Best Italian restaurant in the area hands down and one of the better restaurants in general. They make all the traditional Italian dishes one would expect to see at a fine upscale restaurant that you would find in any big cosmopolitan city along with other entree's to include fish, steak and chicken options. Food is well prepared with great visuals and most importantly tastes great. Setting has a nice darker rustic comfy vibe to it with a large gas fired pizza oven going on one side with fresh and oh so tasty bread cooking away which adds a nice Italian accent to the setting. Restaurant also has a full service bar where my Old Fashioned was very well made and oh so tasty in its own right. Also just as important, especially for an Italian restaurant, they have a very nice wine list to choose from. Overall, if you are in the north eastern side of the state and your pallet leans towards fine cuisine than this is a must visit restaurant as you will not be disappointed. read more

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So excited to try this place based on the reviews! Our cocktails (spruce smash) were great! Soups, salad and bread were delicious! Giving us such high hopes for our entrees. I had the shrimp scampi. It came with 5 small shrimp. A ton of pasta, which the pasta and sauce were really good. But for $30+ I expect more than 5 measley shrimp! When I asked the waiter he said he would ask the chef. Came back and said 4-5 based on the size of the shrimp. The other entrees at our table were over cooked and dry. Like they had been sitting under a heat light for a while. Big bummer. No management to be seen. Which is sad for the wait staff to not have back up or support. Mediocre at best. For the money, not worth it. read more

Rosa's is a true local favorite. While it's true, there aren't a lot of good restaurants in Northeastern Michigan, Rosa's gets its score honestly. Sauces made from scratch. Handmade pasta. Good service. A dining room that's inviting with a comfortable ambiance. My favorite appetizer is the Mussels with white wine sauce. I could eat this all by itself with a steady stream of bread to soak up every drop of the delicious sauce. As for the rest of the menu, I have never ordered anything I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. Everything is recommended. The full bar offers a good selection of wines and drink options. They often have drink specials to choose from that change seasonally. Desserts, if you you possess an inhuman level of self control to save room, are also very good. read more

Well once again we had a 5 star dining experience at Rosa's.. Mother's Day, mom My sister and me. It was my brothers first time there. He had the walleye that was crispy not soggy and cooked perfect. Mom had the filet on the hot rok which never disappoints. I had MR black on outside ribeye very good way to much to eat. Baked potatoe was steaming hot and not gummy like some places. Sister had MR prime rib also cooked perfect. Asparagus was grilled nicely as well. Of course the house salad is always a fav.Onion soup Perfect not to salty. No room for dessert. Waiting for there super OMG sambucca shrimp to come on the menu. It's a must try supper yum factor. Note: we had a new server handsome Bradley he was very informative, efficient and a big smile. For his first night on the job he gave us 5 star service . He's a keeper, thank you Kathryn for trading him to be the best. We luv you all. read more

Rosa's Lookout Inn - Bradley our new waiter was super! - Italian Near Me - Spruce, Michigan

Been living in Michigan for a year now and I always drive past this place and finally decided to try it out today. Amber was my server and she gave great service! The food was amazing, I got the shrimp Florentine w/ Alfredo and it's was the best Italian dish I've had ever! For dessert I got the tiramisu and the cannoli and they were both amazing. I will be Forsure coming back here as everything was delicious and amazing! read more

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Stopped in on a Saturday night. We were seated without delay. Taylor stopped by and took our drink order a few minutes after we were seated. Taylor put on a order of Calamari for us while she stopped by the bar to pick up my wife's cocktail. The calamari was in a stick form instead of the usual rings. The lemon and capers sauce made up for the calamari being slightly over done. We placed are order and it did take a little longer than normal but not unreasonable. When it did come out the food was hot and as ordered. My wife said the mussels were good and the seafood bake overall was good. I would improve a few things with it though. The bake should be served in a smaller baking dish then a bowl, the puffed pastry was not puffed. The salad also needs to have a lighter amount of dressing on it so it's not swimming. Finally the restaurant needs a redesign in order to cut the amount of walking the servers need to put in, in order to put in their orders and get to the bar as well improve their efficiency read more

