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Nonna Lisa's Italian Ristorante
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
20 reviews for Nonna Lisa's Italian Ristorante
20 reviews in English
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Review from Mark M.
Owosso, MI
10/4/2011
Food is top notch, but if you order a pizza expect to wait a bit. It's worth it though, because the wood fired oven takes some time. Bread sticks are succulent.
The best restaurant in Mac City IMHO. -
Review from Matthew K.
Mokena, IL
10/4/2011
Food was quite good, service was good as well, though it was a Thursday night in September.
Ordered bruschetta and a pizza, watch out for the garlic cloves in the pockets of the garlic bread (was very hungry) still delicious. Pizza was good too, especially if you like home made dough. Italian sausage is actually Italian sausage links still very good. -
Review from Rachel W.
Rochester, MI
5/22/2011
I've eaten here four times over the course of two vacations to Mackinaw City. Neither me, my husband nor our friends have yet to be disappointed. The break sticks are so tasty, I look forward to them every time! The food is your standard Americanized Italian fare - but it's good. If you get the pizza, be sure to get the personal size, not the large - it's much better.
It's funny to me that people are complaining about the decor - your in Northern Michigan, what do you expect?!
Our service has been decent, one of the four times here it was slow. -
Review from Dave C.
Iron Mountain, MI
11/24/2011 1 Check-in Here
Interesting decor and the food is great! End of summer it might not be as busy. It should on thr try list for anyone!
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Review from Mike H.
Rochester, MI
7/19/2011
We have made 5-6 stops here in the last 3-4 years, we have yet to have a bad experience here. Yes, the service was slow one of our trips. Yes, we've had less than attentive waiters once or twice. We are usually here on one of the first few weekends of the season, so things are not running at peak yet.
I have not had a bad dish here that I can remember, including the pizza, the calzone, the lasagna, and the Tuscan tour. Way better than fast food, and a darn sight better than that American food "saloon" at the end of the road. The kids get a bit wierded out if they haven't seen taxidermy before, but they usually end up fascinated - hey, you're "Up North", eh? -
Review from Sarah C.
Vineland, NJ
4/21/2009
I ate here last July and was so not impressed. First, the atmosphere was totally log cabin, woodsy, dead animals on walls, etc. I'm a jersey girl and for my Michigan vacations, was just getting used to that theme in Northern Michigan :) anyway, ambience sucked for being an italian restaraunt. Oh! And there's a typo on their menu, they spelled the word lasagna wrong, I can't remember exactly how they spelled it, but everyone I was dining with shared a laugh over it. The service was bordering no tip at all, and after waiting forever for an appetizer, our "fresh" garlic bread was still FROZEN in the middle. That right there did it for me. My meal was ok, not horrible, but it's not hard to cook some pasta and sauce.
All in all I'd recommend going somewhere else if you can. -
Review from Emily D.
Washington, DC
6/17/2008
3.5 is what this place really deserves...
It was a cold blustery evening in Mackinaw City when we decided to prance around in search of a delectable dinner. What we found was a warm Italian ristorante across the street. The interior of this place SCREAMS Northern Michigan! From the deer heads on the wall to the wooden furniture, it really fit the bill. Did it look like an Italian spot? Not really but I got over it.
Our meal was pretty good! I got a really good Italian salad and my boyfriend loved his pizza. I DO have to say that the best part about the meal was the service! I wish I remembered the gal's name, but she was truly the perfect server!!
bon appetite!!! -
Review from Steve W.
Andover, MN
8/11/2008
Updated:
Dropped from 3 stars to 1. Second trip here the food was pathetic and service was average. Sauce came directly from a can.... -
Review from Debbie Z.
