Aerie Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Acme Township

POOR EXPERIENCE FOR A LARGE GROUP

On Friday, September 6, our golf group of 14 had dinner reservations at Aerie Restaurant & Longue. As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for many years, I was extremely disappointed in the experience for many reasons. We were staying on property so going up to the 16th floor at Aerie seemed like a convenient dinner option. Based on the Google star ranking, I’m going to provide details on Atmosphere, Service, and Food.

The Atmosphere was what I felt was best about Aerie. Getting off the elevator and immediately seeing the views from the high-rise overlooking Lake Michigan and the three beautiful golf courses of Grand Traverse was a great first-impression. The décor and aesthetics were late 80s/early 90s, but the restaurant was still clean. Our large group was put in the back, away from other tables. This is understandable for any large group.

Service was extremely poor. It felt like we weren’t wanted, something I felt from the time of our arrival. While I was in awe of the great views when getting off the elevator, we weren’t greeted kindly. It took way too long to order our drinks, get our drinks, get any refills, put in our dinner order and get ultimately get our food. One of our members even had to go to the bar to get a refill on water. If our server was attentive, we would have easily had another two drinks per member drinking alcohol. Our server wasn’t friendly the entirety of our time in Aeire. I felt like we were a chore for him to serve us. He wasn’t thoughtful and he didn’t go out of his way to make our experience positive in any manner. Due to being a large group, we were billed a 20% gratuity charge. This came out to over $260. What made me most mad is that when it was time to receive the bill, the server refused to break it into separate checks. As someone who waited tables for many years, this is not hard to do. Looking at the check, I even recognize that they were using a Micros POS system. I could have accomplished separating our checks in less than five minutes. Our server was lazy or didn’t care about us, or a combination of both. I’m someone who almost always tips 20%-25% to servers, this would have been one of the rare occasions where I would have tipped much less. This server did not deserve $260.

Our group was mixed on our food reviews. I had the scallops which was a very small portion and the scallops were either poorly cooked or poor quality. The menu stated that there should have been a green curry vinaigrette on the entrée, it was missing and our server was nowhere to be found after we received our entrée. Me and another one of our group members who also had the scallops agreed on the dish. After the meal, he and I ordered Taco Bell to be delivered to the resort because the quality and portion size of the scallops was so poor. Another member of our group ordered the Asparagus. According to him, this came out cold and was rubbery. A couple of our members had better experiences and enjoyed their entrees. These seemed to be the members who ordered steaks with one referring to his filet as “phenomenal.” This is why I gave food two stars as opposed to one.

Poor experience. I would not recommend going to Aerie with a large group and, based on my experience, I’d be very apprehensive about giving it a...

I am writing to express my profound outrage and disappointment regarding the utterly appalling dining experience my party of four endured at your establishment on the evening of 9/2/23. Frankly, our visit was nothing short of a disaster, and I feel compelled to bring this matter to your immediate attention.

Our night was marred by a complete lack of coordination between your service staff and kitchen team. After waiting for an excruciatingly long hour following our appetizers, we were finally informed that our entrees were in progress. Instead of delivering our entrees promptly, we were inexplicably presented with bread and oil for dipping, despite never having received bread at the beginning of our meal. This level of disarray is entirely unacceptable.

To add insult to injury, the manager, Maria Lopez, approached our table to offer an explanation for the delays, citing new kitchen staff as the cause. It took an additional ten minutes before our dishes were served. Of the three entrees that arrived, they were not only insipid and devoid of seasoning but also left us with no appetite due to the exasperating wait.

The most egregious error came when the fourth entree, a rack of lamb, was finally served. To our utter dismay, it was entirely raw on the inside. It is nothing short of an outrage that your establishment would even consider serving such a dangerous dish to customers. The reckless disregard for food safety and basic culinary competence is beyond comprehension.

We were informed that our entire meal would be comped due to this harrowing experience. However, when we received the bill, we were shocked to discover that we were charged for everything except the inedible lamb chops. It's not about the money; it's about the blatant unprofessionalism and negligence we encountered throughout our evening.

I reached out via email to Maria Lopez, but as of now, I have received no response. Rest assured, this matter will not go unnoticed. We intend to contact the health department first thing on Tuesday morning to report this egregious violation of food safety standards.

This experience has left an indelible mark of disgust and dismay, and I implore you to take immediate action to rectify these issues and prevent such a catastrophic dining experience from befalling...

High expectations especially considering the menu item prices. I had scallops my wife had an 8oz filet mignon as our entrée. Sides were fingerling potatoes and grilled asparagus. Scallops cooked to perfection but overly salted on top for the seared crust. Wife's filet was even more overly salted. It's as if it was being prepared for bring made into beef Jerry. The filet was returned, remade and still returned overly seasoned even though request as no seasoning. Add to this the fingerling potatoes were salted and served with a generous portion of parmesan cheese (more salt) un edible. Asparagus was served with a seasoned cracker crumble that was too generously "sprinkled" or heaped which of course was......more over saltiness. The overpriced salads were fine. The wine was fine....thank goodness they came from a bottle at the bar and not the kitchen. The bill was delivered by a less than attentive server that had been adjusted to remove the cost of the $80 filet but still totaled $204 after 2 desserts and coffee were added. Big birthday disappointment for my wife and so much less than was expected from our stay and experiences here at the Grand Traverse Resort. We may stay at the resort again in the future but will definitely be dining at other establishments in the city. I hope the very apologetic restaurant manager is able to follow through further with the culinary team and review their menu options and pairings so that saltiness and seasonings don't overpower every item and aren't the only choices to accompany the entrée. Accent the dish. Less is more unless requested...