Big Boy — Restaurant in East Tawas

My husband & I stopped at this Big Boy on our way out of Tawas Point State park 7.26.25 as we have been there before :) Upon arrival at 12:04pm Izzy the hostess who was very polite, professional, and very accommodating explained due to this being a Saturday they were short handed & there would be a 40 minute wait. We said fine and she took our drink order and seated us. The restaurant was fairly full but not too bad. A few minutes later Cindy our waitress appeared. i quote her " You were told there is a 40 minute wait? We answered yes and as Izzy had already put in our drink order we had them. She then said what would you like today and once I take your order Don't ask me in 10minutes where your food is !" I then said "why would we ask in 10 minutes as we alrea dy know about the wait? " Cindy " Because that is all people have been doing today !"

We were both pretty taken aback by these statements as we were in good moods and just wanting our morning coffee and food and almost left after this!! We decided to stay were finished at 1:00pm.

I have waited tables in the past and myself and husband have worked with the public many years and did not at all like the way we were treated by Cindy! Realizing it was a busy shorthanded Saturday, and we have definitely had those kind of days, and really felt we should have been treated a lot better by this front line person working at this Big Boy!

The bus table person asked how we were and if we need anything, which she didn't have to do and the manager eventually showed up and pleasantly greeted us and I didn't say anything at that time as I was still pretty upset!

It has been a really, really long time since we have felt the need to not leave a tip, in this instance we felt totally justified!

We have camped in his area a lot & have visited this Big Boy before and will seriously consider whether or not we will...

Worst service I've had in a long time. Took my dad out to dinner, walked in the door and the first thing they said was "we're out of fish and Slim Jims" at that point we should have walked out. But he likes their patty melt sandwiches so we were seated in a booth, when he sat down the bench was so low he could have rested his chin on the table top and we asked for a table with chairs. Sat at the table ... were handed menus and asked what we wanted for drinks. he ordered a lemonade and I asked what and was told they have Pepsi products so I asked for a Mt. Dew and was quickly informed they were out of Mt. Dew. Shortly, the waiter took our orders he ordered the Patty Melt, cooked medium and I ordered the "world's best cheeseburger" with pickles only. After waiting nearly a half hour to get our order in the sparsely populated restaurant, both orders were wrong, his patty melt was closer to a charcoal briquette than a medium cooked patty melt, my was adorned with lettuce, tomato, onion, special sauce and pickles and 1/2 an order of french fries! At the same time the waiter disappeared, so nobody to send the food back to the kitchen. Never saw the waiter again, as we choked down our dinner, no drink refills, no small talk, and after we were through,no bill slip . We walked up to the disheveled, grumpy old cashier, whom I believe was either the manager or owner, and ask for a bill and begin to describe the terrible service and the screwed up food order. He tries to inform us that they are short staffed and gives a less than half hearty apology, looks at the bill and asks for $$$ to which I say that sounds a little high. At this point he tosses the receipt at me and says "its right". I toss the receipt back at him and pay the bill say " you need an attitude adjustment" and walk out.

Avoid this establishment at all costs, you get better service...

Okay gotta say first and foremost the food was good much better than I was expecting from a big boy (I rate them on the level with waffle house) but when seated we were approached by a bartender when I ordered my beverage (non-alcoholic) that was when the friendly service ended, drinks were brought server (or so we thought) asked us if we wanted an appetizer we stated we did but we were also ready to place our order. Then with the server with an annoyed look and click of her tongue decided to tell us she wasn't our server and was just helping, okay then she left. Our server came asked us what we wanted , placed our orders (chicken kabob dinner for me and the wife had strawberry waffles) my stated she would like to get dessert later after seeing how full she was from dinner but the waitress still asked to place her dessert order then, she repeated she would wait as she didn't know how full she would be so she wanted to see if she wanted just a small shake or something bigger, 20 minutes food comes out, very yummy very tasty, when our food came out our drinks were empty, we asked for refill on coffee and water, and a few extra napkins as the one wrapped around tableware was all we got and after our chili cheese fries and entrées we would knew we would need a couple more, 10 minutes into our meal she brings us a bill and says no rush still no drinks or Napkins, 20 minutes later still no refills or napkins,, now qe are done with our food and she then asks if i want a refill.... never even acknowledged my wife so she asks for a coffee refill again, so never get to order dessert, had to wait till the end to get refills , i understand with the short staffing due to half seating capacity things are different but 7 tables with people eating and 3 people coming to tables you'd think wouldn't be to difficult. It would be a glowing 5* if not for...