Michaelangelo’s

I also am surprised at some of the bad reviews, they must have been having an off night on those nights! I went with a group after work and felt the atmosphere was perfect, the food was ridiculously good (had half portions of both the lobster ravioli and sacchetti al tartufo), the wine was delicious and the service was reasonable. I am almost afraid to go back because I loved it so much and am worried it won’t live up to those expectations again after reading some of the other reviews… but I have a reservation for this Friday so I’ll update my review then if needed!

Michaelangelo’s is a great pre-​Orchestra spot.
Half orders are fairly priced and sized. An escargot appetizer that I shared with another person and ¾ of the half plate of Lobster Ravioli was enough to fill me up (along with who knows how many slices of the complementary bread.)
Other members of the group ordered calamari, the Bolognese, and the Veal Ravioli. All were pleased with their meal although one of the guys realized he definitely would have been filled up on the half order.
Fairly priced with good food in Little Italy in an intimate setting.

The atmosphere is nice but a bit noisy. The dining room is small and intimate with low lighting and cloth covered tables. However this smallness does make it a bit loud when music is playing and other tables are talking.
The service is a bit uneven… in such a small setting with very little turnover you would expect better service. Our waitress was forgetful and a bit scattered, which meant our meals took awhile and items were not delivered and had to be reordered.
The food… is good. But if you have special dietary needs ask questions! There are no items listed that are vegetarian or vegan, everything contains meat or fish. Be sure to ask your server about adjustments.

My friend and I had just arrived in Cleveland and were getting oriented and we decided to learn the RTA and took the train to Euclid/​120^th Street. It was also our first meal in Cleveland. We walked thru Little Italy which was very nice but we initially could not find the restaurant [we had not walked down far enough] We felt if nothing else we had to find it so after asking directions, we did find it and they opened for dinner. We were seated immediately by Gabby and got drinks and our orders taken. I got the black linguine with seafood which was delicious. My friend’s meal was also very good. They came around with bread constantly [a big plus] and were very attentive. It was a wonderful meal and would recommend and return.

We had really high hopes for this place but were pretty disappointed.
Although the eggplant app. was great, everything else was pretty bland and boring. We had a couple pasta entrees — seafood and gnocci, but nothing that will blow your taste buds.
The service was mostly good when we could get any, but our waiter was horribly slow. My husband was about to get up to ask for the check when he finally came over.
The overall ambiance is just ‘ok,’ it felt very generic. Other people say it’s ‘cozy’ and romantic, but the tables are so close together that the people next to you hear your whole conversation, especially because it gets so loud you have to shout.
The prices are pretty high as well for what you get. We would probably never go back.

Wow! Excellent wine list. Excellent pasta. Had the Pappardelle with Barolo Ragu. Would definitely come back here. In fact we are coming back in two nights.

This is my favorite restaurant in Little Italy. The lobster ravioli is absolutely delicious! My husband always orders the filet; it’s so
Tender, a knife isn’t needed. With an appetizer, salad, entrée, dessert and a bottle of wine, our check came to $ 235. I wish wine was available by-​the-​glass in the dining room.

Prices are New York high (I live there) and if you served this food in New York you would go bust.
Food: If you served this food in Italy (where I was born) you be shot for crimes against culture. Where to start: guys, the starch with the protein is not an afterthought. The potatoes under my fish were stone cold, and had that oil soaked «been cooked at lunch» sogginess. Like leftover potatoes. Risotto, chef, does NOT sit for hours, waiting to be plated. What arrived under the duck was Arborio-​rice pudding, and cold. The saltimbocca (translates literally to «jump in mouth») was «saltim sale» e. g jumps in salt.
Service: great when it was around. A new, life time low, overall for me: main course is done and I ask for bill. Nothing. I get up, ask another waiter for bill after 10 minutes. Nothing. I wait 10 minutes, look around, in the main room: nobody. It is 2:30AM Cleavland diner time, 9:30 PM actual local time. EMPTY, no waiters. I go back to my room and PHONE the restaurant to get SOMEONE to answer. It is the kind of place where two waiters are talking, and I wander by, looking for bathroom, so they shift position to continue complaining about someone’s «attitude» but dammed if anyone asks «may I help you».
Room: Manager/​Chef. The second room is a windowless yellow painted bunker, with a large flat screen TV and nothing else. Design tip: serious restaurants do not have 54 in TV’s in their dining room. With all doors closed (staff too lazy to open connecting folding doors) you are in a windowless box, with almost no one else. There’s ambiance. If you are not in main room, leave.
Must be easy to run a restaurant in Cleveland. This place is a joke.

