Serafina’s Italian Bar & Grille

i just had a special dinner with my parents here. Our host, Elijah, set the tone for a nice elegant meal. He always asked «Does everything look Ok?» Meaning: Not only is the food excellent, but how is the presentation? To which I say — the food looked as good as it tasted. :) My mother and I had a delicious orange-​infused bbq glazed scallop and shrimp spear entrée, which left just enough space for dessert. For dessert, I had a work of art piece of tiramisu, my mother had two perfect cannoli, and my dad had the double chocolate cheesecake, which he loved. A lovely meal to end a fun vacation in Michigan for the tulip festival. Thanks Elijah for this wonderful experience, and thanks to the chef (s) for their food-​network quality presentations. Cheers!

Was really rooting for this place and hoping for a good experience. It was my mother-​in-​laws 70^th birthday and I called a week ahead to make a reservation for 10. The person on the phone said they offered a free dessert for birthdays. Arrived today for our meal, the restaurant is very charming inside. We were seated right away. The service and the food are «almost there.» The waiter was very pleasant but a lot of details were not attended to – slow to be brought out, some dishes cold, asked for bread repeatedly, steaks were mixed up, water was never replenished… And even after at least four of us had told him it was mom’s bday, he never brought a dessert. After we finally got the bill and paid (with a 20% gratuity added on), he asked if he could do anything else for us… I pointed out we never got the bday dessert. His response was, «oh we don’t do that for birthdays.» I told him that was contrary to what I was told on the phone. He said «oh.» And still never offered to bring the dessert. He was very nice, but wasn’t connecting the dots. Honestly, I set out to write a review that was a bit better. But all 10 of us walked out wishing it had been different. Perhaps management will read this and attend to some of the details with service and timeliness.

Wonderful chicken penne creamy sauce, garlic with sundried tomatoes. I will Order it again. Spaghetti and meatballs was very good.

Food AMAZING as always! Oscar is the best. The service however… Less than par. Couldn’t get a damn thing right. Double booked our large party reservation. Took forever to get drinks, food, etc. certainly not the service Theodore’s used to have. Ran out of Jameson. Was told it was happy hour when it wasn’t. It was just one thing after another.

Good service and great food! We had the goat cheese appetizer, the burger, and their spicy chicken pasta special for the night. The burger was huge and had similar flavor to an Italian meatball and was cooked perfectly. The pasta had a goat cheese and chipotle cream sauce with a black bean and corn relish.

Service, food and ambience were all top notch. Nice wine list too. The salads were fresh and tasty, the entrees were cooked to perfection and the desserts were delicious. Very happy to have stopped here for dinner on our visit to Holland.

We gave Serafina’s a try for our anniversary because we had a nice gift card, unfortunately the meal and experience still wasn’t worth the balance we had to pay. Thank goodness for the wine it was the only thing that saved the meal. Walking up to the back entrance gave a bad first impression, the back deck needs some major TLC. It was a nice night so we decided to sit outside anyway, unfortunately the experience didn’t get better. I didn’t expect a good view but I really didn’t want to stare at the garbage either, this deck has potential, some plants, paint, and nice table settings could go a long way. The waiter was very friendly but he was wearing a dirty shirt which was not appetizing at all, and his knowledge of food and wine was lacking. The food was plated well but lacked in flavor, a pretty plate can only go so far. We had the calamari and linguini both mediocre at best. Overall my opinion is this is an over priced version of Olive Garden, very disappointing for an anniversary I will likely not return.

This place used to be called Via Maria’s, a cozy little Italian restaurant with the best desserts and seating avail in a charming garden with twinkle lights. These days, the patio isn’t open, but the food is just as great and the service is above average! had a disappointing experience in the past but our meal tonight was superb

Went here on a Groupon hoping to find a really good «Italian» restaurant in Holland. We haven’t found one yet! As for Sarafina’s, not much «Italian» on the menu. Shrimp Linguini was just sautéed shrimp on top of a «spicy» Marinara Sauce, nothing close to a tasty shrimp sauce. My husband had some kind of sautéed shrimp on top of a bland quinoa risotto, yuck. That’s an easy short cut, just sauté a few shrimp and throw it on top of whatever, then $$$
Yes, the plates were nicely decorated, for that we give them an 8.
We had a new server and he was very nice, but his male coworker was loud and rude. As soon as he found out we had a Groupon he rushed over grabbed our cell phone and scanned our coupon «prior» to us ordering… that was a first.
The atmosphere was very nice but the AC wasn’t working, so it was quite stuffy. I don’t know if this is a constant problem.
Dessert was the best thing here, but we are not sure if it’s made here.
Guess we will keep on going to Olive Garden for Italian… very sad!
We won’t be back for a long time for a second try, if they survive long enough.

The good… most of the food was good. The bad… the service. We saw numerous tables served their entrees quite a long time before ours came ~ we had to stop our server and ask what has happened. We were given the traditional it should be right up but it wasn’t. A table that came in after us had finished their dessert before our entrée ever came. At the end of our meal 5 in our party of 7 left because we got tired of waiting for the dessert or check. The ironic part is our server was «training» a new server ~ yikes.
Kitchen fyi ~ burgers should rest before placing on a bun or else you just serve meat on a soaked bread.

