Como’s

The worst restaurant in Ferndale. Went last night with friends and the waitress brought the wrong entrees. When we told her what she brought was incorrect she argued with us and tried to convince us our orders were right (last time I checked chicken Marsala didn’t have marinara sauce). Eventually she admitted she didn’t really know what all food on the menu was and at that point we just stuck with what we had… My chicken was well over a day old and was poorly reheated. I barely touched it but due to what I did eat, I was sick the next day. With so many good restaurants in the area, don’t waste your night out or money.

Excellent patio, cold beer and a great view of Ferndale. On the corner of 9 Mile and Woodward.

This place has so much potential, it’s very disappointing to see that how’s it ran (or lack of being ran) has ruined many visitors experiences.
I have been in the restaurant industry for at least 10 years now; host, serving, bartending, managing. Currently, I am one of the managers at a very successful Royal Oak restaurant/​bar. When my boyfriend and I visited last night… I basically had to beg him to give Comos a chance, and it was the patio that was my only reason for wanting to go because its reputation is surely a red flag by itself. Anyways, we came in through a side door and searched for a host/​sign/​someone directing people… Eventually a very sweet girl working near a side bar told us where to go. We went inside and still didn’t find what could appear to be a host stand so we approached the inside bartender. She was nice enough to take us back outside to the patio area and find the host for us. He said that we can just seat ourselves (contrary to the first girls directions, as well as the sign posted above the side entrance). So, we found a high top and sat for a while. Host drops menus and then we wait. The first girl we met came by several moments later asking if we had been greeted yet, which we had not. She then went to find our mystery server and came back to say that he was on his way to us. After sitting another almost 10 minutes and not seeing any staff coming our way, we moved to the bar area. This has now been roughly 25 – 30 minutes of waiting for service — - the both of us having been in the industry for a long time and being astonished by the disorganization. The bar was an entirely different and botched experience. We sat down, the one bartender working (bad idea, should be 2) was… Not very eager to serve? He came to our side of the bar after we had both been sitting for several minutes and he looked around at his patrons, waiting for someone to speak up as to whether they needed anything, all the while. The 2 of us still waiting to be greeted and served… RIGHT THERE. I finally had to wave to get his attention, which is one of my biggest pet peeves when done to me, but there seemed to be no other way. He came over seeming annoyed by us and asked if he could «quickly take our order while he runs these guys card»??? Well yes sir, you may very well take our order… Please! So, we order our beers. But the one I want is too far away and he can’t be bothered by traveling that distance for his patrons, (ever heard of a Barback?). So I happily pick my second choice. Well, my boyfriends beer had something (who knows what) going on with it, so it will be a few moments to arrive… Shocker. Finally, we get BOTH beers in front of us, needless to say, we cheers to that fact only. So, we place our food orders all at once because at this rate, staggering anything would be our mistake. When he’s taking our order and then reading it back to us… He explains that he will put in the appetizer and then the pizza, so we politely say that he can just put it in all at once. His response to this was as if we offered him and said «oh I will, but I need you to know that the pizza will take a long time because my oven is pretty backed up» which he explained as if we were a couple of idiots… Somehow this was a miscommunication where all we tried to say was «you can put it all in at once, we’ll take it as it comes up»… duh! Finally, the bar seems to be slowing down and serving is getting a bit smoother, and there’s suddenly a girl behind the bar as well that might be a second bartender? I don’t know, either way… Holyyyyy crap! All I wanted was to prove to my boyfriend that comos isn’t all that bad and then I find myself in the most piss poor managed restaurant on this earth.
So, the point to my rant is for the attention of owners/​management of Comos (if you even exist).
Your business is in the heart of a bustling town that’s full of wonderful people. You have a jackpot in real estate for patio goers. You need to sit down and revise the way your entire floor plan, layout, and employees stations are all worked out. This business could probably quadruple with some effort and knowledge put into organizing the busy hours. As far as complaints about food, there’s no shame in limiting your menu and it gives the cooks an opportunity to perfect the dishes that do have good numbers on your sales reports. Servers should have sections that they actively maintain. There should be several hosts at each door, directing customers where to go as well as communicating with servers. You should have a floor manager for both indoor and outdoor areas during busy seasons/​hours. You should have a Barback at each bar you have, as well as an appropriate amount of bar staff. There should be strict guidelines to all staff in regards to how long a table should wait before being greeted/​served drinks/​food/​bills… That’s service 101.
I’m cut off now, on my 2^nd review ever. But it had to be said.

