Smuggler's At North Shore — Restaurant in Brooks Township

Had a HORRIBLE Mother's Day Dinner Reservation only meal on Mother's day 2024. Our reservation was at 1:30pm for 20 people. We were on the lower deck area, which had a great view of the water. I asked about who our waitress may be and they said we would have two waitresses for such a large party, but only had one until about halfway through our nearly 3 our ordeal. 50 minutes after we arrived, 3 apps came out. My wife waited to eat her soup so she could eat with the rest of the group so it ended up being cold because the rest of the apps came out 25 minutes later. The "fresh baked biscuits" were not so baked, my wifes had ice on it and was frozen. An hour and ten minutes later, the food came out. It was to be a "family style" dinner, where you pass the food around. We had two tables since we had a party of 20, and after passing the food around the first table there was only 2 ribs left. The second table in our party had to wait until 4pm before they got their food, which was 2.5 hours after we arrived. Since we only had one server, drinks were slow to come so we went to the outside bar and paid separately for a couple rounds of drinks. I'm not sure why this was reservation only, as the restaurant did not seem prepared to serve us in a timely manner. I know 3 employees who work there and found out they allowed an eleven top walk in without reservation that put the kitchen behind. My wife really wanted corn riblets which they serve from the regular menu, but upon inquiring was told that they did not prep anything other than the "family dinner" menu specific to mothers day. I look over at the table next to us and find they have non "mother's day family" menu items at their table. Our son-in-laws grandma found a blonde hair cooked into her ribs, nobody at our table had blonde hair. The final straw came when one of the table umbrella they pulled up for us upon arrival was picked up by the wind and the top nearly hitting our new 2 month old grandbaby, the bar portion of the umbrella hit my wife's mother in the back. One of the managers that came to assist our waitress witnessed this, the umbrella hitting spilling one of our parties drinks into their food and lap, glass shattering all over. It also hit our aunt's shoulder. The baby is wailing, my nine year old daughter crying, our daughter never was able to eat, taking the baby to the car upset and crying. My wife is crying, so I tell them to get our "3 cookie per person" dessert to go and we are leaving. After leaving I find they only provided 15 desserts, which was just another slap in the face. They have me pay FULL PRICE, the bill from the dinner plus the lower bar being $300 for 6 people. A higher level manager steps in saying he will comp our bill for all drinks and part of our dinner. A week later, I see my bill was never "comped" and I paid full price for this. My wife reached out to the restaurant through Facebook Messenger receiving a generic message that they would respond in 24 hours, and again reached out again after 48 hours. 5 days later we have received no response from Smuggler's. I am disappointed that what was supposed to be a special mothers day turned into such a disaster. I felt so bad for our waitress who was left solo for half the meal after we were told we would have two servers, and how management allowed for walk-ins during a reservation only event, clearly putting the kitchen behind.

I would strongly advise not to attend any "reservation only" events at this restaurant and hope management tries to improve the service. This is such a beautiful venue in a great location but the service and food need to be on par with that! My google reviews have many views, the photos alone bringing in over 17 million hits. Hopefully this review will help you avoid any issues by avoiding this place on special holidays or...