I always feel bad giving bad reviews but this was pretty bad which was odd because the atmosphere was pretty ok and the presentation was nice, however the food was not very good. The steak came out very well done when my friend ordered it medium and both of ours had no flavor and was not a good cut of meat. When I order a steak I Ignore the veggies and the asparagus was the only thing I liked on the plate, the rest went to waste. (And for a $ 27 steak that’s just annoying) it was Rough and had a lot of vains. I had to ask the server 3 times for a a refill, 3 times for a steak knife, the salads were all pretty bad (although looked pretty)… The steak salad was tough like beef jerky, (side note… That’s a $ 16 salad) The scallops in a pasta dish were covered in sand and were crunchy every time we bit down (although the sauce was good)… For the cost of everything, it was very disappointing. I only hope by writing this the establishment can see it and maybe make some changes because it could be a really nice restaurant if they worked on the food taste more instead of presentation. The only thing our table enjoyed was the toasted bread appetizer and almond cake they have me for my birthday. I also requested a romantic spot, they said they would put us next to the fireplace (which wasn’t on) the rest of the restaurant was way more romantic feel then the fireplace so do not go with that spot if they give you the option. The rest of the restaurant is small but beautiful.

Thank goodness for the wine. Service was mediocre at best and food was Meh! Calamari tasted burnt. The shrimp was fresh but way too much sauce. The quinoa was tasteless. My wife’s pasta sauce tasted like repurposed pizza sauce. All that was for 2 stars. Then I walked into the bathroom… my mistake. 1 star.

Very disappointed. The mango cuscocus salad was limp and tasteless. Appeared to be made the day before. For an entrée I ordered the Thai Shrimp. I told the waitress I liked spicy foods. The meal was four medium shrimp swimming in sweetened coconut milk. No other flavors. We ordered taramisu for desert. After waiting 20 minutes, the waitress said they dropped the pan and lost it all. She promised a free desert in the future, but forgot to give us the certificate she had promised. Very slow service even though the restaurant was not busy. The dinner took us 3 hours! I would never go back. Can’t wait until they go out of business and a good restaurant moves into the building.

I ordered the linguini and my girlfriend ordered fish. Her meal came far off from described in the menu. My food was excellent. Waiter didn’t bring us bread until her replacement meal was brought, after I had finished. ;(all in all quick exchange and food was great. Service lacked in certain aspects but made a great recovery.

Delicious fish and specials. Lovely desserts. Great atmosphere and service. The fish is fresh and made to order. Really really great salmon. Don’t miss this place for a dining experience in Holland. We brought an out of town business associate and she was very impressed.

I love this place! The food is excellent and they’re very accommodating with any special requests. Every meal I’ve had was solid and i was surprised with the variety and depth of their menu. The décor worth going to check out by itself. The best Italian food I’ve had in West Michigan. Very Vegan and Vegetarian friendly.

Our family visited the restaurant to follow our favorite chef, Oscar (previously of Theodore’s), who took over the Serafina’s menu earlier this year. For anyone with taste buds, this place is a must. Disregard any older reviews on here about the food, Oscar has revamped the menu and hit it out of the park.
Everything we ordered was fantastic. The fish tacos appetizer in particular are a religious experience (though they may burn off your taste buds, don’t say I didn’t warn you). The tartine — amazing. The sweat potato gratin with horseradish is mind bending. The Peruvian chicken will change the way you think about birds. The bacon chowder, with its smoky flavor and rich undertones… sorry, can’t type, busy drooling.
Oscar and his line chefs are true pros and really great guys. You get the full benefit of this if you sit at the new «Chef’s Table.» We had the honor of being the first party to experience this at Serafinas (a carryover from Oscar’s Theodore’s days). Oscar gives you samples while you watch the cooks work and explain their tricks for making the food so very, very good. The actual table structure itself would benefit from a little more of an overhang – it wasn’t really designed to be sat at – but I’m sure they’ll correct this if the Chef’s table catches on.
The service had a few kinks that need to be worked out in terms of attentiveness, they seemed stretched thin over such a large space, but Oscar’s food get’s at least 8 stars out of 5, so we’ll be happily returning soon.
[P.s. Great Gluten Free options, labelled as such on the menu, and the kitchen is super careful and mindful of cross contamination.]

Appetizer salmon skewers on grilled pineapple… Salmon was grilled to perfection, succulent and beautifully presented. The steak salad as an entrée was also well presented, the six oz steak cooked to temperature we ordered. The restaurant was quiet and there is a beautiful restful Italian décor.

I have eaten at Serafina’s a few times since the opening, and now that there is a new Chef, I fully expect there to be many more 5 star reviews!
Hollanders have extremely high standards, and a level of expectation that has always been imposing (even since I was a kid in the 80s, when visiting Holland we always felt like we had to dress up and behave like we were going to church, ha!) so with that said, I feel confident in saying Serafina’s is serving up the kind of food that this community can be proud of! Thanks in no small part to Chef Oscar’s very beautiful and tasty presentations, I am thoroughly impressed with his menu; not that I’m a foodie critic, but I have lived in Los Angeles now for 9 years and it is now a HIGHLIGHT of my trips home to drive out to Holland with my family to eat at Serafina’s. The food measures up to places like Mr. Chow, Boa Steakhouse, and Café Beaujolais, and as far as the service goes, my family and I have always been patrons of the various Vitale-​owned restaurants in G.R. (Frankie V’s, Vitale’s off Leonard…) so we are happy that the manager at Serafina’s lives up to and actually surpasses the level of service we have grown accustomed to over the last 20+ years. Joe Vitale is one of the most sincerely passionate and eager to please managers (and it doesn’t hurt that he remembers us by name when we come in, an added bonus). Overall, I rate Serafina’s 5 stars based on the affordable but high-​quality food, the service, and last but not least, the ambiance (especially in the summer outdoors but the winter next to the fireplace!). I hope the folks on here who left less than a 4 star review will go back and give this restaurant another shot– they’ll be glad they did!

We ate here for the first time, with a party of 7, having an early dinner on Friday night. Everyone left satisfied. We had drinks, an appetizer, and entrees. Service was fantastic, the décor is fabulous and the food is pretty good. Not, «OMG! You have to try this place» good, but it was good.