Trader Jack's Riverside Grille — Restaurant in Eastlake

A most memorable experience at Trapper Jack's tonight! Arriving at the restaurant a little after 5PM on a Saturday, we expected a long wait for an outside table. We did not expect them to skip over our name and, after inquiring how much longer, we were finally seated after a 1 1/2 hour wait.

Fortunately, our young waiter was personable and attentive, getting our food quickly to the table. Unfortunately, I discovered a black hair in the sauce of one of my barbecue chicken breasts, which I pulled out. These things don't make me squeamish and I understand that mistakes like this can happen even in the best establishments. (If you have not already picked up on this, Trader Jack's is not one of those establishments even though Google calls their food "upscale American pub grub." The knife at my place setting that had crusty food from a previous meal on it was an early indicator.)

I informed the waiter when he later appeared. During that conversation I was looking at my food and joking that it wasn't his color hair when I discovered a second hair embedded in the sauce, this one long and brown, which I noted as I pulled it out in front of him, that it could have come from his head if he were plating the food. He was horrified , apologetic, and left to "get someone." "Someone" never came as he returned on his own to ask me if I would like another dinner. I did, and ordered something different, a club sandwich that was rather tasty.

"Someone" did show up later to take our empty appetizer plate and asked if we needed anything. My wife ordered another beer. It never made it to the table, obviously forgotten, and we never saw that "someone" again.

Apparently, whoever was managing that evening forgot about us as well as no supervisor came to apologize for the two hairs found in my food. Maybe they have a policy that three hairs needed to be found before a visit would take place, though I would think that hair from two different heads would trump any such policy. (I have never worked in this industry, but I have to believe that getting two different hairs like that in your food was extremely rare.) Only when the check came were we informed by the waiter that my meal was comped.

Though I thought the young and inexperienced waiter (he told the table next to us that he was new) did an incredibly fine job of taking care of us given the circumstances, I don't think that good wait service and a free $12 meal will be enough for us to give Trader Jack's Riverside Grill a...

Oh boy let me tell you! Absolutely don’t go unless you are looking for poor service and to wait over an hour for mediocre food.

When myself my two kids and two other adults arrived they were on a wait but the hostess said she could seat us right away at a high top table. Of course I said yes because hello I have two kids with me. It took us a little longer to look at the menu because I first had to take my kids to the restroom. As the male server seemed annoyed we didn’t know the first time he asked he waited at least 10 mins before he came back. After ordering around 6:40 and I’m giving that a gracious timeframe we didn’t receive our food till almost 7:40. In that time of waiting our server never came to check on us until my mom said something to me a little louder and another server overhead then chatted quite rudely to our server about it. Then our server came over and said “your food will be right out. They lost the ticket” with the most condescending smile. Totally didn’t care and really lost the ticket my a$$. He offered a scoop of ice cream for the kids as a fix it. Food then came out another 10mins later luke warm and not worth it. Then I tell him I need to pay and get a box for my kids chicken fingers because at this point they are so tired they aren’t even hungry anymore. He again takes 10mins to accomplish this because oh no we didn’t want dessert he has to try to find a manager to fix it. What the heck are they doing here I mean get your crap together. If someone has waited that long why didn’t the manager come talk to us why did we wait that long because everyone who came in after us was gone by now. This is the most ridiculous place run by absolutely no one and I will never return and will be telling everyone i know to not go. And it’s a shame because the patio looked pretty. I also know the hospitality business very very well running 5 star restaurants in Vegas and Miami. Not that I would ever expect that kind of service here but I except some kind of service and this place was awful to be nice about it. I can’t stress this enough DONT GO...

This won't be a popular review and is highly unusual ... normally a 5 star. No, I did not call the wait help out in person and didn't want to chance ruining their shift with negatives, but want to stress a training or common courtesy issue. No, I did not call on a manager, or see one for the same reasons. Here's my story - more for constructive criticism than a negative review. Went to early dinner, around 4:00 pm; was a beautiful night; not horribly crowded yet, but had to wait about 15 minutes or so I was told for outdoor seats; decided to wait; took seats at bar and ordered and paid for drinks; went to tell front desk that we decided to eat at the bar, but got there and got message that table was ready - great!; sat down at table - cigar smoke; thought of moving, but there was no escape, even at the other table according to the wait help; I know, former smoker, blah, blah, blah, so deal with it; food arrived, asked for an "early" to go container (wait help didn't ask if anyone else wanted one - just one was brought to table), no big deal, had to ask for and get the others later; shortly after a large fly decided to swim in my large half-full wine glass of beer; showed waitress in jest - a few minutes later help said, "oh, let me get this away from you" (no, did not ask "did you want another"); finally, since I had no drink, asked for water - you guessed it, didn't ask anyone else if they wanted one - brought my one glass. Yes, they wanted water, but we didn't bother and yes, still left a descent tip. I am going to chuck it off as an "off night", but maybe just help put a bug (pun, lol) in the wait helps ear! Love...