The Red Bird Bistro & Grill — Restaurant in Cedar Springs

I will start off and say the wait staff are friendly and nice. The nachos were really tasty and the coke was perfect. But the niceties end there. I ordered the chicken dinner and my husband got a burger well done. He said his burger tasted more like burnt. That was his only complaint. My personal complaint was that the mashed potatoes and gravy plus the veggies were waaayyy too salty. Like I could barely eat them on their own and my lips are dried out from the salt. The chicken looked good but tasting it made me think of shake n bake chicken. It was pretty bland. The chicken was juicy but pretty flavorless. I guess it helped balance out the oversalty sides... but for $17 a plate that wasn't worth it. At the end of the meal I had to wait for the bill for some time and then more to give my comments. The waitress apologized and grabbed the manager whom did not take what I had to say well. She brushed off my comments saying "well the chicken dinner is one of our signature dishes and everyone raves about it. I can assure you we make the breading in house. Plus you ate almost all of it." I told her I wasn't asking for anything off the $60 bill for 2 people and a toddler. Just to give my personal feedback. That response was not what I expected and I feel she took it too personally. She didn't apologize and that was bogus. I had to wait even more time to pay. I went here because Facebook kept pushing the restaurants ads in my face but I'm sad and disappointed to say I will NOT be returning. The food itself is secondary to the way the manager responded to criticism. PS if you read this of course I will eat something I spent $17 on.. lol doesn't mean I liked or enjoyed it.

Perhaps your experiences will be different but I suggest people to reconsider as their prices do not justify...

Downtown Cedar Springs. Inside it's a rustic/modern atmosphere. On one side they have an open kitchen and another they have the bar area. The place has a warm happy feeling to it.

I ordered the Cowboy Burger ($17), which has a cajun spiced burger patty, pepper-jack cheese, house made bbq sauce, haystack onions, on a toasted bun. The burger looked a little small, especially the patty, however I was full at the end so maybe not. The burger was perfectly cooked. The cajun spice added a nice edge to the taste of the burger. Everything worked well together to make a very good burger. It's not going to crack my top 10, but I would happily get it again. The fries I got with it were top notch. They had a unique flavor to them that made the one of the most enjoyable fries I've had in awhile. I was going to get a House Salad ($6) to go with my burger and fries, however they don't have French Dressing. What a crock! Anyways since they didn't have the only flavor of dressing I like on a salad I passed on that. The Person I was with ordered the Classic Burger ($15),  which has lettuce, tomato, and roasted garlic mayo on a toasted bun. She really liked her burger and commented on how good the fries were.

The service was good. They checked on us and got the items we requested.

Overall a 4 star review. Everything was very good it just wasn't quite 5 stars good. Plus not having french dressing and not having your entrees available until after 4pm all detracted a little bit. Would I return? Yes, but I'm not sure I'd make the trip from G.R. to Cedar Springs just to eat there again. If your in the area then yes I recommend...

So, we had high hopes for this place and unfortunately it was a let down. We first got there, sat down and the tables against the windows closest to the road were slanted. Now, I’m not sure if they all were like that but the one we had was. The owner or manager not sure who it was but came by and asked if the sun was in my eyes and he offered to close the shades more and it wasn’t so that was very nice of him to do otherwise.

Next was it took 15 mins for someone to finally come and bring water and then take our drink order. We ordered two drinks and my drink, which I chose first, I wasn’t able to get because she said they were out of mint. Ok, so I picked the bourbon and sage. while It had some flavor it was way too strong. My gf’s drink that she ordered was was straight tequila and was supposed to be a raspberry margarita. Also was a very small glass for the price which was I believe 10 bucks. The price was way too high! Especially for the inconsistency of them.

So, we next were able to pick our orders, I ordered the cod dinner and she then told me they were out of hush puppies for the dish. She ended up saying she could substitute which she was a good server and did what she could. She wasn’t to blame at all. We ended up canceling our orders we made, and unfortunately paid for our drinks and left and then went to cedar springs brewery and we were glad to of made that decision.

You guys really gotta make sure you don’t run out of food. Especially, for specials. That doesn’t look great. You need to also get your bar tenders training on those drinks. It all starts with management. Gotta work on...