If there were 0 stars if be ok with that. Cold eggplant appetizer with mozzarella that had clearly been nuked several minutes earlier. The spinach salad was fine. My black squid ink pasta with seafood was an amazing display of bleached old seafood and rubbery scallops. So gross. My husband’s drink with the hot pink lipstick on the glass was really outstanding. This is right up there with the worst C rated restaurants in NY. Stay away if you value your taste buds and internal organs.

I would highly suggest Michaelangelo’s to anyone travelling or living in the Cleveland area. My friends and I were in town for work, and it was a great choice. It is a little on the upscale side, and the service was great.
We had a variety of food, and each option was wonderful. We started off with the mussels and escargot. The mussels serving was huge! It was definitely large enough to share. For the main course, we had the lobster ravioli, chicken entrée, and the mushroom pasta — all of which I would highly recommend. Then we finished off with the tiramisu and the mousse. AMAZING!

Went here on Friday night with 7:30 reservations and it was not full but we still had to park on the street and walk. I’ve eaten everywhere from California, to Vegas, to Miami. And the food here is EXCELLENT. It’s a smaller restaurant, but not stuffed. Excellent wine list. They also had Booker’s whiskey which is a rare surprise. We had the Calamari app, and the Steamed clams appetizer. Both were good, above average, but not the best ever. My house salad was a Mesclun mix in a shaved cucumber ring with a great balsamic. First time ever and it was great. We had the lobster ravioli which was great. The spicy cavetelli which was excellent. and the pasta with giant prawns, tomatoes, in garlic Aoli was the dish of the night. Perfectly balanced. Crème Brulee was double the size of average desert. After dinner we sat at the nice wooden bar with stone fireplace and watched the Cavs game.
Drinks and dinner was VERY expensive. Too expensive, thus the minus 1 star. Service was excellent. At those prices, you have to be paying for a location or a view, or something. But this didn’t have those. But overall, it’s my front runner for meal of the year so far.

I want to first say in this review if you had a subpar time or no experience in the fine dinning industry, I’ll direct you to the nearest Olive Garden. At first sight, my reaction of the deacor? Lovely. The staff was very knowledgeable and professional individuals, some better than others probably because of tenure But solid altogether. Best thing on the menu either the lobster ravioli or if you would like to spend a little extra and be a man, the occobucco and saccheiti are out of this world.

If you’re looking for a nice romantic place to dine in Little Italy I highly suggest Michaelangelo’s. I’m not sure why there’s so many mixed reviews because my experience here was great.
We went on a Thursday night and the restaurant was surprisingly pretty dead. The separated rooms, including a side room with a bar and cozy armchairs by a fireplace, create a nice secluded dining experience. Our waitress was great and the food itself was amazing.
I’d skip the salmon carpaccio– neither of us were very impressed by it. My boyfriend ordered the duck confit ravioli with the black truffle sauce and they were TO DIE FOR. I hate ordering the same menu item so we can try multiple dishes but I seriously regretted not ordering it myself. I ordered the spaghetti squash ravioli with a cream sauce and it too was amazing and a bit more food than my boyfriend’s dish.
Also, as if this place wasn’t great enough, there is a parking lot! Hail the gods!

