Toscana Kitchen & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Lansing

TLDR: The service is really, really bad. Food is alright, but will not return and would not recommend.

Story time: Normally don't write bad reviews, but we went here on a recommendation from someone who found it, but hadn't been. Great location to take our MSU student out for a nice meal. Menu looked great, food pictures looked great, reviews were mostly great.

Seated and placed an order for an appetizer and some mocktails. It wasn't busy. Open atmosphere with space between tables. Pretty standard looking upper-mid Mediterranean type place.

Apps came out normal, mocktails took a second, but sometimes that's just the bar. We asked for water with the drinks too, but she forgot those.

We finished our app and the waitress cleared it just fine. We waited around for about 20 minutes or so after that and she came back with our water and mentioned she had our food put in and were just waiting. No big deal, we were having fun catching up.

Our waitress didn't stop by our table for another 40 minutes. Nothing time sensitive for the evening, so no big deal. After nearly an hour after the apps were cleared we started to wonder if we were actually going to get dinner. Then a different server came out, didn't say anything, and just dropped our food off. Weird, but kind of in line with the reviews here about the slow service.

Food was alright. The risotto had raw rice in it and was crunchy in spots, so we separated those bad bits out, but the other dishes were good. We finished our meal about 30 minutes later our original server came by to check on us and take our plates. It was a long dinner at this point, maybe 1:45 with a single cocktail in there, but not outrageous. We asked for desert to go though since it had been a bit. The waitress brought our check and said desert would be right out.

We waited for 30 minutes for the boxed tiramisu to come out and it was a giant slop in a box that looked like it had been sitting for all 30 of those minutes. At this point it was ridiculous and we almost walked out without, even had paid for the desert.

We aren't complaining type people. We get it. It's mostly students here. But, dang! After 2 hours and 15 minutes from sitting down, we had a single mocktail order, appetizer, dinner, and finally a simple takeout desert delivered to us, again not by our original server. The lack of eye contact and communication from the staff just feels like they know it's really bad and they're avoiding it as hard as they can. We didn't want to Karen them since it seemed obvious.

Bill came to $60/person which was expected. Food was just OK. Mocktails were basic, but fine for the price. Service was almost hilariously bad. Our student joked that we should have just gone to Raising Caines in the middle of service and brought back that food to eat while we waited.

Lansing doesn't have much for great dining, but I would say it's not worth it to try...

As the CEO and Date Night Expert of a date night planning company, I was excited to try this restaurant and add it to our recommendation list. However, I would not be able to recommend Toscana to clients, and would tell friends to dine with caution.

Parking: The parking situation is a mess and there is no service, or wifi, (for me anyway) inside the establishment to finish the payment process via phone. I do not recall a payment booth/station, so I believe it is all via app. However, this is no fault of the restaurant.

Service: Our server started off well enough, however, he did not come back to ask if we wanted ice tea refills during our meal, took the wine glasses from our table never asking if we would be ordering wine later, and our appetizer dishes were left at our table though the entire main course. Upon asking him to box our dessert (which I'll get to) he plopped it into a to-go box so it was a sloppy mess. Also, we were only checked on once during our meal (2 hours) compared to other patrons in his section.

Food: I take ownership for my food choices and will say that is the risk of trying new things. My partner liked both apps and her main, while I only liked my main dish and not the apps. With that said, the PROBLEM was the dessert, tiramisu. The first two bites taken from the edge were good, however once we got to the center it was still frozen, as we could feel and hear the ice crystals. (circling back to service) When I informed the server, he said, "Are you sure?" and stood there looking at me like I was the problem. I asked that he box it up and we would let it unthaw at home. After his sloppy packaging I asked to speak to the manager and was given a new piece and we were on our way. We placed the dessert in our fridge for the evening to have the next day. It too had been frozen. There was quite a bit of water in the bottom of the dish. I have purchased better frozen tiramisu from Meijer, which had unthawed without issue or sogginess.

CONCLUSION: The atmosphere was great, but for a $130 meal I would most likely take my money elsewhere. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to food and taking the risk to try new things, but what I cannot get past was the terrible service. Having quite a few high-end dining experiences, this was definitely NOT that. My thoughts are this, bring in someone who is well-versed in high-end dining to improve processes and staff here, or lower your price points as the service and food do not meet those standards. Would I go back? I'm about second chances, but would have to really...

We had a large group dinner in one of the private rooms to try out this highly anticipated new addition to Lansing. It was a weeknight and the restaurant was packed during our reservation. The ticket times for apps, salad/soup, entrees and dessert were prompt. The ambiance and atmosphere is chic, swanky, and puts out a great vibe. Our server was excellent. He was very attentive, time conscious, and knowledgeable about the wine selection, cocktails and menu. Parking is a bit of a hassle, but they do offer valet for those that want. I was assured there are plans of a parking ramp to be built, but until then, it is a challenge especially for people who have mobility issues. The biggest area of improvement for the restaurant is the food. I was not wowed by anything I had to eat. I had to add salt to almost everything I tasted. Once I did, it brightened up the flavor of the dish. I ordered a Caesar salad for course 2, for a salad that costs $12 you would expect shaved Parmesan instead of grated, and it didn’t include anchovy, however the croutons were a highlight. For entree, I ordered the ahi tuna filet, with a rare cook temp. I was highly disappointed with this dish. The ahi filet itself was beautiful, but the plating was low effort. The highlight of this dish was the arancini, absolutely delicious. The presentation was lovely, but the roasted red pepper coulis was flavorless and touched every element on the plate including the fish, so if you don’t like the sauce and it touches all the food what then? Perhaps a swipe of the coulis up the side of the plate under the arancini would have been much better. My biggest issue with the dish was the plating of a tough grisly piece of tuna. One of the slices of sashimi grade fish had connective tissue running right down the middle. It was tough to eat and the fact that the piece was flipped upside down to hide the vein makes it seem as if the kitchen did it with knowledge. If you want a top flight restaurant that should never make the plate. The panna cotta was my favorite dessert as we ordered the taste of toscana we got to try a little of everything. I hope to see some improvement in the food quality given the infancy and learning curve of a new establishment. I want the place to do well and hope reviews...