Hofbrau Steak House & American Grille — Restaurant in Green Lake Township

Hopefully our server reads this. I was the guy with a family of 3 who left the note on the receipt. Let me start by saying as the son of a waitress, I have never not tipped, never. Even with bad service, I would leave 5 or 10 percent, but you upset me and I think you knew it. The experience started off good. We were seated right away, great atmosphere. Everyone was very friendly. They have an awesome drink selection, I had a sampler and then stuck with a brown ale I liked. The Coke was terrible though, tastes like it was made with well water or river water, I don't know, but it was gross. After ordering our drinks the server took our food order, brought the appetizer right away and then the waiting game begun. We were enjoying ourselves, having a nice family conversation talking about our plans while on our short vacation. Still waiting. We watched a table of 7 get seated. Then their food came. We were still waiting. The server came around a few times asking if we needed anything, the 3rd time I asked for our food, it's now been over an hour. Still watched as others who came in well after us were eating and some already heading out. She tells us 3 more minutes, try 20 more. When the food finally came, the chicken was good, but the 30 dollar steak dinner was cold and terrible. I'm not sure if you were trying to get me to order more drinks to beef up the bill, or if you simply screwed up and forgot to put the order in, but whatever the reason for the near 2 hour delay, you looked right into my eyes and lied. You blamed the kitchen for being backed up, although everyone else's food seemed to come out at a reasonable time. The couple you served next to us that came in an hour after us had their pizza within minutes of you finally bringing our food. We would've left, but our son really wanted to wait, I mean it's already been 90+ minutes. Why not?

If I was there with a group of people having drinks, intending to stay for an extended period, it would've been fine. But I was there with my family for dinner.

So your lie and the fact that you didnt apologize for the wait until after you brought the bill is why I didn't tip you. Just wanted to make sure that was clear. You would've made at least 20 bucks if you would've accepted responsibility and owned...

Maybe The severs and the bartender shouldn’t fight over who gets the customer instead of who has to take the customer…. My boyfriend and I had our first date here two years ago, we are getting married tomorrow and thought we’d stop in and have a drink tonight as a mini pre-nuptial celebration. We were able to seat ourselves right away, then after waiting for more than 5 minutes the one server pointed out to the bartender that he, the bartender, could come out and take our order, they began to banter over who’s section it was and who would come and take our order. My boyfriend spoke up and told them not to fight over us. Still, no one came to take our order. My boyfriend went up to the server pick up area at the bar to see if he could place an order himself and was told to have a seat and someone would come and take our order. Finally the server came to our table, I ordered a Beefeater’s and cranberry, he asked me what number that was, I was confused then realized the drink menu was numbered. I said it was just a drink, not on the menu, he asked what was in it, I said, “Gin and cranberry juice, Beefeater’s gin.” He said he’d see what he could do….not sure what that meant?? We went there to have a quick romantic drink to salute our life together that started with our first date there, we decided this would not only be our last date as boyfriend/girlfriend, bit also our last date at the Hofbrau. To the two young men that fought over who had to wait on us, your behavior was both rude and discourteous, I’m not sure if this is the first summer job you’ve had, but if you plan to continue to work in the serve industry, I suggest that you learn some manners and realize that your customers may exist in a world that doesn’t...

This shouldn't be a 5-star review, but the service and quality during a really hectic evening elevated it to this level. My wife and I went in on a Wednesday night before a concert at Interlochen, which is typically a very crowded evening. As we pulled into the parking lot it started to downpour, and all the people sitting and eating outside rushed in for shelter. Staff systematically sat people inside, and we were sat within 5 minutes. Service was a tad slow, but the place was packed full and the servers were hustling and made sure we had drinks while we waited.

My wife has a dairy allergy, which makes finding food at most places in northern Michigan really difficult. Despite the busyness, our server helped my wife find something she could eat (fish and chips) and we placed our food order.

Then we waited. And waited. AND WAITED. The server kept apologizing, but made sure we had drinks and we took it easy. Just as we started to get antsy (about an hour of waiting at this point) and asked for the check for our drinks so we could grab food elsewhere and make our concert, she ran back to the kitchen, came back and told us it would be 5 minutes and our meal was on the house because we had to wait so long!

Less than 5 minutes later, our food came and it was great. Piping hot, my wife's fish and chips were a massive portion and really tasty. Soft and flaky whitefish in a light batter with perfectly cooked fries. I had a reuben that was a perfect ratio of corned beef, swiss, and bread with 1000 island on the side, also fantastic.

We left a generous tip and thanked the staff. Every place deals with chaos and unexpected problems. It's how they handle it that makes the difference. Hofbrau really...