Strada

Door guys pocketed my friends money despite the fact that we had a booth reserved for 20+ people. «Capacity was reached» 2 seconds after I walked in so they didn’t let my boyfriend in or 4 of my MALE friends, but let at least 30 people get inside in front of them while they stood in the rain. Told my friends «fuck you» after they handed one bouncer extra cash to get in. AFTER he took the money, of course. Disappointed but not surprised, gave this place a shot for my best friends birthday and knew it would be a disaster. The treatment given by security is nothing short of shit. Get new door guys, or shut down Hamlin corner & strada are both now on my list of do not even attempt to attend. Would give zero stars but that’s not an option

So close to being fantastic. Brunch was delicious but portions were too tiny for $ 17. Waitstaff was very very slow.
Live music was great
Very close to being fantastic.

I went with my wife and we were thoroughly surprised. The service was excellent and the white bean dip is unbelievable. I had a Pizza, but save room for the Nutella Pizza — -it is unbelievable!!!

So what do you do when you utterly fail at one Bar/​Restaurant? (Hamlin Corner) Open another utterly fail bar/​restaurant and try to trick people for a couple of years.
If you’ve witnessed the decline of Hamlin Corner then you also know you will be witnessing the decline of this place as well. After a year or two the executive chef will be fired and replaced by $ 9 an hour ex-​cons. The food will transition to frozen boxed junk. The staff will become more rude by the week. Douchebros will begin to fill it. First a few, then many.
Folks we’ve seen it all before and we won’t buy into it again. Same pony, different trick. Also pay attention to the ‘perfect’ reviews here that essentially sound identical. Draw your own conclusions. The lower rating reviews actually sound real though.

I had never seen Strada before and came across it on Unilocal when I was looking for a new restaurant to try for dinner tonight… so happy I found it!!! Easily my new favorite place! Customer service was unbelievable and our food came out so fast! Staff is beyond friendly and food was HOT! We got the shrimp arrabbiata (great sized portion for a small plate), the diavolo pizza (so good if you like spicy pizza) and the margarita pizza (my favorite of the 2!). Everything was fresh and tasted very authentic! Drinks were strong but very good — but the best part of the meal was the dessert Bantella Pizza (O M G)!!! I would come back for the dessert alone! Can’t wait to come back here! Thanks for the great experience!

Was excited to go here for the first brunch, since I know the owners. Was very disappointed. Waited 30 minutes before they took our drink order, then another 15 before they took our food order, and another 15 before we even got the first drink. So we sat at the table 60 minutes before getting a drink. It was embarrassing because there weren’t many people in the place. You would have made so much more if you fed us drinks that whole hour wait! The waitresses were very ditzy and didn’t know how to do much beyond light the sparkler on the end of a champagne bottle. My group was concerned there were only 6 unique dishes to select from. The live music started 90 minutes later than advertised. The food was delish and that is the only reason I’m giving any stars at all.

This place is gorgeous, the service, wait staff and management is absolutely outstanding.
I’m giving this restaurant a 2 star, because it is indeed a restaurant and I feel like the food should have a higher focus. I am not a picky eater but I do like to see a restaurant’s focus and ambiance reflected in their food.
I scanned and scanned the menu looking for something unique to catch my eye.
We decided to try the $ 12 ricotta spread for an app. It sounded interesting and I love the Ricotta/​honey/​zest combo. It came out looking cute in an open jar with warm crostini. Unfortunately, it didn’t have much other wow factor than that. I would rather have plated assembled crostini with drizzled honey, zest on top and maybe some sort of herb. Townhouse in Detroit and Public House in Ferndale does a fantastic job with this. I really just felt like it was a boring spread and a pile of bread for $ 12.
For our main course we were really looking forward to a fantastic pasta. The only pasta that really jumped out at us with a unique preparation was the Pappardelle, we attempted to order and found out they weren’t serving it. So, we decided to just order a pizza.
We ordered the Diavolo pizza. I was very excited to try this even though there are a million awesome pizza places to go to, this seemed to be unique with the huge Italian pizza oven. Eh, not my favorite. The meat was quality, unfortunately the sauce seemed to be more of a paste and the peperoncinis were large and plentiful and overwhelmed the pizza. Crust was good, they should work on a more simple sauce and offer more gourmet ingredients like Vinsetta Garage. I’d take their pizza over this any day with the homemade mushroom spread, caramelized onions, house smoked bacon, maybe some pancetta… the pizza options here could nearly be made at Blaze, here it is $ 17.
Unless they change their menu, I’ll only be coming back for a cocktail. They just really need to step it up with the wow factor in the food to match this gorgeous building. I’m not going to seek this place out as a destination for entrees that can be found at many other places at better prices with more quality ingredients.

We decided to try out Strada this past Saturday night. We first tried calling ahead to reserve a table but they do not take any reservations for parties under 6.
We get there and all the tables are reserved and see almost no tables available for 2 tops in general. We had to sit at the bar-​which is no big deal for us.
Bartender was great-​very knowledgeable on the food and was very friendly. He recommended the white bean dip as an appetizer, and I agree, it was a great choice!
Our dinners came and everything, for the price, was just ‘ok’. I ordered the Cavatelli pasta and it was just mediocre. My boyfriend ordered the lamp chops that he thought were good. Our bill without drinks was over $ 50, for mediocre food.
You can tell they really thrive off of the larger parties and after hours nightclub scene. The ambiance was nice and the bar was done well.
We probably will not return to Strada. I am giving 3 stars based off of the white bean dip and the excellent service from our bartender!

