floors that run through the entire restaurant steam cleaned or replaced. These are incredibly stained and look as though they haven’t had a good clean in decades, if ever. -seriously, just get better knives to cut the bread with. I read so many reviews that mentioned this and it’s absolutely true and such a simple thing can be so frustrating as a customer. Serve the bread warm, too -buy new water pitchers and cups. They are so stained from probably decades of use that the tops are no longer clear. It’s off putting to look at and feels dirty even if they haven’t...