EnVie — Restaurant in Lansing

We had made reservations for four people on a Friday night at 6:00 p.m. When we arrived, we asked if it would be possible to either get a bigger table or pull another chair up to our table as we were going to have 1-2 unexpected guests. The owner rudely told us, "No, you made a reservation for 4 people and that's all we have room for". At this point, there were only two of us.

We sat down and ordered drinks and an appetizer. Our waitress was very nice and very attentive. Once our third guest showed up, I again, asked the waitress if we might be able to pull up another chair. She informed us there was a bigger table available and asked if we'd like to move to that. Unlike the owner who sat us, she was very nice and accommodating. We ended up with 6 people for dinner. I realize adding more people was my fault but the rudeness of the owner when we arrived was completely unnecessary. I did appreciate the willingness of the waitress to move us to a bigger table and get us situated. All of our dinners were delicious.

After dinner, it was starting to get a little loud in the restaurant. I would expect nothing less on a Friday night after work. We were in the far back with a half wall blocking us from the main part of the restaurant. Because the atmosphere was getting louder, we had to talk louder to hear each other. At one point the owner rudely came over and asked one of my companions to stop yelling and said there were complaints about how loud we were being. We informed him we were leaving in a few minutes anyway and would be clearing out. A few minutes later the owner came back and started accosting my same companion. He rudely asked why she thought she needed to yell (Mind you it was pretty loud in the restaurant at this point). One of my other friends smiled in disbelief and was told by the owner, "I don't know why you're laughing, this isn't funny at all. You need to stop smiling". He then repeated that he was going to have to ask us to leave.

At this point, I was so shocked by the poor treatment of the owner that we grabbed our stuff and began walking out. While we were walking out the door he followed us and kept saying, "You're being rude and you need to leave". The only person who was rude was the owner.

Needless to say, we will not be back to Envie. It's very unfortunate because the actual wait staff was very pleasant and the food was good. Between the six of us, we spent A LOT of money and were treated very very poorly. I caution groups of any size over 2 not to visit this establishment. I have never been treated so poorly by the owner of a restaurant.

My sister had also had issues with this same owner when the restaurant first opened and has not been back. Treating customers so poorly is not a way to keep a restaurant open...

This establishment attempts to paint itself as a high-end, classy, dinning experience; I think that is only partly true, with one half being poised and the other mediocre.

I am by no means trying to belittle this restaurant. The experience that my friend and I had while enjoying a meal here was one I will never forget or regret. My only gripe is that I think that any restaurant that aims to be considered luxurious to some degree should be exactly that, whereas this one is not. This place sells the illusion of fine-dinning, but falls short of that reality when it comes to actuality.

To start, the atmosphere of the narrow room was slightly off from what I had envisioned. The theme of the dinning area was very "wedding" white, with the seats and table clothes being matched with the walls. The seats were slightly limited, with a long booth extending from the left wall with respective tables and chairs running parallel along its side. However, there were only a few island tables nearing the front window, which made dining very tight on space. The music being played felt oddly rave/club like (which I felt was a bit inappropriate considering the overall theme was "Bistro" in nature). But, my biggest complaint would have to be the wall art; It looked like it belonged in a Hobby lobby instead of an Americanized French Bistro.

The service was very friendly, but they only added to the slightly off-putting mood that this restaurant supplies. None of the servers or staff members wore uniforms, or even dressed remotely similar. I wouldn't normally see this as an issue, but I have seen less pretentious eating establishments requiring their employees to wear uniforms. Regardless, our server was unbelievable kind, polite, and well-mannered. They behaved how I had imagined the staff would behave given the Bistro theme.

The thing they did get one-hundred percent right was their quality in food. Their food was wonderfully prepared and even more so delicious. I had the Duck Salad, Muscles and Fries, and a portion of their Risotto. Everything that I had consumed left me utterly satisfied. In my opinion, the prices were low compared to what was being served.

All I have to really complain about was their lack of fulfillment. When you find a restaurant that requires a reservation, you expect there to be a reason for it. They were selling this five-star Idea to their patrons, but ultimately missed the mark on their end of the bargain.

As far as recommendations go, this is a wonderful day-time date spot. It's not too expensive, but still leans more on the endearing side of a surprise visit as opposed to a cracker-barrel or I-hop. If you want something slightly more classy, but without the additional price tag, EnVie is the best...

I went here with my partner for a special occasion, and we had a good time but our meal had some pretty major flaws. I ordered mussles to start, they were a little on the fishy side but mostly fine, three were all the way off and I couldn't eat them, I didn't send the dish back but mentioned it to our waitress when she picked it up. The mussels were also poorly cleaned and maybe a quarter/fifth of them still had a beard. I ordered the risotto for my main and when it came out it hadn't been cooked properly and the rice was still crunchy in the middle. I really wasn't expecting there to be an issue with this dish because risotto is risotto but crunchy rice is like the one thing it can't have. The steak salad I got as a replacement was fine. The steak was cooked fine (not overdone, not tough) but had no sear at all and was very unappealingly grey. There was also a weird note in the salad in that the corn was distinctly taco flavored- I suspect it was the same corn they use for one of the bowls that's more southwestern, but it was definitely out of place in the steak salad that otherwise did not have that flavor profile. My partners' veggie burger was fine, fries were good. Our flourless chocolate cake was very standard and tasty (I think blueberry is a weird pairing but whatever). The three cocktails we had were all very tasty. Our server was attentive and friendly, and at least one other member from front of house came to check on us after my entree was sent back. I'm pretty shocked that they didn't comp anything, especially considering we had apps, drinks, and dessert, and I sat waiting without food while my partner ate his dinner because my first entree wasn't properly cooked. Just some pretty amateurish mistakes for this price point...