Rosa's I highly recommend this hidden gem for everyone including those with allergies. I have severe food allergies which limits food I can eat. I struggle to find restaurants that can and will serve me within my safe foods. I have been asked to leave restaurants and deemed a "liability" due to my allergies. I called the restaurant explained my allergies, asked a bunch of questions, and they told me they could accommodate me. My first trip into Rosas (that same day) was 15min before the kitchen closed. When I told the server I had allergies she let me know she was aware of the phone conversation and would take extra care with my order. They cooked my order separate from the other foods, and even changed their oil/seasonings according to my request. I had asked for potato skins IF they could make them plain without butter. She didn't come back to tell me yes or no. Instead she came back with potato skins and let me know the kitchen cooked them different/special for me. EVEN AT THE END OF THEIR SHIFT!!!! They went above and beyond. Last weekend we decided to go back. I forgot to make a reservation during their open hours, and sent a Facebook message at 10am the next morning while they were closed. The owner responded and took the reservation. I told her I had severe food allergies, and they handled them so well last time, I would try again. She then asked what they were and if she could try to make me a special dish. After a detailed conversation and a few extra questions she told me she'd try. When we arrived they greeted me, welcomed us back, and talked to me like they knew me. They took everyone's order and let me know I had a surprise in the back. The meal was AMAZING! Something unique and not on the menu. The owner even made the special dish with ingredients they don't usually carry. When I asked if it had a name or there was a chance of it being made again, the owner came out to speak with me. She said she personally made my food, and would do it again if I gave her a heads up. What an amazing woman. And yes - she can cook! (She avoided dairy, tomato, wheat, & more at an Italian restaurant!) This place is more than just another restaurant. The owner cares and is passionate about their customer experience. read more

This is by far the best dinner we have had out in a long time. Everything was delicious. Oyster Rockefeller was done to perfection. Salad dressing was very good. The Panko shrimp and my pick 2 meal of Eggplant and shrimp was so good that I ate the entire plate, and it was a lot of food. I especially enjoyed the angel hair pasta that tasted homemade. We would definitely return here. Bravo! read more

Rosa's Lookout Inn - Panko shrimp. Angel hair with meat sauce. - Italian Near Me - Spruce, Michigan

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I would not even give this place a one star. Worst food ever not just for me but, everyone that I had dinner with, 4 of us. they all had eaten there before, but I never had. Had appetizers of mussels and they were so over cooked they were tough and tiny, compared to the shell size. definitely left to steam to long. Then we waited 2 hours to get our so over cooked food. my father had walleye and it was so over baked there wasn't any fish to eat, another ordered chicken Marsala and they just poured brown gravy over it and called it good. I order Florence and my shrimp was hard and the cheese was burnt to the side of my plate, the lasangna was over cooked and chewy, you would have thought a child had cooked everything. The waitress should not have brought out the dinner to us, I am not sure she even looked at it. the manager said the owner was back in the kitchen training a new person, why the owner let this horrible food go out into his restraunt was beyond me. the onion soups everyone else had was just beef broth, the salad was fine and so was the bread. Another person had chicken fried and it was hard as a rock, and everything had to much salt added to it. The manager comp us 2 meals. We all ate ours, because we were all starving after waiting 2 hrs. The couple behind us were just getting served their dinner and I think they were waiting over and hour and half for their food. My father and his friends used to come during hunting season 20 yrs ago, but then it had a different owner. read more

Move to area recently, wanna some Italian food then found this hidden pearl. Decent Italian Taste, good service good server. Definitely will go back since we just move to this area! read more

Well service was great!!!..appetizers were great. Then they didnt have things on the menu...it was only 5 pm on a Saturday. Got my drink order wrong and others at the table also. Pretty much got an ice cold prime rib and a really oily couple of peices of fish. Super disappointed. read more

We went for our 22nd Anniversary and everything was lively. The restaurant is clean and beautiful. The waitress was fabulous. The food was superb. Will definitely go again. read more

