Willow — Restaurant in Harbor Springs

I will qualify this review by saying that I consider myself a foodie -- whatever that actually means. I have enjoyed meals that embodied the local, farm-to-table concept...and this isn't it. They should rewrite the website to say "elevated bar food." Had they said that, I wouldn't have eaten there for our 40th wedding anniversary. However, this review is based on the elevated bar food concept because they wouldn't even get two stars on a made-to-order, farm-to-table basis. In fact, there was almost nothing on the menu that is even in season in September in Northern Michigan (no squash, carrots, beans or even tomatoes).

This is a bar. It's a nice bar. Small. Somewhat loud, but not overwhelmingly so. The music was an upbeat blend of popular music old and new. The staff was very friendly and set an unhurried pace that was nice, but I would have thought it slow had we been in more of a hurry.

Between my wife and I, we had five dishes: crispy potatoes, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, tuna tostada, and shrimp cocktail. Let's go in reverse order. The shrimp cocktail was supposed to have a "Bloody Mary cocktail sauce." What it had was cocktail sauce. I don't know which jar it came out of, but it didn't taste of vodka or even the spiciness of a good Bloody Mary mix. The shrimp were of a good size and only slightly overcooked.

My wife had the tuna tostada. She said it was the best of the four things she ate (I at the shrimp myself). However, she was disappointed that nothing seemed particularly fresh. The whole thing seemed to be assembled from prefabricated components -- possibly even the tuna!

The cauliflower was roasted and then deep fried to finish it. In fact, the potatoes and the Brussels sprouts were also finished in the deep fryer. This is a great trick that most bars with elevated bar food know well. Frying at the end allows you to make up a big batch of something and then heat and crisp it in just a few minutes when you're ready to serve it. However, this is not what real chefs do when they're preparing fresh, made-to-order, food. The cauliflower was missing one really important flavor -- cauliflower. Lot's of people don't really like the flavor of cauliflower. It is in the cabbage family and has that sour note that cabbages have. If you like cauliflower flavored food, you will be disappointed here, but the grease from the fryer and the garlic and cheese gave it good flavor and mouth feel. If there were pine nuts, I don't think I got one.

The smashed potatoes were boiled before they got their turn in the fryer. This made them nice and creamy in the middle and the charred lemon aioli was super tasty.

The Brussels sprouts seem to be from the same recipe every restaurant is using these days. The menu said chili, agave and lime, but it tasted like the same old balsamic reduction that everyone else uses. I don't know how they managed to get those other ingredients to replicate the flavor so closely. Don't get me wrong -- I really enjoyed the balsamic reduction flavored chili, agave and lime treatment.

In the end, this just wasn't the restaurant we signed up for, so that was disappointing. Hopefully, if you went to their website and then found this review, you will be saved from making the...

Made an attempt to reserve the only outside table at this restaurant 30 days in advance. Called the day of our dinner reservation to confirm our outside table, only to be told by "Dan" the manager that someone had already reserved the one and only outside table at Willow. Asked Dan if Willow was covid compliant by observing all State executive orders regarding capacity and social distancing. Dan assured us that Willow was completely compliant with all executive orders and social distancing practices. Arrived for our 7:30 dinner reservations only to find that ZERO social distancing and ZERO adherence to state executive orders regarding 50% capacity were being followed. Asked to speak with Dan, but was told by our wait staff person that Dan would not speak with customers. The entire establishment was full to capacity. Every single bar stool was occupied without anything that resembled 6 foot spacing between bar stools, and all high top and sit down tables were full to capacity as well, with no effort to space tables at least six feet apart. If this restaurant had no intention of following the rules, then at least have the decency to tell me the truth when I called earlier in the day. Dishonesty is unacceptable in today's world as it pertains to covid rules and regulations. By the way, extremely overpriced. Small plate of $2.00 worth of pasta for $38.00. Welcome to...

Made a reservation to sit outside weeks in advance and was so excited to eat here. When we got there, the man at the host stand said the outside seating was taken and instead walked us over to a table inside and dropped the menus without talking and walked away. The person who served us came over after about two minutes of us sitting and asked us if we were ready to order (we were not). They were very cold to us (me, my husband, and mother) and it was clear we were not a priority. We ordered a bottle of wine and ended up pouring our own wine most of the dinner. When we were ready to order I asked if they could check on an item of food for a food allergy. They never came back to tell me one way or another and instead didn’t show back up to our table until our food had arrived. My husband had fish for his meal and found 7 bones in his meal. When it was brought up they just took the plate and said nothing. My mom found 2 bones in her piece of salmon as well. The server then brought over our check and let us know the one entree was removed but there was no manager or anyone that came over to apologize. The table next to us, a group of 4, had great service the entire time, which only added to the overall disappointment of...