Mine Shaft & Rock House — Restaurant in Houghton

Let me start this review by saying that I used to love this place. When it reopened about 3 years ago, they opened with fantastic food and service, at a reasonable price. The owners changed, within the last few months, I believe. Since the new owners have taken over, prices have remained the same while service has deteriorated, and many of the menu items have been removed. Their food is now lackluster at best; they still have a decent burger, but that's about the best thing on the menu anymore. They used to have interesting dishes like 4 cheese macaroni, and 4 or 5 other pasta dishes, now they have 2, one with shrimp, and the other, a slightly less spicy version without shrimp, that you can add chicken to for another $3. Their pulled pork is OK, but tastes like the sauce is straight out of a can, which makes me wonder what the point is, since they just took unseasoned pork, and put it in a slow cooker with BBQ sauce... All of their appetizers are deep fried, it seems (that said, the shining thing on the menu is their pickle chips-absolutely phenomenal), and way overpriced.

And then there's the service. We actually knew the waitress, and still got terrible service. It took 5 minutes of waiting for a hostess to show up at the front podium to seat us, another 15-20 minutes to order drinks, we waited 10 minutes for the waitress to bring our drinks, only to have her forget one drink, and take another 10 minutes to get that one. After our drinks were dropped off, our service improved a bit, but realize that we had been there for almost 45 minutes before ordering food. We left immediately after eating, and we had been in there for over an hour and a half.

It is worth noting that my drink was comped, and a 15% discount was given, as an attempt to make everything better, but the fact is that it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Just don't go there any more. It's mediocre...

I made it a point to avoid the Rock House for over two years because I regarded it as an Applebees mimic and therefore not worth my patronage. Earlier this evening, not being able to decide on a dinner plan, I, perhaps half-heartedly, reexamined the Rock House online menu as a kind of last resort. To my surprise, not only was the menu expansive, it was filled with options which sounded delicious. I made the decision to eat at the Rock House, if only to be adventurous and to try something new. Meal quality be damned. Upon arrival, I was surprised by a pleasantly spacious atmosphere. I was seated in a comfortable booth and I felt that I'd been afforded a reasonable degree of privacy which is a quality that I really appreciate in a restaurant. The other patrons seemed to be just doing their thing. Chatting, taking in the game via any one of the hundreds of televisions dotting the walls, minding their own affairs. I did not feel as though I was on display which is rare for a restaurateur in these most unappealing times. The waitress assigned to me was pleasant enough and allowed me sufficient time to peruse the book-length menu. I went for their signature barbecue burger which was delicious and large enough to curb my ravenous hunger. The Rock House fries were a special treat and I reccomend them to any future diners. In the end, I felt a good deal of shame and regret for shunning the Rock House for as long as I had. The idea that I could have enjoyed so many more wonderful meals at the establishment over the last two years is one that will haunt me for some time. Anyway, very good place. Great place to catch a game, great drinks, very satisfying food, and a very comfortable atmosphere. I'll be returning just as...

Well, yesterday's service was appalling! Traveled 2 hours and this was a planned stop in our daily itinerary. I had been there about 4 years ago and found it to be a fun place. Upon arrival we ordered kids meals for the 2 children and went to the arcade area to stretch legs and get active. About half of the games did not work properly so we decided to go back for food. Received appetizers and then pizza. Asked waitress why kids meals were taking so long and was told the meat was bad, but it was getting corrected and would be fine to eat. Tasted pizza and it was foul, fermented marinara taste, server took it back and with in minutes the owner approached us. Several times the owner came back to tell us their was nothing wrong with the pizza. After the 4th time we asked her to leave the table as we had already re-ordered and we were trying to enjoy our meal. She immediately got out of order and threatened to call the police. We offered to take our food to go and were escorted out of the restaurant. NEVER HAVE WE HAD SERVICE LIKE THIS! 3 of the 6 adults in our group are business owners and we could not believe the scene and circumstances. Definitely not a place for children! Our 2 and 7 years olds were crying and very scared! We...