Western Avenue Grill — Restaurant in Glen Arbor Township

Our party of 5 went today around lunch time to Western Avenue Grill because Foothill was closed due to a holiday, ... our friends are local in Glen Arbor and knowing where we are going we had our expectations set appropriately - low. There is a reason why there is never a line in front of this restaurant, despite nice location, despite nice interior, ... however we were kind of hungry and did not want to wait long time to be seated, ... however this place managed to exceeded our low expectation.

So, to start with, ... Very poor menu selection - Expected

Then it started: Water served tasted like poured from a rusty bucket - Not expected Coffee served was so week, with milk added it tasted so watery like black tee making 3rd cup with the same tea bag - Below low expectation

Food, so, so, but I would say- Expected. Grilled cheese left half uneaten, White fish below average .... absolutely flavorless, ... House Green salad was OK Burger, ... well 16 year old would devour greasy cloth without noticing its taste, ... can't say

So, all in all for food you can give it 2 stars, if you are in really good mood and wanted to be extremely generous 2 1/2, (but that is not possible with Yelp).

What gives this place zero (Yes, ZERO, but then you can not write review, so I had to give it one star) is service. After we were done waitress brought check, I enclosed my Visa card. To my surprise someone was quite audacious and in Gratuity line manually wrote 20% of our total bill and then to further help me out, summed it and then wrote the sum in line for Total.

When I asked to see the manager server "73 lori" did not ask why, she came back and said that manager is in the meeting and can not come out, I insisted and then a younger girl showed up saying she is a manager.

I asked her if it is restaurant policy for servers to enter 20% tip and fill out Total on all bills they give to their customers, she said she does not know, but that sometimes they may do that to help customers who "do not know English well". That ticked off my wife (we were both born abroad, but live in US almost 20 years, college educated and can use English quite well, though with an accent), so she asked manager if she can understand us? Manager offered to reprint bill so I can fill it out myself, however she did not offer any apology, on contrary, first said she can not find my originally signed bill as it was already thrown in the garbage, but after I insisted they found it, she did not call server to explain herself saying she has no explanation for filling out our bill, ...

So, on reprinted bill I have entered ZERO for tip, took picture of bill receipt, ... told the manager it better not be changed when I see my credit card statement.

Advice to Server and Manager: Tip is what is actually printed on your receipts - Gratuity, ... no more and no less. It is to be earned through service and guest satisfaction. It is not a fixed mandatory tax.

Advice to the owner(s): Like the Owner, like the Manager, like the Server, ... In order to have Servers behaving like this, there has to be something fishy from the top, all the way...

My mother went into this restaurant with high hopes on a Sunday evening.

A server took her order, in which she specified she would like a nacho with the corn salsa on the side. He brought it out with the corn salsa on top, as well as beans which were not specified to be on this particular nacho. The server became argumentative when my mother justly complained. She asked for a replacement, having not touched a single chip. He went to the cook/GENERAL MANAGER (a huge red flag if I've ever seen one. You're telling me the cook answers to no one for bad food?), Sal, who refused to make a replacement. Being that this was the cook, my mother asked to speak to a manager. She was informed the cook was the manager. My mother asked if there was anyone who she could speak to about the fact that everyone else at her table had their food and suddenly she would be without a meal. She was told Mario was another manager and when the server went to ask Mario for input her returned to say "Mario won't come out to speak to you, we comped your nacho I don't get what the problem is".

I'm a skeptic, we all love our mothers but I didn't want to accept the story at face value. I called myself and Mario answered, and as I relayed my story he confirmed every bit of it. The order went back, Sal refused to make it. I questioned why he couldn't influence the outcome, being a manager. He told me Sal is the owner and what he says goes. Ridiculous. Not only that but now he had the audacity to lie to me and claim he came out and talked to her face to face. I offered every out. "Are you sure it wasn't the server? Are you sure it was for this particular order with server [server name]?" But no, he insisted he spoke face to face with my mother on this matter. He had no idea who she was, but he didn't want to admit that he blew her off.

My story is long, it's true, and it's unfortunate. I will not set foot in this building ever, and I will disparage it's name if ever brought up in conversation.

So go to Western Avenue Grill, where Mario will happily disrespect your mother and...

Listen to the other reviewers and do not eat here. My first clue to not eat here this evening should have been the menu. When I flipped it over to look at the drink list, it was dirty, spotted with food. I chalked it up to the busy season, remembering I've eaten here before (I've been coming up to GA for more than 12 years) and the food has been very good. Mistake. I asked the waiter the special and he said "penne pasta with a vodka sauce and seafood, I think shrimp"...the description could have been better, but it sounded good. Until it arrived. It was not penne pasta it was angel hair. Pieces of pasta were clumped together, the shrimp was chewy and the sauce tasted straight out of a Chef Boyardee can of spaghetti like I ate as a kid, runny, with no kind of alla vodka flavor. I also had to ask for bread, it did not come with any bread of any kind, garlic or otherwise. The waiter / manager asked how my meal was, and I expressed that it was not good. I had barely eaten any of it. He replied he'd take it off of the special menu. Ok...Then I got the bill. $30. I was stunned. For soupy pasta that did not taste remotely good or even look good for that matter. At all. When I expressed to the waiter / manager that I was not about to pay $30 for this meal, he left and returned to say the best he could do was comp me 20% off the bill. I was so frustrated, I just paid and left. But I will not be returning to The Western and I will be disputing this charge with my cc company. I told the "manager" on my way out that when a guest expresses that the food is NOT good, you comp that meal, you don't hand over a 20% discount like you are doing the customer a favor. I should have just gone to the PIne Cone for ice cream. It would have been a better meal....