I’m in love with the outdoor seating. It’s a great place to drink with friends on a sunny day. We ordered the deep dish pizza with sausage olives portabella, anchovies and Sun dried tomatoes. Twas delish. I’ve heard some horror stories about this establishment as far as shady employees and dirty dining area, but today everything was swell.

This is a tough place to review. I get treated well because Sicilia, the owner, loves me (I’m half Sicilian), but you can see the cracks in the walls sometimes.
Basically, the food product is somewhere between good and very good. There is pride of ownership. However, a lot of job positions are revolving doors (with the exception of a couple of lifers or family), including sous chef, so sometimes, orders get mixed up, the food doesn’t get prepared properly, etc, which tells me some of the jobs, relatively speaking aren’t that great. She seems to go through a lot of servers but in relation to other restaurants, not sure if it’s more or less what the turnover should be.
I will say this… her pricing is reasonable and if you’re a pizza/​pasta fan, her product is excellent. Sauce is top drawer. You will never go wrong there. I try to lo carb it when possible and avoid wheat particularly, but am addicted to her pasta, so i always take it as a side dish.
But once you get deeper into the menu, the chances of having a bad experience increase. They also serve until 2a weeknights/​4a weekends, which is important because after 10p in Detroit, your options become limited quickly.
I think the public’s overall rating of 2* is a little harsh. It’s better than that, and much better if you’re going for pizza or pasta (more like 4*). But yes, I do share some of the same concerns as some of the negative reviewers, I just don’t think it’s that bad as it’s made out to be here.

Was so excited that the weather was finally warm enough for me and my husband to sit outside here! Since every time we drove by or walked the patio was hopping. So we finally tried it out on Saturday and were able to sit outside. But this will be the last time I will ever be here– horrible experience in food and beer pours! So the place wasn’t very busy– took about 10 mins for someone to come over to our table. We ordered both Michigan craft beers– we got our beers and they were not even full, which always bothers me since I like to have a true pour when paying good money for craft beer! Then we ordered calamari — first few bites were good– marinara sauce was prolly the best thing on the plate. So my husband took another bite looked at me shaking his head. He couldn’t even swallow his bite– he said it was the worst tasting piece– he said it tasted old and really bad! He had to run to the bathroom! So we tell the waitress she tells me «she doesn’t know how it’s suppose to taste since she doesn’t eat it». Umm okay I thought maybe a manager would come over and apologize– nope. So being polite we order one more round of beers and ask for the tab. The beers come and my husbands beer was barely half full of foam! We asked again for bill and left! Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone! Will not be back ever!

Como’s serves a purpose.
When you’re out late night, like 2 – 3 am on a Friday or Saturday craving food, don’t go to Coney — go to Como’s and get pizza.
To be fair, their pizza is actually good. However, with the level of pizza options in the general vicinity, it’s hard to justify coming to Como’s specifically for this unless you’re out late night trying to please your drunken desires (of food). Servers are always nice and get bonus points for being patient with the obvious audience coming in late night.

I have not visited Como’s in ~35 years. Back then, my GF lived nearby … and there were not a lot of decent, nearby restaurant options. I can only recall Rialto, Anna’s & Om Café. Her son was a very picky eater and got car sick a lot … we ate at Como’s a lot. Not much has changed. Well, they did add a deck.
So why did I return? I had a business lunch; yes, on a Saturday. Fly Trap was slammed, probably 20 people waiting. Como’s was … empty … at noon … sit anywhere.
The biggest plus was Destiny, our server. Prompt, attentive, efficient & friendly … but not particularly knowledgeable about what’s happening in the kitchen. Do you grind your own sausage for the Italian Sausage sandwich? She didn’t know. Sweet or spicy? She didn’t know. Regardless; she did a 3+ star job on the fundamentals of her job. Ownership/​mgt is failing her.
The meatball sub … was served hot. I expect that all the ingredients were all sourced from Sysco or GFS. I would not order it again. Will I return? Yes, in another 35 years.