Awesome as always! My husband and I love the Triple Cheese Bread with Roasted Garlic and Alfredo Dipping Sauce. This most recent visit we ordered the Seafood Alfredo (Scallops, lobster tail, shrimp, crab meat, alfredo) was tweaked by me to get penne pasta instead of the traditional wide noodles. My husband ordered The Tour of Rosa's. It came with half of a menu of options. He settled on lasagna, chicken parmesan, and cheese manicotti. We both left very full. I even had a full box of left overs to bring home. read more

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Always great food and service! Everyone is so friendly and will help you no matter what!

Color me impressed. Went on a Saturday night. Only opened from 4-10pm and arrived at 845. No one was in there which is fine by me. Ordered two apps. Cheesy garlic bread, comes with Alfredo sauce and roasted garlic clove, and calamari, which ended up being some of the best I've ever had. It's not just fried calamari. They're in strips not circles and after fried tossed with a sauce of some kind and capers and artichokes. So yummy! They bring warm bread and garlic butter to the table which was both very good. We ordered a bottle of wine that was shockingly cheap. In Chicago, where I live, this same bottle goes for over double. I ordered the Hot Rok 10oz Filet. Heard so much about Black Rock restaurants down state and didn't even give it much thought. I hate food that I have to cook myself. Like the Melting Pot. One of the worst restaurants I've been to. However, I was again impressed. First the price. $23 for a 10oz filet, veggies, mushrooms, potatoes or pasta, and a salad! What! In Chicago that's a $55 meal. And with them bringing the filet raw on the rock you know if they're giving you a bad piece of meat and they did not. Next time I'm saying hold the pasta or potatoes and give me extra mushrooms. So amazing! You can throw them on the rock too. Their steak sauce on the side was alright but it's better just alone. If you're really picking about the way your meat is cooked this might be your answer. You can have it raw to super well done. For the area too, there aren't many good restaurants like this. I'll definitely be back. And that's all I have to say about that. Jackée read more

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Great food, fantastic service, generous portions. So glad we found Rosa's on our trip.

First visit to Rosa's food was so delicious. Good portion .. wife loved the light dinner menu. Can't wait to go back. read more

Rosa's Lookout Inn - Thank You! Rosa's Lookout Inn delicious birthday steak dinner. cozy..must try..if your driving thru Spruce, Mi opens at 4:00 PM - Italian Near Me - Spruce, Michigan

Excellent food and service! Try the Zesty Penne Pasta if you like something with a little kick! read more

Rosa's Lookout Inn - Zesty Penne Pasta with Chicken - Italian Near Me - Spruce, Michigan

Excellent service. Good food. Excellent cocktails. They made a great Negroni. Overall a good place to go to if you are coming from Harrisville or alpena. read more

Dinner last night was excellent. We had there prime rib special, cooked perfectly. Our waitress was very attentive. We will be back.

Amazing. We had a great meal all of the food was awesome. I have not one complaint about anything. Everyone at our table got something different and it was all delicious ! read more

The restaurant has gone down hill from my previous experiences. The menu was severely reduced, they do not offer cheese anymore, did not ask me for a refill, and gave me the wrong bill. read more

I've been coming here since I was just a baby and Have not once had a bad experience. Food & service is always spot on!

