Paesano Restaurant & Wine Bar

Stopped in here twice while visiting town between doc appointments for some apps and lunch… Outstanding food! Even the apps and soup r great! Service was even better! Happy I came back definitely recommend!

I have experienced better at Paesano’s The prices seemed higher, the food was extremely sad, especially at this higher price point. We had The Chicken Parmesan $ 21 and the Lasagna.
The Lasagna was ok the sauce tasted like tomato paste, nothing special. the Chicken Parmesan was very unexciting. I ate one of the breaded chicken pieces. The chicken in the chicken parmesan tasted bland and was rubbery. I assume it was fresh cooked but did not seem that way. The angel hair side of pasta was the best thing on the plate. Its a seasonal menu — so things change this not so good of a change. To put this in context. Have eaten here 4 – 5 times before. Always very good. Not sure what happened on this visit. Cameron the server was great with a a good personality. If this was my 1^st visit — I would not return. Since it was not. Maybe.

My work went here for a staff lunch in December and it was delicious! We had the holiday buffet and I was quite pleased with the selection. There were multiple soups, salad (plus toppings), breads, various entrees (both meat and vegetarian), and pizza. The fresh bread served at the table was so buttery, so warm. Ugh. It was the best part I think! It came with fancy butter.
The restaurant is large so there is plenty of space for large parties. There is a lot of parking as well.
I’d love to go here again with a smaller party to try out the menu items. Overall, a great Italian pick!

Service was prompt and attentive. Food was tasty, if a bit rich with cream and butter. But you can taste your wine before you decide on a glass or bottle. The bread beforehand is delicious, and that butter is amazing. A bit pricey for food and drink that you could get cheaper at other Italian restaurants, but the ambiance is a little fancier than normal and the classiness of it all is what you pay for I guess. They give you 50% you birthday entrée and a free dessert for your birthday though! So it’s worth it for sure on your birthday.

No, no, no. The spaghetti and meatballs was not good. The meatballs had no flavor, and the sauce tasted like tomato paste. The chicken in the chicken Parmesan tasted strange and was rubbery. We ordered the calamari for an appetizer, and it was oily and soggy. Although our server was sweet, the food was awful.

My husband and I ate here for the first time this weekend and were surprised we hadn’t been here before.
We ordered a pleasant Pinot Noir and were served a nice bread basket with hot fresh bread and a flavored butter. Very tasty!
We started off with a mixed green salad with a house oregano vinegarete dressing. The dressing really brought out the flavors of the different greens in the salad.
I had the Chicken Parmesan and was shocked to see three generous breasts of chicken on top of my homemade angel hair pasta. The chicken had a wonderful coating,; crispy crust with moist, tender chicken. Fresh Parmesan cheese was offered for additional flavoring, if desired! It was the best chicken parm I had ever had, and I’ve had a lot
My husband had the lamb with potato gnocchi. He is not a great gnocchi fan but this gnocchi was an exception. The lamb was tender and flavorful (I have to believe him because he didn’t offer me a bite!)
This place will be on our list of places to eat whenever we visit Ann Arbor.

I’ve been here maybe 6 or 8 times for dinner over the last 3 or 4 years.
Something spectacular happened to this place about … maybe 2 years ago? Maybe it was a new owner or a new chef. Suddenly they were *much* more serious about making really good food, improving the wine list, improving the ambiance, even greatly improving details like the dishes, glasses, silverware. Whatever happened, I’m glad it did! The result is really wonderful.
I now think of this place first, when we are in the mood for fine Italian food in a warm, elegant setting in the Ann Arbor area.

One of the best Italian food ever. When my family comes to Michigan for the games every year, this is our regular dinner spot. Highly recommended

One of the best restaurants around. You’ll never be disappointed in the food or the service. The menu is seasonally based and serves authentic Northern Italian cuisine. The ambiance is wonderful, as you never feel rushed. The bar is extensive as is the wine list. Go. You won’t be disappointed.

I have been here twice once for lunch and once for a birthday dinner. For lunch we tried the veal scallopini and the spicy Italian sausage with fresh greens. Both dishes were quite tasty, I thought the portions were adequate for the price. For dinner we tried the lamb chops and the truffle topped scallops. The lamb chops were wonderful cooked to a medium rare perfection. The scallops were great, the black truffle oil used was absolutely wonderful, nice earth, yet strong flavor, would definitely order this dish again.

The food is pretty good, the service is alright, but this place is a little pricy considering. I reccomend the bolognese. The lemon tart is exceptional.

