Martini's Kzoo — Restaurant in Kalamazoo

This place is trendy. I'll give it that. In fact, it's trying so hard to be trendy that it'll sacrifice good dining to do it. It's too trendy to have booths, carpet, or anything else that absorbs sound, so it's VERY loud. And, it's too trendy to have salt/pepper/cheese/pepper flakes or anything else on the tables, where you might be able to use them in time to salvage your disappointing dinner.

Let me start off with the good. The best thing about our meal had to be my cocktail. I had the Lucia, and it was everything I wanted it to be. I wish I had downed it and ordered another before I spent any more time here.

After drinks, not-our-server-#1 brought the salad. It was fresh but bland, and if I could have gotten some Parmesan and/or salt in a timely manner, maybe it wouldn't have been too bad, but we were being ignored by our server in favor of a table across the room where she'd been happily chatting for long enough that we gave up hope and ate our bland salads. Also, no bread or anything else to aid pushing the small bits of lettuce onto one's fork was served with the salads, and when we asked about bread (when our server eventually deigned to grace us with her presence) she did not offer to bring some straight-away, but said garlic bread would be served with our meals.

Our meals were served by not-our-server-#2, noticeably without the aforementioned bread.

I had the shrimp with farfalle pasta. It was... peppery. Soooo very peppery! It was all I could taste. I like pepper. I like pepper on shrimp. I even order black-pepper shrimp at Chinese restaurants. This, however, was on par with "the lid fell off the shaker." Not even the red onions and kalamata olives could be tasted, and the dish was gray. What a waste of nice shrimp.

My date had the ravioli. It was nothing special (but after tasting my meal, I wished desperately that I'd ordered it, too). He mentioned the bread to the server again, when we eventually saw her, and it was finally delivered towards the end of our meal. I also managed to procure some Romano at this time, in my attempts to blunt the black-pepper onslaught.

In short, we paid $40+ to be disrespectfully ignored by our server, for a meal so disappointing it made us wish we had stayed home and cooked something ourselves, and for one stellar cocktail.

If I ever try this place again, I'll order pizza for carryout and have one of their lovely cocktails at the bar...

If I had option of choosing “0” for this restaurant for rating then that’s what I would have chosen!

This is a non-kid friendly restaurant!

The owner, Rich, is the most rudest and non- hospitable person alive! He should not be in food industry as that requires a person to be professional and accommodating.

PLEASE READ MY ENTIRE EXPERIENCE BEFORE YOU CHOOSE TO GO TO THIS RESTAURANT!

Rich, the owner of Martini’s, managed to ruin my son’s 9th birthday celebration that we took 24 guests (12 kids (under age of 9) + 12 adults) to his restaurant. We ordered food worth $535 and we got treated disrespectfully. Minutes after the drinks and appetizers were served, we realized that we had 2 extra guests and the owner, Rich, would not and did not accommodate them while he gave tables and sat other people at tables that were open. He would not even allow to let this people sit at the bar.

We have lived in Kalamazoo for 10 years now and we have been to Martini’s multiple times. This is first time, we experienced such a horrible customer service. In front of our children and 10 other kids, he threatened my husband to leave and he will pack all the food since he did not want to deal with us! Just because we were asking him to accommodate 2 other people.

Rich, the owner was afraid that we were not going to pay and he threatened my husband (in front of 12 kids who were there for the birthday party) that he will call police!!! At this point, Children were getting scared, we left with all appetizers and drinks on the table! We paid this man in full!!!

In the meantime, this man, Rich, kept on seating people that were walk-ins!

More people = more food = more revenue for his business. But clearly he is not good at his math skills and clearly lacks kindness!

My husband and I left with all our guests! We were so dumb founded when we got home from such a mind boggling experience! As a mother, I hope anyone who is reading this review will avoid going to MARTINI’s restaurant or else, you will be met by a bad customer service from Rich, who does not deserve a single penny!!!!

More than anger and frustration, I feel afraid of raising children in Kalamazoo when we run into such horrible...

I am extremely surprised by some of the reviews here. Perhaps these customers are not aware of the quality differences that set this restaurant apart from the usual bar-food-slop, push-you-out-the-door mega chain troughs Americans are used to. I have never had anything but wonderful, attentive, polite service at Martini's and I have been going there at least once a month for 6 year. We attend several parties a year there and even hold our joint birthday party there every year. Martini's is a refreshing reminder as to how peope should, and used to, enjoy their food; adequate portions, fresh, local ingredients and TIME to properly PREPARE, PRESENT and ENJOY it. For one, you are supporting a local business that supports YOUR local farmer's. Not a corporate chain serving processed, nutrition- void crap flown in from the other side of the world. Why on earth would anyone complain about time or money being spent on these aspects? Dinner taking too long? A meal should be savored and shared, over time, with the company at hand. Allow yourselves the proper amount of time for your degestive system to adequately prepare for your meal by enjoying the scents and visuals. Enjoy the atmosphere-have a CONVERSATION with whomever you're out with. The problem is, we are so used to having hamburgers thrown in our cars that we have NO clue what a meal is about anymore, or HOW our bodies need to prepare to digest and absorb food. It requires time-so enjoy life around you and SLOW DOWN. So the food takes a while to prepare. How long does it take you to cook a home made meal at home with fresh, local ingredients? An hour+? I've NEVER waited an hour at Martini's and they're making a hell of a lot more plates than I do at home. It takes time because they're MAKING IT. Let's address no changes to the dishes on the menu. Do you think that after you have worked on a special recipe of yours for decades that maybe you know the best way to make and serve it? I would think so. Martini's has the BEST food in Kalamazoo, hands down. If you can't appreciate it, you need to slow down and start developing your palate. Or you can always go get a double cheeseburger thrown...