Ice House BBQ — Restaurant in Mackinac Island

As could be reasonably expected from any takeout, the presentation isn't exactly wowing. Though a combination of draconian executive orders limiting restaurant capacity, the usual busy nature of Mackinac Island, and my own inability to plan ahead with a reservation makes this somewhat explainable. The rings are thrown together haphazardly in a black takeout container, a to-go cup of the dipping sauce balanced betwixt.

The rings themselves are pretty varied in size (though perhaps a bit too small to fit the advertised "colossal" size) and very clearly hand breaded with what looks to be Panko. Despite the hand-breading, they're actually fairly well covered and consistent, though the coating is not perfect. The color is a beautiful and almost archetypal golden brown, though there are some darkened bits around the edges.

I also ate this sitting on a rapidly cooling stone bench in Marquette Park but, again, that's on me.

I've often found that breading tends to have a weaker flavor than batter, as a general rule. That said, this breading packs a pretty good taste, with happy mediums of both salt and grease shimmering across and throughout. The onions, though on the small side, are cooked well - just long and hot enough to release the liquid gold that is the onion juices without letting the onion disintegrate.

The superstar of this dish, however, is the cinnamon-chipotle dipping sauce. I'm increasingly jaded when it comes to onion ring dipping sauce - with most restaurants cycling through a familiar menagerie of ranch, "southwest" or "zesty" sauce, and the occasional disgusting spurt of ketchup. This dipping sauce, contrasting the pedestrian and familiar, is literally mind blowing and game changing.

It has flavors I have never even fathomed going with onion rings - an intoxicating mayo-based blend of spicy, sweet, and creamy. It soothes and mildly scorches the tongue in tandem, with an invigorating mixture. It even accomplishes the rare task of perfectly complementing, and not overpowering in any way, the flavors of the breading and the onion. This sauce was purpose built for these onion rings in some fantastic mixture of art, science, and divine inspiration.

The Panko breading holds up well and maintains a respectable thickness throughout, without being too crunchy. One advantage of breadcrumbs over batter is the tendency for the breading to hold together under tooth-based assault, and this tends to be the case. Indeed, even as I cracked the rings to fit into the diminishing cinnamon-chipotle sauce container, they held firm. Though the onions seemed to be on the smaller side, they were softened just enough, thick, and meatier than I first thought.

For its merits, there was a not-insignificant amount of slippage for the amount of rings represented. My wife, against my protest, attributed this to "user error" on my part. The slippage incidence was much less than I'd expect from a breaded ring, a point in favor of preparation and execution.

Value is a tricky thing to determine on Mackinac Island. Were these onion rings good? Yes. Were they worth a whopping $15? In some respects, perhaps. Prices are naturally higher on Mackinac, hitting a trifecta of a secluded island, with heavy tourism, and all transportation by horse, and I'd expect to pay half to two-thirds of the amount for comparable rings on the mainland.

However, after suffering through the frozen garbage that passes for onion rings on most of Mackinac, these were a treat...

One of the reasons we wanted to eat at the Ice House BBQ is that it is one of the only restaurants that is dog friendly on Mackinac Island. We have been here several times (the last time in 2019) and the restaurant moved from the cabana type area in the front to outdoor seating under umbrellas in the rear of the restaurant. We were the first ones to arrive around 11:00 am and the restaurant opens at 11:30 am. We spoke to a gentleman who was assigning tables (I believe) to the waitstaff as I was curious about the new design of the restaurant. He was so friendly and is pictured in one of the photographs. Thank you to this man because several people tried to cut the cue and he remembered us and still placed us first to be seated. You had to scan the QR code to see the menu. We ordered the onion rings at $15 as a shareable hors-d’œuvre and as the main entrée we both ordered the Chipotle Black Bean Burger at $16 each. We also ordered two ice teas at $3 each. The food came out hot! We liked the onion rings probably the best. The burger came out with homemade chips. We got free refills on our ice tea. Our waiter was so friendly, fast and even helped me answer a question about what was playing on Pandora. It was a song by Fleetwood Mac. He actually went back in to find out the song for me...wasn’t that incredible? The music 🎶 was relaxing. The atmosphere and ambiance was spot on until a table of children were placed near us. There was a Cornhole Toss board outside to play while you waited. The walk up to the restaurant is steep for those with any knee or leg issues. The one stall bathroom was inside by the hotel pool and sadly was without toilet paper. The prices were a bit higher than you might expect, but were well worth it for the food and...

Normally I don't reply to Response from owner, but I felt this review needed a little more clarity. The staff was wonderful and the backyard atmosphere was nice, they were very accommodating for our dog. In no way can you call what you served a creative twist on a backyard classic. Two people ordered the ribs and neither one of them could eat them; maybe their taste palates were in alignment that day. Or maybe the ribs were awful. Maybe the chef that makes the corn tortillas was off that day and you had to substitute taco bell shells. I will even give you the benefit of the doubt on using frozen patty’s because it is early in the season for tourists and maybe your shipments are not regular. It is surprisingly easy to overcook a chicken breast to the point were no moisture is left. Oddly the person that was served the salad likes dry chicken, so kind of a win for you. Lastly I added a picture of the Brisket tacos you posted on your FB page that I was expecting to have served to me, Try and guess which one of the taco brisket pictures was the one I took and which one was off your page. Notice any difference. Maybe my picture is after you “refined your offering to ensure consistency”.

The food was horrible. I had the brisket tacos which was dry smoked brisket on a store bought shell with a cheese sauce that had to be straight from a jar. The hamburger was a frozen patty.. A chicken ceasar salad had the driest chicken in the world. Kids chicken tenders were processed chicken. Baby back ribs were cold, probably because they were just thawed in microwave is my guess. Soo very awful.. each plate was 20 plus $$. If you read this and go anyway. Come back and read this next line... i...