Alas, this is a generous 3 stars, as the service was decent and the ambiance was nice, but the food was extremely sad, especially for its price point. I got some dish that had a few different local game meat, but it came out more like a soupy concoction with just tiny pieces of bone scrapings for meat. We also got some other stewed meat dish that was also unimpressive.
The place is big, and was well attended after a U of M game, where the average clientele looked like larger families with mostly those in their 40s/​50s+

Ordered carry out for first time eating at Paesanos. Selected the kale and ricotta gnocchi entrée with Gorgonzola and pear salad with roast olive bowl as app. For what was over a $ 30 purchase, the portions were disappointingly small, the gnocchi was bland and flavorless, the $ 10 olive bowl was meager and oversold. The salad was mediocre at best.
The food quality was bad — will not return or recommend.

A friend of mine and I stopped here for a lunch date in the early autumn. The weather was gorgeous and we opted to sit on the patio. The rest of the restaurant was sparsely populated.
We were given two menus, the (very) extensive wine and alcoholic drinks menu and the lunch menu which had salads, sandwiches, and, of course, pastas. My friend ordered the soup and a pizza. I went for a seasonal dish of razor clams with squid ink pasta in cherry tomato sauce.
My friend enjoyed the soup which she ordered (I believe it was minestrone). I got a small side salad with my entrée. It was a pile of leaves with a vinaigrette dressing. It tasted good with the dressing and a bit of pepper, but there were no cucumbers, no tomatoes, nothing else but leaves… a little sad, but a decent salad after my added dressing and pepper.
While waiting for our lunches and eating our soup and salad, we munched on provided rolls and butter. We were summarily harassed by three wasps which wanted to co-​opt our lunches. After noting our distress, our waitress very kindly moved us indoors. That was nice.
What wasn’t so nice and which brings this review down was my lunch entrée. The razor clams in my pasta were not cleaned. After struggling with a few, I got a mouthful of grit and dirt in my mouth from their uncleaned digestive tracts. I tried cutting the tracts out on my own and was rewarded by the grit and waste being spitted out in the pasta sauce, thus ruining my entire dish. This entire thing could have been avoided by cleaning the razor clams in the first place so I didn’t get a mouthful of sand and grit, which is a wholey unpleasant experience.
Upon cleaning up our plates and noting my barely eaten pasta, our server didn’t bother asking if everything was ok. So she was kind to notice our distress about annoying wasps, but not so observant about mostly-​uneaten dishes. Oh well.
The rest of the flavors were ok and the menu looked very seasonal, so that’s a good point for them. I’d entertain the notion of going back, but I’d avoid shellfish since they apparently can’t clean them.

Had dinner here last night for a Wine Tasting Dinner event that was fantastic. They brought in the owner of an Italian vineyard that makes the wine they serve at Paesano’s and he talked to everyone about the process and pairing. Had an amazing 5 course meal there and every dish was fantastic.
The restaurant has a great ambiance and the patio area is really amazing — feels like you’ve stepped out of Ann Arbor and into Italy!

Best wine I ever had. Delicious food. Ate the Halibut (special). Was a little dry but tasty! Tiramisu was FANTASTIC! (Huge though — definitely enough for FOUR people) I would highly recommend this restaurant!
Busy place didn’t slow down the wait staff, excellent & attentive service!

I’ve been so curious to eat at Paesano for *years* now, and we finally went for dinner tonight.
First, I was surprised by the size of the interior. Being used to eating in downtown A2, Paesano was just so big! We were seated by the window and got to look around. It was cozy in ambiance, though a little chilly in temperature.
We split the escargot appetizer. There were two small pastries positively soaked in butter with maybe 6 snails placed on top of them. Not much for $ 12.
We each ordered an entrée, and they came with soup or salad. I got the minestrone soup, my fiancé the sausage soup. Both were quite flavorful, and came with a big bread basket. The bread had less flavor, but was very hot and pleasant.
As a main course, I had the chicken parmigiana. The chicken didn’t taste like much, but the pasta was really soft and I liked the tomato sauce it was in. Very tomato-​y. My fiancé got the veal scaloppine and said it was «eh.» He said that «after the first couple of bites I was wishing I’d ordered something else. It may have been good, but I wasn’t into the caper-​like taste.»
I’d be curious to come back here, but do feel the prices were QUITE high. Most dishes were in the low $ 20s, with a few lower than that and a few higher. Our meal came out to over $ 70 (with tax and tip), and we didn’t even get drinks!
Service was fine. Lots of water refilling.

