Hockeytown Cafe — Restaurant in Detroit

We went in before my graduation at the fox theatre for dinner and drinks. It took 10 minutes for them to acknowledge that we were even at the bar. David was our bar tender and he was nice at first. We ordered a Corona and a guiness which took 10 minutes to recieve two cans of beer that were right in front of us. We then, ordered food. I got the burger with no tomatoes(it came with tomatoes on the burger). A couple minutes later, David comes back and asks us if he put in the order and then looks at the ticket and says I did, look at that. I'm surprised. Weird but still whatever.

Then a couple sat down next to us and the girl was graduating too. I watched the manager and David and a bunch of other staff walk by and completely ignore then for 30 minutes (even looking at them but serving people behind them standing at the bar) and he took care of people not even at the bar! (People were lined up by the water and drink station waiting for thier drinks). I make it sound like it was super busy and it was not. There was half of the bar and then maybe a couple tables filled.....anyways, the couple finally got up and left. (Which I would of left at the 10 minute mark honestly). The couple to the other side of us ordered a margarita and it took 15 minutes for them to get thier drinks (because they had no sour mix at the bar and had to go.get it from the back) the manager went and got it and instead of giving it to David to make the drink with, he took it to a register and just let it sit there for another 10 minutes and so they ended up just leaving too. Another couple sat down next to us and the guy ordered a Tito's martini and the bartender came back from the other end of the FULLY STOCKED bar and asked him if it was gin or vodka he wanted. TITOS!! Then he left the chilled glass at the other end and was like "oh where did I put that chilled glass?" and then when the customer was like "you left it down there" he laughed and walked back to get it and then walked all the way back over to where we were and was carrying the chilled vodka down by his leg and was turning it upside down and letting all the vodka out of the shaker. What a waste of liquor and money for you guys, hockeytown cafe.

David also did yoga in front of us and was praying and you could see he was very angry with how many people he had to serve at once but instead of just doing it, he complained and was upset the whole time. He told us someone was supposed to be there at 5 and didnt show up so it was just him which is understandable buuuut maybe the resturant business is not for you if you have to do yoga and realign your chakras while your at work in front of customers wanting a drink. Seems like David was the one who needed a drink. Lol.

My personal opinion, everything was very disorganized and the manager did nothing but stand around like "what do I do next?" You need a manager who is organized and supporting the whole staff and not just worried about the cash register. I am more apt as a customer to come back if I have a long wait on the drinks but the customer service is great and entertaining. David just seemed like he had no idea how to bartend honestly. I would retrain the whole team and make everyone aware that you cant just sit down at work and do nothing and get paid for it. Its actually work. You could tell the manager was trying but very inexperienced in the customer service industry.

Also fries came out soggy and cold too which the manager came out to give us more fries, which were also cold. I will never go...

DEPLORABLE BEYOND BELIEF!!! Had lunch there yesterday (July 16th), Hostess just sat looking bored, table was filthy even after it was supposedly cleaned. I had to remove a small placard from the table only to find that it was basically glued in place by the sticky table (someone haphazardly washed over it making the decision, TO LEAVE IT). I had to ask someone for a wet towel, the young lady cleaned it for a second time! The Waitress was at least very nice, brought us our soda pop which we had to send back because either it was diet or old product in the lines lacking CO2, TERRIBLE! A server brought a large tray of food whereas he sat the tray down behind my guest head and it touched her hair (wow). The FOOD WAS DISGUSTING AS TO IT'S PRESENTATION AND TASTE. I took a bite of the hamburger and was interrupted by a staff member whom said he had to take my plate as I was given the wrong plate (missing bacon per my order, fries were on the plate instead of cole slaw). The replaced plate again had french fries when i had asked for cole slaw instead. Meanwhile my guest, did not receive the mushrooms as requested, so a cup of mushrooms was brought down to the table only they were cold. My hamburger bun was not toasted and was gummy, meat was super subpar and was certainly made from a frozen patty; charging high prices for awful bar food is a rip-off and deliberate as to focusing on profits and giving the customer no value-- terrible business paradigm (you burned us once but you will never get the chance to do it again) . My guest and on ate a portion of the meal only to say, this is garbage product, prepared poorly, served poorly!!! Now I have to walk around the place to find the Manager, finally after being paged he arrives to speak with me looking disheveled and having a even worse people skills-- he never introduces himself (latter told his name is Paul), gives me a hard time about what is the problem? I bring him back to the table and myself and guest explain the issues and show him the sorry excuse product still on the plate. He storms off stating "I'll take care of it". I have no idea what he meant by that (as he was rude and obnoxious). We sat at the table feeling humiliated; finally the waitress comes to the table with the bill, I ask if the the manager spoke to her about the issue(s) at hand-- she responded "no". She left our table to seek out said manager; hence having spoken to the manager came back and said there is no charge for the meals. We decided to tip her as we felt she did everything she professionally could in the wake of the madness of this event. We departed the table and at least had a fantastic time watching Mitch Albom's play entitled Hockey the Musical. I was latter told that the issue with poor food happens ALL THE TIME! REALLY! then why is management ignoring the obvious and letting the horrific conduct and practices to continue-- I don't appreciate being used as a guinea pig experiment! I felt sick after consuming the partial meal- I'm fine now but maybe the board of health should be looking at this so called business! I would recommend staying away from this place with regard to food and drink otherwise order beverages from the can! How in the devil do you screw up every aspect of what happens in a restaurant- either one lacks the competent skills to lead and carry out duties with professionalism or you just have a wanton disregard about yourself let alone your customers! Either...

To preface this I will say that I have given this place a shot twice. I'm finally leaving a review after my last visit. Yes, this will 100% be my last visit. This place is a joke.

Both times I have been severely disappointed. Our most recent trip, 04-30-23, was some of the worst service I have had in a long time. Our server, Ashley, was incredibly inattentive. When she happened to be around, which was rare, she was very rude and short with us.

This place has a severely simplistic menu, not a terrible thing, and it's generally done to cut food costs and expedite service, However, even though we had no wait for a seat, and with this super limited menu, it still took over an hour to get our two meals. Mind you the waitress had only come around ONCE for that entire hour. That was when I finally got my one and only refill, after asking for it.

-Incredibly dirty/dingy bathroom. Tiles falling from the ceiling, graffiti and cut marks on all of the walls, and the men's room label was "ripped" off of the wall so women kept mistakenly coming into the men's room. This bathroom was absolutely disgusting.

-The appetizers were brought out by random people, not the waitress. I witnessed these random people go table to table asking "Did you order this?" over and over. This happened 4 or 5 times. How is it so disorganized that the app order doesn't have a table listed for whom it goes to??

-Regarding the food....it was just gross. I will never be back and I would HIGHLY recommend looking for any other nearby establishment...