Tello Italian Bistro — Restaurant in South Haven

We went here with a group of friends while having a fun reunion trip and were very disappointed with our experience.

The good: My husband’s NY strip was great and our server, while entirely overwhelmed, was insanely kind and accommodating.

The bad:

Service length - As other reviews have stated, everything was SO slow. Ot was nearly a 3 hour dinner... without appetizers and without dessert. We were told we would received bread but had to wait for it to come out of the oven - what arrived was DEFINITELY not warm and DEFINITELY not homemade, but stale and from the store.

Food - Our friends ordered the sea bass entree and it wasn’t even sea bass, nor did it taste well. I ordered a filet Oscar style. It came with cold crab lump meat and cold bearnaise sauce. When I said something about it, they took it back, CUT UP the filet, cooked the FILET more, yet the crab and bearnaise was still cold. By the time the second failed entree came, everyone in our party was done eating, so I just didn’t have anything. We ordered some pizzas to go for later, we’re told it would be 12 min and it was 30-40 minutes instead.

Final wrap-up - Getting our check took forever as well because there were multiple errors. No one ever came to check on us about the issues we were raising, yet the things our server confirmed would be comp’ed weren’t.

Overall a frustrating experience at a price that should have been a 5...

I made a reservation at Tello while visiting a small town, anticipating difficulty getting a table for our group of five. Many restaurants in the area didn’t take reservations, so I booked in advance to be safe. In hindsight, it wasn’t necessary—the restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived.

Unfortunately, the experience was underwhelming. Service was painfully slow, and our waiter was so awkward that it made everyone at the table uncomfortable. The bread was a promising start, but the accompanying oil tasted off—definitely not the quality you’d expect from extra virgin olive oil.

When the food finally arrived, it was hit or miss. The standout was the Bolognese, which was rich, tender, and flavorful—truly well done. The Margherita pizza, however, was completely average. The butternut squash ravioli had potential but was overwhelmed by the taste of red bell pepper in the filling and was drowning in flavorless oil. It was just okay. The chicken Caesar salad was the biggest miss—overloaded with oregano or a similar herb that coated your mouth and made it unpleasant to eat. My friend couldn’t finish it. To top it off, the soda was flat, and service was so slow we didn’t bother asking for a replacement.

Overall, the experience ranged from disappointing to mediocre. Unless you’re craving the Bolognese and have time to spare, I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way...

First, I don't think I have ever written a negative review of anything or anyone. But I feel I have to. Our party of four dined at Telli on a Tuesday in July. It was a really poor experience. After our wait for a table they informed us they were out of bolonese and meatballs. Two of us were there for the bolonese so a disappointment. When the waitress brought the bread and olive oil she spilled oil on my khakis. She brought soda water, which did little to help, and said she would talk to the manager. You would expect any decent restaurant to give something, comp the meal, free desert or something for potentially ruining a pair of slacks. Instead the manager offered her email address and a promise to cover a later drycleaning bill. She also offered advice about how to clean the pants. I really wasn't annoyed until she exhibited that ridiculous behavior. It made me wonder if they were running out of food because of poor management or if they were going out of business or something. In any case, the food was average at best, the pesto wasn't very good and the pasta that came with it was cold. The sausage on the spaghetti came out in links, rather than being cut up in the dish.

None of that was really a total deal breaker until the manager's behavior. I will never go back and wouldn't recommend it to anyone else who expects a nice...