Dixie Saloon — Restaurant in Mackinaw Township

I would absolutely NOT recommend Dixie Saloon to anyone even on a good day. We experienced the worst customer service and food quality. We were looking to get a take out order and sat at a table to look at the menu. We were greeted with menus and when we stated we would be doing takeout the waitress stated “oh sorry you’ll have to do that at the bar. We don’t get paid for that here.” Cool, so it only gets worse from here. I appreciate the several waitresses that came by to ask us if someone had helped us yet. When the waiter came to us he apologized on the other one’s behalf and would be happy to take our order. He reiterated the order back to us and I had to correct him that I did not want the fish and chips. It was supposed to be the pickle and bacon sandwich. He asked if we wanted anything to drink while we wait and we had asked for waters. Ten minutes later we still did not receive waters and he came back and reiterated our order again. I had to tell him a second time that I did not want the fish and chips. Another twenty minutes go by and still no waters and have been asked several more times if we’ve been helped. Finally after waiting 40 minutes I had asked if they could check on our order. They weren’t that busy, but I also was making sure the order was correct. The first waitress made a snarky comment while I was talking with another waitress. We finally received our order… or so we thought. 😅 We did in fact had an order of the fish and chips. We did not receive the ultimate Mac n cheese and the Mack n chinchos. I finally had enough and asked for a manager. Apparently the male waiter was one of the managers, so I ended up speaking with Sarah who was behind the bar. I let her know everything that we had experienced so far. While explaining it to her the first waitress had to be nosy and place herself near the conversation. She had asked what we were missing and asked Logan (the male waiter/manager) to have the kitchen correct it. Ten minutes later we received the final two items. We were given 20 silverware packets and when trying to open the bag I had moved the silverware out of the way and Logan started reclosing the bag on me. I opened it back up and noticed the chinchos did not have sour cream on them. Logan went back to get sour cream. I open the second box and what do we have… just regular Mac n cheese. I had had enough and Logan tried handing me the bill and I had told him this was not correct. He walked back to the computer and said that the Mac n cheese wasn’t on there so we won’t be charged, but yet was being charged for fish and chips that I didn’t order. I grabbed the second bill and told Logan that I no longer would like to speak to him about this. He stormed off turned and gave a dirty look. Sarah came back and I let her know that it was once again not correct. At this point we let them know that we would not be paying for this because we shouldn’t have had that many problems and now the rest of our food is cold due to it. We left the fish and chips behind along with the 15 other silverware packets. When we got back to our hotel we attempted to eat the food that was given to us. The containers Logan grabbed that was supposed to be sour cream was not. It was mayo. Take one bite of the Mac n cheese and it was freezing cold. Not just cold that it’s been sitting out. They literally slapped that into the to go box right from the fridge and sprinkled seasoning on top and called it a day. At this point the whole staff need to be talked to. We had issues with the staff, manager, and the food quality. I can add that Sarah did try her best to handle the situation. As well as the chicken tenders and the pickle and bacon sandwich were decent. We would have preferred to eat it warm/hot but it is what it is. I would address that there needs to be changes. When you call the phone number and get the options it states that the kitchen closes at 10pm. On the menus in the restaurants it states at the top right hand corner midnight. While waiting for our food it was in fact 11pm...

Decided to give this place a try despite so-so Google reviews and ended up having one of the weirdest/most uncomfortable dining experiences before we even stepped foot in the restaurant. While waiting for our table outside we heard a manager (we assumed) screaming at an waitress accusing her of stealing $2000, saying he should fire her. A few seconds later she stormed past us -- did he fire her or did she quit? Then our hostess came and asked us if we'd sit at the bar instead of a table, and we said we didn't think we'd be allowed since we had two minors with us. She was like, "Alright, I guess that's understandable." Five minutes later she came back and said to us and another group that our tables were ready. We walked in and halfway through the first part of the restaurant she handed my husband our menus and pointed across the room at the table we were supposed to sit at, then took the other party to their table right next to where we stopped. That's never happened to us before but we went with the flow. When we got to the table we were missing a chair so my husband went to the table behind us with four empty chairs and asked if we could take one. Our hostess from across the room saw this and called that's not your table. We said we know...we were just grabbing a chair. She then yelled across and said "Why are you taking that chair?!?" so I turned to her and said "Because our table is missing one...is that ok with you?". She just rolled her eyes but said nothing.