7/6/2011
I thought this place was great. You are in upper Michigan which everyone knows is a beautiful place to visit. In this area there are many types of animals and is quite rustic in some places. When going into a Northern Michigan restaurant one can expect to have taxidermies on walls/ceilings (whatever) as well as an atmosphere of being in the northern woods. When we entered the establishment I was with a person who is physically handicapped with their walking, so I immediately told the young lady that we would like a table very very close. She accommodated our needs. When looking around you see foxes, bears, eagles, rams, bucks, moose, etc. Looking further through a door I saw a bar, so I had to investigate further. I walked in and to my amazement there was a huge restaurant along with a fireplace made from real stones. The waiter approached me and I told him to tell me about its history. He informed me that the establishment use to be a bus station, hence the size of it - you could put 2-3 buses in there and still have enough room. He said that they built the part of the restaurant that I was in about 2 years ago due to the influx of patrons in the establishment. He enjoyed his job and was very happy to tell me different stories. We ordered the personal size pizza with proscuita, peppers, onions, and pepperoni. We were not disappointed at all. The wait staff was right there for us, even though we were not in the main restaurant. The cost was not that much - remember you are in a tourist town which is a trap financially. But, all in all, had a wonderful experience at this restaurant and will plan to go there when I am way up north again!
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Review from Rebecca W.
Ypsilanti, MI
6/23/2009
I'll say off the bat I'd give this a 2.5 if I could, but I can't quite give it a 3.
As others have mentioned, the atmosphere/decor is really strange....the place is decked out like a northern hunting lodge (animal heads everywhere) + Holiday Inn (the movie, not the chain--little pine trees with white lights). The only nod to Italy was the generic painting of a wine bottle and some grapes--hung over the 1950s-style jukebox.
Our waiter was friendly, but a little too much so: he took our order, then stood there for five minutes quizzing us about our personal and professional histories, rather than putting our order in. Awesome way to alienate hungry guests!
It was also very apparent that the place was suffering, cash-wise. Now, these aren't good economic times for anyone, but the nickle and diming was painfully obvious here (or rather, the dollar and dollarsing). For example, according to the restaurant's ad in our hotel binder, bread and salads come with the meals. On the menu, we saw we'd be charged $3 for salad and something like $5 for an order of breadsticks.
I heard our waiter tell another table there'd be a SPLITTING CHARGE to share a dish of pasta. Really? It didn't seem like the kind of restaurant where that's standard.
Prices were difficult to get a handle on. Pizza prices seemed average and fair, but the pasta was really high. $13 for plain spaghetti and marinara? $16 for cheese ravioli? And again I say.....really?
It's a huge restaurant but they only have individual restrooms (I mean, one stall for men, one for women). There's a sign saying more restrooms are available in the attached Sweet Shop, but I couldn't figure out how to get there, so I gave up.
While we were eating, the manager of the restaurant (or so I assume) came over to speak with us, as managers will, and make sure our meal was going ok. Unfortunately, he looked more like a travelling vagabond (a scruffy George Carlin in dirty pants and a sweatshirt) than a restaurant manager...we saw him approaching and were pretty nervous by the time he actually got to our table. He was friendly to us but as we left we heard him really yelling at a cook "out back." It just sounded ugly and left a bad taste in our mouths (if you will).
Speaking of taste: the food was just fine. Generous portions, tasty, and filling which is what we were looking for. The cheese ravioli was yummy, the stromboli was a big hit with 2 in our party, and they were quite heavy handed with the pizza toppings, which is always nice. There was just so much other weird stuff that it wasn't really worth it. Had we known we'd be charged for bread we probably wouldn't have even gone.
On the plus side: our hotel gave us a 10% off coupon that we thought would be applied only to one meal, but was actually put on to the whole bill. Which made the whole thing a little less annoying. -
Review from Barramundi S.
Northville, MI
6/2/2010
Family friendly weird deco for a Italian place. I had the chicken something.
Given that there's not much choice up in the this part of the woods, it's ok for dinner. If you have kids like we do go early. They have a kids menu but if your kids are under 5 they can probably just eat of your portion since the sizes are large.
Overall a B. -
Review from Nancy F.
Los Angeles, CA
7/15/2009
Wow, this place is such a rip-off. It is overpriced for food that should not be considered Italian at all! I came to Mackinaw City for a holiday weekend with the family and needed a place to eat. Considering that we had some picky eaters, we thought we couldn't do wrong with Italian pasta.