Some colleagues and I tried Rosa's on a recommendation from locals in Alpena. We were advised to try the "steak on a rock" and one of us did. It's about a 30 min drive south of Alpena and is perhaps the lone restaurant for miles. The building itself is dates inside and out. They do have a brick oven from where I speculate they bake their complimentary dinner rolls and hear their "hot rocks" for their famous dishes. We started with a calamari appetizer that was unique in preparation. It was indeed fried but not in crispy rings like I'm used to but rather finger length strands fried and then drenched in oil and lemon juice with artichoke and capers. The suace was amazing and while it caused the calamari to be wetter than crisp, it worked out fine. I ended up dipping the hot rolls in that amazing suace. One of my colleagues ordered the "steak on a rock" while the other "ahi tuna on a rock". Both came out in a spectacular fashion extremely rare and sizzling and still cooking before our eyes on lava stone that I suspect spends hours in the hot brick oven. Despite the safety features on the trays upon which the rocks rest one must take care not to burn themselves as you can really feel the heat coming off those plates. The idea is to let the meat cook to your desired temperature. Both of my colleagues enjoyed their meals and I enjoyed the aromas as they finished cooking right there on our table. I tried the lamb chops because it's rare to find lamb on the menu at most restaurants. Rosa's served me a nine, yes nine, juicy lamb chops and they were delicious. These were paired with potato wedges that were ok. I finished the lamb and had a bite of potatoes and was ready for the hammock! I was rather impressed with Rosa's and the number of great restaurants in an area not so densely populated. read more

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We look forward to this place every time we head up north. Food is always great and high quality. Don't expect a quick in and out meal here though. Every time we come it is sloooowww. I don't think we've ever had a meal here that has been under two hours. read more

Great food, very large alcohol selection, and amazing wait staff! Food was brought out to our table fast, and everything was cooked to perfection. Also, a huge shoutout to our waitress Mia for the great service! Highly recommend read more

Fetucini was not cooked. Meal was cold, and when asked to reheat, it came out cold again. Other meals at table were not very tasty. Save yourself some change and eat at home, it'll be better. They must have a poor cook working for them. read more

Called ahead for seating and the friendly staff had our table ready with menus and ice water when we arrived. The menu was standard american italian fare, with one large exception that i will talk about in a moment. The food we ordered was well prepared and the portion sizes were generous. The salad had an interesting variety of toppings and a nice house made italian dressing served alongside some warm bread rolls. My companion ordered the blackened prime rib, which was delicious, with potato wedges and green beans, which were kind of meh. I got the Rosas trio with lasagna, eggplant parm, and some kind chicken and cheese, all of which were rock solid in that old fashioned cheese heavy italian kind of way (that i happen to love). Only two complaints...the first, my waitress forgot to mention the specials and I forgot to ask. After we ordered, we overheard another waitress going over them. It was a prime rib dish only slightly different than what we ordered but cheaper, and a duck dish i totally would have ordered! Oh well. The second beef is a little more major. We originally wanted a delicious sounding steak and lobster tail combo, but the waitress informed us we had to cook it ourselves on a hot rock. I asked if they would cook it but the friendly waitress said no and offered other options. I personally dislike these gimmicky cook it yourself on rock dishes...if i wanted to cook i would have stayed home and cooked a steak better than any restaurant at half the price. I find them to generally be unseasoned slabs of meat that are never cooked evenly, never allowed to rest, and typically end up overcooked because they are served on a hot stone. I did not order the dish here, however, so I cant comment specifically on Rosas Hot Rocks. Apart from that I found Rosas to be an extremely pleasant and delicious, if a little dated, restaurant read more

Rosa's Lookout Inn - Tasty salads - Italian Near Me - Spruce, Michigan

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Wait staff is awesome food is awesome! I come up here with my family every few weeks favorite go to spot!!! Price is awesome as well!!

I used to go here every summer when I was younger! It had been about 15 years since I had been here! This past weekend we stopped in at 8:45pm and realized they were closing in 15 min. We were just about to turn around, walk out the door and find another restaurant... When the waitresses said it wasn't a problem and they could still seat us! Our server was AWESOME! Didn't rush us at all, was super kind, and attentive! The food was absolutely incredible! Just as I remembered!! read more

So I have to start off this review by saying I'm originally from Boston and my husband is from Spruce. I am kind of a food snob, and love going out to eat and I have to say, Rosa's surprised me! We went with a bunch of friends during July 4th week and we all had a great time and had excellent food. The food is pretty good but pretty standard, very heavy Italian fare. They also have a very good drink menu with lots of different martinis and mixed drinks (I love a restaurant with a good cocktail list!). I remember I got a seafood dish in filo dough which was essentially a seafood pot pie and was AMAZING. All the dishes came with a side of pasta as well, which seems a bit extravagant as well. We packaged up most of our meals as the portions were enormous and at least 3 days worth of calories :) read more