Our waitress was very nice but we were seated close to the kitchen and their ordering station and she and the other waitstaff spent the whole time complaining about the busy-ness of the evening (I think some of them have to go back and forth between the Dixie and O'Reilly's?!) and also about the new girl Lily and how she didn't know what she was doing. We were so intrigued by all the drama that was happening in the front of the house so we couldn't even imagine the chaos that's happening back of the house.

At one point someone being out dishes dropped a carrot and no one picked it up. So then we spent the next few minutes trying to see who would notice it first. Then the craziest thing happened...our waitress confronted another waiter for not taking care of this one table that had been waiting almost an hour for their food. The waiter told her the guests told them it was ok to serve their appetizers and entrees at the same time, but as they are having this argument -- loudly, in front of all of us -- the person who has been waiting for the food came up to them and started arguing with the waiter, yelling "DON'T LIE! DON'T LIE!" It was sooo bizarre!!!! If there was a timing or staffing issue couldn't these conversations happen behind kitchen doors and not in front of patrons so we could hear??? It made us very uncomfortable and again, if there was this much chaos front of the house, could we trust what was happening in the kitchen with our food?

Speaking of our food...my daughter's tomato soup was served cold, but at this point we were just trying to leave so we didn't complain. Definitely a lesson learned in reading Google reviews...

EDIT post the video, then please. I’ll be contacting the non emergency line, because that is a complete lie. My fork was actually taken back with my plate, with the steak before I even talked to the manager lol.

I hate leaving bad reviews. But I had high expectations going here. First opinion, beautiful place, beautiful atmosphere. Second thoughts, great menu, great people. Then it comes down to the food. My (newly wife) got the build your own Mac and Cheese, that was INCREDIBLE. No complaints good portion size, all around great. I on the other hand got the 53$ Black Angus Ribeye, had high expectations (as you should when spending 60$ on a meal) visually looked amazing, sides, were awesome. Then I cut into the steak and it was more on the med-well side when I asked for med-rare, there was very light pink in the middle, and around was all pretty gray. I’m a steak lover I can look at that and say it’s not medium rare. But I wasn’t mad or anything I just showed my server and asked if I can get a new one, no big deal. Still expecting to pay, just wanted what I was paying for. My server was awesome, was taking it back even agreeing with me. So still so far so good, until my server comes back upstairs and tells me his manager won’t let him cook me a new steak. I’m a respectful person, but out of curiosity I just was wondering why. My server was unsure and that was okay so I just nicely asked to speak to there manger, he was cool with that and went and got him for us. Now this is where everything goes down hill, still me being as respectful as possible, I kindly ask the manager why. He responds with a irritable, extremely rude toned, badly mannered, “that steak was a perfect med-rare, we tempted it at 131 and I’m not going to waste another 20$ cut of meat for you after you just sent back another one” I responded with I’m trying to be nice, I was still expecting to pay but I could tell you that’s not med rare I’ve had two of your employees agree with me. He said “it doesn’t matter I took it off your bill without charging you for the things you did eat” which was half a baked potato lol, I now pissed with his whole demeanor towards me respond rudely with I mean I tried to be nice about this whole thing, but you’re trying to tell me that’s a medium rare steak and I could call 100 people and they each will tell you it’s not. I hate to complain and be that person but that manager whatever your name was, you officially gave me the worst experience at a restaurant I’ve ever had. On my honeymoon lol. Disrespectful everything. I’ve worked in service so I am always as respectful as possible and you wouldn’t have cared to keep a good name for the restaurant. I feel extremely embarrassed for your lack of remorse, and extremely bad for your employees who have to work with you. I hope people see this and still find there experience there to be delightful and as fun as it was until I had to speak to the manager. But I do hope repercussions for...