Love this place mainly because of their cheese pizza, it’s my second favorite place in MI with Blaze taking my no1 spot. Fair prices and you can always split the pizza with someone if you get medium size. Restaurant has bar section which has really good live music, I’m yet to explore the rest of their menu but so far good place.

No one greeted us at the door. They took forever to take our drink orders. Silver wear was dirty. Found a long black hair wrapped up in my spaghetti. I ordered the veal marsala, and I’m not sure what kind of meat I was eating, but it was deformed, chunky, slimy, and not like any kind of veal I’ve ever had before and my potatoes it came with were cold. I won’t be back.

Outstanding pizza! Seriously, I’m surprised I haven’t read about it in a «best of» list.

This restaurant is awful. The food is bad as well as the service, I’ve been here3 times and ordered different food each time and it’s terrible. Why am I here for a third time? I am with a group and had no choice. We had 14 people, one half got their food in 30 minutes the other half had to wait another 39 minutes. And one woman waited an additional 20 min. I ordered sea scallops this time, they were actually completely tasteless bay scallops that were overlooked and rubbery. They brought spaghetti as a side dish and they were cold from the fridge. Absolutely don’t come here.

The place has nice décor and friendly service. We had the shrimp scampi and meatball appetizer, both were very good.

This place is pretty much trash. The only draw here is their patio in the summer months.

I love Comos! We stopped here for pizza and a beer not expecting too much. I mean pizza and a beer is great in itself right? What a cool place! The waitstaff are super friendly and our bartender, I think his name was Mike was one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met. Not to mention that the owner came over to make sure we were having a good time. By the time we left we were already planning on coming back. They made us feel like part of the family. You just don’t meet genuine people that make delicious pizza like these folks anymore.

I like como’s. The pizza is really good and the service was really good.
The place was a little crowded but we got sat and served pretty quickly.
There was live music. it was a nice touch but you can really only enjoy it if you sit at the bar area because it is separated by a wall. After dinner I sat and listened for a bit and LADY CAN SING!!!
They were festive for Christmas. It is great if like thin crust. My only complaint is that it is loud. So it ruins the ambiance a bit.

I hadn’t been to Comos in at least 10 years, so when our friends suggested pizza from there, we agreed to give it a chance. It will probably be another 10 years before I agree to order it again. We got delivery, and they forgot to add on half of the toppings we asked for. The pizza itself was bland and had a rubbery texture. Needless to say, I’m not sure how this place has remained an institution for so long

Pizza average for the late night, but when there is no choice then it’s pretty damn good and not too expensive. XL WAS 14 slices, HUGE! About $ 20. Choose your toppings, I’d skip the olive oils next time, somehow it did not compliment the pizza too much. Great place for groups, there were 10 of us, got seated right away. Service was good. If your up for a late night snack this place is for you!

The worst restaurant experience I’ve had. Trash on the table: left from the prior party and no one available to remove it until near the time our meal was over. Food, greasy, burned, and left most of it on the plate due to the poor taste. Very poor service (slow, inattentive, haphazard). It’s the first time I didn’t leave a tip ever, but this occasion deserved it and this negative review. This was my second time here. First experience was mediocre. This more recent experience confirms that today will be my last.

Had a deep dish pizza and cheddar cheese poppers. The Cheddar cheese poppers were very good, but the pizza was the best pizza I’ve ever had. I was expecting a topping deep dish, but is was a crust deep dish, regardless it just melted in your mouth. Not from the area so can’t comment on other meals.
Update… I originally gave this 5 stars, but I forgot about the bathroom. Knocking it down a star for that. The bathroom was atrocious. It looked like a frat house bathroom after a 3 day bender. Filth everywhere. I’m only docking one star because you have to consider it was 1am on a sat in the bar district.

Comos is located in fee dale and has been there as long as I can remember! I haven’t been here in 20 years but everything is just like it used to be!
We ordered a few apps that were all bomb especially the steak bites. We then had a Pepperoni pie that was amazing. Crunchy, hot and full of pepperoni!
All in all the place did not disappoint and I hate the reviews that bring the stars down! The place is what it is and people on Unilocal need to stop being cyber bullies!

