The Lodge Sports Grille — Restaurant in Mill Creek

What a bummer. I had high hopes for this place because of the branding and look. The elk burger was ok... nothing special really, but it tasted alright. My wife's chicken pesto was a bit bland and underwhelming, and the kids had pre-frozen junk food for about 5 times the price. The atmosphere was off... EDM cranked up and nearly rattling the antlers all over the cabin-type walls. Looked like a lodge. Smelled like a fast food spot. Sounded like a bad night club. We were there over 2 hours. It was a Saturday night, and they were most definitely NOT following Covid protocol by sticking to 25%capacity, but it was more likely poor planning and inefficiency that made it take so long, as we received our drinks after our food and the appetizer (a simple fried pickles) that tasted great btw, was about a 30 minute wait.

The service was slow and awkward. The food sub-par and over-priced. The ambience a bit bizarre. But the most troubling part of the dinner, was the politics. Bold letters in their menu telling every patron proudly how they clearly don't support paying a living wage to their employees and that because of the mere attempts by congress to raise the minimum wage, they are now taxing their customers another 3% and will NOT be giving it to their employees. Not only a tacky move, but why a polarizing message like that in a menu at a restaurant? I pay my employees and so should you. If I have to raise my prices due to market changes I just do it... without making a big statement out of it.

The fact that we waited 25 minutes to be seated in an overcrowded bar (during a pandemic) to pay 20 bucks a burger, 15 bucks a drink, and 2hrs later we left $150 lighter... tells me that if you're struggling to pay your employees a living wage, then you're either mismanaged, or just plain greedy. Their politics have been made clear by how they pack the place against CDC recommendations and state mandates, and how they clearly don't like paying their workers. This is just one more reason to avoid this establishment...

My spouse & I dined here on 5/24/19 arriving at 4:43 PM knowing somplace else we needed to be at 7. Self seating. Took 10 minutes before even being acknowledged with menus. Wasn't in the least bit busy: only 4 tables, 2 seated at the bar plus us. I believe this server may have been the bartender. New server. Had a question about a happy hour beer special and another 10 minutes for the reply. So right away at this time we decided to order 2 happy hour beers, a fried pickle appetizer and 2 burgers all at the same time. Shortly after the server took our order, a group of 4 adults sat at the table across from us. Our 2 beers were served promptly. I admit I lost track of time having a great conversation with my spouse. Our drinks were refreshed during this time and waters added. However at one point we later noticed the table of 4 next to us being served their dinners and we still didn't have our appetizer! We inquired with another server as to what was going on. Our server returned to tell us the kitchen was behind. Yes the business had increased dramatically since our arrival but we ordered WELL before that. Literally not a minute after that conversation, another server brought us our burgers but no appetizer so we canceled that. It was now 5:38, almost an hour since we arrived. Our server returned to tell us the appetizer had been "comped". Whether that meant "free" or just taken off the bill, I didn't care, I didn't want it anymore. At one point while eating, the table of 4 left, was cleared and 3 more seated. Finished our burgers and drank water, so at 6:07 we ordered a dessert to share figuring we had enough time. At 6:23 still no dessert! VERY upset, I demanded our check and left!! 2 burgers, 3 beers, 1 mixed drink: $69 & 1-3/4 hours? NEVER again! Left a generous .50 cent tip for being prompt on the drinks and check. I felt that was better than nothing at all or verbally telling her she was slower than frozen molasses and her excuse...

My husband and I have eaten here once a year or so. It's a nice looking bar, good atmosphere, and good looking menu. People we know really like it so maybe it's just us but every time we go we are reminded why we eat anywhere else but here. They were understaffed as always, we waited forever for drinks and waited a long time for food to arrive. There was onr waotress for all tables inside and out. Maybe the understaffing was why the food was cold.

My shrimp and beef tosquitos were like small quesadillas, folded and grilled, but not crispy. They were oily, greasy and soggy, not warm at all, with congealed cheese inside. Hard to eat, with a pile of tomatoes, cheese and greens on top that fell off every time I tried to take a bite. I tasted no shrimp and looked inside. I picked through the filling and found about 1 tsp of tiny, tiny chopped shrimp mixed in with the spicy, ground beef filling in each taco, so, yeah, essentially, no shrimp in the shrimp toquitos. They weren't cheap, around $18.

My husband had the prime rib dip which was just pre-sliced "steak-ums" not really prime rib, and so well done it was tough. The fries were soggy and luke-warm. He said the roll was good, though.

Neither of us finished our food. The waitress finally got back to us, apologized for not stopping by sooner to ask us how it was, took one look at our faces and didn't actually ask how it was. Needless to say we won't give this place another try. We won't be back.

The house drinks were fine, I had well liquore and my husband had...