I was surprisingly underwhelmed by Paesano’s. The food was expensive and the dish I ordered (chicken dumplings with truffle) was not good. Hopefully this is the exception and not the rule. It will be hard to work up the will to try this place again since it’s pretty cost prohibitive. And in the (rare) instances when I am willing to shell out a boatload of cash for dinner, I am positive I can easily find much better food elsewhere.
On the plus side, the staff is super nice and accommodating! And their rolls are delicious.

We went to this place to celebrate a 21^st birthday. The atmosphere was good and the service was great, but the good was decidedly meh.
We started out with bread, which was warm and delicious. I paid a bit extra to have a Caesar salad with my entrée, but was told I couldn’t get any anchovies with my Caesar. Sad trumpets for that.
My entrée was duck ravioli, with a sour cherry/​pecan sauce. I ordered it because duck sounded good. The ravioli had absolutely NONE of the distinctive flavor of duck. Seriously. None. It could have been ground pork or ground turkey for all I know. I decided that it was best called «mystery meat» ravioli. Certainly not worth $ 24.
On a positive note, the birthday girl received a piece of tiramisu with a lit sparkler on it. The was festive and fun.
I might go back, but I’d avoid the duck ravioli.

Executive Summary: The food is reliably decent. The portions are extremely generous, but everything is overpriced. Great atmosphere for an elegant dining experience, if that’s what you’re after. Get one of the booths if you want to be able to hear each other talk.
The «atmosphere» only seems to have improved over the many years I’ve been coming here. But atmosphere hardly matters compared to the food itself. It’s consistently very good, but I’ve never had my socks blown off.
My in-​laws like this restaurant because it has traditional food, lots of wine choices, and it’s close to the highway for when they head home after a UofM football game. There’s a TV at the bar, so you can watch the post-​game show while you wait for your table. We usually get reservations. There is no minimum number of people, as with some restaurants on game day.
I wish I knew more about all the fancy wines, but I guess I could just ask my server for the type I’m after. Have to remember to try that in the future.
Last night, I wanted to order the eggplant appetizer, but as we were deciding what we wanted, my MIL said to me, «You always get the calamari.» I think that was her way of saying, «Get the one you know we’ll like.» OK, I guess we’re getting the calamari. The calamari has a crackly cornmeal crust, but is devoid of flavor. The white, creamy horseradish dipping sauce doesn’t add much zing to this dish. Our calamari came with a lemon slice that added a little sparkle, but I’d like to see this dish served with a tangy marinara instead. So if I end up ordering this again, I’ll ask for that change.
The bread arrived … hot from the oven … but this time, I didn’t detect any herbs or garlic. Rather bland, and I should have asked for olive oil to dip it in, but the place was packed after a UofM football game.
The menu changes seasonally. I have had many interesting salads there. Last night, hubby and I split the salad that had roasted beets and goat cheese. I liked the ever so slightly sweet walnuts, hubby did not. The greens were fresh and crunchy. It was enough for two of us.
I almost could have stopped eating, but we had ordered pesto grilled salmon, which had an almost-​crackly exterior, while the inside had just turned opaque — the way I like it! This was served on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. Hubby and I split this, too. We didn’t have room to contemplate dessert. We had eaten lunch late.
My MIL got the scallop appetizer for her entrée. She raved more than one time about how it was just the right amount. Three large scallops, one served on top of a butternut squash ravioli, the other two on beds of pureed veggies of one kind or another. I had seen it in the list of appetizers, and do not remember all the stuff, but it contained a nice variety of flavors.
It was hard to carry on a conversation on my most recent visit. We usually get a booth, but this time my brother-​in-​law came to the game, so five people bumped us from a booth into a table at the center of the room. (Though hubby said that there were some six-​person booths. Didn’t realize it would make that much of a difference!) We were bombarded on all sides by the loud conversations. I had a hard time hearing; my FIL gave up after a while.
We were grateful to get out into the parking lot so we could hear each other and say goodbye.
~~~
An Update: I went back and tried the eggplant appetizer. Love it! A tasty snack for four, a healthy sized appetizer for two ravenous people, an entrée for one tomato-​loving lycopene addict. Served with grated Romano cheese and a serrated knife. Wish they gave us a serving spoon, but I used the bread to soak up every delicious bite of sauce.
Hubby liked the swordfish special and I had salmon with a dollop of sweet-​spicy tomato jelly on top.