I recently moved to Ferndale and decided to check this place out. Every once in a while a get a wild craving for some good pasta. So I roll in hot to Como’s and ask the hostess if they serve pappardelle, she gives me the affirmative and the pattern is officially full, Ghostrider.
I order myself a gin rickey, and peruse the menu as the waitress fumbles around with whatever she was finding particularly challenging that evening. She returns with said gin rickey and asks for our orders. I take it upon myself to order first and spout, «Gimme some pappardelle bolognese».
From the blank look on her face, I knew the evening was on a slippery downhill slope. The blank look, of course, was because she was unfamiliar with pappardelle bolognese as it clearly wasn’t available at this establishment… fine.
Surely, I’d love some pappardelle bolognese, but if it’s not available, it’s not available. I’m not that prissy of a bitch that I can’t find something I’d like on Como’s dictionary-​length menu. So, I find something I think would be delicious (having whipped up plenty of these as a line cook back in the day)…the chicken scallopini.
So, we sit and drink our cocktails from plastic cups while overlooking a busy Saturday-​night Woodward Ave. Finally, dinner arrives, and something stinks. Veggies were salty, overcooked, and probably simmering for 4 hours in the steam table… for the third night in a row, but this is not the culprit of that metallic garbage smell.
Perhaps the potato? Naw, just an innocent potato.
Can’t be the chicken, can it? It’s skanked, they went ahead and cooked spoiled chicken, presumably made a sauce with it, and put it on my plate. I’ll eat just about anything, but no one in their right mind is going to put this swill in their mouth.
Now, I didn’t eat the thing and I kind of picked at my girls meal, which was meh as well, but not rotten. The waitress did ask if everything alright, and I just didn’t have the balls to say anything. I figured I’d just write a passive-​aggressive review on Unilocal to level the playing field. Note that I did pay, I wish I didn’t, but again I shy away from confrontation.
I obviously will never be returning here, which is kind of sad because I’ve heard their pizza is pretty good. But hey, if a place is going to try to serve skanked chicken and take my money for it, there just is no reason to deal with BS like that.
But that’s a lie, I did return with a friend. I just drank overpriced liquor, didn’t order food. At this point, my little lizard brain is clicking, just picking apart this place. There’s like 35 servers on the patio texting, the menu’s from the 80s, the décor is OK (I mean you have a patio with a trellis, or something, there isn’t much to it, it just works). It’s just lackluster, there’s nothing exciting about it.
Dear Como’s,
You have an absolutely phenomenal location, right on the corner of 9 mile and Woodward. You should be rammed 7 nights a week. I’m sure there are people that come and enjoy the place, but when you’re competing with places like Imperial, Anita’s kitchen, One-​Eyed Betty’s, and the other exceptional restaurants in Ferndale, you gotta gotta gotta step your game up. If things don’t change with Como’s, I’d wager that they’ll be shutting their doors for good… but maybe not because suckers are born every minute and you’re on the corner of Woodward and 9 mile. At least none of my disposable income will be supporting the cause.

After reading all of the lousy reviews of this place, my girlfriend and I wanted to check it out for comedy purposes.
In all, the food was ok, standard reheated red sauce Italian joint fare. I got a round pizza which was ok (honestly wish I would have gotten a deep dish — their deep dish actually looks pretty good). Girlfriend got shrimp scampi which was also … passable.
The décor in here is bizarre. It somewhat resembles the décor at a normal red sauce joint crossed with a funeral home. Big patio (which is nice). The tables, chairs, and flooring look like they’re straight out of a poker hall.
Service was good. The real downside here is the price. Prices are entirely unreasonable for this type of food and the portion sizes. Disappointing.

