Big Lake Brewing — Restaurant in Holland

My partner and I went a few weeks ago and we were sat at a booth and placed our order immediately as we had to leave by a certain time. It wasn't very busy but there seemed to be some staff shortage in the kitchen. We never received our food and waited for an hour and fifteen minutes to get it. We understood there was a staff shortage so we gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried Big Lake again last night. We made no other plans except to go for dinner so we would have plenty of time. We arrived around 7:15pm. We were seated immediately and my partner ordered an Apple Cider Mule, which he said was very good. I asked for waters for us both. His drink was brought to the table by the bar staff within a few minutes. We still had yet to get our waters or napkins and silverware. After about ten minutes our waitress came back to ask us if we wanted to place an order. We ordered the bread sticks and I, again, asked for two waters and at this point I ordered a Blackberry Gin and Tonic. Our waters were quickly brought out to us and shortly after I got my G&T, which was very good but missing the lime. Our bread sticks came out piping hot and fresh and were absolutely delicious. We then placed our entrée order. My partner ordered the Beer Mac with shredded pork and I ordered the Big Lake Beer Battered Tenders. We also did a create your own pizza. While waiting on our food and enjoying our breadsticks, I asked our waitress twice for napkins and never received any. When our food finally arrived, I asked the man who brought it for silverware and napkins and ketchup. He immediately brought over the silverware and condiment basket and was very polite and nice about it all. Our food was very mediocre. My plate had three tenders on it with a little dish of tots. The beer batter was plain and the chicken was very dry. It had seemingly no seasoning on it at all not even salt. I think for being a specialty type of restaurant who specializes in brewing, they should make their own types of sauces to go with their food. A beer sauce or glaze for the tenders would have helped so much. My partner's food was also mediocre. The pork was bland and the beer mac was a little too salty. A citrus and pepper glaze for the pork would have been phenomenal, to really help cut the fatty beer mac and cheese from being too overpowering. The pizza, however, was very good and tasted very fresh. I would definitely recommend getting a pizza. I ordered another G&T. It sat at the bar for a good five minutes before it was brought over. It arrived with the lime this time and as we got our check. It took us 20 minutes to get water. It took almost a full hour before we got napkins, even with ordering an appetizer and asking multiple times. For the quality of the majority of our food, it was definitely NOT worth the price or the poor inattentive wait service. We gave Big Lake another chance after the first time because we understand things happen and we're human but the amount of time we had to wait just to get waters and napkins...

I hate to do it, because I’m really routing for these guys, but I couldn’t be more disappointed in the food or the service.

Both were flat-out awful.

Our waiter was rude and made us feel rushed. He was very short in his responses and not helpful at all.

He was clearly in a hurry to belly up to the bar, where he was sitting when we left.

The food though ...

We started with two appetizers, the loaded tots and the stoner tots (which is clearly an attempted ripoff of HopCat’s Crack Fries), and we were all a little surprised at how small the servings were. They were also served with ketchup, which seemed a little strange for what they were. An aoli or sour cream would have been far more appropriate.

Overall they were decent, but definitely not worth writing home about.

Then came our meals. Wow.

I ordered a Cuban Sandwich and the pork was almost unbearable, it was dry and painful to eat. It had clearly been sitting under a heater for the day and had no business being served to my dog, much less a paying customer.

The couple we were with also had pork, one on a sandwich and the other in tacos, and both agreed that it was disgusting.

I also had a side of Mac and Cheese, which actually wasn’t terrible had it not been loaded with salt to cover the lack of flavor.

If you like Salty, this stuff might be for you (but seriously, there are better options out there).

The icing on the cake however, was that my wife had ordered the salty Mac and Cheese for her entree, which was just barely bigger than the side dish I had with my sandwich, but instead of being a side, was FIFTEEN DOLLARS.

Fifteen dollars.

I couldn’t believe it when the bill came. Fifteen dollars for a glorified side of Macaroni and Cheese?

What a joke.

I feel absolutely robbed and couldn’t be more disappointed in my experience.

Just because you call yourself a brewery, doesn’t give you a free pass to serve terrible food with terrible customer service.

I will certainly never be going back, and I will recommend my friends look elsewhere.

You’ve...

First time visiting this place. The atmosphere was good. It's very relaxed and roomy which is a nice break from the more crowded places nearby. Good beer selection. We ordered food and 3 of the 5 orders were good. Grilled cheese sandwich came out pretty much uncooked. Cold cheese on slightly grilled bread. Roasted vegetable pizza came out completely burnt. Black on the bottom and inedible. When we showed our server he took the items back. Shortly afterward, they brought out a new grilled cheese sandwich which was fine. Waited a long time for the pizza to come back and when it came it was way undercooked. The crust was mostly raw dough. We had to leave so we just took it to go and cook at home. The manager did apologize and took the items off of our check. It's too bad because we are in Holland often and would like to return. Like many places, it seems that they are a brewery which is still trying to figure out how to be a good restaurant. Hope they get it figured out.

Update:

Visited this restaurant again and it appears that they have made great strides their food and service. The food was much better prepared than the first visit and the staff was professional and attentive. The service was not the speediest likely due to understaffing that is at every restaurant lately. It does seem to be easier to get seated than some of the other local downtown restaurants. All of our food orders were very good and there is a good beer selection as well. I would now...