Gratzi Midland — Restaurant in Midland

My wife and were celebrating our 22nd anniversary and had heard good things about Gratzi so I thought we would give it a try. I called and made a reservation to be sure to have a table and no long wait for our special night. When calling they asked if this was a special occasion and I made them aware that it was our anniversary. When I arrived, they had our reservation, but seated us in the bar. I made the host aware AGAIN that we were celebrating our anniversary and would prefer the dining room. They obliged and apologized. No big deal.

When our waitress came, she asked if we were celebrating anything. Apparently, they don't pass the information from reservations to the host/hostess or from the host/hostess to the waitress. Again, not the biggest deal, but poor service for an upscale restaurant.

We had some bruschetta as an appetizer, and it was very good. As was the bread in spite of some reviews to the contrary. Both of these were good, and I was looking forward to dinner.

My wife had the pizza and it was average. Nothing special and nothing terrible. I ordered the special, which was lamb. I was excited it was being offered as I love lamb and it is not offered at many places. When it came, it was under cooked. I know lamb should be prepared medium rare, but this was rare to the point that it was "bleeding" red juices. I let the waitress know and she said she would talk to the manager. I guess she needed permission to help me and fix the issue. She returned a few minutes later to take my plate. After nearly 15 minutes they brought me meal back. It was not a new cut, but rather they just cooked mine more (not an issue, but seemed odd) It was better and I enjoyed it. My wife had already finished her meal and now I got to enjoy mine. The potatoes that accompanied the lamb had the same issue as the lamb, they were under cooked and very hard. I ate very few. The mushroom sauce was delicious and I would have liked more of it. The manager did stop by and ask me to cut into my lamb to see if I was happy as if it was simply my preference and there was never anything wrong in the first place.

During our meal, the couple next to us was offered a complimentary dessert as they were also celebrating their anniversary. I looked forward to this same treat and was trying to move past the poor service and mistake - things happen. Unfortunately, we were never offered a free dessert for our anniversary. We were also never offered any compensation for the issue we had. When you pay $50 for the special of the day, you would think they would want to take care of you, but they did not offer anything. The waitress did not even say I am sorry for the mistake or have a good anniversary. I would expect more for the price...not sure I...

Great food, wonderful service and smart looking atmosphere. But let me expound for you on those points 😁

We met family here at 6 pm on Sunday evening and we were seated in the bar area. Casual dining experience with views of Main Street (not that exciting of a view but at least not a wall). The booths are comfortable and the high top tables at the window would be fun to sit at too. The decor is simple yet somewhat elegant but I didn't feel uncomfortable in jeans 😁. The restaurant never really got busy, at least not to a point where we really noticed an uptick of noise.

We ordered pre dinner drinks. I got the sangria which was tasty but maybe needed to be a bit sweeter. Others ordered a berry bubbly which she liked and an old fashioned and he thought it was fantastic! Bread came to the table but we had to ask for olive oil and balsamic. Olive oil seemed a little light for my taste but it worked for the bread.

Our appetizer came which was the meatball pizza. Yummy crust, nice sauce and adequate toppings. Enough for the four of us to share.

A person in our party ordered the chicken soup (sorry I won't be quoting the Italian names from the menu) and that would also be good for lunch with the yummy bread.

I ordered the filet espresso medium rare, more to the rare side and that's pretty much how it came. The espresso coating was not something I've had before and I didn't particularly like the way it crusted. It reminded me of burnt coffee, bleck. But it was slight enough that I still enjoyed the steak but I probably wouldn't order again.

I sampled what everyone ordered...the chicken something or other with spaghetti - delicious with a tasty tomato sauce, "little ear" pasta with pancheta (?) and chicken in a light cheesy kind of sauce - loved how Chris, our server, brought this to the table in a jar and literally shook it up to mix and poured it into the bowl! And finally the bolognese - also tasty with the correct firmness for the pasta.

A bottle of The Prisoner complemented our dinner perfectly and is a remarkable wine!

For dessert we shared the gelato covered with espresso and creme brulee. Both excellent but that espresso was dee-lish! I also had a regular coffee which was good but I'd probably have a double espresso next time, it was that good!

To end the evening Chris poured us each a shot of limoncello to which we toasted family!

We ended up staying until closing but never felt rushed or that they wanted us to leave. Chris was attentive but never pushy or intrusive. I may be back to sit at the bar or perhaps the patio with a...

Update. A manager contacted me and asked me to send an email to Bill, the General Manager of Gratzi in Midland, MI. I sent that email on June 14th and have never heard back from anyone. Our table of 7 had a very sub-par and expensive experience at a supposedly excellent restaurant and it was never addressed. My family and I can only conclude that Gratzi 's management doesn't care about their reputation. We won't be returning and I encourage others to save their money and patronage for more worthwhile restaurants.

Actually had a bad experience on June 4th. Our server was inept. We were there with three little kids and it took us from 7 p.m. until 9:30 to finish our meal. The kids were out of their gourds having to sit down that long. The server started out fine and brought us drinks. Another server brought the app. Then he never brought the complimentary bread, we had to ask for it from another server. Our server took a long time to come back and take our orders. Forgot a side salad which he still charged us for. Also charged separately for the spumoni that is supposed to come with the children's meal. Brought extra dishes to spilt the spumoni wayyy too late for them to be useful. Took 3 times to bring the right beer to one of our party. When he brought the wrong beer the server tried to convince one of our party it was the right beer despite it was obviously not a stout. Overpoured a beer into a glass causing the beer to foam over and make a big mess then he said he would go get napkins and didn't return until long after we had cleaned the mess ourselves. One of our party ordered off menu, a veal marsala but received chicken marsala. Didn't clear our dishes. Couldn't open the wine. Brought the glasses then forget about the limoncello at the end of the meal until we were practically out the door. No manager ever came by to ask us how our meal was. For four adults and three children the bill was $225 after it was adjusted for the overcharged items. For that much money you expect great service. And this is just a side thing but Gratzi no longer offers the birthday special that they've had for years. We mentioned that one of our parties birthday was that day and we had his ID to prove it. But the server waited until the end of the meal to let us know the promotion was off. It seems to me that he knew we wanted to use the birthday promotion but he didn't want to tell us we couldn't. If a Gratzi manager reads this and wants to contact...