BRAVO Cucina Italiana
| Address: | 2970 Towne Centre Blvd, Lansing, MI 48912, USA |
| Phone: | +1 517-485-3779 |
| Site: | bravoitalian.com |
| Rating: | 3.9 |
| Working: | 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–11PM 11:30AM–11PM 11:30AM–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 8
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Chris Beasley
I hated this restaurant at first, but Ive grown to like it, a lot. PROS 1. The bread that comes with your meal with, especially the herb focaccia, is awesome, as is the olive oil dip. 2. The Lasagna is awesome, huge portion. They now have a half portion for smaller eaters as well. Also, it is often ready quickly. 3. Also recommended is the filet medallions with jumbo shrimp. These are really high quality shrimp, best Ive seen outside of a nice japanese restaurant. CONS 1. Salads (and or soups), significantly, extra. Id love a small caesar salad but dont want to pay $4 for it. 2. Extremely noisy. The kitchen is open (a noisy novelty) and there are no internal dividers, you basically have the noise like a highschool cafeteria. I would NOT recommend the fish market next door. Some of the food just isnt good, the portions are small, food is often poorly cooked, and generally the food is overpriced, significantly. I would also not recommend Champps (subpar food & service). Max & Ermas (pedestrian, nickle & dime you on any extras). The other restaurants worth going to at that mall are the Irish Pub, Smokey Bones, and kinda PF Changs (though I find them horribly inauthentic).
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Emily
My fiancé and I went here for Valentines Day, hes from England and I dont get to see him a lot so I wanted something very special. We got there and I ordered a strip steak, about 5 minutes later our waitress said they didnt have anymore, so my fiancé and I both ordered the filet Mingon, mine with shrimp on it and his with no vegetables. After about 30 minutes our food comes out, his had shrimp on it (he doesnt like the shrimp or the sauce) mine didnt, he also had extra vegetables and no mashed potatoes. We told the waitress and she apologized and walked off, she comes back 10 minutes later with a plate of mashed potatoes and a separate container of shrimp for mine. We told her he doesnt like any of the shrimp and sauce they poured on his steak. So she took his whole meal back. Meanwhile I didnt want to eat without him and the manager came over and offered him something in the meantime, I told him my food was already cold, by this time we had been there an hour and they were re doing both of our meals. When we got our fixed meals his well done steak he ordered was medium. We didnt even bother to say anything by this point. Very disappointed with this special dinner.
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Kevin Klein
I live across the street from Bravo. I had a gift card for there, and I had never been. I ordered takeout for me and my wife. I ordered the Pasta Woozie, she got the Chicken Pomodoro, we also got the Spinach Formaggio for an appetizer. I had ordered the food for 20 min pickup time. When I got there in 15 min the food had just finished, which was great. I immediately took it home. The food was still hot. The Formaggio was ok, seemed a bit bland , lacking a little flavor. The Woozie flavor was great, however, the spinach they put in the dish was completely raw and uncooked so it was very crunchy. The noodles were harder than al dente. Between the spinach and the hard noodles it made the Woozie unappealing to eat, although it tasted good. I cannot comment on the Pomodoro as my wife didnt have any input. While I was picking up the food, I did take mental note about the ambiance of the place, and thought it would be a nice place to sit down for a meal. It was appealing to the eye. Overall based on my takeout experience I would be hesitant to pay the high prices/small portion and return to Bravo for dinner.
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A Private User
I thought it was a real good place first few times I have gone, but the last 3 times or so have soured me to this place. Perhaps they did start out stronger and have been sliding? I know for one that the servers are much less helpful and friendly than when I first went when they opened. I sometimes get dinner alone, sitting at the bar I would expect the same basic service that you can get from a table dining experience. However while they say they are happy to serve you at the bar they actually provide terrible service there. No bread, long waits for drink refills, I actually felt invisible sitting right in front of the bartender. And this has happened with different bar tenders on different occasions. The food is decent, but you can get comparable or better Italian food at a number of places in Lansing. For the waits, the hassle and prices it is over rated.
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Janet Houska
My friends and I met for dinner after work. We were looking forward to Tomato Bruschetta as an appetizer, and were disappointed to see they didnt have one on their menu. When I mentioned it to the waiter he quickly went back to see the chef. Before long Chef Darren Waldeck came out to our table and talked to us about creating what we were looking for. He disappeared back into the kitchen and returned shortly with what can only be described as "Heaven-on-toasted-French bread". He took two varieties of tomatoes, combined them with fresh basil, and caramelized onions, added a little mozzarella for creaminess, and topped the whole thing with a Balsamic vinegar reduction. Fabulous! We enjoyed the wonderful food, the fun atmosphere, and the special attention. It was a great night!
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Olga Lami-Schimizzi
I ordered a penne Mediterranean dish. At $12.79 I received hard penne, this was NOT "al dente" pasta. I had to return it. I replaced the order for regular pasta instead of the penne. The mediterranean preparation consisted of a few basil leaves, a few cherry tomatoes and at least 3 (yes, three) cloves of garlic cut in chunks, a few crumbled pieces of feta. (NO artichokes, no spinach, no red peppers, no capers, just nothing.) You can call this dish something else. I am Italian and I eat pasta all the time. Bravo chefs and others, pleeeeease understand that garlic is not an ingredient, it should mildly flavor the food, not ruin it. This was a cheap dish, without the Mediterranean flavors. This was a disgusting experience for me and my son.
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Bella
Probably one of the worst dining experiences Ive had. Food was detested by 4 out of 5 of us. Waitresss attitude visibly changed when my mom said she didnt want another plate of chicken as hers was uncooked. My sisters pizza was spicy but a 3-cheese shouldnt be. Food took about 25 minutes to arrive. The waitress refilled my moms sprite with water by mistake and dropped a knife on me. I also slipped later on their unclean floor. And she seemed to have assumed that my family doesnt eat pork just because we were speaking in Arabic. Its one thing if a restaurant is bad but if 2 of us almost got hurt and not to mention prejudiced, then thats a whole other level of bad.
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Carl Anderson
This place is excellent! Ended up getting a filet and shrimp dish, perfect portions, definitely a reasonable price (compared to any other decent Italian restaurant). Incredibly pleasant atmosphere. Im not sure what the other reviewer was talking about when referring to a loud kitchen... the place was near max capacity on a Monday night and I had no problem keeping a pleasant conversation with the bartender. Could have had a conversation with anyone across the whole restaurant for that matter... (maybe this is different on the weekends?). Anyways, I would definitely recommend Bravo! You can count on me coming back in the future!
