Stix Ludington — Restaurant in Hamlin Township

We were on vacation in Ludington this past week and stopped in to Stix around 1pm on Friday. We were a group of seven and we had driven by this massive location last year, while under construction. On Tuesday, our fishing charter captain recommended it, so we were excited to go. The positives are that the building and beer garden really are beautiful, our actual server was very nice and service was decent but slow (pretty sure that was due to the kitchen). The food quality and pricing were acceptable, so I rated 2 stars for that. I would recommend some staff training on customer service for the rest of the employees. There were not any other employees that we encountered that were friendly or outgoing enough to explain how it all worked! It started when we came in, the hostess looked practically annoyed that we interrupted her cell phone/texting time as we walked through the door, and it was early afternoon, so it was not at all busy yet. I don't hear well and I am not sure exactly what she said, but basically she pointed in the direction of the beer garden and said something about ordering food from the bar out there. When we got outside we grabbed a large table from the many available and the rest of the group sat down while I walked around the LARGE outdoor area to see the different games and fire pit areas. No one was behind the bar out there. There was a cook or some kitchen staff doing something on the one side by the grill/food truck thing and someone else was sifting through the sand around one of the fire pits. There was not any bartender and we were out there long enough to look at menus and the frozen drink containers on the bar and it did not seem like anyone was coming out. So we all headed back inside and encountered 2 more employees on the way back through the building to the hostess, who was still not thrilled to seat us inside. The first one looked to be the indoor bartender and possibly the other was the one for outside, neither of whom said anything to us. I would expect someone would have welcomed us or offered to get us a table or explain how the service works there. There was also a man that I assume was the manager that was eating upstairs and did not check on any tables that I saw. How is a first time visitor supposed to know that you can't get the outdoor drinks while seated inside? (the frozen drink options did look delicious but we found out once we were seated inside that we could not have them inside). We will not likely be back to Stix on our trip to Ludington next year. It will be more likely that we would visit somewhere else. We had a great experience at the brewery in town earlier in the week. I will put a separate...

EDIT: AFTER a 1 star visit we returned the next day to try again and our experience was much better. I mean the food wasnt any better but the service was. It felt a bit like damage control but either way the lady behind the counter was much more accommodating-HOWEVER- we had tried almost ALL lanes 3-10 and finally found a working lane for our two lane party. So the lanes were freezing, had to type in our scores manually, some lanes were entirely not working so we "wasted" 40 min but did however get 20 min back... The first day we went we had a Horrific experience; i suggest reading on but between both nights i will raise my 1 star review. Besides the waitress who was so sweet the experience was terrible. It was unbelievablely hot in there I was too hot wearing a t-shirt. We had two lanes for 2 hours and about 30 min in one of the lanes kept freezing up for about a minute each frame consistently for 1-3 of us out of our 6 bowlers on the lane. It would reset multiple times before letting us bowl. After realizing 20+ minutes of our time had been wasted and we only had 20 minutes left to finish 6 frames we asked for some extra time and they gave us only 10 minutes. Which barely covers what we lost but also didn't help towards the CONTINUED freezing for the rest of our 6 frames. But we pushed on and rushed through our last few frames (by then our other lane had finished their second game and started a third). We had 5 minutes left and we were on our 10th frame racing to finish but it continued to freeze and wasted so much time we asked for 5 more minutes to finish and they absolutely refused... Lady working the counter was rude and acted like she gave us plenty of time and there's no reason she should give us more time to finish our last frame with 2 bowlers left till we finished.. There was NO ONE waiting for our lane, we already fell behind our friends on the lane next to us due to all the malfunctions and then we couldn't even finish our last frame. We spent close to $200 on the 2 hours, 5 mediocre pizzas, 2 pitchers of pop and various bar drinks just to be treated like we were an inconvenience and asking for too much... WHO DOESN'T WANNA FINISH THEIR LAST FRAME WHEN BOWLING?!?! Also please note their fries are cooked in the same fryer as their shrimp and fish and I'm glad I asked because I am allergic to shrimp- there was zero food options for dairy free, meat free individuals. Been there 3 times and had a rough experience each time I'm not sure I could stand to return. I wish I could leave a zero Star review. My poor little sister was crying because she couldn't finish her game and it was her first time bowling a...

The restaurant management is terrible! We had called in a reservation for 28 ppl 3 weeks in advance. We were attending the Yachtley Crew concert and the same venue. (The concert and concert venue was great) we arrived around 5:30pm. We were assigned 1 waitress for 28 ppl. Several tables were pushed together as expected but the chairs were smashed together so tight it was hard to move. We had to get our own drinks because our waitress had other tables including ours. I went to get my own drink after waiting for over 20 minutes and the female bartender on the upper level was very rude about it. 45 minutes after we ordered our waitress still hadn't put our dinner order in. We asked for a manager several times and she never came. I went to find the manager and ask her to see why we only had 1 waitress and she replied we didn't have 1 waitress for 28 ppl. (Um yes you do) she told me she was going to figure out what was going on and then come to see us. She never came and we still didn't have our food. I asked the waitress how much longer because the concert was going to start in less then an hour. She replied she would check but we could watch the concert from our table anyway. (Well we paid for the party pit. Not to watch from behind a tree). I once again went to look for a manager. She was nowhere to be found. I asked another staff member to get the manager for me and she came back about 5 minutes later crying. She said they couldn't find her but will make sure we get our food soon. When we finally got our food most of it was cold, cooked wrong, or wasn't even for our table. Several of our table ordered the perch dinner. 1 person got 3 perch and the rest got 4 pieces. It was all cold. 2 guests at our table didn't get their dinner until everyone else was done and we still waited. Our bills took another 30 minutes to get and pay. We missed the start of the concert. They did comp our tables food and we only paid for drinks. We tipped the waitress very well because it wasn't her fault. MANAGEMENT DO BETTER! You knew 3 weeks prior we were coming with a large party. Staff should be more friendly. To the owner of Stix...You had to comp over $800.00 in food that night.You need to hire a more competent manager and train the staff to be kind. Our waitress was overwhelmed and she needed help. The bartender was rude. Our food could have been great but was wrong and cold. IF we come back we will eat at...