We stopped in for lunch on a recent friday and were not overly pleased; a mixed review on both food and service.
Food: Soup and a side caesar salad were really excellent. The crusty bread was great. Wine pairings were good. The second, pasta course, came and one dish, a bolognese, despite having over-​cooked pasta, was exactly traditional and as it should be in every way. The pasta carbonara, however, was not so good — the eggs had nearly completely scrambled and were separate from the cheese — versus having formed the basis of the traditional, silky, smooth sauce.
Service: Our server was really polite, knowledgeable about the menu and wine list and professional and apologetic when the food problems came up. However, my dining companion and I joked that our number one recommendation to the management here would be to hire a «second server» as she was almost completely absent from our table — we assumed busy elsewhere! The front door hostess at one point was serving bread and olive oil.
When an expensive italian restaurant serves me overcooked pasta and a carbonara that is a simple failure — making me wait, pushing my patience while so doing I know something’s wrong.

Outstanding, authentic Italian food. Atmosphere was nice, low lighting but not too dim. Waiter was very knowledgeable with the menu and wines. I have a wheat intolerance and the chef was able to make adjustments to my meal and it was still lovely. A good app to try was the calamari, it was mouth watering. The only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars was that the waiter left us waiting at several points during the meal for him to return to refill drinks and bring us the bill. Would recommend for a fancy date, company dinner, special occasions.

I do not know why this restaurant has mixed reviews. To me, it is the closest to what was served to us in Italy. The food was flavorful, organic, fresh and with a notably toned down acidic note. You’ll know it’s the real deal when they serve calamari ‘naked’.
I love «Italian» as well as «Italian-​American», but both are different. Michaelangelo’s represents the former more than the latter.

I would love to give this place a 5 because the food was seriously amazing but the service was lacking so I have to give it a 4. It took forever for us to put in our drink order and when we finally did it took another 15 minutes to actually get our wine, no joke. However, the food made up for the wait time. Everyone loved what they ordered and finished their plate!
I had the chicken stuffed with fontina and asparagus and it was delicious. Cooked just right and served with mashed potatoes. A bottle of Cline Pinot Noir was only $ 30 and it was so good. The wines were all pretty pricey so I’m glad we found something reasonable and satisfying.
I just think that since this place is so expensive and fancy the service should be top notch. Maybe we came on a weird night but our waitress was MIA. I think Michaelangelo’s is great for a date night and Little Italy is awesome. Loved walking around the area. :)

Highlights/​lowlights
1) great Italian food
2) gluten free friendly
3) super nice and accommodating staff
I do not have enough good things to say!
I met a groups of friends at michaelangelos on a Friday night and was immediately greeted by a friendly host who brought me to my table. Our server appeared right away and got me a wine list (I had some catching up to do). The wine selection is great!
There is a gluten free pasta that I was determined to try but my friends told me unlike the rest of the pastas (that are all handmade!!) the g free isn’t and recommended a risotto. The special of that night was a risotto with truffle mushrooms so I took my friends advice and got that… and I am SO glad I did. Not only is the serving huge but it was the best risotto I have ever had in my life. There was just the right amount of mushrooms to give the creamy risotto flavor and I am actually embarrassed at how much I ate. I quite literally could not stop.
The chef, Michael stopped by and made sure all of the food was good which was very nice!
Great spot in Cleveland’s Little Italy if you are looking for a place for dinner for two or a group!

Great atmosphere. Strong service. Very good but not exceptional food based on what I had tonight. I had the Ossobuco, which is a signature dish. It comes with a risotto and a fried spinach. It was solid but I wish I would have had something else. Late in the meal I asked for some grated Parmesan. This definitely helped as the risotto lacked some flavor. By no means a bad dish but not exceptional IMO.
I had the $ 12 caprese, which was very underwhelming with three mediocre slices of an heirloom tomato with basil and a decent fresh mozzarella. It looked better than it tasted and could have used some balsamic to bring more flavor.
My wife had the chanterelle mushroom soup, which is very rich but absolutely fantastic. Best mushroom soup I have ever tasted. A little heavy on the chive oil.
I will try it again but next time will get the beet salad if they have it and try a straight pasta dish.

I’m very surprised people do not love Michaelangelo’s. The food here is simply excellent. The portions are huge, and amply delicious too. I ordered a half portion of the pasta which was more than enough-​and with me saying that you know I can eat! I loved the spinach salad and their chocolates for dessert were excellent.
I recommend that anyone who did not love it come back and give it another try. I find this place so quaint its simply lovable.