This is the kind of place I wish I could love because it’s such a part of Ferndale history, but it was just… shitty. There are really no other words. I took my girlfriend here recently and it was not a good experience.
We waited twenty minutes for someone to come take our order, and I had to flag our waiter down from across the room. He apologized and explained that he had been preparing the food for another table – apparently the waiters also double as cooks! Not very efficient.
I ordered an antipasto salad, which was put together very prettily, but underneath was absolutely swimming in dressing. I also ordered a glass of the house pinot grigio, which was decidedly the best-​tasting thing there, along with the marinara sauce.
We got an appetizer and my girlfriend ordered fish and chips. The apps were greasy, not well flavored, came with an overly salty ranch and a rather spicy marinara. I was hungry enough to eat about half the platter, but immediately regretted it, as the insane amount of grease did not sit well on my stomach to the point of nausea. My girlfriend’s fish and chips also wasn’t satisfactory, as the fries were soggy and flavorless (as well as clearly out of a bag) and the fish was too greasy, undercooked, and had soggy breading.
The waiter brought back the fish and chips, although it came back with one less piece than she had originally gotten. We had no such luck with the appetizer, which turned out to be frozen and not actually made at the restaurant. I finally had to inform the manager that the food was unacceptable and had made me ill; he did not offer any apology for the low quality or my discomfort, and said that «of course» the appetizers were frozen out of a bag, as it was impossible to make them in-​restaurant. I am pretty sure that it’s possible to make food fresh in a restaurant, but what do I know?
The final cost was $ 40 for a single glass of wine, a tiny salad, two plates of pre-​made frozen food out of a bag, and some fish that was only made well the second time. I was on the verge of doing a dine-​and-​dash, it was so bad.
I would never come here again. Bad food from a bag is one thing, but the way the manager behaved was inexcusable. I’ve heard that Como’s is going under, and I have to say that it kind of deserves it.

Food: is good, I had thin crust pizza. They top it generously and seemingly with quality stuff. I do not think however, that it’s worth the price. The same good pizza can be found in many upper grade pizza places and often for a couple bucks less. Also, we waited precisely 40 minutes for it to arrive, while there was absolutely no other clients to be served at the time.
Experience: is unpleasant for the most part. Our waitress was polite, but everyone else we passed was either repulsive or making sure to assert their dominance of some sort… lol!
The greeter/​takeout guy was chilling on his phone and leaking boogers onto his sleeve, hostess was plain rude. My mom was still consulting with me if she wants the patio or the inside, so the hostess let out a loud sigh and hissed «well, sit wherever you like» then angrily left.
On our way to the patio I asked a server if the outside is open for seating, without even looking at us she goes (with full attitude): «do what you want».
To top the experience, as we were leaving there was a super creepy dude laying on the dining chairs, staring at us with the most perverted stare who wished us «a very nice day laaadies». Scary!
Tables and menus were greasy and dirty. Dishes/​silverware very worn and old.
I don’t think I’d return

I had the shrimp scampi and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t care for the green beans. My mom got their full slab of ribs they smell and look good but very tough (over cooked)
Had their calamari for an appetizer and that was very good with lemon. Won’t be returning.

Over 6 years I have been the over 50 times with friends so I feel this is a good overall view…
The food is sorta aOK if it is inside or outside. Overpriced for what you get, close to Sam’s Club or Costco or Gordon Food Service quality put in a microwave.
If you are there for the food then I say pass, but they do have an awesome outside deck in the Summertime. I do say go for the outside feel and get a few beers.
Food pass, Summer Feel go… timing is everything in life :)

