Hotel Stebbins — Hotel in Algoma

This review is of food and service in the bar. ||We arrived in Algoma on Friday afternoon. Our host recommended Hotel Stebbins with the mention of the Friday Seafood Buffet. We were intrigued and figured it might get busy. With the hope of making same-day reservations, I called twice with no call pickup. I left a voicemail with no response. ||Thinking we’d just take a chance, we arrived exactly at 4:30 and had a drink at the bar. The bartender just seemed…annoyed. Definitely not friendly. Interestingly, a call came in. It was obvious the caller was asking about the seafood buffet, and the bartender was listing off the buffet items. At some point, the caller must have heard enough to make a decision and shortened the conversation. Upon call hangup, the bartender was even more annoyed. “Well, if she had just let me finish…” came across rude. ||Once seated, our very nice waiter, Zach, took our order. We proceeded to the buffet. I’m just not sure what the hype is about. The blackened tuna was very dry, the fried items were just okay, and the seafood casserole looked like a medley of last Friday’s fried items all blended together, breading and all (yuck).||As far as appearance, I guess I expected different. Most staff members were walking around in unkempt t-shirts and shorts. One even had a t-shirt from the dairy place up the road. There was no cohesiveness or uniformity, and it just came across as sloppy. ||Maybe I just expected more for a historic hotel. Their other food may be very good. I noticed the next table received a bread basket with their entrees (which makes sense vs the buffet), they had a variety of salad dressing options, etc. The dining room was just lacking in the historic hotel ambience, though. I never received a call back, btw, and there’s really no way they would have known that we even showed up. For us, this was a miss and we...

My wife and I were so involved in events in Texas, we both forgot our 24th anniversary. What to do? Where to go? We are weird as we like to treat ourselves to restaurants out of our own city.

I had researched the Stebbins before. It seemed like a worthy place for our celebration. So we called and made a reservation (good thing we did, as they were turning people away without one); and took the scenic drive to Algoma.

We got there early and sat at the bar. We told the barkeep we were there for our anniversary celebration. That was the right thing to say as the staff fawned us after that.

We had a couple of Tanqueray and tonics that were sufficiently stout. The bar area was fairly raucous as the Brewer's game was on. Then we found out we could eat at the bar. So we ordered some onion rings. I know they're not that good for you; but they are my guilty pleasure. Their onion rings are pretty dang good.

At our appointed time we were shown to the dining room, which we found surprisingly small. Our waitress was a perky and friendly lass and her service was great.

99% of the time I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian. On that one percent I'll channel the pescatarian in me. So will my wife. So I ordered a shrimp dish and she ordered fish. Both of our meals were excellent. My side was baby red potatoes. My wife had a twice baked potato.

Just a tip to the restaurant, the presentation and meal would have benefited with a green vegetable on the plate, broccoli, please.

As I said our waitress was very efficient and pleasant. After our meal she said "I hear it's your anniversary, don't go away". In a few minutes she brought us a rather large strawberry short cake. It was delicious, the perfect end to a fine meal. It was on the house!

We look forward to returning for another meal and perhaps a two night stay, as the hotel seems to be 19th...

Awesome location, in this quaint town by the lake! My friend and I stayed one night. We stayed in the Victorian Suite. Small sitting room with a tv and sofa bed couch. There was also a microwave and small fridge. There is a door between that room and the bedroom. Thank goodness because even with the baseboard heaters, there was a lot of cold air coming through the windows. The room was full of antiques and even with the 'Victorian" theme, I feel that windows, walls, doors, hardware and heating system could use an update. Each room has a theme so i am not sure how the other rooms look. There were a bunch of hand towels in the bathroom however only one large bath towel. Also, only 1 roll of tp was on the spindle. The staff leaves when the bar closes..830pm I believe...so the front desk/bartender..advised we were to call a # if we needed anything. Maybe someone lives closeby so they can bring you whatever or answer any questions. The door to the hotel stays open 365 days a year which in a small town, doesn't seem to be an issue. Overall, decent place. Comfortable bed. Price $124 with tax....