Bilbo's — Restaurant in Kalamazoo

I used to love going to Bilbo's on Campus, where you could go up to the counter, order a piece of pizza and a salad, and sit down to enjoy your lunch. The original Bilbo's near campus is gone, but I had heard there was still one open on Stadium Drive, so I went there for lunch. I walked in and saw the familiar counter, so I went up and looked at the menu. Yep, same lunch deal, where I could pick a slice and a salad, so I ordered one. I instantly regretted my decision when the transaction was done, because the cashier told me I'd have to wait 25 minutes for the slice of pizza! The whole point of ordering a lunch slice is that it's supposed to be ready to go. I asked if there were other slices available other than the kind I had ordered, and he said no. So I sat down, realizing my "quick lunch" was becoming much more involved. I had no idea it could get worse. A few minutes later, the cashier returned with my salad and pizza in styrofoam boxes. He said that he found a slice after all. As he handed me the styrofoam boxes, I asked him if there was a fork to use to eat the salad. He said yes, but that I would have to leave the restaurant. At first, I didn't understand what he was saying. But he clarified that, since I had not asked to be seated, and he pointed to the sign by the door that says, "Please wait to be seated," that I was not allowed to eat my lunch there. This seemed like a technicality, so I asked to talk to the manager. She came out and rudely reinforced their rules - "no counter service" she said. "You have to go." So I had to leave with my pizza, now getting cold, and my salad with a flimsy plastic fork, out to my car, to drive 30 minutes home in order to eat my "quick lunch." It was embarrassing. I heard other patrons saying things like, "That doesn't seem fair" and "That's crazy" as I left the restaurant. By the time I got home, the pizza was pretty soggy. I didn't expect it to be as good as I remembered from college (25 years ago) but I thought it would be better than that. Apparently, they don't put mushrooms on the salad, anymore, either. At least the Bilbo's salad dressing tasted like what I remembered. But I had other errands I wanted to run in Kalamazoo, and instead I went home to eat my "quick lunch." I regret that I ever stopped at Bilbo's. I regret that I tipped that cashier 20% for a meal I couldn't even eat while it was hot. Mostly, I was surprised at how rude the staff were... if you're running a restaurant that has historically operated one way, but you have CHANGED how it runs, wouldn't you be a little more understanding when people try to operate the way it's been? I'm...

A Return to Bilbo's Pizza – A Tale of Disappearing Stix

So, picture this: My wife, a super fan of Bilbo's Pizza back when she attended Michigan State University a few decades ago, had been raving about their legendary "Hobbit Stix and Dill Dip" for years. You know, those oven-baked breadsticks loaded with garlic, butter, and cheese? Heaven in carbs, I guess.

Flash forward to our road trip across Michigan, and boom – we're headed straight for Bilbo's Kalamazoo to bless our taste buds with those nostalgia-inducing stix o' golden goodness. Dreams of warm, garlicky breadsticks were dancing in our heads... (Or mine, at least. I couldn't wait!)

Well, my friends, spoiler alert: this story doesn't have the happy ending we were hoping for.

You see, as our lovely waitress set down a tantalizing plate of, uh, Stix? we couldn't help but feel a bit bamboozled. Gone were the actual breadsticks my wife remembered so fondly – only to be replaced by a tragically unappetizing dry pizza crust, poorly cut into sad little breadstick wannabes and sprinkled with that oh-so-gourmet Parmesan cheese powder.

You might be thinking: "But, chatty food-loving buddy, maybe it still tasted like the stuff of dreams?" Oh, how I wish that was the case. Tearing off bite-sized pieces was more like a wrestling match with the crust, and the poor thing was a garlic-and-butter-free zone. Let's call it what it was – nearly inedible.

Only when my wife called our confused waitress on this tragic case of missing breadstick identity did we get some answers: Apparently, this new-wave "Stix" situation is how they've "always" been made. Well, clearly someone forgot to tell that to the Bilbo's of 30 years ago...

On the bright side, the "Creamy Dill Dip" still rocked our world. I'm telling you, I could've drunk that stuff straight from the cup. But as far as the legendary Stix go... let's just say some things are better left in the past.

My rating? ⭐⭐ for the heroic Dip and the nostalgia that brought us there. But for now, Bilbo's, it’s goodbye from us. The quest for the perfect...

Was here for the first time two nights ago as our preferred pizza place had a decent wait. Having never been here before, the restaurant was only around 25% full on a Friday which should have warned us of something but alas we continued on to dinner. Sat down and looked over the menu while waiting around 5ish minutes for a server and then another 5 minutes for her to get 3 pops and a draft beer before we ordered. We ordered 2 identical specialty pizzas but differed the crust with one being hand tossed and the other thin as well as an order of bread sticks as an app - all ordered by one person to avoid confusion. Took around 20 min for the bread sticks to arrive and another 10 for the pizzas which were 2 hand tossed pizza's - no thin, which for an $18 pizza to begin with, a single large would have fed the 4 of us but we wanted some left overs and thin crust. The waitress was either new or air headed as we always had to reaffirm what drinks we had for refills and she still messed it up. We didn't complain about the crust issue cause we were hungry and didn't feel like waiting for it to be corrected as despite the slow customer flow, their kitchen was even slower. Shortly into eating, the waitress came around and informed us that they had a new policy and that if you wanted to pay with credit/debit there was an additional 2.5% charge on the price of the bill...a little with that warning and say something about their business management as a whole. Being the generation that we are, our expenses are normally paid with debit but fortunately there was a checkbook on hand to cover that. All in all, I don't think I will patronize this business in the future based on their exorbitant costs, lack of service and extra charges for using debit - sorry but that's a cost of doing business and on a bill over $50 already, those costs should be built into your $18...