Lucky's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Gaylord

my spouse and I went to Lucky's in Gaylord MI on 8/25/2025 for dinner. We have been there many times before and have always had wonderful service and wonderful food. We arrived about 5pm, restaurant was about 1/3 full, bar was full, host, who I believe was the manager, said that 20 people just showed up for the bar area. We were seated right away, were not asked if we prefer booth or table, he went to seat us at a booth, we asked for a table, and he kindly placed us at a table. We were greeted by our waitress right away with bread and she took our drink orders, ordered our food, received our drinks and salads promptly. However from there things went downhill. Probably 5-6 tables were filled after we arrived. I ordered grilled salmon with wedge salad and sweet potato my spouse ordered rib eye with soup and baked potato. When the salad and soup arrived our waitress stated they were out of bacon bits so there were just tomatoes and blue cheese dressing on my salad. I knew i would be charged extra for my wedge salad, i always have in the past, however, when there are only 3 things on the salad and one is missing, i think it would have been appropriate not to charge me extra for the salad. The soup and salad were good. There were multiple flies in the restaurant that were a nuisance, constantly having to swat them off of our table and our food. Many other tables were doing the same. Then we waited and waited and waited for our entrees, two other tables that were sat down awhile after us received their entrees, table next to us had burgers but the table behind us had steaks. Then we waited and waited. Our waitress had been to the table twice before the other tables were served but never said there was a delay or problem in the kitchen. Finally my spouse asked another waitress if she could find our waitress to find out where our meals were. Our waitress arrived, we expressed our concerns over the wait , my incomplete salad and the flies, she at that point stated they were short a " broiler " ? cook in the kitchen and it was the salmon that was causing the problem. She asked if we would like to speak to a manager and we said yes. Our entrees did arrive and no manager came for a long time., finally he arrived and said since we haD our meals was everything okay now? That's all he said, he appeared to be in a hurry, he said he himself was cutting salmon steaks in the kitchen. We told him the food was delicious but the flies were a terrible nuisance, we had to keep our food covered as we ate. He just shook his head and walked away. We finished our food, got a box to take leftovers home, paid our bill and left. It was a special evening for us and yes the food was very good, but the ambiance in the dining room along with the flies put a large damper on our dinner. We felt we should have been explained to that there would be a delay, maybe offer us a complimentary beverage and also I should have not been charged extra for my salad. I have worked with the public my entire career and communication with people is the key to keeping things go smoothly. You take care of your patrons! We probably won't return to Lucky's for awhile due to our disappointment last...

We are in the food industry and own one of largest catering companies and a restaurant in the midwest. We don't ever complain at places as its a tough industry to be in. My wife had the wedge salad, daughter had filet which she said was good but was very cold and she was starving snd didn't want to wait. They served canned mushrooms which is usually fine but the mushrooms were not flavorful and had a food odor that made the mushrooms hard to eat. I had grouper with crabmeat. It was stuffing with immitation crab and the grouper was not fresh as they told me it would be and was brown color not flakey white fish but almost of the catfish color amd was slimy in texture. It also was served with skin on the top. Grouper is typically served without the skin at steakhouse restaurants. The skin was on the top and they served it with a steak knife. Not even served with the skin on the bottom. Ouch! Server disappeared after I told her I did NOT like the fish at all. I wasn't looking for a comped meal but did want the manager to come talk to us so I could tell her about this fish so they would know something wasn't right and offer something else. Meanwhile another girl Jasmine who was super nice apologized. She said the manager told her we could have free dessert and I told her we would like to talk to the manager. She said she would send her to our table. Here comes Sofia the manager and her response after starring at us for 8 seconds says "yeah". We stared at her for a second and said well I didn't like this grouper, as it had rubbery texture, it was brown not white and flakey and definately was not fresh as we were told it was, and she said well you ate some of it. I explained to her I used my fork to move this mushy brown fish which actually looked like catfish and she said I can only comp free dessert. Smiling I said, well no I didn't eat more than 2 bites while trying to determine what fish this really is and that it tasted spoiled and a rubbery texture. I started to tell her about my experience in the food industry, that we dont complain as people sometimes do it for free food. Half way through saying to her she says " can i finish". Well, ok I was telling you about how bad this was but go ahead. Then she says ok, I will give you half off the dinner and a free dessert... wait the free dessert is around $6.50 and half off $18.50 grouper is $9.25 so you are offering just under the grouper price but not comping the fish portion. LOL That makes no sense. I told her its not about the money it was her unprofessional crappy attitude. I said forget it I will just pay for it full price and never coming back and writing a 1star review and she said ok, then turned around and walked away. Wow! Sadly we didnt see all the terrible reviews before we arrived. You are safe with the bread, salad and baked potato. Stay away! Horrible! Fish is not fresh. Read other reviews about cock roaches, freezer burn steaks and prime rib issues but most important the lack of management skills. Sofia was so unprofessional. Will...

I got the Prime Rib & Stuffed Shrimp combo with Potatoes Au Gratin. Everything was hot and fresh out of the kitchen, the Au Gratin were the perfect combination of tender homemade style potatoes (random awkward cuts) mixed with a wonderful decadent cheese sauce, no desire to add salt, pepper, butter, or anything else, they were 9/10. The Stuffed Shrimp were very good, maybe 20% better than a Red Lobster, again no desire to add salt, pepper, butter, or anything else, they were 8/10. Only critique would be . I was able to clearly see the shrimp trails sticking up from under the crab and stuffing cream mixture, a definite bonus to help anyone eat them without crunching on unwanted tails, don't be a slob, cut them in half, don't try to stuff the entire stuffed shrimp 8/10. Prime Rib was good, they advertised it as a 10oz portion, but mine was larger than Texas Roadhouse 16oz Prime Rib. I was sad they don't serve with au jus sauce, as I felt the need to add salt to my Prime Rib. It had good medium well outer bits outside a thick 3/4in ring of fat. Those well done bits were okay, but I was hoping for more flavor from a rub before it was cooked long & low, but it seemed they didn't have a garlic herb rub before cooking. The center was still perfectly tender medium pink. Unfortunately it had me thinking about A1 or any flavor enhancer, a glass of any red wine and butter in the pan after removing the Prime Rib could have gotten an 8/10, but no garlic herb rub before cooking or finishing Au Jus is 6.5/10. The service was great, seated 7 guests immediately on a Tuesday 5pm (scheduling good staff appropriately for all times/days), fresh bread, able to deal with kids meals (ketchup/no ketchup), elaborate adult orders, shellfish allergy concerns, added more cheese to my salad, brought out extra croutons for the kids, drinks...