5th Tavern Clarkston — Restaurant in Independence Charter Township

Already left this on Yelp as their first, but really wanted to post it here too.

“Went here with my parents tonight because we know the one on Telegraph has decent food so we wanted to see if this one was different and it’s closer to our house. Here goes:

When we first arrived, we waited about 20 minutes to be recognized while at our table which normally we wouldn’t complain and are patient, but we were really hungry and excited to eat. So we were disappointed at first. Then finally, a male manager guy came over and said he’d find someone right away to help us since there were no servers around.

We then had a nice lady come over who clearly is not a server, but she nonetheless was ready to try. So we gave her our orders at her pace which was totally fine since she was so sweet, and she offered us a side salad at no charge for waiting alongside the happy hour drink price since by that time after waiting, it was over even though we were sat before it was over anyways. It was still nice of her.

Then the manager guy came back out and brought us the bread and was extremely attentive to us the entire rest of our duration there. I mean REALLY attentive and you could tell he either owned part of the place or just really truly cared about it and made sure we were happy.

The food was delicious, my parents enjoyed their steak on the rock, and I super enjoyed the lobster grilled cheese. Let me just say, they were extremely generous with the amount of lobster on it and it was super yummy with the garlic toast bun. The food was great and everything was great. They went out of their way to ensure we were happy after waiting so long in the beginning, and they 100% made up for it and then some! We couldn’t believe it.

Lastly, he came back at the end and offered us dessert (which we kindly declined since we already felt they did so much for us and were so nice!) and ended up finding out he gave us a generous discount on our final bill. We were in shock and made sure to tip well for ending up having such great service.

This is now our favorite 5th Tavern location (and also why I wanted to be their first Yelp review to help!) and I highly recommend going here soley because of that manager going far out of his way and the food being absolutely yummy. Please give this location a shot and always be kind to your servers who try...

I've been to 5th Tavern a few times in recent years, and each time I've gotten the Cobb Salad. It's always been consistently good, and for a while now I've wanted to bring my boyfriend here as we both enjoy good food, drinks and atmosphere. However today's experience was abysmal, lack luster, and flat out gross. The only saving grace to our meal today was the cocktails, which were fresh and exciting, especially the Jalapeño margarita. Thank goodness for a good bartender who has earned our respect; we may be back for drinks alone. The food however was not good and frankly my stomach hurts typing this. We started with the spinach and artichoke dip (sans crab meat for food allergy); the dip was mainly spinach with not enough artichoke and was topped with powdered store bought Parmesan and old and sad sundried tomatoes that looked and tasted like they'd been cooked ten days ago. For our main course we got the Gorgonzola burger with fries and the French Dip with potato chips. The Gorgonzola burger meat was over done, dry, under seasoned, piled with too much lettuce so half of it was removed, and the Gorgonzola was overwhelming to the rest of the burger. There was nothing else to it that would have tied the ingredients together. The French dip meat was dry, unflavored, and the bun was not a signature French baguette that is classic to a French dip. I would liken it to a hot dog bun bought from any grocery store. And the star of the show--the Au Jus--tasted like bath water with a hint of beef. None of that signature beefy saltiness that makes you want to drown a hard baguette and tender meat and cheese in and stuff your face with. The potato chips were overdone and unsalted (and normally they are good as I have had them in the past), whereas the French fries were actually lightly crispy and fluffy inside. Overall this was a disappointing experience. I was excited to bring my boyfriend here and I wish we had gone elsewhere, except we wouldn't have had the good cocktails. A silver lining to this truly dark cloud of...

Stephanie Stevens Local Guide·54 reviews·87 photos 11 hours ago NEW Dine in | Dinner | $100+ This was the most disappointing restaurant experience I can remember. Our waitress was not very attentive, not properly trained in food service. I watched her walk out of the bar with 2 beverages in the crook of her arm glass of wine in one hand and cocktail in the other. The wine & cocktail came to our table, of 4 adults. We were ordering appetizers and one of our guests ordered calamari, she walked away. Our guest waved her back saying that we weren't finished ordering, we also ordered crab cakes. She brought the calamari out and said sorry we are out of crab cakes. We order entrees My husband orded a burger, the bun was stale the burger was dry (he said), he ate 1/4 of it. I had Lamb Shank it was so over salted, I tried scraping the sauce off, but when I took a bite of the 1 carrot root vegetableS it was overly salty too. My mashed potatoes and salad were good. Our guests had Salmon and Ahi Tuna both entrees were cold because of sitting in the window. We would have brought it to the attention of someone but we didn't see someone?

Our waitress didn't bring our dinners out, and the runner didn't know whose dinners were whose and he handed them to us instead of sitting them on the table in front of us. Our waitress didn't come back to see if we needed anything or check on us except to ask how many checks ?

This is our second visit with the same couple and it will be our last. Would NOT recommend I can go somewhere else for $150. and enjoy the time & food

My family is in the restaurant business and have been for 75+ years.

I do understand that it's been a rough couple years for businesses. In that case, they shouldn't fill entire dining room being...