Aparna B.
Yelp
I so want to give them a good review. I do! I was actually asked to come here to help promote the place, and while the food was good, there isn't anything earth shattering about the place that would take me back :(
I hate to say that!
Relish is relatively new (formerly Graham's Restaurant) in the Kensington Hotel near the Briarwood Mall. The space is pretty, well lit, rustic tables, and while the okay was great, we had a few issues.
First off, we went for brunch on a Saturday. The web site stated that breakfast/brunch is offered Saturdays from 6am-12pm and then lunch starts 11pm-5pm. We came around 11am with the hopes to try some items off both the breakfast and lunch menu. However, our server said "You can order from the lunch menu, but we aren't serving that yet, so it'll probably take long to prepare. Lunch doesn't start until around 2pm" .... if you aren't serving lunch, or the time is incorrect, please change that on your site!
Second, the service. Our server was nice...when we saw her. I am not joking when I say we were literally the only people in the entire place. No one else was there and we hardly saw the serving staff. They were prioritizing room service orders, which I can understand, but if you have patron inside your restaurant or dining room, I would think you should also pay them a little attention.
For food, I ordered their Michigan Farm Grains which was a bowl of cooked quinoa, layered with flaky coconut, roasted sweet potatoes, dried cherries, granola, sliced apples and walnuts. It's served with a side of warmed almond milk. So it wasn't bad. However, the milk was cold, the potatoes were cold and the quinoa wasn't fully cooked.
The prices seemed a little high for what you get. I realize this is to be expected in a hotel (kind of like airport food) but that alone would probably not bring me back especially since there are other places in Ann Arbor I could eat a decent breakfast or brunch.
They also seem to dote on their chef being super creative, however, there was maybe one vegetarian option for the dinner menu, and only a few on the lunch menu. A friend of mine actually went for dinner and ended up ordering a bunch of side vegetables for dinner. To me, that's unacceptable. You know a vegetarian is coming, to promote your restaurant, and she's having to rate your roasted asparagus, green beans and potatoes.
So overall, not a great experience, not overly great food, and unfortunately, I won't be back. It seems like they need to work through some issues.