Mike's Place — Restaurant in Kent

This restaurant had a very eccentric vibe. Very reminiscent of a funky beach restaurant.

We had a short 10-15 minute wait, with the option to be seated immediately at the bar.

Our waitress was exceptionally attentive, quick, and kind and when I asked about items on the VAST menu she gave me her opinions and what she knew was popular with other guests.

The food came quicker than I was expecting but at a great pace. There is no shortage of things to occupy your time looking at even if it were slow.

What we ordered : Fried pickles : probably the best friend pickles we've ever had, and believe me that's a lot of pickles. They were clearly battered in house, and not packaged frozen pickles. They were so crispy, perfect level of salt and didn't have an old oil taste. We ate them all without realizing the basket was empty! The Big Frikin Sandwich : they were not joking. Its huge and piled high. The BBQ pulled pork was juicy, well sauced, and tender. The Mac n cheese is actually large cellentani noodles in a thick cheese sauce. It's a lot of things with a lot of flavor and it comes together great. Queen Ann's Revenge: the crake cakes were good, very large and meaty and the outside was crispy, the shrimp was good as well. The spicy garlic parmesan sauce was wonderful. It's a very messy sandwich to eat. My only complaint with it would be that the bread absorbed a lot of the sauce, and when combined with breaded crab cakes and breaded shrimp the sandwich was a little dry. Not too dry, just needed more sauce. Side of Fries: extra crispy outside, soft and piping hot inside. We'll cooked and seasonef fries! Side Salad: Mixed greens instead of plain lettuce. And had the WHITE FRENCH dressing.. Our waitress said it's sort of tangy and sort of sweet. I can't think of a better description. When I say it was my favorite part of the meal. I mean that as a huge compliment. The food was all large sized portions and it tasted great, but my mouth is still watering thinking about the dressing. I ended up asking for an extra side of dressing to put on my sandwich!

All in all we will definitely...

The menu is utter chaos. Kind of like when you find a recipe online and the author spends 10 paragraphs talking about irrelevant things that have nothing to do with the recipe? That's this place. Each item has some weird description of how it came about and includes a long story that I think is meant to be funny and tongue in cheek but, quite simply, is not.

There are too many items crammed onto the menu, so many different and varying offerings that I have to wonder what their kitchen food costs must be like and the inevitable inventory they probably lose money on every week.

Our table had a slightly greasy film to it. Maybe they wiped it down too quickly? Either way, I hated putting my hands anywhere near it.

The food was priced a bit high for what you get. The meatloaf was not very good and had a weird texture and sweetness to it. I mean, it's hard to find a good restaurant meatloaf so I'll give them a pass on that. What I can't give a pass on, were the gnats crawling around in my salad, and I even found two dead in my cups of ranch dressing. At first I thought they were part of the seasoning herbs that go into making the dressing. I gagged when I realized what they were.

Our server was also working the bar, which meant service was sporadic and slow. We still gave her a very good tip because she was kind and hustled, doing her best to handle both positions.

The place was very busy and there were folks sitting outside waiting for a seat, so apparently there are a lot of people out there who like this place. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the kitschy and themed items? Maybe they find the menu hilarious? Maybe they like having too many items on a menu? Could be they like oversized portions? Or maybe they simply like the food? Whatever their reasoning, it will keep pumping money into this restaurant.

Because of the aforementioned reasons, we won't be going back and would rather spend our money elsewhere. Someplace less cluttered, a realistic menu, reliable service, cleaner and definitely with no gnats crawling around...

This was the first time I was able to bring the family and finally try it out after driving by it for many years.

When we went inside and had our name put down in the waiting list, they indicated it would be a 20 minute wait (No problem). The front waiting area was jammed up, so the only other place we could stand with the kids was in the hallway area by the kitchen (Along with a few others).

The two kids sat down in the hallway on a wooden area to wait. A gentleman (Later described to us as one of the managers) advised that we needed to relocate everyone into the waiting area. I explained to the manager that the lobby was full and he replied "You can always take everyone out to the car and wait". Are you serious??? After his comment he went back into the kitchen as if nothing ever happened.

We have two children 4 and 6 yet the only option is to take them back outside in the 15 degree weather and in the car to wait??? If the kids weren't so hungry, we would have packed up and went to another establishment.

The lobby had approx. 20 people waiting and only two chairs to sit. Two chairs??? One elderly couple had to go outside and bring in a wheel chair to sit. Once we sat down to eat, we waited approx. 7 minutes for anyone to come and greet us. To be fair, once we were greeted, the service and food were both average no issues.

My suggestion is maybe add some seating in the lobby or make it user friendly. The encounter we had was very disappointing and as of now we won't be returning.

Thank you for responding. Don't blame the fire code which I'm well aware of. If that's the case, why do you have two chairs in the waiting area??...