We haven't had very good luck with restaurants lately and our visit to Smuggler's cove in Newaygo, MI was the most recent. Two years ago after eating a burrito at Smuggler's Cove on a Saturday evening, I ended up in intensive care the following day with food poisoning. Although we can't conclusively pin this on Smuggler's Cove, we have no other explanation for this. We took the remainder of the burrito home in a to go box but because it smelled so bad in the car, we had to stop at a gas station to dump it in their trash before we got home. You can decide for yourself on this. We stayed away from Smuggler's Cove until 1 week ago when we took two other couples there and had a decent meal with decent service. I drank wine and my husband had beer. The wine was pretty bad (Franzia box) and I decided that I would not order it again. We returned again tonight and had the same meals which were about the same as last week. We ordered tall Segrams and water and tall Dewars Scotch and water (single shots). When the first round came, it was obvious that there was a big difference in coloration between the two indicating that the measures were not the same. We tasted each other's drinks, and it was obvious that the darker one was stronger as well. The waitress took the Dewars and water back and said that she added more. In any case, both drinks were pretty lame. (We've had exactly the same drinks at other establishments and have had a considerable sampling with which to make comparison. Corporate establishments such as Applebee's, Olive Garden, Logan's, etc. tend to have very strict control on pour volumes so there's no doubt that our drinks at Smuggler's Cove were very "light". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice the difference!). When we ordered a second round of drinks, they were even weaker! When the bill came, we mentioned this to the waitress who stated that she saw the bar tender pour the drinks and denied the possibility of a short pour. If that is truly the case, there's only one other explanation for the lameness of the drinks. Shortly afterward, the owner (?) came over and accused us of "slandering" his restaurant. We explained the basis for our dissatisfaction but he became very defensive and offered no resolution for this issue. We paid the bill and left quietly from the deck exit, wishing to avoid further conflict. When we got into the parking lot, the owner or manager (Marty) ran out and became very aggressive, and tried to intimidate us with the "slander" claim. We chose to avoid further conflict and advised Marty that we would be filing a complaint with the Michigan State Liquor Control Commission. If he wants to charge more for a full pour or non-watered liquor, then please do so. We're happy to pay for that. We resent paying for something only to be shorted however. If you go to Smuggler's Cove, drink beer, soft drinks or water, but be wary of their mixed drinks, wine and especially...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good: The newly constructed facility for Smuggler’s is a marked improvement from the previous Smuggler’s Cove run by Marty Tramper for many years. The layout allows for plenty of seating options both inside and outside and is executed in a neo-modern decor. We sat inside, and although it was nice to have AC, it was almost a little too cold especially when the wait time for our food to be served was unreasonably long. Our server, Emily F was pleasant and answered all of our questions and was happy to make suggestions.

The Bad: My wife and I arrived at Smuggler’s at 5:45 PM on Saturday June 7. We were seated by 6 PM and our order was placed by 6:10 PM. My wife ordered a cheese pizza and I ordered a NY Strip steak to be cooked to medium temperature. Additionally, coleslaw was part of my meal and my wife ordered a glass of white wine along with my request for an Arnold Palmer. There was nothing complex about our order. Our beverages were served promptly by Emily. By 7:28 PM (1 hr 18 minutes after ordering), our meals still had not been served! We cancelled our entree orders, paid our bill, and left. It should be noted that there were two other couples sitting adjacent to us (we didn’t know them) who experienced the same food delays and also left as we did. We can’t comment on food quality since our food was never served.

The Ugly: At no time were we advised that there were issues in the kitchen such as short staffing or other reasons for the delay. When we cancelled our order, we never had contact with an owner or manager offering an explanation for the unacceptably long wait time for our food (Smuggler’s is not a fine dining establishment)! During rare previous dining experiences at other establishments where there have been delays or mistakes in the order, management has either comped the bill, offered a gift certificate in order to promoted good will, or both. Our bill was $16.38 plus an added $4 tip for the server.

The “Uglier” part: My wife has Type 1 insulin dependent diabetes who depends upon an insulin pump to manage her disease. The pump delivers a constant amount of insulin every minute (basal rate) just to maintain normal body functions, and additional calculated doses of insulin are administered (bolus) when food intake is planned. This all works great as long as a schedule of eating times are adhered to in conjunction with insulin delivery amounts that are programmed into the pump. Needless to say, you really “effed” things up for my wife last night which led to a dangerously low blood sugar level which made eating for my wife a matter of great urgency bordering on emergency. (We went to McDonalds just down the road in order to get some food consumed as rapidly as possible!) Please note that recovery after a low blood sugar level takes hours to re-regulate and makes one feel like they have been run over by a truck...