Michael's Restaurant — Restaurant in Birmingham

I went to Michael's this past weekend for my birthday dinner and I was beyond excited to try/support this black owned business! For my appetizer, I had fried green tomatoes, overall they were good, could have been seasoned better! They give you plenty of them. For dinner, I had a small ribeye steak and loaded baked potato...let me say the chef blessed my spirit with this meal. I asked the bartender could he make a blueberry lemon drop with a sugar rim, it was delicious. Our servers were nice, one of them was in training, I believe his name was Ronnie, super nice guy! The entire wait staff and hostess were super nice! The owners, not so much, I had been calling the restaurant for weeks, left voice-mails, etc about a large birthday party, it was 11 of us. I arrived on time and asked the hostess if I could add more people in my party and possibly push the reservation back, she assured me it was ok. The restaurant was completely empty and after we left at 8:22pm it was still practically empty. My last 3 guest arrived later than expected and could not join my table after being told that we could squeeze them in. The owner came over and practically made us all uncomfortable talking about how she could not accommodate the rest of my party due to their late arrival, fine...but then the other owner said they could come in as regular guest at another table....fine with me, after all they're late! I told her no problem, I could just bounce around back n forth to their table....well she took the 4th chair that was at their table, making sure I couldn't do so. It was definitely a hurtful gesture but we continued the night away! The owner also stated that she could not accommodate my late party due to limited staff but like I stated they were able to sit at another table, with the same waiters assisting them, Because its still the same guests! One of my guest asked the owner what was going on with the reservation, Bernadine, I think was the name, and she told my guest that I did not want to sign a contract and put a credit card on file. Now this is where I got extremely upset, because the wait staff acknowledged that they received my voice-mail eaelier in the night and I never received any type of phone call back! I was never offered the option to do those things because nobody ever reached back out to me. Online it states if you're booking for a party of more than 8 then to call. I had been calling and never received any follow up/nor a call back. The miscommunication was one thing but to go into details about it with a member of the party was totally unacceptable..especially since everyone at the table of 8 was there to hear for themselves that I had called, left voice-mails, and nobody never followed up with me! It made the night extremely uncomfortable after that.

Overall I give the experience a 7 out of 10, only because of the miscommunication issues with owners and taking the chair from the table of 4 that had been there all night! I loved the food, the drinks, the wait staff, the ambience, the...

My husband and I were very excited for the start of restaurant week as it allows us the ability to try new places while they are (at least in our minds) highlighting some of the things they do best as well as trying new craft ideas as well. We wanted to try Michaels because we hadn't been there and are always looking for a quaint upscale restaurant for post work evening dinners and date nights. After easily making reservations for 7:30 and glancing at their restaurant week menu we were very excited for our dinner. Unfortunately, that excitement quickly waned. We were greeted at the door by a hostess who seemed a bit frazzled and insisted we choose a section to sit in (odd that we had reservations and no knowledge of the restaurant) but we chose to sit in the lower section close to the kitchen area. Once seated our waiter informed us there was a large party so we should probably go ahead and put in our order so as not to get wait listed behind the larger party. We knew what we wanted so we paced our order for one of the special bourbon cocktails and one each of the restaurant week specials our drinks came out poorly constructed but we thought perhaps since it was the first night they were still perfecting the presentation and they tasted well enough. We were never offered bread or any type of time before a different waitress brought a main course to our table despite reasoning we hadn't received our appetizers she was insistent it was our food (it was the neighboring tables as it turns out) our appetizers were brought out and what we had of them was good. Unfortunately we only had about 5 minutes before our entrees were delivered to enjoy them. All the while hearing the line chefs say how much they hated restaurant week (at this point I was starting to agree) our food was mediocre at best for temperature and taste odd since it came out so quickly. We finished what we could of the main course and had our desserts brought to us. By this point in the evening it was clear we were getting the rush so we ate some of our dessert and asked for the check our waiter seemed overloaded with tables to serve and had a hard time getting us the check. For our first experience and still spending upwards of $90 not inclusive of tip I had hoped for more. There are far too many options around the city of superb steak houses to settle for lackluster presentation, service or food. I hope that it truly was an off night and that that isn't the norm for Michaels we want to be able to say we would try it again but honestly for us the jury is out if it would be worth it. So an abject warning before going during this week. It might not be the experience you...

Im thrilled to see that so many before me have really enjoyed this place. I can only hope that many after me continue to do so as well. However, MY experience was very sub par.

We attended last week on the first day of Summer Restaurant Week and based on the following, thought it would be slam packed with patrons. When looking it up online, it was highly recommended that we make a reservation, however there weren't any for the remainder of the night. Also, when we called we were told "if you came right now" there was no wait for a party of two. Upon arrival there was one patron at the bar and two seated together at a table. THAT'S IT.

Nonetheless we stay to eat. One Delmonico and one Salmon Rockefeller order. For there to be so few people, we would have expected the order-to-table time to be far less than the 35 mins or so that it took. Once it did, I actually received a lamb order, not the Delmonico. Had that taken away to wait another 10 or so for the steak. One common theme between the fish and the steak... Lacked seasoning/flavor. They both tasted very bland and the salmon specifically was VERY well done (as in doneness). The broccoli was also overcooked. The mashed potatoes however, were seasoned.. With FAR too much salt. I know it sounds like I may be exaggerating this review but I have no reason to exaggerate my experience here.

We ordered one Pinot grigio and one prohibition old fashioned. The first wine that came to the table was a red and the old fashioned didn't taste like anything special at all to cost $16. The next wine that came to the table, without request was the original Pinot grigio.

For as much money as was spent, no... Just no. Again, if you read this review and still give it a shot, I hope your experience is FANTASTIC! I won't be...