We had the crab manicotti and apparently their special sauce is just a lot of sourcream which did NOT make the dish taste good. The risotto should not be called risotto because its just overcreamed rice with no taste (maybe they just add food coloring so it looks like it has flavor). Other dishes were not that great either. I think the only reason this place is still open is because there is no other Italian restaurant in the area (there arent that many options in this city) and they have tourists who get tricked into coming (like us!). This place is way overpriced for crappy food - any Italian place in Chicago will laugh at what this restaurant is trying to pull off (let it be a mom and pop restaurant, a fancy restaurant or even a chain restaurant). My BF just couldnt eat the food and chose to just starve instead of trying to force down the pasta.. it was that bad!
The decor is also quite particular.. its not Italian! Its with a bunch of animal heads all over with christmas lights and heavy wooden tables and chairs.. reminds you of an old American type of restaurant.. maybe they should change this to serving Paul Bunyan type of food - chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans, etc, etc.. no, i don't want to give them any ideas - I hope they just go bankrupt and close down!
If only Yelp offered an option under the Good For: section where i could check off: NOTHING! -
Review from Jeremy B.
Juneau, WI
8/6/2011
2.5 stars. We stopped here for dinner with our kids. They tried too hard to decorate the place in an 'up north' theme. Between the people at our table, the food had mixed reviews. The service left something to be desired. Not the worst place, but I'm sure there are better ones in Mackinaw City.
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Review from Jenn B.
East Lansing, MI
9/13/2010
We chose this restaurant based on its proximity to our hotel. We got seated right away, but service was not exceptionally fast after that. We ordered a pizza, which was alright, and an antipasto appetizer, which was much less so. Our waiter became much less interested in us after a big group was seated and he spent his time schmoozing with them.
The prices seemed a little unreasonable for what we were getting, which I know isn't unusual for the area but usually the food is at least a bit better.
If you're in a pinch for a place to eat, this isn't the worst option, but it's far from the best. -
Review from Brent N.
South Haven, MI
6/13/2011
Went on a Friday night with a group of eight on a busy June weekend. We had some gluten free people in our party and were pleasantly surprised that they had a gluten free menu. Not super extensive, but at least there were some options. All our food was very good, including the lasagna and gluten free options. The atmosphere is fine if you don't mind taxidermy and log cabins. The service was good and the food was delivered hot and fairly quickly. All in all it was a good experience. Next time we're in town we will go back.
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Review from Rob F.
Walled Lake, MI
9/8/2009
Horrible. Awful. Never go here. The food is the equivalent of middle school cafeteria and is priced like it's actually edible. They must only be open because trapped travelers who don't know any better eat here (that was us) Please, do the world a favor and help put this place out of business.
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Review from Carolyn W.
Saint Louis, MO
8/29/2010
The s l o w hostess took us to an area at the rear of the restaurant. It was a 2 hour affair. I would NOT return. Too many customers---too little staff. Not worth the wait.
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Review from jamie l.
Milan, MI
8/28/2010
amazing food we went to Nonna Lisa's with a large group of people the service was great the food was out wright away the portion sizes were very big we could of split it with two people. In a week vacation we went there 2 different time because it was so good like home made food.
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Review from Mellotune C.
NJ
7/5/2008
Convenient location. Price of a regular Italian restaurant but quality of food is below average. Ordered the Mussels Napoletano appetizer but it was way overdone. Hubby had the Shrimp Scampi which was salty and greasy but the shrimps were big. I orded the Eggplant Parmigiano which was ok. Our server was quite nice.
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Review from Warren W.
Skokie, IL
8/16/2010
My girlfriend and I wanted a good place to dine that wouldn't break the bank. We decided we would try an italian restaurant. I'll admit the decor looked very much like Northern Michigan with the log cabin type decor. It definitely was not Italian, but was still kind of felt cozy. My issue was not with the decor though. The service was all right. The food was okay. We did order the breadsticks for an appetizer. Yes, I said ordered. To me, I feel breadsticks should be complimentary. They were good though. My girlfriend ordered the Fettucini Alfredo and I ordered the Tuscan Sampler. It really wasn't anything special. On hindsight I probably would have gone with one of their pizzas or perhaps their steak. It was a decent place to eat, but I do not think i'll be coming back to this place. I think there are better places in Mackinaw City. Unfortunately, we weren't there long enough to discover some of the other establishments.
