Drifters Restaurant — Restaurant in Escanaba

This was our location of choice for a late dinner on a Friday evening. It seems that most places close up shop early around Escanaba, but Drifters is open until 10pm.

We arrived around maybe 8pm for dinner after we all arrived in town. From the first impression walking in, it is your typical small town diner joint. Booths line the outside wall, with a half wall partition around the middle of the place with more booths. Your typical drop ceiling and fluorescent lighting. We were lucky and got a table along the outside wall next to a huge window that looked out onto Lincoln Rd.

It took our waitress a minute to get over to us, but I think that was in part to the fact that we arrived as two groups instead of all together. But when she arrived she took our drink order and got those out to us relatively quickly. Since I was enjoying dinner with my parents...and I hadn't seen them since January placing our food order took awhile as we kept talking and catching up on what was going on, how the drive up was, etc. But we finally made our decisions and gave her our order.

From what I could see as I looked around the place looked clean and well taken care of. Better than the last small town restaurant that I tried earlier in the day. As we waited and chatted it felt like it wasn't long at all before our food came out. Now I am always a HUGE fan on a place that serves breakfast at any time...so I got set up with Belgium waffle, bacon, and eggs! It was very delicious and really hit the spot. My mom went with the stuffed French toast and it looked absolutely to die for. AND best part...she didn't finish hers so I got to have some as well.

Besides the food being really, really good I also enjoyed the fact that our drinks never went empty! I never did check to see if they offered a dessert menu but after all that we had for "dinner" there was no room left.

If you're in the Escanaba area this is a must stop if you want some good food at good prices! I don't think you'll be...

I cannot say enough good things about this place. Been going here for years and it is the single most consistent place I’ve ever been to. The food is always AMAZING. Large portions, very affordable and fair pricing and did I say the food is amazing!

But above all, —The staff here is always absolutely amazing and I never feel unwelcome or feel like a burden. No matter how busy it is. Even if the parking lot looks packed from the road DONT PASS IT UP. There is AMPLE seating and the food is always very quick to the table and the servers never are too dramatic and running around like everything is out of control.

One great thing I just witnessed was a convo between an elderly gentleman and a staff member. The gentleman must know him and said something to the effect of “so your last day hey?” And the staff said yes, and went on to explain how he was moving on. The gentleman said I see well they are going to miss you here. The staff member said “I’m going to miss them, I love this restaurant.”

That right there kinda hit me and really made me realize, having staff that love the place they work at truly is the key, and it is evident every time I come here that all the staff love this restaurant and their community.

As a life long Yooper, and a U.P traveler for work, I’ve started a little hobby of eating at and rating local restaurants. And I hands down dub DRIFTERS Best in class for U.P diners. And I...

This restaurant can not accommodate special dietary needs. After explaining that I absolutely can not have my food cooked with any sort of oil due to a medical condition, and asking about several items on the menu, my food was served to me saturated in oil. If the chicken could not be cooked in oil, then neither should the onions. If the cook missed this fact, then the waitress should have caught this before bringing it out. When I told her what the problem was, she asked me if I wanted different food instead of apologizing and making the situation better automatically. When the second plate was served, it was less oily but oily nonetheless. I overheard someone say that it was cooked in oil and drained. When I talked to the manager about the situation, he insisted it was cooked without oil - then what was all the grease in my napkin? To make matters worse, there was never an apology and I still had to pay for the meal....