Jives Cafe — Restaurant in Howell Township

This place was very beautiful and the decor was amazing especially the styrofoam snow globe. Some of the staff were very nice. One girl took lovely pictures of my friend and I and a nice man came around and checked on us. However, our server had an attitude and brought me the incorrect food and drink. I asked for the "butter beer" which is a weekend special that they promoted on Instagram. She brought me a butter rum latte instead. When I told the front about it, they said they were all sold out of the butter beer. I wish our sever was honest and told me they were sold out of butter beer rather than bringing me a drink I didn't order. Next, I ordered the "jives grilled cheese" with ham and Swiss, and I ended up getting their regular grilled cheese with American and mozzarella. I asked my server about this who admitted she messed up. My friend also ordered the jives grilled cheese and added bacon but they ended up substituting the ham with bacon. I asked if there was anything they could do as our entire order was incorrect. The owner gave me attitude and said since I already ate some of my food and drank some of my drink, they couldn't refund us.

I suggest that servers repeat back the orders to ensure they got it correct. Also if a server doesn't know what the customer is referring to, they could be honest and say they don't know and ask someone who does. I also suggest they have better customer service as a whole.

The owner gave me $4.91 off my order and was very rude. A lady next to her saw how aggressive the owner was towards us and offered us complimentary muffins which was a nice gesture. If they refunded my grilled cheese which was not what I ordered, I would have come back. Now, sadly I will not return. It's a shame because there are some nice people that work here, but they work with others who have negative attitudes which brings them down.

I would love to recommend this place to others however, I cannot do that after this visit. I recommend supporting small business where the owner doesn’t have attitude and...

My friend wrote a review earlier today about our experience at the cafe. The owner left a very rude response to my friend saying she got exactly what she ordered when she didn’t. I was there with her. She did not order a “regular grilled cheese”, she ordered the “jives grilled cheese” which is completely different. The owners response to her review clearly demonstrates her attitude and the way she treats and gaslights customers. This is how we were treated when we were there. We were told we got exactly what we ordered when we did not. My friend took a couple sips of her drink before telling the server that it was the wrong drink. The server said she can’t take it back so she finished the drink. She took a bite of the grilled cheese and didn’t taste the ham, she took another bite and was confused because of the lack of ham and lack of swiss cheese, which is what the Jives Grilled Cheese included. After 3 bites she let the server know and the server acknowledged that she made a mistake and put in the wrong order. She said she would see what she could do. When she came back she said there was nothing she could do and we could speak to the manager up front.

How can the manager insist that my friend ordered the “regular grilled cheese” when I was right next to her and I heard her order the “jives grilled cheese” the manager was not even there when she ordered it? Even the server acknowledged that she put in the wrong order. We understand mistakes happen, and that is totally ok, but how it is handled at this business is completely unacceptable and rude. We would have written a good review if we were treated with respect in this difficult situation. It would have been nice if this was handled differently and we received an apology, rather than getting gaslit and disrespected again in the comment of her review. Completely unacceptable.

Hope you have a great holiday as well and we will take our future experiences elsewhere where they treat us with respect which is what we...

I recently visited Jive Cafe, and unfortunately, my experience did not meet my expectations.

Party of 2. Arrived for Sunday brunch around 11:30 am.

Upon entering, there was considerable confusion regarding where to place our names on the waitlist. We were initially told there would be a 40-minute wait, but after over an hour, we learned there were still six parties ahead of us and we watched about 6 tables be sat during our wait time. Given that the cafe only had about ten tables, it was clear that the initial estimate was unrealistic. Speaking with other guests in the waiting area revealed that most parties had also been waiting over an hour and a half despite the same 40-minute estimate. This lack of transparency only added to the frustration.

I understand that busy times can lead to delays, but better communication about wait times is essential for managing customer expectations. If the actual wait is closer to two hours, that’s understandable, but more honesty upfront would have saved everyone from unnecessary disappointment.

Additionally, I found the staff's demeanor to be lacking. They seemed indifferent to the lengthy wait and the visible frustration of customers, which really detracted from the overall experience. We decided to leave since the manager started yelling across the restaurant that they were closing in an hour for an event, and we weren't even certain we would be seated by then. When speaking to the manager, she very rudely screamed in my face "well I can't just make people get up" and while I expressed I understood, she genuinely could not comprehend how telling every party a wait was 40 minutes when there were 12+ parties in front of them is just confusing.

Overall, I cannot recommend Jive Cafe based on this visit. I would recommend supporting small businesses where the management isn't rude and is actually happy customers are walking...