Lucky's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Davison Township

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law kept inviting us to meet them for dinner at Lucky's Steakhouse and were always telling us how great it was. We met them there last week finally. We started out with drinks and bread that my sister-in-law kept raving about. When the bread arrived it was placed on our table in a bag (which was odd to me) and seemed hard as a rock, which even my brother-in-law made a comment about. It didn't taste bad, but I didn't understand all the hoopla over it. My wife ordered the prime rib, as did the brother-in-law, and I ordered the ribeye. Sister-in-law ordered fish with a sweet potato. Where the food arrived she got sweet potato fries instead of what she had ordered. About halfway through the meal, she received her sweet potato. My wife had to send back her prime rib because she couldn't even cut it with the provided steak knife as it had gristle running throughout it, and the pieces she did manage to power through were un-chewable. They brought her another prime rib, which was better, but not even close to what one would expect when ordering prime rib, and at prime rib prices. My ribeye was a nice size and cooked to my liking (medium) and for the most part was fairly tender. The issue I had was the massive overuse of salt applied to the steak. Salt should be in the background, not the primary taste. The steak was saltier than a bag of chips. I didn't say anything as I didn't want to hurt the feelings of the people we were dining with, who thought this restaurant was the best place in the world. Is it possible that we just caught them on a bad night? Maybe. But there just seemed to be too many issues with the beef. Having said all that, I know that my sister-in-law can be (is) what I refer to as a "restaurant menace" and my wife tends to make poor choices at times (ordering steak at an Italian restaurant, or Italian at a restaurant that specializes in steak or seafood, and then complaining that it wasn't that great and then hearing me explain why. She also had [note I said had] a tendency to order steaks cooked medium-well and then have the audacity to say it was too tough) I have worked diligently to break her of this habit and am happy to say she no longer orders steaks burned to a flavorless crisp. As someone that knows his way around a kitchen (and a good steak) I believe my wife had every reason to send that prime rib back after cutting and tasting it for myself. All-in-all, I don't see myself making the trek to this establishment anytime soon. There are just much better choices for the money. The waitstaff was pleasant and friendly. The atmosphere was nice, although no fault of Luckys, I didn't expect to see people walking in in greasy work clothes or ripped up jeans and tank tops to pound beers and eat wings and be sat next to couples that dressed up to have a nice dinner. The restaurant has plenty of seating (a whole other side) and could easily separate the people that came in for their anniversary or special occasion from the people that look like homeless bums, or the blue collars that are still in their high viz dirty work cloths (hey, I'm one of them, but that doesn't mean I want to sit next to me and my buddies fresh off a work site and hear loud banter when I'm taking my wife...

We have been coming to this location for at least the past 15 years, almost always to celebrate a special event such as a birthday or holiday. Pre-COVID, Lucky's earned and deserved a solid 5-star rating across the board. Unfortunately, Post-COVID, it's an entirely different story.

Sadly, our visit to Lucky's this past Saturday was very likely our last.

To say that our experience was a disappointment would be a gross understatement. Things were noticably off right from our interaction with the hostess. The young lady very clearly would have rather been anywhere else but work, and it showed. We observed two other parties receive the same treatment.

Our waitress, while pleasant and (a bit overly) exhuberant, definitely seemed distracted and overwhelmed. We didn't see any support staff (i.e. bussers or expediters) to speak of, which led us to believe that the waitresses were taking orders, making drinks, bringing out food, and bussing their own tables. Very uncharacteristic by Lucky's standards.

Without mincing words, service was SLOW. It was certainly not busy by any means (1pm), but our waitress would seemingly disappear for long periods. We were never offered additional bread, and keeping our water glasses full was quite the challenge. Our appetizers and soups took far longer than expected. We had a water glass mishap, and were forced to clean up the mess as best as we possibly could. Not one staff member offered assistance, and even after we repeatedly brought it to their attention, it took until we were leaving our table for someone to address the problem.

Insofar as our entrees went, 2 were as expected, and 2 were absolutely terrible. My son's crab and shrimp stuffed grouper was completely pasty and mushy, and my prime rib was absolutely inedible. While it appeared to be cooked properly, it was a challenge to cut with a knife and impossible to chew. Our sides were either lukewarm or undercooked.

To say the least, this visit was a total disaster and disappointment. We ultimately chose not to complain or send our entrees back. By that time, our experience was pretty much a lost cause and we simply wanted to leave.

$130 including the tip was a hefty price to pay for mediocre food and service. As mentioned, we've noticed a distinct drop in service and food quality Post-COVID, and our visit only reaffirmed that...

So, my husband and I have eaten at Lucky’s (in Fenton) numerous times over the last few years. The service and food is always very good. Last week we tried the Davison one as we were in that area running errands. From the minute we walked up to the front door’s I knew we should have turned around. The glass doors were FILTHY. Opened the door and it smelled like a convalescent center. We were seated and our server came over after about twenty minutes to get our drink order. Still not sure why we didn’t just leave then but, we stayed. Big mistake. We ordered our food as soon as she returned with our drinks. I received my side salad and it was good. Then, we waited FORTY MINUTES FOR THE REST OF OUR FOOD. We tried to call her over and get her attention but she acted like she never saw us. So did the rest of the staff. Then, she brings over two plates of food and sets it down in front of us and starts to walk away. This was NOT our food. We called to her and she turned around, laughed at her mistake and grabbed it from in front of us and handed to the table behind us. Unreal. We then received our food and just looking at it we knew. My husbands lobster was so bad that he literally spit it out (he NEVER reacts that way but was afraid of food poisoning). I took two bites of my rigatoni and pushed it to the side and we asked for our bill. She had NO problem bringing that in a timely manner. She never asked why we hadn’t touched our food. We paid and went to leave but I needed to use the restroom. Let’s just say, I could have been blind and followed the smell to find it. Bathroom was filthy with sticky floors so I opted out and we left. Lucky’s!! If you can’t keep this restaurant as nice or as clean as the Fenton one, close it down. It was so ridiculously bad that I’m sure it wasn’t a “ everyone has a bad day” occurrence. By the way, the couple behind us who had their food served to us first got up and left. This is unacceptable. Not sure we’ll ever return to the Fenton location after this either. We surely won’t recommend it...