I went here with my older sis for early dinner this past Saturday. She had wanted to take me there before but at that time Ferndale was having one of many of their weekend festivals and parking was impossible to find so that was a bust.
I’m not going to lie. I went to Unilocal and seen the mostly negative reviews and wasn’t sure what to make of the place. They definitely have the great location thing going for them. My older sis and husband like the place while my younger sis is not a fan but says the pizza is the only real saving grace. You can’t miss the restaurant as you drive down Woodward.
When going in you first hit the main bar area which was quite dark for a sunny afternoon outside but it is what it is. I didn’t see a host come up as we made our way through the bar and the main dining hall so wasn’t sure if we had to seat ourselves. Moments later though the hostess came and asked us if we wanted to sit inside or outside. We opted for outside but then was warned that it might be a really long wait before seeing a server as three of their workers were no shows. Guess the weather was really nice and they skipped work. LOL.
So with that in mind we went inside. There were only two booths available and we quickly chose the one away from the large family with lots of kids. The inside was like a darkened banquet hall with yellow flowers (not sure if they were real or fake) hanging all over the walls and ceilings. I guess the yellow was an attempt to brighten an otherwise dark room.
The three no show workers really affected things as our table still needed cleaning and new silverware and napkins. Two of the staff including our main server scrambled to get it together. Our main server was okay though she seemed rushed and flustered at times and took a long time returning to our table get our pizza order in. I tried to get her to put it after sending our Wing Zing appetizer but she told us she would return (ten minutes later). It also took ages to get a refill on the water.
So our appetizer of the Wing Zing were nice and hot. Again no worries about growth hormones in their wings. Oddly enough the plate only had 7 WINGS. The odd number of wings reminded me of when I was 12 and she was 13 and she joined me for two weeks working at the family Church. So I normally got paid $ 25 every two weeks (yeah they got me real cheap though at that time $ 25 went a lot further than it would today…*LOL*). Since my sister worked with me, the Church decided to split our $ 25, with me getting the extra dollar because of seniority. Needless to say that ended that little work arrangement. I relayed the story and we shared a nice laugh over the memory. Since I got the extra dollar that time, I let her have the extra wing…*LOL*.
We ordered a medium round pizza with pepperoni, portabello mushrooms, and green peppers. The pizza was good though I was expecting our server to cut the pizza and give us the initial slices (like they do at Giordannos) but she left us to fend for ourselves.
I do wish Unilocal had a half star system but I guess the halves come in from the average of all reviews. I felt service was about two stars while the food was about three stars so it averaged at 2 ½. But I pushed it to three because at least it seemed like they were somewhat trying. I wasn’t overly wowed though. If I“m in Detroit and my older sis really wants to go there, I’ll go with her but I won’t go out of my way to request going there.
They definitely are resting on the «good location» laurels.

Okay, so I was a little nervous to try this place out based on everyone’s reviews. I also did some crowd-​sourcing on Facebook and asked people’s opinions, and they varied from «great place!» to «I would never eat there again. EVER.» However, my experience ended up being okay.
I had a $ 40 Groupon that I had bought before reading the reviews on here. As soon as you walk in to Como’s, there’s a sign talking about Groupon/​LivingSocial deals, so that was interesting. My boyfriend and I were attending a show at the Fisher, so I figured this would be a good place to eat beforehand.
The waiter was friendly and I asked him what would be the best things to get with our Groupon. I wanted to try the pizza since most have raved about it, so we got a medium pizza with Italian sausage, green pepper, and banana peppers ($ 15.99), a sampler app ($ 7.99 each, so $ 16 total), and later, two cannoli’s ($ 5 each). Something a little weird about the Groupon is that it does say NO BEVERAGES on it … I assumed this was alcoholic beverages but we did ask and that includes sodas and other non-​alcoholic drinks.
THE PROS:
–Pizza was good although overpriced, IMO. The crust was thinner than I thought it would be. When you walk in, you see the «pizza man» (pizza chef, lol) cooking pizzas in their oven, and he was the one who delivered it to our table, so you know that the pizza is very fresh.
–On the app plate (also overpriced, at $ 7.99/pp — I would say it was worth maybe $ 10 – 12 max), we got mozzarella sticks and toasted ravioli (very good), fried zucchini (also good), chicken tenders (okay), fried cauliflower (meh), jalapeño poppers (I avoided since I dislike spicy foods), and I think maybe like one more thing. We got 2 – 3 of each except a lot of the cauliflower and zucchini. Surprisingly, after the cheese items, my favorite was the zucchini.
THE OKAY:
–Cannoli’s were $ 5 each (a little overpriced, but they were BIG) and were just okay … I still cleaned my plate, though. They tasted like pistachio or something.
–Waitservice — I know all of you on here are saying it’s AWFUL, but it really was fine until the end, when our waiter seemingly wandered off while we were waiting for the bill. This review would have been like 3.5÷5 (rounded up to 4 stars) if not for that, because we literally waited about ten minutes for him to come back.
WHAT TO KNOW:
–They don’t take credit cards unless your bill is $ 10+, so I had to pay cash for the remainder of our bill (about $ 4) plus the tip.
–They have a patio that seemed like it would be nice in the spring/​summer.
I won’t make an effort to return to Como’s, but I could see myself going there for a drink on the patio in the summer with friends, and maybe ordering a pizza. Green Lantern is still my fave for pizza in the area, though.