I reviewed the menu online and it states "Enjoy 3 entrees for 18.99" we went with that not knowing it was 18.99 per entree until we got our bill which is cool if it's like a 4 or 5 star place but our experience was much less than that. When seated at our table there was mostacholi scattered around the floor surrounding the table which was never cleaned up during our visit. The place was not busy but most of the wait staff was running around with attitudes for no reason. One example is the bus lady sighing all loud and dramatically because a waitress asked her to hand her a cup. Another example was a waitress continually trying to walk away from a table while the customer was mid sentence so the customer was being cut off and forced to repeat themselves 4 or 5 times. Another example was when a man came in 20 minutes after us got his meal ate and left before we even got our meal. So our food comes out an order of chicken parmasagn and 2 orders of chicken florentine we could only eat the pasta underneath our chicken on all 3 orders because after cutting into our chicken all pieces were slimy with pink veins running through it.. Great! Raw chicken... We informed our waitress and let her know we didn't want to send the food back because we had just waited an hour and a half waiting for our food. The bus lady then comes out asks how everything was and we responded "meh" didn't want to be rude but I wasnt going to lie and say raw chicken was great lol. So the bus lady walks back to the kitchen while saying "I'm not boxing up that table I'll tell you right now I'm not dealing with that rude bitch" all because we responded with "meh" to raw food. We took the chicken home in boxes for my dog. I bet he likes the place but he likes milk bones as well.paid my bill and left very unsatisfied. They offer free steaks for your birthday I won't even be returning for that. If no stars were an option that's what they would get. Misleading menu prices, dirty, raw food, long wait times for food, and rude staff. Should've went to Wendy's. read more

Food is decent but management was poor. Under staffed for a 4th of July week. Forgot items, slow to take order, didn't clear plates and slow to box up and bill. read more

This is the best restaurant in the area. You can't beat the portions for the cost. You on average get 3 meals out of one order. We have been coming here for a few years no and never had a bad meal yet. For app get the 3 cheese garlic bread, it is amazing. The antipasti salad is something I could eat unlimited of if my stomach wouldn't explode lol. As for main dish get the peasant pasta with their Alfredo sauce. Also get the side of walleye since it is 2 filets for $4 more. Their martini list is really good and reasonable wine selection. Also call and request Tracy, she is the best waitress there and has a great personality read more

Wonderful destination restaurant. Portions are HUGE and delicious. House salad has salami, housemade croutons and a yummy house dressing. Pizza us on a very thin crust which I like, but you could also have it for an app. The Peasant's Pasta is special. No tomato sauce, but with olives, special ingredients. Can be ordered vegetarian-style or regular. Everything is good. Including service. read more

Unbelievable food! Antipasti salads outstanding! Wanted to bottle the dressing. The ROK is an incredible experience, 700 degree lava rock to cook your steak, shrimp, etc. Italian food was terrific too. Really a place not to be missed! Enjoy! read more

We have driven by this place for years on our way up to Alpena, but never stopped, we finally decided to eat here on my birthday and I have to say that it was excellent. Great selection of food and reasonably priced. Will be eating here again in the near future. 2 thumbs up read more

Take your up north experience to a whole new level! This place is fantastic! Ask for Tracy as your waitress- VIP treatment every time. Try the steak on the Rok. I had lobster too It exceeded expectations. Little tip: cheaper to buy bottle of wine if you have more than 2 glasses. Little clams great, mussels average, fettuccini above average, meatballs exceptional. Parking lot very busy but we were seated quickly. Go have one of the best dinners ever- I sure plan to be back often. read more

Excellent service the best Chicken marsala ever! Will definitely go again. Had an awesome Pinot Noir wine with our dinner. Huge portions...

Wow! Great service, great food! By far, the best food we have had since we moved up north.