Kolleen and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday, October 2nd. Since Kolleen had to work on the 2nd we decided to go out for dinner on Saturday the 1st. Now Kolleen and I are huge fans of restaraunt.com and we had a gift certificate for Italia Fresca; Tuscan Grill & Wine Bar located at 2440 Orchard Lake Rd in Sylvan Lake, Michigan.
Italia Fresca is set in an old sports bar and has much of the feel of that bar. As we walked in we noticed two things: first was that we were completely under dressed. The second thing was that the bar took up the entire restaurant. The walls where sparsely decorated and even held a large flat screen TV showing a sporting game. As I said the place still had a sports feel to it.
As we sat and perused the menu I couldn't help but think "Wow," as it was expensive. The prices for an entree was between $14.99 to $22.99. At least bread and soup or salad came with every meal.
I ordered seafood, in particular the Risotto fruitti Di Mari al Saffron. This is a risotto dish containing sauteed shrimp, mussels, calamari, clams and scallops (my favorite) seasoned with saffron and basil. Before I speak on the entree let me state that Italia Fresca has a wonderful house salad dressing. It is an Italian style dressing that is mild and tasty. The rolls are also tasty as they are hot and oiled, perfect for dipping in an olive oil and parmesean cheese mixture. Unfortunately, the entree was vile. The seafood smelled of garbage, in particular the mussels. This smell and taste caused me to return the dish with the comments, "this is too funky, I am afraid of getting ill by eating this." The waitress was nice and offered something else, but the entree made me lose my appetite.
Kolleen ordered one of my favorites, Veal Marsala. This dish has thin slices of veal cooked in a Marsala/butter sauce. The veal is covered with mushrooms and has a side of broccoli. The dish also came with an appetizer of house pasta. The sauce on the pasta was delicious. Kolleen did not enjoy her meal at all. Some of the problems were that the mushrooms covering the veal were just out of a can. For the price I would think that there would be fresh shrooms in the dish. She also thought that the Marsala sauce was too thin and lacked flavor. The broccoli, however, was cooked perfectly and was delicious. The clam chowder soup that came with her meal was also delicious.
In place of my returned dish we ordered the Portabella Al Griglia. This is a delicious blend of sliced portabella mushrooms and Angus Beef tenderloin tips. These items are then comes with a side of Zip sauce. Without a doubt this was the best tasting dish of the evening. The mushrooms and beef tips were buttery, garlicky and simply yummy.
Outside of my entree the worst thing about Italia Fresca was the service. This is not to condemn our waitress, for she was good; there simply was not enough of the wait staff to support the amount of customers on hand. We sat at our table for at least 20 minutes before we even saw the waitress. The waiting time was so bad that Kolleen and I seriously considered not ordering a replacement dish for the bad seafood.
As I stated earlier the affordability of this establishment was very high. If we did not have that coupon we would never have gone here. If the food was better the affordability would have been worth it.
The cleanliness was very good. We did not use the bathrooms so I have no basis to review them.
Also as I stated the decor and acoustics was poor. Italia Fresca took the place of a popular sports bar and much of what remains at the diner still leaves impressions of that bar. On top of that we saw pictures hanging at strange angles. The acoustics were terrible. I would normally expect a fancy restaurant to have a better sound and atmosphere.
Overall I was not a happy camper at Italia Fresca. Neither Kolleen or I enjoyed our entrees. We liked our salads and appetizers better then the meals themselves. In truth I cannot nor will not recommend Italia Fresca to anyone else.
Overall Ratings:
Food: **
Service: **
Affordability: **
Cleanliness: *** 1/2
Decor: *
Overall: **
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