Comensoli's — Restaurant in Kalamazoo

We went to comensolis for my birthday dinner 2023. I was very excited for some fine italian dining, as it had been some years since I’d visited the downtown restaurant. I should have known by the foreshadowing of the parking experience that this was not going to be one of the greatest dining experiences of my life in Kalamazoo. First, the line and no bar seating. The area between the door and the host station is inadequate for a line of more than 3 people. Some entitled elderly couple were very confused and tried to push their way passed those waiting for our turn to be seated. The available bar space had two seats, which were take. The back room bar was not open, but looked ample and would have been kind of cool with its law book library behind the bar. Then the church pew seating. I thought that I’d be saving this puritanical guilt making uncomfortable back pain from hard wooden pews until the day before I went to hell. However, comensolis provided this painful bottom feeling in spades. Third, the food. While the appetizer of stuffed mushrooms and beet goat cheese salad was delicious. Even my child’s Gorgonzola raviolis were quite fine, the main course I’d been dreaming about, the exotic mushroom fettuccini was a huge pile of onion disappointment. The mushrooms were a handful of baby portabellas, almost no distinguishable sauce, and onions. So. Many. Onions. The red onions were julienned to mix in with the pasta imperceptible to the naked eye. I spent a good amount of time trying to pick them out until I finally gave up and sent the dish back. My partners dish was veal Parmesan. A special treat for once in a blue moon, this meat was a thick brick of chewy something. Very difficult to swallow - literally. Finally, my favorite thing after a meal is to sip an espresso and a small snifter of grande marnier. “We don’t have espresso - we have coffee”. What type of authentic Italian fine cuisine establishment doesn’t have time to purchase an espresso...

Two things: 1)If I could've given zero stars, I would have. 2) If I hadn't been at a family dinner, I would've walked out. We ordered drinks that took 20 minutes to deliver. Meanwhile, our waters went empty with no server in sight. We just sat. No one ordered an appetizer so the small plates should have been cleared to avoid extra clutter on the table. Once our drinks were delivered, they too went empty. After 45 minutes of waiting for our meals, they were finally delivered without asking if our group needed anything else. For example ANYTHING to drink with our meals (again, beverages and waters empty). We were finally able to ask our server if we could have refills on water/ soda and order more beverages. Without hesitation, the server left to address the refills but left our empty glassware on the table. Now we have a table full of unused plates and empty glasses. Has no one been trained to pre-bus anymore? How about continually checking on guests for other needs? Perhaps a salad or bread while waiting 45 minutes for meals? This server could have made much more money depending on her interaction instead of ignoring or group. There were only 5 of us and that restaurant is not big. We weren't offered the opportunity to order any dessert either. At this point I didn't care because I was fed up. However, there was a nice seasonal menu that we discovered on our own because it was on the table. Not offered, showcased, nothing. Upon paying the bill, we left and I promised to never return. Unless management is truly interested in proper training for staff by a veteran restaurant server. The food was so-so. My meal appeared to be finished well before delivering to the table and "freshened up" with more shredded parmesan. My family seemed somewhat pleased. Upon receiving our to-go containers and filling them, we were still left with... you guessed it... big empty plates in...

Not ever going to come back.

Why?

When my son is scared for his safety due to all the homeless directly outside your resteraunt, I can't blame him.

For 90 min, it was hard to enjoy our definitely full priced meals when, if you stuck your arm out and there wasn't a window there, you could touch a homeless person.

Next, resteraunt didn't seem too enthused that we were showing up. We weren't a reservation, but they had openings, but we were treated more of a surprise that they will graciously deal with than actual paying customers.

Had the Veal Parmagian and Seafood Linguini, with goat cheese for appetizer. House chianti, which was bad enough to change to something else, tried their house-made sangria.......hideous. made with cheap red wine and not enough fruit. Just wow.

Notes on the food. Tomatoes for both the goat cheese and the veal were very bitter and very acidic. May want to taste these before serving. White sauce was thin and lumpy. Parmigiano was not worked into the pasta water to make the sauce. Comes from experience, and it was rushed, simple as that.

On top of that, the veal Parmigian was put together with the care of a 16 year old high schooler with a hot date that night.

My son apologized to me the moment we walked out the door and I asked him what he had to be sorry for. And he said, "I'm sorry that you wanted to like the food, but honestly, it wasn't very good."

I told him I couldn't argue with him. This is the kid that has ate with me all over the country. Had great memories of Pasta Pasta back in the day, but apparently, I should just leave those memories in the past.

I absolutly would not pay $100+ for what we got. I'm sorry, but unless the owner is going to refund me dinner with my son, I don't think we will...