Grand Hotel Main Dining Room — Restaurant in Mackinac Island

I had good and bad experiences here. The good: The hotel has live entertainment in the bars at night and the performers were excellent. One bar had a dance floor. Overall, I was happy with the service at the hotel, although the concierge was not very helpful. I enjoyed the island, biking and surprisingly the fudge shops.

The bad: The main dining room food was a big disappointment. Some dishes were very good (kale salad, butternut squash ravioli and cauliflower soup and roasted carrots). However, more or the food was disappointing than good. In the processes of cooking 100 of the same dish, food can become industrial like bad catering at a wedding or corporate holiday party. Specifically: The duck entry was completely unpalatable. It was chewy with a bad flavor. We left two plates untouched after the first taste. The salmon was just ok. It was supposed to be served with Michigan cherries, but we only got ONE. The warm beet salad was served cold and was basically just cut up beets. The best entry was the pretzel fried chicken, but it was not good enough to live up to my $120 / person (prix fix) expectations. Desserts were ok, but nothing special. The coffee we ordered with desert was served...

We planned a visit to Mackinaw Island for our annual girl's trip. To get the full Grand Hotel experience, we decided to try the lunch buffet. It was open from 12-2pm, early May. The service was excellent and the atmosphere was nice. The tables were fully set with linens and silverware. There were several courses of food to select from, to include salad, soup, other salads like pasta, potato, etc. Entrees included turkey, roast beef, chicken and fish. Oysters and shrimp cocktail were also available. And for dessert, there were several options to choose from. Some of the food was good, but the entrees were not excellent, especially for the $77 price. We enjoyed ourselves and the experience, but not sure it was worth the price. As a side note, we didn't stay at the hotel. There is a fee of $12 to enter the hotel and enjoy a self guided tour. If you pay this when you first enter the hotel, the $12 will be deducted from the lunch buffet price when you show your receipt. The walk to get to the hotel is up hill but you can get a taxi ride for $9 each. The walk down hill is much easier! About...

Given it's rich traditions and history, I was expecting a better experience but I walked away a disappointed. We had 4 meals (2 dinner, 2 breakfast) here that were pretty average. The whole experience lacked substance and character and it felt more robotic and hollow. We were herded in along with dozens of other groups, had all of our orders taken and were served like we were in a cafeteria. The staff were friendly but didn't bother to offer anything else during our meals (probably due to a stsffing shortage).

There was a lot of hit or miss with the food and it seemed dated. The meat dishes like the lamb chops and the porcetta were excellent and well-seasoned. Other dishes like the soups and salads tasted like they were pre-made. We noticed a trend of a lot of the side dishes like the rice and farro were overcooked and mushy, most likely from it being prepped in large batches. The desserts were ok but nothing special. The Pecan ball was good but the bread pudding was a dense...