Beautiful atmosphere hidden in downtown royal oak. Go in for dinner, for drinks, or to hang out and watch the games. they have everything covered. The menu was small, but The food was delicious and it comes out quickly, ensuring it is all extremely hot and FRESH! The cocktails were great as well. Be sure to Try the Nutella pizza for dessert!

Awesome staff and an amazing atmosphere ! The risotto and kale salad are my absolute favorite! Will definitely be back here !

Thoroughly enjoyed our second visit to Strada! Our group enjoyed sharing the kale salad, beet salad, pesto de pollo pizza and crispy ravioli along with wine, craft beer and mixed drinks. Fun upbeat atmosphere! We will be back soon!

I don’t know where to begin. We had a party of 19 on a Saturday night for 6:30pm, January 30^th. I made reservations with Erika on the phone and she let me know we were all set. We arrived there and the place was pretty empty and they had a table set for all of us. The waitress, Bonnie was amazing. There was another waitress that wasn’t ours, but very snooty and rude. The food was ok… nothing was spectacular. I did not care for the ratatouille and the pizzas were just ok. There are many pizza places around now and there was nothing special about theirs. With that being said, a little after 10:00pm, our server Bonnie, comes to tell us that our table area was booked for 10:30pm the nightclub hours. My party and I were not ready to leave, we planned on staying longer and enjoying drinks.
The server was understanding and offered to speak with the manager to see what they could do for us. As I saw her standing and talking to the host and the manager, I walked over to voice my frustration. Erika, never specified we would have a time limit or the possibility of a «nightclub» reservation taking over at 10:30pm, otherwise I would’ve booked that also. The «host», then offered to set a little table at the corner of the bar, so my party and I moved down to the bar floor area and were waiting for that… and we got sick of waiting so then, we ended up leaving.
This place is not worth going back to, not only for the lack of service, but even the food that was just mediocre. There are many other places in Royal Oak and Birmingham that are much better and willing to accommodate to show appreciation for your business.

Great food but small portions. Quality over quantity so its ok. Good dj late but gets super packed. I will go back for sure but when it gets uncomfortable to have your personal space, gotta go. Btw, order the salmon!

Had no idea what to expect when I came here. Great atmosphere & yummy food!
I wasn’t a fan of the hibiscus bellini, but the funghi pizza is incredible! Just the right amount of truffle oil. They also give complimentary cotton candy!
This is one of those restaurant by day, bar by night places. Strada is PACKED on bar nights & they only have one private round booth. Other booths are makeshift with small tables.

There are a lot of new pizza places popping up around Metro Detroit, each with their own unique spin on pizza, which usually ends up being thin crust. After hearing a lot about Strada in Royal Oak, We decided to try it on a Sunday night. On first impression the atmosphere is awesome. Dimly lit with large chandeliers and a lavish bar. We were quickly seated and began reviewing the menu. There is a nice assortment of pizzas and pastas, as well as a appetizers and a few other dishes. We began with drinks, a Moscow Mule and a Bellini. They were both excellent and made me hopeful the food would follow suit… unfortunately this was not the case. We attempted to order the meatball pizza but were told this was no longer in the menu (so why is it printed on the menu you set in front of me then?). We settled on the margherita pizza and added arugula. The pizza came out shortly after we ordered our next round of drinks, and looks very good. however it was unfortunately doughey and not as crispy as you would expect. The pizza was not bad, it was just OK. There was literally nothing memorable about it. It was just your standard pizza from this type of restaurant. I have been more blown away by Buddy’s Pizza or even Jet’s to be honest. If pizza is your specialty there is no excuse for it not to be amazing. They missed the mark on that.
For the next course we split an order of pasta, the cavatelli. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and clearly homemade, but the sauce left a lot to be desired. It was excessively acidic, and reminded me of something out of a can. Also, perhaps the most concerning thing about this restaurant, nobody came by to offer Parmesan cheese to put on top. Parmesan cheese should always be brought out when pasta is served. Even Olive Garden knows that… come on guys.
Overall ²⁄₅ stars. The experience was excessively mediocre. They could be doing way better if they had more attention to detail. Perhaps they should stop serving food and be just a bar?

Small menu but there are some great menu offerings. Most entrees are pizza or pasta. They do have vegetarian options but they got lazy and stopped marking them after the appetizers. The waitress informed us that the risotto is not made with chicken stock. We got the white bean dip which comes with little toasts. It was awesome. The drinks were good. Pizza was pretty good. The atmosphere was really nice. We went on a Sunday and there was live music.

All in all a great experience. We went on a low key Wednesday so food and drinks came swiftly. Wish waitress could pronounce menu items correctly although she was lovely. The owner was beyond friendly and helpful. Even got to compliment the chef in the delicious appetizers, scallops and pizzas. The chandelier is worth a look even if you just stop in for a delicious sage infused martini. I wish the décor/​atmosphere knew what it wanted to be when it grew up however. Grand ballroom, disco balls, pub tables, sports on TV. Maybe that means something for everyone? Would go back and take friends.

They did a great job with the marble classic style with the exception of ugly gaudy disco ball in the center of the restaurant. but the food is horrible. The kale salad tasted like horse feed and the pasta was olive garden quality. They share a kitchen with hamlin so if thats your kind of food, knock yourself out.

Holyyyy the food just changed my life. It’s that great! Never eating out again unless it’s Strada! Got the short ribs (they melted in my mouth), lamb chops (tender and juicy), and cavatelli. Yum!

Food was amazing!!! Vibe unreal!!! The cavatelli is a must. Also the sausage dip was perfection. We stayed for the night life and had a amazing time:) highly recommend this new spot. Great addition to Royal Oak! So glad there’s a legit Italian spot in the neighborhood.